Summer is 4 months old ~or~ winding up summer

Once again snow has covered the Blue Mtns. just east of the ranch today. I understand from talking with my boss that the Breaks of the So. Fork Walla Walla/ Tollgate (where Kittee and I were married) received 3" fresh snow this a.m.. Wind and some rain is blowing stiffly around our country and with this last weekend’s beautiful weather having past, it really feels like we are now headed for November with its gray, cold weather in our faces. Talking with my sister on Sunday evening -her birthday- she reminded me that we were both getting a bit older. I told her that I could feel it as I now feel the cold, more than ever, and joints ache... Burrr, looks/feels like winter is heading this way.

Last evening Kittee and I were very saddened to hear that our dear friend Cliff, in Walla Walla had died. This also added a chill to the pending winter, as Cliff always had a warm smile and a chuckle to go with everyday we spent horsing around with him and his wonderful wife Lila. Cliff, we will miss you; rest in peace dear friend.

With the change of seasons, I finished my over-the-road school sports/activities trips for this season, making trips last week to Baker, Pendleton, and Pasco, WA. Today there were some bus trips going over the Blues and having to be snow chains equipped. Yep, there’s snow on them thar hills.

As November rapidly approaches I am now feeding the herds twice a day, most days and will have to be on standby soon for those days that the snow blows, and the herds are fed 3 times a day. Good news… Sunday, I found a wooly worm in the haystack and it had only two very small black bands on its head and tail ends. Maybe this winter will be a bit milder and have a little less snow than the past couple of winters we have had here.

The other big news around the ranch this past week is Summer turned 4 months old and she learned to trailer load on Sunday. Oh she was so cute (again), learning to go UP and DOWN the trailer ramp. Horses don’t see very well right in front of their nose. Summer, for what she could see, knew that the way into the horse trailer was higher that the ground she had always walked upon. Like all horses, seeing a trailer for the first time, she was not sure about the world inside that big darken cave on wheels. First thing I did was to load Goldie, Summer’s mom into the trailer… that was easy. Goldie and I did that a half dozen times with Summer watching. It still appeared to be a mystery to Summer, as to what was going on with that mobile cave thing. After loading and off-loading Goldie a number of times, I put a flake of hay in the head of the trailer and walked away. Goldie was very happy to go in and out of the trailer at that point to grab bites of hay, and sometimes she would share with Summer on her way out. Last week Summer also started eating “large” mouthfuls of hay instead of her usual nibble portions.

After awhile of going this route with Goldie and Summer, I tied Goldie at the front of the trailer, put a halter and lead on Summer, and with help of Kittee working the butt rope, we began coaxing Summer up the trailer ramp and into the trailer. Again and again it was quite amusing to watch Summer making high steps trying to find the elevation change of the ramp.

again, and again...

After about a dozen entries we closed Goldie, Summer, myself up in the trailer, and Kittee drove around the pasture a bit so Summer and I could get the feel of being "trailered" around. I now know why horses can get a case of nerves (very sweaty) when being trailered for any distance.

Also while working with Summer on lead, I usually put a rope around her girth and cinch it up “tight” to give her the feeling of being cinched, hopefully to make her ready for the time to saddle-up, get ready to ride.

I polished off Sunday afternoon, working with Travis (our horse trainer) and Misty mare in the round pen, working on quick turn maneuvers, and working my horse at a higher speed. I am still a bit light footed on the gittyup, with my broken ribs telling me to hang on. It made a good workout for both Misty and me for this day, and I realize we have a way to go together before we start chasing cattle around the ranch. Kittee had ridden Derby earlier in the day, so she just sit back and watched Misty and I during this workout.

Other than these big happening during the past week around the ranch, Saturday Kittee took Nugget out to a Women's (horsy club) Only trail ride/obstacle course outing. She said that Nugget was the champ of the day, taking the lead in most events, as well as being his usually horsy eye candy. That’s Nugget, it is hard to find a horse better that he. I looked long and hard to find that horse for Kittee. What a guy!

Now, as I get ready to close this blog positing I look outside the office window and see that we are once again covered with sunshine and clear blue skies.

♫ Home on the range, where the skies are not cloudy all day ♫

Our northeast Oregon trout season comes to a close at dark on Saturday 10/31, so the balance of this week after my bus runs, I hope to be working in the backyard –river– inviting all the legal size trout I can find, back to the house for dinner.

And that’s the way it is... around the ranch these days.

Happy Trails --- Dale

Back in the saddle again

Daybreak Saturday 10-10

The past couple of weeks has once again been quite busy for Kittee and I. Kittee seems to be having trials in the State, Tribal, City of Pendleton, City of Milton-Freewater courts on a weekly basis. I have my daily bus runs a.m. and p.m., making sports trips out of town a couple of days a week, I have been trying to go fishing in the backyard at least once a week, and now I am back in the saddle again. These fishing outings and horseback riding really feel good, as I have been laying low, putting on weight since my horsey wreck of August 1st. Here my fishing friend Jan holds her last hook-up of the day. On Jan's last two catches of the day, I showed her my Ketchum Release tool, and she found it quite beneficial in not having to handle the fish we catch.

Anyways...

It was Saturday before last that Kittee and I awoke to a most rosey daybreak (see above) which made a beautiful start for our day. This day for breakfast we had some seasonal O'Henry peaches, some of our backyard walnuts, other special ingredients and a pat of butter in our bowls of hot oatmeal. Just like our apple bread French Toast, this breakfast too is much like having dessert to start the day. Today we planned to ride horses. Yep I had healed enough that I wanted to get on my gentle, sweet, Misty mare. Actually I was hoping to do this before October 1st, but with the rains and snow of the week before, my broken bones and back didn't feel like getting on a horse. Anyway, this day was the day to saddle up Misty and try my riding ability once again. In the warmth of the late morning, Kittee had been riding since just after breakfast, I brushed Misty off and tacked her up for a short ride.
This felt good, and once in the saddle I did not feel the broken ribs. That was a good thing.


Now it has been since August 1st that I was in the saddle on Nugget, and it was way back in June since Misty was under saddle, so we kept this outing rather short and sweet, mostly for Misty's sake, since I am sitting on her back sporting a big round gut these days. After our rides and lunch Kittee and I went down the river to a plum orchard and picked some more plum for ourselves and the herds. The weather forecast was for a hard freeze to be heading our way, so we knew those tree ripened plums were not going to last for long. That day we picked maybe 60 pounds of plums.

The next day, Sunday we were hoping to ride again, but the weather turned to gray and wet, then it turned cold once again... really cold for several days. So for Sunday we spent playing cards and watching a movie or two. This was our season's second cold snap, and overnight temperatures dropped into the lower 20's. Monday the skies had cleared but our irrigation system looked like this...
By Monday afternoon our clear blue, cold skies were turning gray again as I was taking a sport trip with the MacHi girls soccer team to Umatilla. It was a nice ride, but a bit chilly to sit out and watch the game.

The team once again played a good game, but when they came back to the bus everyone was covered with plenty of heavy clothing and many of the girls were wrapped in blankets. It was turning cold at 5:30 that day as we headed for a submarine sandwich dinner and our way home.

On Tuesday, I once again climbed into the M-F school's trip bus and made another trip to Umatilla, the day was cold and wet. But this time I was taking the Central Middle School girl's volleyball teams for a three match set of afternoon volleyball games inside the gym. We stayed much warmer on this outing, and the games were good and pretty even. Again, I think... this is not a bad way to earn extra money and pay for our horses' upkeep. As the ole saying goes... "The least expensive part of buying a horse, is buying a horse."

Now as we get back to this past weekend, the entire weather pattern has changed and once again life in Northeast Oregon is nice and balmy. This weekend our temperatures were in the low 70's with plenty of sunshine to go around. Saturday Kittee and I rode horses in the riverside arena and back pasture. This time I put Misty into a nice jog as we circled and wove the arena track. Gee do I feel that workout in my legs today. Kittee rode Nugget in the arena while I was prepping Misty to ride, then she cantered him through the pastures to put some wind in their faces. Saturday evening while playing cards and listening to NPR's A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor a guy came knocking at our door and presented us with a photo of the lower 18 acres spread of McKuster Ranch that had been taken from a helicopter this past early spring.

He did take some money for the photo, but we thought this was a nice picture of the place, less the bluff and our back of the river 60 acres of cattle range. I can see from this photo and also a few weeks ago while putting up No Trespassing signs that next spring I have a couple of pastures that need to be reseeded. But this past year was our seventh year at the ranch, so it is about time to re-groom some of our pastures, and I am still tweaking the irrigation system to cover most of this ground. Having a farm/ranch with livestock is an eternal job.

Sunday, we were just going to groom horses before Kittee had to get ready to make a trip to Eugene. Then our old next door neighbor came by and invited us up to his place and to pick apples and pears. So we closed up shop here at the ranch and headed up the river to visit with Rick and his family and pick fruit. We picked about two bushels of apples, two dozen pears for us and about two bushels of holey apples and pears for the herds. By the time we got back to the ranch it was time for Kittee to clean up / pack up and head down the trail to Eugene for an attorney's conference on Monday and Tuesday. This afternoon I hope to get in a little backyard fishing after my p.m. bus route, and the rest of the week I am making school bus sporting outing to Baker on Tuesday and to Pasco, WA and Pendleton, OR on Wednesday.... busy, busy, busy,

and that's the way it is, around McKuster Ranch these days --- Dale

PS. To answer your question... Where is Kittee in this picture of Dale going fishing in their backyard? Kittee is not fishing. Kind of sad tale as it was a fly fishing outing that brought us to our beloved McKuster Ranch to begin with. Kittee has not done any fishing since a sunny Sunday afternoon in June. Is there anyone out there that wants to go fishing with me???

There it is, our first snow of the season... burrr.

This morning as I was firing up the Double Deuce, I noticed that there was frost on the neighborhood pumpkins, our first of the season. We also found that we got our first dose of snow across the mountains, east of the ranch with yesterday's daybreak. Burrrrr, it's getting chilly. I understand talking with hunters at the coffee stop this morning that Tollgate received 6" of fresh snow this weekend.

This past week has been fairly busy for Kittee and I. Kittee had allot of court trial prep to get ready for; as this week she is in trial everyday, and I stayed busy prepping the ranch for the onset of winter, already.

Sunday morning after feeding the herds (For The Record - we started feeding hay on Saturday when the rain started and the temperatures begin to drop) Kittee and I spend half the morning watching it rain and playing cards with the cats...

or maybe I should say that I spent the morning playing cards with Kats.
The weather did break later in the day, with clearing skies and plenty of sunshine so Kittee and I went to a neighbor's plum orchard and picked maybe 30-35 pounds of plums for ourselves and the herds of horses and goats that live here. After pitching out maybe 6-8 pounds of honey sweet and juicy tree ripened plums to the horses, we then sat basking in the sun in the backyard and watched 10 mule deer strolling the backyard bluff. Since I knew deer hunting/rifle season was opening here on Saturday, and I spent part of last week posting all of our property with No Trespassing signs. So while watching the deer in our sanctuary, we noticed one doe's head and ears behind some rocks being stationary, (while all the other deer were moving all over the bluff's draw) we thought something might be wrong with her (maybe rifle/arrow wound) so we hiked to the back of our property to check out the situation. When we got to the top of the draw, we spotted 7 of the deer (six does and one buck) and they all moved off, around the face of the bluff together including that stationary doe, so we felt that all was well.

Friday and Saturday were winter weather prep days around the ranch. The weather forecast was for wind, rain to come into the area and snow to hit the mountains by Sunday morning. Friday I made sure that all our hay was tarped well and finished harrowing the rest of the pastures before some a.m. drizzle began to fall.

Thursday was a most pleasant day weather-wise here in Milton-Freewater. That morning it showed a threat of showers over the mountains, but after my a.m. bus run and some horse herd work, I headed into town to make a bus trip with the high school girls' soccer teams. We had 100 miles to go to the west for a full afternoon of soccer in Boardman next to the Might Columbia River. Nice dry country this time of the year in that desert area. I had the opportunity to sit back in my bus' driver's captain chair and watch two games of well played girls soccer. Got pretty exciting...


MacHi, has some of the best soccer teams (girls and boys) in the state, so as expected the varsity and JV teams both won their games. I found this to be a most enjoyable way to earn a living for this week.

Last Wednesday, a new Walla² Fly Fishers club member came out to the ranch and we fished for awhile after my early run bus route was finished. It was a pretty afternoon, but temperatures for the season had already begun to drop. That afternoon the air temperature was 64° and the water temperature was 46°, quite a change from the week before.

With the onset of the full moon, the drastic drop in air and water temperatures, Jan and I had a pretty slow fishing day. The river and atmosphere was beautiful, but with only one hook-up apiece and a hour and a half of 46° leaky wader experience, Jan was ready to call it a day. I didn't realize that she was persevering, getting her river legs, casting stroke timing in sync, and while hiking around with a cold wet foot. A tough little fly fishing lady, but she has fly fished Alaska, so she know what she is doing.

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