Coming out of the deep freeze, into the snow.

It was a week ago Saturday we had our first dusting of winter's snow... very light but frosty. Kittee was in conference in Portland so she missed it. I took pictures of this dusting for the McKuster Ranch records of 12/5.
Last Sunday Kittee had returned home, she and I had the option of going into Walla Walla and riding our horses at the indoor Fair Grounds arena, or to ride in our riverside backyard arena. Sunday was a very nice day and this is where we stayed, riding with our pets, enjoying our day, around the ranch.

12-5-09 snow dusting

We had a most enjoyable ride that afternoon, Kittee was riding Derby bareback, and I was taking Misty in and out of cantering gaits and doing 180° and 360° circles, and a few fast up-to-the-fence stops. This made for some good adrenaline rushes and riding practice. Misty and I are still working on doing cattle work around here. After our riding session Kittee and I sit in the backyard talking with horses and having a beer, just relaxing in the sunshine… with a weather forecast of changes to come. After our sunbathing, the temperature was starting to drop so we went ahead and blanketed the horses that had blankets.
By Monday morning our outside temperature had dropped to 7°, with the weather forecast being, highs in the teens and lows in the single digits for the rest of the week.

mid-day high in the barn = 19°

That is just what we got for the entire week. After all week of sub-freezing temperatures and everyone looking for the next free meal, the mare herd got a bit pissy.
Thursday, evening when I opened the gate for feeding, I noticed that Goldie was limping/lame. Taking a closer look, I found that she had been kicked in the knee. This looked like an infirmary stall up in the works. When Kittee came in she looked at Goldie leg and we decided to put her and baby Summer into confinement until we could take her to the vets. Fortunately we had a vet appointment on Saturday to take in Shaiela for a pregnancy test and Summer for her first round of vaccinations.

During all this process we have discovered that Summer maybe a “Hunter/Jumper” athlete. Once before when she was maybe three months old, we came home one day and found her in the barnyard paddock, which is not where we had left her.
Last Friday when I got home from my school bus route, I found her in the barnyard paddock… not where I had left her. Being separated from her mom and stirring with the rest of the mare herd, she was a bit jittery/spooky, which was unlike her regular behavior. In the process of trying to catch her, she jumped the barnyard paddock –no climb– fence once again and I saw the jump. Sad thing is she scrapped her knee on the top wires of the fence while making this jump. After this episode I put ointment on and bandaged her knee for the night until we could make the scheduled vet appointment on Saturday morning.
Saturday morning I was up and making coffee at 5:00 turned on the furnace, and went back to bed awaiting for the house to warm up. Got up again at 6:00 to get Kittee and myself a couple of holiday eggnog lattè to enjoy while continuing to warm up under the electric blanket. With this get up we found that our world which had been frozen solid for a week had turned white in the past hour or so.

12-12-09 snow covering

After breakfast we loaded mares and foal and made an uneventful horse trailer trip to the vet in Walla Walla. All of our girls, Goldie, Summer and Shaiela all loaded well and Summer went for her first real ride. At the vet’s we found that Shaiela was not pregnant, Summer’s knee was scraped but with no cuts and Goldie did have a puncture wound at her knee. Everyone got a good BILL of health… that came to over $500. OUCH! That felt like a bite on my butt. Well, that’s life with these very valuable 1000-pound pets, and we will just call this our Christmas to each other and these three horses. Having finished our horsey chores here at the ranch, we turned around, went back to town to pickup some videos, and get some cold weather foodstuff for the balance of the weekend/ this next week.

shot from our office window- deer on the backyard bluff

Late yesterday afternoon we made a ride upriver to visit with Dale, Cheri, and some upriver neighbors to celebrate Dale’s upcoming birthday. We had a very pleasant get together with all and coming home (about 9 miles) we did not pass another vehicle and the road. Told Kittee that the ride made me think of taking a most comfortable, well-heated ride down a snowy lane. While at Dale and Cheri’s a Chinook wind began to blow and our temperature went into the upper 30’s by the time we got back home. After getting home, feeding the herd, we watched a video and call it a day, a night, our weekend.

Today after my a.m. bus run the bus has frozen back into its pre-trip condition to look like a large yellow icicle.
This afternoon we have a winter storm warning becoming effective at 4:00. OH for joy, for joy, tis the season for freezing, and only one week to go before winter is here.

Life around the ranch this pass week, was very cold --- Dale