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