The CHANGE has come.

This past week spring has definitely come to Northeast Oregon and McKuster Ranch. Last Sunday Kittee and I did our first horseback riding of the season in our riverside arena. Before riding I came into the house to put on my riding boots, and heard a knock, knock, knocking at our back door. I turned around and there stood my ole pal Dale Cosper with a beautiful headstall and set of riding reins in his hands. I quickly made a comment about how nice the headstall was, and he told me it was mine. All I could say was WOW!!! and Thank you. He said that he and wife Cheri were heading out to go horseback riding and he was on his way, I told him thanks again.
Dale, Cheri and I have been working on their website for the past few months, through the winter weather, and it is mostly done ---
South Fork Horse Ranch, home of EAGLEFROMTHELIGHT ---
our Rosey's sire. Yes, we still have some fine tuning yet to do, but the site is now presentable. What a wonderful headstall to say Thank you. I told Dale, that his move would now make me have to polish up the silver on my saddle to sparkle/ match this headstall. Gee, the silver on this tack is bright.

Kittee and did have a wonderful ride last Sunday, so much so that we decided we needed to do it again on Monday. She got out of her office early enough for us to get in a late afternoon ride, again in the arena. Right now we are doing a lot of schooling of our horses to get them in tune for the long distance riding time they will get once they are shod, in three weeks.

Our weather this week had been springtime beautiful. The horseback rides both days felt great, and I am happy to announce that my old back injuries did not suffer from the wear.
During our ride in the arena, I knew that my work was cutout for me as the week progressed. Our sandy riding surface had become grown over with grass and weeks during its non-use over winter and early spring. So Tuesday I brought out the Round Up and sprayer. I sprayed the garden, the fence lines and the arena to knock back the new growth of spring. Wednesday 24 hours after spraying the garden, I re-tilled it again with a new application of Rusty's keep horse manure in the rows.

Wednesday evening, we had our third meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers. The name Walla² the group found "catchy" from my use/reference of squaring Walla Walla in most of my recent communications. This is a newly formed group of fly fishers from around the Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater area. At this meeting we discussed the club's organization and affiliation with FFF as a Charter Chapter. I was elected to be club Secretary. This week's meeting we had 16 "member" present, and for those that could not make it we now have about 25 interested individuals making up the club to date.

Friday was a pretty busy day. This was the day I let my hair down.
During the p.m. school bus run, I had a number kids tell my that my hair looked different. It was not in a ponytail. This was the day I was letting my locks relax and hang free.

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I shall step back -digress- at this point, and express some of
my feelings about my hair; for anyone who cares.
This is not about the comings and goings of Kittee and Dale,
but my personal feelings, my conscience.

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For years I have despised the lies of politics, and the hatred generated by those that have created torture chambers for human beings, with US/my taxpayer $$$$. Mankind has learned so little, from the days of the Nazi-Jewish Holocaust, the "Christian's" Inquisitions of his fellow man, and the killing fields of Vietnam. War is nothing more that a man-made killing machine where only the greedy, and government power leeches win. Goddamn the likes of those that embrace and wage war for their cause of greed.
My ponytail was in part a flag of my defiance and hatred of those that feel that killing babies, their mothers and fathers is an answer for the American corporate profits/greed & US oil consumption/need. The burden of this hatred for the US killing breed has now been lifted from me, by a new age, a change. It feels good to once again be free of those that have created the killing fields of Iraq, for the unquestioned profiteering of the US industrial-military complex that President Eisenhower (R) so warned US about developing during his presidency. Up until the day Richard Chaney take over our White House; who had every heard of a "NO-Bid" corporate profits contract to wage war on the innocent people of a third world nation?
It was the night of the '08 Elections, I began telling friends that with the Baghdad Baby Bomber leaving our White House along with his Halliburton Oil Corporation-Puppet Master; that I could feel "The Times, They Are A-Changin". My ponytail was my flag to wave in hopes that no one on Earth would associate me with the likes of the US #1 moron G.W. Bush, his den of Enron and oil corporations thieves.
Each day I now thank the
Great Spirit-Creator of All
for the man of intelligence, social grace and compassion we now recognize as our President. I am so very thankful that now we have a true leader, a Peace Maker, a world class standard of being a civilized, and straight shooting man for our President. God Bless America for this CHANGE of the civilized American heart. I salute you, Barack Obama, the President of the civilized USA.
This is all I have to say for politics and the shape of things left US from the past eight years of the Me, My, I-greed society; that cared nothing about the tomorrow payback their children now have to face for many years to come. Goddamn those greedy SOB's and their years of human torture at US taxpayer expense.

I will now be sending my hair braid (16") to Locks of Love, and hope someone less fortunate than I can use a new hair piece of graying hair. I have had a lot of women tell me that my hair was too beautiful to cut off. I hope now someone will get good use of it. This is my feelings about my hair and why it became long and then 6 years longer.

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Saturday, yesterday I spent the day taking the MacHi baseball team out to Baker City, OR. It was a beautiful day for tripping across the mountains. As we crested the Blue Mountains into La Grande the Eagle Caps stood truly like snow capped eagles.

As we entered the Powder River Valley the Wallowa Mtn. Range the "Little Switzerland of America" were mostly shrouded in clouds with some of its nearly 10,000' peak shining through on the north side of the valley, and the Elkhorn Mtn. Range showed only a few of its 9,000' peak of snow caps to the south of I-84. Even with the partly cloudy conditions the sun break on these mountain tops make a most beautifully, majestic scene that lifts the human spirit towards The Creator.

Today Kittee and I worked on fencing. We split the mares away from the geldings and "Miles the mule", turned on the water to the back pasture and let everyone graze sweet green pasture grasses.

And that the way it is around the ranch for another week in the lives of Kittee and Dale.

Happy Trails,
Dale