Kittee and I started our day with coffee, breakfast was a bowl of cereal to get a quick start on the day. This, was the first day of my three day weekend. There was no school (a teachers' in-service workday) with no students for me to transport. Kittee had to work half a day.
Again I had plans to get a lot of outdoor chores done during this 3-day weekend. Snow didn't look like a great way to start this day, like we haven't had enough snow already. The weather forecast was for things to change as the weekend progressed, this I was looking forward to.Kittee had Milton-Freewater court session Friday a.m. so I figured I would go watch her court proceeding until the weather changed, or we found something better to do. We also had plans to go to Tollgate to pick up Kittee's early Birthday present today, but Tollgate had an additional 8" of snow overnight, so those plans appeared to have been snowed out. After court was over, we had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in M-F and then went to Walla Walla to take care of some business there and get our monthly supply of wild blueberry granola and yellow grits.
Arriving back at the ranch the sun had broken out of the clouds so we went out and groomed horses. I did start laying out a small pasture area for Rusty Friday afternoon, so he could have more time outside his keep grazing without having too much exposure with the rest of the herd. The rest of the afternoon, evening we just kicked back and relaxed with a beer watching the sunset.
Saturday started out beautifully, with a touch of morning frost and pure sunshine from above.
Kittee went out and threw hay to the herds, while I prepared our breakfast favorite of apple bread - French Toast with sausage on the side. Again this was more like having a dessert than a meal to start the day. After breakfast we started grooming horses again with anticipation of getting to do a horseback ride on Sunday, maybe even this afternoon if we didn't go to Tollgate. I continued to work on Rusty's pasture layout, while Kittee rode Nugget in the round pen. We were staying busy; waiting for a 2 o'clock telephone call from Tollgate to see if the roads were clear enough to go after Kittee's present. While outside working with the herd the call came that the roads in Tollgate were clear. When we came in for our lunch break we got the call, grabbed some lunch and were on our way.
Now, let me give you a little story from a couple of years ago. I think it was on a back country trip into Minam Lodge, that we meet a woman with a six-pack of beer in her saddlebags, a package of Marlboro cigarettes in her pocket and one in her lips and as we found her; she was drinking a beer at 10:30 a.m. Can you get this picture... a blond woman geared up to take a four hour back country wilderness ride on the back of a Mule with a beer in hand at 1030 hours? The Mule was a cool character on the trail, and probably kept that woman from going over the side of the mountain being the more stable of the two.
It was again sometime last winter '07-'08 that Kittee and I were at the Walla Walla indoor riding arena and there we met a talking Mule, I think Jingles was his name. Well since then Kittee has wanted a Mule.
It was about two months ago I ran into a vet-tech / friend or mine in the grocery store, and we were talking about equines. I mentioned to Lori that we had quite enough equines, but were still thinking that if the opportunity arose for us to get a Mule or a Leopard Appaloosa, we might jump it that chance. I told Lori that Kittee really wanted a talking Mule. Well to make a long story short, Lori had a Mule and now for Kittee's birthday I got her this Mule.Let me introduce "Miles" Kittee's talking Mule.
At McKuster Ranch birthdays and X-mas come on the occasion of we get what we are looking for, not on a particular date found on everyone else's calendar. Kittee does get to celebrate July 8th as her special day.
Miles is a most gentle character, and yes he does talk to us. As we took him out to pasture, Kittee walked him around the pasture a couple of times while I was reseting electric fence and Miles met the Riches -neighbors across the road- he talked with them a bit. After Kittee made a couple of circles, I walked Miles around and introduced him to the welcoming committee that had formed across the gate in the paddock. Derby was most interested in this new guy on the farm.
The rest of the evening Kittee and I spent brushing and talking with Miles and letting him settle into his new home. After petting Miles we sit back next to his pasture with a glass of wine and enjoyed the sunset until the air became a bit too cool to sit out. Sunset this weekend was at 7:21.
This was our Saturday, and with the advent of what really feels like Spring, we will be leaving PHC-Garrison Keillor and the news from Lake Wobegon to those that are indoor bound. Gee it feel good to be out in the fresh air and wide open spaces around our home. With a busy day planned for Sunday we went to bed early so we could get an early start.Daybreak now is about 5:30 with sunrise happening at 7:15 this weekend.
Kittee and I started early Sunday with her going out to feed horses and goats, I prepared a pot of grits, with sausage patties to start our day. Right after breakfast we headed back for the arena to do repairs of the winter's storm/wind damage. We had horseback riding on our minds for this day. About half way through this job Lori dropped by to visit and say hello to Miles and Rusty. Lori had never met Rusty, and I have been inviting her out everytime I see her at Doc Kennedy's vet clinic... "come out and visit with my stallion Rusty." One of Lori's best friends and neighbor was Rusty's first owner about 8 years ago.
Anyway, after Lori left we got back to finish our arena repair work and took a quick lunch break. Thereafter we got Nugget and Misty saddled up and went for a short arena ride.
This was our first time really spent on horses this spring so we were not going to over do it for them or ourselves.
We rode about an hour to an hour and a half (first time since Kittee broke her wrist) and everyone was happy to be out on this nice spring warm-up. We are hoping that if we can find the time we will be able to get in a little horseback riding in on Monday afternoon/evening.
With the feeling in the air that 60° and 70° days might become the norm around here I am happy to announce that Spring has sprung at McKuster Ranch.
And so this is the way it is around the ranch this 3-day weekend. Wish you could be here.
Happy Trails,
Dale
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