October Caddis season ~or~ Summer is 3 months old

For The Record ---

This afternoon was the first time I have been fishing since coming off Nugget and breaking ribs, puncturing a lung. It was a perfect early autumn fly fishing afternoon. Air temperature this afternoon around 4:00 was 84° and the water temperature was 52° - burrr - that was chilly upon stepping in up to my knees. Got used to the temperatures fairly quickly.

The last couple of days I have seen alot of October Caddis around the ranch and while driving up the river. I felt it was time to jump into the river and try out my back and fly fishing skills once again.

I found quite a few October Caddis flying over the river, but found no surface/ fish activity, so I started the p.m. fishing with a Copper John. I also found that the river bottom has reformed with alot of river rocks filling in the holes I have fished in the past. It wasn't too long that I found some pocket water and proceeded to hook a nice pan size redband rainbow.


This fish gave me a pretty good fight on the 1wt. as we fought up to the C&R. After letting this guy go back to swimming the river I worked my fly over a few more production hole that gave me no results. Then I came up to the big cross vain rock weir that we (CTUIR & BPA) put in the river a couple of years ago and begin catching fish right off the bat. As I cast my fly from right to left, below the boulders across the waterway I got pounded by a flying Hail Mary redband salmonoid football. This fish had to of been 13" maybe 14" or more. The fish hit my fly and ran to my side of the pool, I set the hook, it then ran back to the center of the pool, made a high flying leap through the air and shot downstream. As I turned the fish at the bottom of the pool and pointed it upriver, the hook with its micro-barb made a short rodeo as it went flying through the air. A nice quick fight with a weighty fish making a long line release, that was exciting. I plan to go back and look for him again soon.

From this point I move probably 1500' up river through McKuster Ranch waters looking for another nice pool to work. It has been two years since I cover this stretch of the river, and I now find that many of the pools I used to work through have filled with river rock. I finally got to a stretch of water that used to be a very fishy pool, now it is a 2' deep trough along the south bank, but held a number of nice trout.
After fishing this portion of the river I turned and began fishing downstream and caught about six more nice fish (8"-9"ers) in a bottom of the bluff trough, half way back to the house. So all in all by the time I was heading home having fished for about 3 hours I had caught maybe two dozen nice trout for the afternoon's effort. I was quite amazed at the river bottom's reconfiguration through the ranch's river way.
All fish today were caught on a Copper John and I witnessed no fish/October Caddis - dry fly surface action.


Today was Summer's three month birthday, gee is she getting larger/taller. Between my school bus runs I was able to get out to pasture and give her a good petting and lots of hugs, along with Goldie, Misty, Rosey, Kootenie, Raji, and Sunny. Not too much to say that a few picture can't tell about her and life around the ranch...

Summer 2009

1-week old

1-month old

2-months old

~~ 3-months old ~~

Gee, I love to hug and pet this little girl.

And that the way it is --- a day in the life, Dale

Round Up Week '09

I think I shall start this blog posting by backing up in time just a few years. Actually I will backup to September 9, 2001 - Round Up Sunday. It was a beautiful afternoon, we had lots of family and friends around Kittee and I when we went to the Breaks of the So. Fork Walla Walla River. There we did our "I do's." Since that time we have seen allot of comings and goings of family, friends and horses. We have had some very good times together with all.

This year we had a bit of a conflict with schedules on our September 9th anniversary date, so as we have a few times in the past, we declared Round Up Sunday to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

This year we again had a most beautiful day to head for the Breaks of the So. Fork and celebrate our day of eight years ago.

After having our berry hot cake and sausage breakfast, we proceeded out to the barn and pastures and visited with and fed / watered the herd. Then as the morning was getting quite warm, we loaded the car, went to town for some hard bread, cheese, and grapes. We were given a bottle of champagne by a friend earlier in the week. After getting our needs, we headed for the hills. It was a most pleasant ride heading up Hwy 204 and then riding through the forest out to the breaks. There we grabbed our "stuff" and headed out to the rock near where we were married. Really nothing has changed, as we hope it will always remain the same... for us.

We laid out our comforter over what appeared some very bumpy ground that was covered with hardened elk hoof prints. We popped our bottle of champagne and proceed to toast, relax and enjoy our day basking under the sun, with a cool breeze blowing over us. Here it was most comfortable with the breeze, as in the valley this day it was to be in the mid-90's.

This was pretty neat, being back in this place, laying out under the blue, blue skies with a great view of the Walla Walla, Snake, and Columbia River(s) valleys at our feet and hawk flying, screaming over our heads.

We spent about 3 hours at our wedding site this day and then decided to head back to the ranch for an afternoon of refreshment and relaxation with the herds. Going home we took the road through the back country - Lincton Mtn. Road which come out on Walla Walla River Rd. a few hundred yards from our home.

After settling in at the house we stirred up a couple of root beer floats for the afternoon refreshment and a little cool off. Yep, it was in the 90's when we got home. We took the afternoon to sit out in the backyard to watch horses.
It was cute to watch Summer and Jasmine scratch each others withers over the paddock fence. Summer is now slightly taller than 6 year old Jasmine and they are good pals.Wednesday, Kittee had business in Pendleton and our dear friends Ed and Bill were in La Grande on business and heading for Pendleton for dinner with Kittee and to watch the show at Happy Canyon. They were going to eat at the Pendleton's -City Center- Rainbow Cafe --- that is truly a relic from the past... cafe with greasy grill, bar, nicotine covered walls...

but when they found out that all they were serving for Round Up week was pre-packaged cold cut sandwiches and chips with beer or whiskey, they opted to go to dinner at Raphael's a truly fine eating establishment. There Kittee found a treat in her wild huckleberry martini.

After dinner they made it on to the Happy Canyon open air pageant for their evening's entertainment. I am sorry that I missed dinner at Raphael's, but I have seen the Happy Canyon show and since I had taking a bus load of kids to Pendleton earlier that day, I didn't feel the need to make another trip to town. Anyway, all plans were to go to Rodeo on Thursday.

Thursday, we met Bill and Ed at their motel room and headed for The Saddle restaurant for breakfast. They had spent the night in Pendleton to catch the flavor of Round Up week and this their first rodeo. Again it was so good to see these guys as we enjoyed a great breakfast at The Saddle complete with a red-beer for me and Bloody Marys for Ed and Bill. Mmmmmm good. After breakfast, Kittee being designated driver we headed for City Center and strolled the streets waiting for the "Let'er Buck" rodeo start time.

While walking the streets of Pendleton , we stopped at Hamley's for to view some of the high $$$ hometown saddles, arts and craft works housed there...

and this little jewel below sold right out from under Ed and Kittee's viewing for about 800 bucks.
















Wouldn't this statute make a fine mantle piece?

After looking over Hamley's saddle and western store, we headed for the World Famous "Let'er Buck" Pendleton rodeo...


From here I will share these pictures that Bill took of this occasion as he has a good eye and trigger finger for some great shot of...

Thursday's Party Time...
















Bareback bronc riders riding, and bouncing off the ground...


Indians racing...

You might notice, all Indian racers ride bareback... very fast

Cowboys roping...

Ed with his love for a pink Cadillac...

There were tribal leaders leading...

and portions of different tribes from the Pacific Northwest dancing...

There were the outstanding barrel racers running the course...




Now believe it or not, Bill and Ed went and spent some time in the Let'er Buck Room well equipped with bar-flies along the wall...

and playing grab ass with assorted lounge lizards in the hall.

After all the rodeo was said and done, everyone headed back to the ranch. Bill and Ed beat us getting home as Kittee and I stopped by her Pendleton office, so when we got home the guys had pulled out some avocados that Bill had brought back from Florida and quickly stirred up a wonderful guacamole dip to enjoy we all went out to our favorite Mexican dinner. Oh, Oh, I almost forgot; somewhere between the rodeo and sitting down for dinner our friend Miriam showed up in town and joined our party for dinner. After a delicious dinner the fellas went on to spend the night in Walla Walla. So they said... " we came expecting to have a good time at the Round Up, but it was much more entertaining than we had ever expected". They plan to return for next year's 100th Anniversary Special Show of the "Let'er Buck" rodeo.

I will be buying tickets in mid-October for the 2010 World Famous "Let'er Buck" Pendleton Round Up. If you would like for me to get you a ticket please RSVP --- asap.
North Grandstands has already SOLD OUT!!!

The rest of this year's Round Up week we spent with Miriam. She and Kittee headed for Pendleton on Friday to shop the town. She, Kittee and I on Saturday after breakfast breezed over to Walla Walla for her to shop the town. Sunday everyone just crashed and relaxed after breakfast until it was time about mid-afternoon for Miriam to hit the trail back to the Westside and her city life.

And that's the way is was around the ranch and in Pendleton during this year's Round Up Week.

Will you join us for the party next year?????

Working on Labor Day

The past couple of weeks Kittee and I have stayed pretty busy around the ranch, her law practice and my school bus driving. I am still on the mend with busted ribs, and Kittee is trying to get in all the riding time that we cannot do together due to my horsey crash a month ago.

This weekend I have been working with Rusty in the round pen and his little filly -Summer- doing halter work, giving petting strokes and sharing hugs with her. Kittee has worked with Rosey this weekend in preparation for a showing in a couple of weeks, and has ridden Misty, Nugget, and Derby to keep their saddle blankets damp.





































Today while Kittee was working with Rosey in the round pen, I moved Summer’s little herd of mares and got everyone into running, hucking and bucking in the process of changing pastures. Gee it is fun to watch them do that…

Misty and Rosey enjoying the cool autumn air rushing their faces.

Yee Ha, Let'er Buck!!!
Mama Goldie and little Summer kicking up their heels

Thinking about how much fun and exercise that was.

Today we introduced Summer to Rosey, and that was a non-event with the two of them just sniffing each other and then went about their own ways. Later in the afternoon we moved boarders Raji and Sunny into this mare herd, again a non-event as we now have a two month old foal, a yearling, a two year old, and a three year old -all silly fillies- bonding with each other.

Yesterday turned into fall. Weather was partly cloudy, mild with before sunrise morning showers. Kittee and I just really took the day easy –a day of rest, with a nap- and early yesterday evening we sit up the card table for a game of cribbage. Before starting the cribbage game we pulled out the bottle of Sangria, cut some orange and lemon into glasses and had a drink of refreshing vino, which help us to decide to play a fast furious game of double solitary instead of cribbage.

We finished the day, after quite a few hands of solitary, dinner, and showers watching the rest of Yellow Submarine, which we started watching Thursday evening.

Saturday we made a quick trip to Walla Walla to take care of some business there and to watch the Frontier Days Parade. The parade was lead off by the Walla Walla Police Dept. motorcycle squad, followed by the Wal-Hi Marching Band, Indian princesses, some big fat women riding sidesaddle, pooper-scoopers with wheelbarrows, people walking their mini-horses and dogs, on and on and on, down Alder and up Main Street.


































The Master-of-Ceremonies for this year's parade and the Walla Walla County Fair/Rodeo was John Payne a guy calling himself the “One Armed Bandit” and his mule. These guys paraded through town on top of their transport/stock trailer, while the "Bandit" cracked his bull whip over the crowd's heads.

It was a rather nice affair for a beautiful Saturday morning outing into town.

Friday, Kittee had to go to jail; I stayed home and worked on income taxes. A rather non-eventful day until Kittee got home in the late afternoon and we sit out and enjoy a couple of beers, had a ribeye steak dinner and a glass of vino and watched horses romping into sunset.

During this holiday weekend we have tried our best to stop in the middle of the afternoons and relax with a root beer float while the day time temperatures are still in the mid to lower 80's. Fall is approaching very quickly around here and Round Up is just around the corner.

Last week Kittee stayed quite busy with one trial after another all week long, and I had my first full week of bus driving for the new '09-'10 school season Monday through Wednesday. Working for the school system once again we had Thursday and Friday off to go along with the Labor Day weekend.

Last weekend we got in our winter store of hay. By doctors orders I did not touch a single bale while stacking these loads of hay into store. That felt pretty good as I get older and begin to look at 20 tons of hay having to be put away… high and low into the barn.

Kittee and I still have to tarp the hay loft hay, but it is now all under roof for the winter, and that feels good.

And now last but not least, as Kittee and I was sitting out and enjoying the sunset in our backyard last weekend we noticed some new structures way out on the western horizon. We brought out the field glasses and discovered it was wind turbines encroaching from the west. The machines in this picture are about 10 miles to our west, at this point in time.

Eastern Oregon is now being covered with these machines springing up everywhere. This is not so very bad, except that 95% of the power produced in Oregon is being transmitted to the Californicators to our south, and in turn raising the cost of our power due to the incompatibility between wind and hydro power generation. This sucks as these machines take over our Oregon ecosystems. Our Oregon countryside is beginning to look like the ass-end of southern California.

Now let me get back to my tax work chores... :>(
and cuss some more.

That’s the way it is around the ranch this week --- Dale