Walla² Fly Fishers

For The Record --- this evening Scott Peters, Skip Pitchard and I made plans to come together and sign off on the paperwork for the official formation of our local Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) chapter hereinafter called the Walla² Fly Fishers. Sad to say, but Skip has an illness in his family and was unable to join us. Scott as Chapter President and I as Chapter Secretary did meet and signed the papers forming our organization in alliance with the FFF.

Right after this 6/30/09 Executive Board Meeting was adjourned, Scott and I lined up our fly rod, slipped on our wading boots and jumped into the ranch section of the upper Walla² (Walla Walla) River to test the water for wet wading temperature and fish-ability. Air temperature was about 83° and water temperature was 58° which made a most perfect evening's wet wading fishing environment. Water flow was a little fast in some places, but our flies drifted well enough to attract and hook a few pea brain redbands/steelheads and salmon smolts.

Our searching flies for the early evening were a Copper John, and a beadhead CDC Caddis. After hooking a few fish with these teaser/testers, we changed over to dry flies using a Royal Trude, and a white-X-legged Black Ant. Success was sweet, with all these wild fish being C&R.

Here at the ranch it is a pretty tough job... getting back to the river, keeping these summer salmonoids in line/on line, but someone has to do it. Tonight I have to thank Scott for his assistance and a job well done ;>)

On our way back to the house from the river, we stopped by the raspberry patch and enjoyed quite a few handfuls of perfectly plump ripe raspberries for an evening sweet treat.

When we got back to the ranch house we joined Kittee in watching the mare herds and our Summer play. Scott mentioned that he and family might like to come back out to the ranch this 4th of July weekend and Kittee and I suggested his children go for a pony -Jasmine- ride and pet some horses, maybe even our baby Summer.

Today was a good day, it was also the first day of the season for wetting a fly here at the ranch. The river is in great shape this year and there are a few #8 Golden stoneflies in the air.

NOTE: A blog has been created for the Walla² Fly Fishers. Please follow this Walla² Fly Fishers link to follow the development of our local fly fishing club.

another day in the life around the ranch --- Dale

Summer '09 - Chapter II

This past week at the ranch has been very busy. Not only did we have a new baby -Summer- come into our lives, we had Miriam making her annual spring visit to the ranch, and our yearling -Rosey- made her first showing of the ‘09 season.

With all the goings and comings around the ranch this past week, I shall just use a series of photo to retrace the week.

Last Tuesday, we had the birth of Summer. Since then I have been holding and hugging (imprinting) her as much as possible in the mornings and evenings before and after turnouts. On a quick trip to Pendleton last week I was able to put a couple of video clips of Summer’s turnouts.


You can view them by clicking on the links below…
A Summer Stroll -and- Herrrrrre’s Goldie and Summer

Last Thursday, Miriam came over from the west side to spend the weekend with us and our critters. We had a most delicious dinner at Ms. Patti’s restaurant in Pendleton and then headed for the wind turbine meeting, which was “sold out” by the time we got there. Oh well, this the reason we needed to head straight home and service Miriam a Fuzzy Navel for dessert. The rest of the evening we just relaxed, Kittee and Miriam talked until mid-night.

Friday was a knock around the ranch day. Kittee and Miriam made a trip to town to pick up a few things at the store, came home to play with horses and relaxed. I think everyone stopped for awhile and took an afternoon nap. Friday evening we made our traditional trek to La Ramada Mexican Restaurant for a most wonderful meal. This has always been a favorite spot for Miriam to visit while on the east side.

Saturday started fairly early with a cheesy corny grits and eggs breakfast. After breakfast everyone headed out for simple fun and horseback riding time.


After a morning’s worth of horseback riding I begin to work on the BBQ works we were going to have with the Cospers later in the evening. Again with the warm summer afternoon, everyone kicked back for a short nap after lunch. After our naps, dinner preparation completed we sit around the front yard with a few drinks and some croquet play.


It was late afternoon when the Dale and Cheri showed up and we just sit around chitchatting and watching baby horse, and coyote pups playing on the hill across the road from us.
Then the time came for our sunset BBQ dinner with beef, chicken, and pork ribs fresh off the smoker grill. I think everyone enjoyed the food.

After dinner as the sun had slowly sank into the western skies, Dale brought up the metaphysical concept of the beauty of the sunset and the feelings derived from each occasion. After dinner Kittee and Miriam cleaned off the table, I went out to put Goldie and Summer to bed for the night. We did not make it a late evening staying up, as looking at Sunday we were getting up shortly after daybreak and getting ready to take Rosey to the Region V - AHA horse show in Walla Walla. Folks at the show did recognize the Shai of Rosey's AHA registered name.


Sunday, we were up early. Summertime daybreak is before 4:30 here at the ranch, shortly thereafter we were up and at’m. Putting Summer and Goldie out to pasture, bringing in Rosey to trailer load for the show, getting Rusty set for his day out of his keep. I think everyone grabbed a quick cup of coffee and a banana for breakfast and got ready to head down the trail. We got to the Walla Walla Fairground before the 6:30 a.m. registration sign-in. Rosey was in the first show class which began at 8:00. She won that halter class (received a bag of candy corn with a blue ribbon) and proceeded on to the Championship Class. In the Champion Class Rosey took third place and a $-CASH-$ prize. Yep, Rosey is into the money earnings now! We were finished at the AHA Schooling Show by 9:00, loaded up Rosey and headed home. When we got home we did get a picture of she and her prize. Yep, that is the bag of candy corn (with a blue ribbon attached) and a $5 bill in Kittee's hand.


After getting Rosey settled back into pasture, Miriam, Kittee and I headed for town for a full meal breakfast. After breakfast we came home and all of us took a nap to makeup for the sleep we lost at around 4:30 a.m. this day. After nap time we had a bite of lunch, we went out to Rosey’s pasture and made an annual “remember when” photo of Miriam and her.

The Miriam - Rosey Photo Album

7-5-2008

6-28-2009

After this photo session, Miriam was ready to head down the trail for the west side.

Which way, Nugget?

The balance of the after noon Kittee and I watched Monty Python movie In Search of the Holy Grail until the evening air began to cool off. At that point we sit out in the backyard to watch horses and the sunset. Afterwards I put Goldie and Summer to bed for the night, Kittee and I came in and watched the movie Black Beauty.

This morning, as I have done for the past six days, I work on imprinting Summer. Today I laid her down in the foaling stall straw and rubbed her all over, putting my fingers in her mouth, ears, nose. This morning I grabbed her tail and she pulled it between her legs, shortly thereafter she relaxed and I was able to wag it at will. As I was finished petting/imprinting her, Summer had almost fallen asleep in my arms. Kinda hard to believe how gentle this little horse is.

And that's the way it is around the ranch --- Dale

Summer is here.

For The Record... "Summer" is here, and today is her birthday. Summer was only 3-4 days off the 11-months gestation period for horses - breeding to delivery. Goldie and baby are doing well.

It was about 1:45 a.m. this morning that Goldie woke me up pacing and shitting all around the barn foaling stall. I knew something out of the ordinary was going on as I was waking up. I turned on the flashlight and she had her tail cocked to the side, so I felt it was time for our new baby to arrive.

First thing I did was to check Goldie's udder and found milk dripping... a sure sign of we are getting close to having a baby.

I radioed Kittee on the walkie-talkie that we were about to have a baby, "can you come and help?" In a very few minutes Kittee was at the barn and shortly thereafter Goldie's water broke and she began showing a hoof.

Shortly thereafter Goldie laid down and went into labor. What a good girl she is...

At that point everything begin to move very fast as we then saw two hooves begin to show, and then a little horse's nose... this delivery was going perfect. Thank you Goldie and Mother Nature.

Shortly thereafter I was wiping off our new little filly "Summer" and holding her in my arms. For the next half hour Goldie and I went through the imprint process to make this little one ours.

Goldie was quite protective but sharing of Summer. Because it took awhile for Summer to start nursing (Goldie kept pointing her in the right direction), Kittee came back to the house and call Dale Cosper to come help with directing the nursing process. Dale and I worked with these two for a bit and decided that Goldie and Summer really needed to be left alone to work out the process for themselves -- very interesting. Goldie was boss mare and a most naturally good mother in this situation.
Yep, turned out everyone was just getting in the way of Goldie, Summer, and Mother Nature. After Dale and I left the foaling stall, we could not ask for the process of mother, foal and nursing to go along any better. Dale left at daybreak (Thank YOU Dale), about 5:00 I came back to the house, made a pot of coffee and laid down for a little nap.

About 7:15 Kittee awoke and joined me in living room with a cup of fresh coffee for both of us. After the coffee helped us become functional once again, we redressed and ventured back to the barn to visit with Goldie and Summer.

After Kittee and I watched Summer nursing some more, I stepped into the foaling stall and continued to pet/imprint Summer for life. Shortly thereafter Summer laid down to take a nap. Kittee and I then left mother, baby in peace, quite and resting.

Kittee headed for a short day's work in Pendleton, I came in to work on this blog posting and will go back to the barn to check on both our girls again shortly.

Summer is a ¾ Arabian – Quarab and will be registered with AHA. Summer’s AHA papers will show top and bottom her lineage with the Arabian horse of legend-- Bask+. Her sire Adrenaline Rush is the get of the phenomenal palomino AHA Fire-n-Ice. On her dame side she is a descendant (front page) of the Quarter Horse legend-- Doc Bar. With this her breeding we expect her to be a fine long distance endurance riding beauty. A horse anyone that enjoys spending a day in the saddle will love to sit this girl… for the long run.

So this is our prize, given us by Rusty, Goldie, and the Great Spirit - Creator of All. Follow this link to view the creation of Summer.




















Today, our weather makes a most perfect birthday. This morning, under clear starry skies the temperature was in the 50's, this afternoon the temperature is to be in the low-80's with pure sunshine from sunrise to sunset. It should be a great day for turning mare and baby foal out to pasture, and myself I hope to get a short afternoon nap in the front yard hammock, then get some horseback riding into my day by saddling up my Misty.

Since I was doing most of the handling of this little one, we don't have allot of pictures, and just a few videos, but I shall share the first ones here, and invite you to visit Summer's web page as it develops in the very near future.

A day in the life around McKuster Ranch --- Dale

Sleeping in the barn -or- we're going to have a baby

Since my Mom left town, the past couple of weeks has been rather busy. I have been making trips to Walla Walla twice a week to get acupuncture treatments, Kittee has had a lot of court trials in Pendleton and La Grande, and for the weekends we try to work/play with horses.

Latest updates on Goldie is… she is very pregnant and now due to deliver at any moment. These days Goldie is unable to stand with her legs straight up. The past two nights I have spent with Goldie trying to get our rest while sleeping in the barn.
This experience is much like camping with a roof over my head. Last night, the first night of summer was quite windy and cool, so I know much of what it was like that Kittee experienced last year in April waiting for Rosey’s arrival to the ranch. Our weather the past few days has been much like late-April/early-May rather than the first weekend of summer.

Sunday was our first day of summer at the ranch and the day was mostly cool- temperature in the low 70's, damp, and quite windy. Kittee and I spent a little time sitting in the barn yesterday, watching the herds running - grazing the riverside pastures while Goldie was gently nuzzling both of us like a courteous 1000-pound puppy looking for head rubs and body strokes. Kittee made a big pot of chicken-veggie soup for the day, that we ate for lunch and dinner; and will again later this week as it get better with age. I was pretty zapped from my first night “sleeping” in the barn, so I had several naps throughout the day. With the weather feeling more like late April than June, we spent the mid-afternoon through the evening hours indoors watching several movies.

Saturday, Kittee and I had a most enjoyable mid-day riding Misty and Derby in the riverside arena. Kittee did some bareback riding on Derby and I did a little trotting on Misty using NO stirrups or reins for guidance control. This type of riding is becoming a lot of fun with Misty, as we are learning to connect with each other more and more all the time, with time spent in the saddle. After riding we had a rather laid-back late afternoon just watching horses, and I did more prep work on Goldie’s foaling stall.



















Silly Arabian fillies at horseplay -- Raji (two years old) on the left, and Rosey (yearling) on the right. These girls are best pasture buddies/ playmates.


















Thursday, Kittee and I got to do something that we have wanted to do for many, many years. We spent the evening at the Walla Walla County Fairgrounds watching the US touring group of the Lipizzaner Stallions Show. We both greatly admired the show we saw as children; Walt Disney's movie The Miracle of the White Stallions. This evening's horse show production of classical music, and dressage horses with heads held high, made a most enjoyable evening under the stars, with our seats being center stage and on the second row (no one walking over/on our toes). NOTE: if you follow the link above to the Lipizzaner website, be sure to let the Blue Danube Waltz load as you visit their site - a very nice website presentation.
Friday morning I got on the Internet and ordered Kittee and I our own DVD copy of The Miracle of the White Stallions... to be here by this Friday, which should be our evening's entertainment at that time.

After the show we stopped by the Stone Hut sports bar (our first visit) for a beer and a really great tasting burger. That stop will be worth trying again, but we really could not understand how anyone would have use for six (6) TV (?) playing in a room at one time.

Wednesday evening, we had our farrier Kevin at the ranch working on a few horses with as much time and daylight that was left in the day. He will be returning this Wednesday evening to work on trimming the rest of our herd's hooves.

Tuesday evening, I had two guys from Walla Walla out to the ranch to discuss the formation of our new Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) chapter/club in Walla Walla. After talking about the business of club formation and alternative electric power sources, we took a walk back to the river to survey the possibilities of fly fishing in the backyard ASAP. Eventhough the water looked great, it was still flowing a bit too fast to drift a fly or stand steady on the river rocks. Maybe in a couple of weeks, we should be hooking fish out back.

Monday evening, I went to our local Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council meeting, and there we had the head honchos for the “green” power company looking at putting in wind turbines across the Blue Mountain foothills south of our ranch towards Pendleton. Not sure this is a good idea.

Last weekend (FTR - 6/12) I took Shaiela upriver to the South Fork Horse Ranch for her to bred with EAGLEFROMTHELIGHT to see if we could make another Rosey for our 2010 foal crop. She was covered on Saturday-6/13 and Sunday-6/14. Dale brought her back home on Tuesday.

♫ Happy Trails to you, until we meet again ♫

And that’s the way life is around McKuster Ranch this past week --- Dale

All aboard... and away she goes.

This evening we made it to the Pasco AmTrak station in good time. Mom's train pulled out of the station about 15 minutes late headed for Spokane and points east.


Kittee was able to get home in time to go to Pasco with us and it was a good farewell. Mom was not going to get her sleeper car/ compartment until she got to Spokane, this news was a bit distressing, but some folks that were taking an off train break told us they would watch out for her/ help her get around, that made me feel much better. We know she will have a good ride back home.

This last day on the ranch for Mom was pretty full, considering that she has been stricken with hay fever during her visit this year so she had to spend much of her time indoors. But today I had her out with my gentle mares to hand feed cookies and pet them.
















I was hoping to get a pic of Mom with the Palomino Amigos, but they are getting a bit sweet pasture grass fat and independent. They wouldn't even follow me to the gate to visit Mom and get a hand feeding of cookie with petting from us. Silly horses... sometimes they have a mind of their own. We haven't got a Rusty-Goldie foal yet, but I think Mom did enjoy being around our other thousand pound pets and 7 cats. The rest of our day went very smoothly and relaxing around the ranch, working at this and working at that, spending the day chatting with Mom after I returned home from my a.m. acupuncture treatment. These treatments are going well now that I have had four rounds with the needles; I no longer wake up many times during the night with sharp back and leg pain. WOW! what a relief, and I thought I was going to have to live life in pain.

Sunday, Kittee and I rode horses in the riverside arena, just really feeling good about connecting with our rides. Again this riding session I spent most of my time with feet out of the stirrups, and reins hanging freely around Misty's neck. It was fun going through the arena's obstacle courses and trotting in figure 8's. Look Ma! No hands, no feet holding on... to the horse. After lunch we waited for Aunt Pat to show up for an afternoon farewell visit with Mom. We had a relaxing visit just sitting around chatting and having root beer floats for refreshment. Aunt Pat left before dinner and I prepared a seafood Alfredo/ pasta dish that Kittee and Mom just kept raving over. I think I will be preparing that dish again for dinner.

Got some good news for you girls back east. Aunt Pat will probably be making a trip to the east coast to visit Mom, family and friends in July as she and Mom are planning to go to the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Oak Plains Church in way-eastern No. Carolina. These two were present at the 75th Anniversary of the church as well... many, many years ago.

While everyone was posing for pictures... Kittee and I even got into the mix, still wearing our grimy horsey riding clothes.

Saturday, was a day much like the Sunday above; morning horseback riding, visiting with Mom, then cousin Worth and LaBelva came up for an afternoon farewell visit with Mom. Yep, we got family pictures of that occasion. Forgive Worth and I for having hat hair... Mom's wish, we take off our hats.

So this is about how the last week around the ranch has gone. It has been really nice having Mom coming and going over the past two week, and having the Pendleton family out to the ranch sharing the good times.

School's out for summer, and I do remember, just how good that feels. I finished the school bus driving routine last Wednesday with an early afternoon school release. Yep, I have already signed my contract to return to the job next year. Working in the public school system... what a job ;>)

Now I'm back to taking care of the ranch, playing and caring for horses, trying to keep the garden and fence lines clean. Hoping to let you know very soon that Goldie has her foal delivered.

Happy Trail,
Dale

My Mom is back in town

In writing this blog posting, I am a bit behind in the most current events around the ranch. Things have been busy lately since my Mom arrived in town on Saturday, May 23. That morning Kittee and I met Mom at the train station in Pasco, WA.

Since I was 3 years old, my Mom and I have been making trips to the west coast – Pendleton, OR from N. Carolina, by car (family vacations), by plane (vacations and fishing trips), but my Mom has always wanted to do a cross country trip by train. Well she has finally gotten old enough to make a 4-day train trip on her own, so this year she made the cross country train trip from Charlotte. She said it was a beautiful, relaxing trip, and she met some interesting people on the way out. She also said that the service and food was excellent with a "we want you back-- by Amtrak" attitude all the way across country. After we got back to the ranch Kittee and I rode horses in our riverside arena, then we spent the balance of the day relaxing with Mom and handling horses. Mom even was hand feeding my Misty (up close and personal) as we sit under the shade of the backyard walnut tree waiting for Misty to dry from her after ride shower. That evening we introduced my Mom to a FIRST new experience --- eating in a Mexican restaurant. Now don't get me wrong, my Mom has traveled the world since she retired... Germany, the USSR (before it turned back into Russia), Austria, the Czech Republic, etc. and lived in Peru for awhile, but had never eaten in a Mexican restaurant. Well, Kittee and I have taken care of that. Now at 80 years old my Mom has eaten twice in Mexican restaurant since being on this trip to Oregon.

Sunday, morning we treated Mom to our ranch's apple-bread French Toast and sausage breakfast. She enjoyed that. Thereafter we prepared for the arrival of our Pendleton family to have an evening get together with a BBQ ribs dinner. A lot of the meal preparation I had done on Saturday, so Sunday was an easy day with a Fuzzy Navel in Mom's hand to keep her relaxed and on holiday.
Mid-afternoon the family from Pendleton began to show up, and everyone circled up for a chit-chat family gathering.
This year we missed cousin Worth, as he was working the graveyard shift at the flour mill and cousin Nicole, now hanging out somewhere in Texas. I did get a three generation’s picture of Aunt Pat with cousins Lynn and Brilynn. With Aunt Pat and Mom finding the need to eat by the clock, we had a good spread of munchies for them to work on before the evening BBQ meal was presented. Afterwards the saucy ribs and trimmings were consumed, I think everyone was well sufficed. So as the sun was sinking slowly in the west, a few mosquitoes became present and everyone began to go about their own merry way.

Monday, was Memorial Day so Kittee and I did a little horseback riding after breakfast. After lunch/ mid-afternoon we took Mom for a stroll back to our Contemplation Station by the river.

There we probably sit and chatted for the better part of an hour, watching the shades and shadows of the sun change on the backyard bluff wall. Heading back to the house we stopped for a few piques of the green view of the Upper Walla Walla River Valley.

By the time we strolled back to the house, had dinner, sit around and chatted until it was time to call the holiday weekend done. Tuesday Kittee and Mom headed for Pendleton, I was off in my Big Yellow school bus for my last week of schoolwork.

Interesting FIRST new experience --- for me took place on Friday, 29 May; I had my first acupuncture treatment from Dr. Vu in Walla Walla. More to come about this experience, as it progresses. The needles are painless.

This past Sunday, we had another ranch BBQ with Mom and introduced our upriver friends the Cospers, to our Walla Walla friends the Hopwoods. It was another most pleasant evening get together, dinner, but my Mom has now developed a hay fever allergy reaction to the pollens of the great outdoors over the past week. Sad. Even my stallion Rusty has also developed an eye irritation reaction this past week.

and that's the way it is with life around the ranch lately --- Dale