Riding Goldie, and riding through lupine meadows

During this past week around the ranch we once again got up to a high of 70º and mid-week I got some more gardening done by tilling, putting in tomato and pepper transplants. Today we are getting some very nice and steady rain so I hope maybe by Thursday, I can put in the remainder of the garden with sunflowers, more corn, squash, carrots, cucumber, beets, pumpkin, okra, and sweet basil seeds. The asparagus seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have now sprouted and are about 3"-4" tall. With our lack of 80º-90º temperatures and rains this spring, I think my gardening will be right on track for warming temperatures and growing season in June.

This past weekend was rather laid back with horseback riding for Kittee and downriver Robert starting Friday, while I took the MacHi tennis team to tournament in Tri-Cities, WA. While in Tri-Cities I did indulge in a marvelous catfish feed at Granny's Country Buffet. Yes on the all-you-can-eat buffet bar there was whole (heads off) golden brown fried catfish. It was all I could eat, with a little room left for cherry covered cheese cake for dessert. Mmmm good stuff. It was almost dark before I returned home, so that was the day in a nutshell. Our high temperatures for this day got into the mid-80's... spring has broken through.

Saturday, started out pretty fast with a hearty breakfast of wheaty hotcakes, sausage and coffee, as this day we were going to visit Goldie and I planned to take a ride with her, my first. Not a big ride this day, but a chance to climb in the saddle and get a feel for what she had learned by working with Chad Henry for the past 20+ days or so. One thing we learned from Chad when we got to his place was Goldie was not a happy girl to be ridden when she was in heat.
We should MAKE A NOTE OF THAT.

Chad's warm up ride with Goldie
(a video link)
~you can view at 480p and full screen~

This Chad learned last week, as Goldie got kind of bucky with him. I told Chad that around the ranch Goldie is sometimes referred to as the "blond bitch" when she is in heat, so I knew of the attitude he was talking about. Anyway, Saturday morning we got to Chad's arena as he was bring Goldie out and prepping her to saddle up. Thereafter they headed for the arena and Chad took a few rounds in the arena to warm her up and settle her into a frame of mind to ride. Goldie is half Arabian, half Quarter Horse and some day her hot blood Arabian side shows. A fine horse, and dam of Summer. After Chad got Goldie into the easy riding mood, he brought her into the round pen and there I got to ride her. -see videos below- I found that Goldie is very light on the bit, and responsive to rein and leg cues. She is going to make a great ride, if I can slow her down a bit. I am not a fan of speed.
After leaving Chad and Goldie, Kittee and I made a beeline back to the ranch by way of Bordertown Tack store to pickup a few things and when we got home we grabbed a bite of lunch and saddled up Misty and Nugget for a ride up Cache Hollow /Kennear Rd to the lupine meadows of Lincton Mtn. Temperatures this day were in the mid-80's so taking a ride across the mountain felt great.

Riding through lupine meadows in May
(a video link)
~you can view at 480p and full screen~

After making this ride, we came home, washed off, backyard fed Nugget and Misty and headed to the Hopwood's for dinner. With Dennis and Sharon we strolled their farm petting their Mammoth Jack donkey - Sage (who has ears over twice the side of our mule Miles' ears), their horses, and visited with their flock of sheep and new born lambs. After dinner we sat round the table talking and again staying out way past our bedtime enjoying their good food and company.

Sunday, a.m. I turned up with a GI bug - hit me hard. Maybe one like Chad had been struggling with this past week. But it put me down for most of the day, meanwhile Kittee worked with Rosey, Raji, Shaiela, Derby and Nugget. Our -Dynamic Duo- now make quite the set of shiny pasture palomino bookends. By the end of the day Kittee was whipped, or maybe she was beginning to feel the GI bug. I grabbed my boot straps and pulled myself up and out of bed late in the afternoon and went out and spread about 1500 pounds of fertilizer over the back 10 acres of pastures. Rain is in the forecast for the next few days so I had to make my move as turning on the irrigation is not the same as rain when it comes to putting fertilizer into the ground.

Last week some of our flowering trees and bushes were on the wax and wane. We have had some crazy weather this spring, April and May have been more like a usual March, while February and March were much like our normal Aprils.

This year the lilac bush bloomed very poorly,

the Hawthorn tree is trying to make a showing,

and the Dogwood is doing better than last year.

My video time... My first ride on Goldie.




And that's the way things have been going around the ranch this past week.

Peace





Dale

Springtime, and my thighs are sooo SORE

Well once again this weekend we stayed pretty busy around the ranch, Friday through Sunday.

Last Friday, there was no school in session in Milton-Freewater but I put in a full day's work as I had a sports bus trip to Stanfield, OR. I took the Central Middle School Track team there for the final conference tournament. The day was fairly pleasant with some off and on sunshine and a little breeze. Central Middle School had a good day, for their final meet of the year as they won 1st place in the Boy’s, Girl’s and Overall competitions. We came home with a fist full of Blue Ribbons for their day’s effort.
While I was on the road/ track all day, Kittee had court in Milton-Freewater Friday morning, with only one client showing up… everyone else got a bench warrant issued for their arrest, upon sight by law enforcement. With this lack of courtroom activity, it allowed Kittee to come home quite early. She and downriver Robert did a little horseback riding in the mid-day, and work on a bottle of wine thereafter. Did I ever mention that the Walla Walla Valley was a world class wine tasting location, with more than 100 wineries in our valley?
When I got home it was time for dinner and a beer, so we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for a beer and dinner. After a feast for dinner we headed home and watched the rest of 2001: a space odyssey, Kubrick must have had to tasted some good LSD during the making of that movie. After the movie we turned off the light and called it a day, tomorrow was going to be a very busy day.

Saturday, we slept in late having our coffee in bed around 6:30 waiting for 7 o’clock to roll out and do a quick breakfast of corny grits, eggs and sausage, before Kevin the farrier was to show up. Kevin got here at 8:05 and we went to work on horses.

~ Summer at 10 months old ~

Kevin and Summer working together 5-8-10

Kevin and Summer's first farrier work session 11-1-09

Kevin is a farrier extraordinaire. We have had several
farriers to work on our herd, and we found that those guys
couldn't handle horses properly, or do their job well.
Neither has been the case with Kevin's work.

We had our three trail horses to shod, the rest of the herd to trim and with a lunch break we finished up around 4:30 p.m. – beer thirty. We took the rest of this day off with a pot of leftover beef stew for dinner. Sunday the weather forecast was for rain, rain, rain but we were hoping to take our three trail horses with their new shoes out for a mountain ride.

Sunday started with the sun rising over the eastern mountains. All week there had been a fresh snowfall on the Blues every morning and that is where we had plans to ride on Sunday. After Saturday afternoon’s blast of sunshine Sunday morning there was no snow in sight from our kitchen window. So after a hardy Happy Mother’s Day breakfast of wheaty hotcakes and a side of sausage we proceeded to round up our tack and horses and load the trailer under perfectly blue skies with no winds. What a beautiful morning it was. After loading everything/everybody, we headed for Big Saddle on Lincton Mtn., which is maybe 4 miles from the ranch.

~ Views from Big Saddle ~

To the southwest, Basket Mtn...

to the east, Blalock Mtn...

to the northwest, the rivers basin.

Many times we have ridden the horses from the ranch to this point and beyond, but today with the horses' new shoes and winter soles on their feet we thought we would give them a break. Off loading at Big Saddle we headed up the mountain and for the timber. -see videos below- The ride was fun as all three of our steeds had just come off fresh pasture grasses and were ready to run and play in the cool, fresh, clear mountain air. From the vistas on Lincton Mtn. we could see the Walla Walla, Columbia, and Snake rivers basin/junctions. Quite a site on a crystal clear day… no rain and very few clouds, just beautiful blue skies with scattered cotton ball clouds. We rode on until we reached the timber and there watched a cow Elk cross the road and decided that would be enough for this first day of the 2010 trail riding season. We expected to see quite a bit of snow at the timberline, but we found none on our ride, even though there was lots of mud puddles in the road from the snowfalls of the past week in this area. We trotted most of the way back to the trailers, being horses love to move out -fast- when they get the idea of we're going home.
Returning home we put our rides out to pasture, and we proceeded to kick back and have a couple of libations for the balance of the afternoon. During this time I closed off our roadside pasture from all others and put Rusty out to run. He ended up doing very little running as he had to check out every manure pile in the pasture and wonder who left it there. While he was jogging around we had a car to stop and watch him moving. This happens a lot here as we all the time have people stop and start taking pictures of our place. Anyway this car turned around and came back to the house and ask about that beautiful horse in the pasture. We told them he was our Arabian ranch stallion – Rusty. They wanted to know all about him. We told them of his background/ pedigree and that we had one of his foal in the back pasture. They wanted to meet Summer. We now have a potential buyer for Summer, but I told them not until she is one year old, and Goldie and Rusty breeds us another. I will hate to see my baby leave here :>(

Anyway by the time all of this was over I asked Kittee what time she thought it was and it turned out to be 7:00 p.m. Yikes! and it's three hours later on the east coast; I needed to try to call my Mom again to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. By the time I finished talking with Mom, it was time to put the horses back in their places, Rusty in his keep, have a bite of dinner and hit the sack. Mondays start very early around here, at least for the next three weeks.

This morning, I got out of bed, hit the deck, showered and ran my a.m. bus route with no pain. Now, usually after riding as much as we did yesterday I have sore leg muscles, (much like the day after the first snow skiing outing of the season) but this morning I was fine. I thought maybe I was in pretty good shape from regular rides around the ranch arena area. But getting out of the driver's chair of the bus upon my return home, I found out different... Oh my aching thighs, feel like they have been worked over with a meat tenderizer.
Today after my a.m. bus rounds the skies were very dark and gray. I was hoping to put in a garden row of green beans and corn on Sunday afternoon, but that didn’t happen, so today I was in a go mode to beat the rain I saw heading this way. I was able to double till two rows before the rain started and got my beans and corn planted in fresh tilled /wet soil. Later this week we are suppose to have temperatures heading into the 70’s, maybe 80's for the first time this year. I hope this will spur my seeds and effort to grow and produce abundantly. Amen.

And that’s the way it is around the ranch this past weekend.



Anyone have an idea of how to steady a camcorder
while sitting a trotting horse?

♫ Happy Trails to YOU until we meet again ♫

Peace be with YOU,




Dale

I just had to laugh...

and share these with you.

Below are a few very short video clips made by my "new" camera-person (new to the camcorder that is).

Much like the people that find they have been talking into a live microphone after their speech has been given, these recording are quite amusing.

;>)

I shall not mention a name associated with these video clips, but there is a possibility that you might think you recognize certain voices. Please do not ASSUME anyone in particular is speaking while the videos are being made.
Thank you.

Hope you enjoy.

Peace be with you --- Dale




PS. The following videos have not yet been rated by the MPAA.

Parental Guidance maybe advised.



Maybe just a little better, but still working at it.



Test, test, test...

Now getting the hang of how the camera works...

I did not go fishing this weekend.

Derby, Nugget and Miles being casual

Friday our weekend started out quite casual and progressed all the way through Sunday evening in the same manner. Friday a.m. Kittee had city court in Milton-Freewater, with all her cases being settled out-of-court, so that made a light day for her. Myself, after my a.m. bus run, I headed for Walla Walla for some needlework with my acupuncturist. Upon returning home from my p.m. bus route, I saw Kittee and Derby at the barn's hitching rails preparing for an afternoon ride. So as soon as I signed off of my bus, I changed into my spurs and headed out to call in Misty, so we might join Kittee and Derby in the riverside arena. Misty is such a sweet girl and a great horse. When I called her to come in, she was probably 150-200 yards out in the pasture. With my call she raised her head from grazing, and started walking towards the barn. I continued to call her a few more times and she came right in, through the paddock gate, and stood for currying. I rarely hitch Misty to the hitching rail anymore, as she will stand at the barn bay entrance and allow me to put her saddle blanket on, put my saddle on, and then she take the bit and bridle standing in one place… no hobbles. After she was all tacked up, we walked out to the arena and rode for maybe an hour with Kittee and Derby. Misty and I took it quite easy that afternoon, since coming from an acupuncture treatment that morning I didn’t try to exert myself too much. Kittee and Derby were running and jumping around the arena as Derby was trying to sprout wings and fly. It was fun watching the two of them. Misty and I mostly walked with a little trotting mixed in around the arena and then across the pasture. Friday evening after dinner we started watching the home video of Mel Brooks’ Men in Tights, quite funny in the Mel Brooks sort of way.

Saturday, morning we started the day with coffee in bed and a late start on breakfast. Plans for the day was to go visit and ride Goldie. I had all my tack in the car, so after a breakfast of corny grits, sausage and eggs we headed off to see Goldie and her trainer. The morning was mostly overcast and windy. When we got to Chad’s training facilities, he was not there so Kittee and I just walked around and visited with Goldie and about 15 other horses that were there for training of various sorts. When Chad arrived, he pulled Goldie out of her stall, curried her, saddled her up and headed for his arena to warm her up for my ride. With the wind, the weather, and pulling Goldie off of her breakfast she was a bit pissed-off. About halfway across the arena Goldie gave a little kick-out of defiance. Chad said that was the second time she had done that in three weeks… her way of saying “I don’t want to do this.” I know Goldie. With Goldie’s pissy attitude that morning and the weather/wind conditions, I decided not to ride her this day. I just asked Chad to tell me everything he could about Goldie, her training, and he showed me how they were working together, the things he had taught her. Kittee and I were pretty satisfied with the works. I now have plans to go back out to Chad’s on Wednesday and hopefully ride Goldie at that time, weather permitting. From Chad’s place we motored into Walla Walla and got a mocha to share, while walking Main Street and visiting the downtown kitchen shop and Farmers’ Market. Afterwards we came home and were going in and out of the house all afternoon visiting/petting horses between a dozen-wind/rain/sunshine squalls coming through the area all day.
After one of those trip out to pet horses Kittee came in and was standing in the kitchen groaning, huffing and puffing pulling her jeans and boots off. I asked her what was her problem… she had been kicked in the leg by a mare, which is now in heat. Damn girlie horses, they do get moody when their hormones go wild. The same mare kicked me in the shoulder later that evening while out feeding the herds. Raji didn't get away with that the second time in a day, as I pushed her out of the herd and away from their dinner and demonstrated to her who is herd boss around here ~~ it's ME. Saturday evening, after dinner we tried to finish watching Men in Tights, but both fell asleep before the evening got too late.

Sunday, I had made plans to go fishing in Washington with a school bus driving friend. Kittee and I were looking forward to a fresh trout dinner for Sunday evening, but…
Saturday, with the weather changing every half-hour of so and quite a bit of high winds passing through, Randy called and suggested that we cancel our fishing plans for Sunday. I agreed. Hopefully we will be able to make up for this missed opportunity during our Summer Vacation coming up in about 5 weeks. Gee, it feels good to say that. Summer vacation begins in five weeks.
So plans for Sunday changed... after a breakfast of hardy-whole-wheat hotcakes, sausage and coffee, we hoped for breaks in the weather so that we might horseback ride during the day. As described above how I go about catching-up Misty for a ride; Kittee is not quite as fortunate in the process of catching-up Nugget as the following pictures will show.

Easy like Sunday morning.

Yep, that is right... Kittee usually has to walk out to the horse to fetch her ride of the day.
It's a tough life around here, but someone has to do it.

Even though it was a little breeze at times, we did get in a good mid-day horseback ride in the arena -see videos below- and through the pastures. Next Saturday, Kevin the farrier comes and our riding horses get shod, so once again we with be hitting the back country trails around the ranch... Gitty up. After putting the horses back out to pasture following our ride, Kittee and I sit out in the backyard and sun bathed while having a few beers and I got a short nap while sunning this afternoon. Kittee went out and worked with Rosey in the round-pen for awhile. Later this afternoon I tilled several rows in the garden for planting this next week.

Today I planted some potatoes and transplanted some garlic that has been growing “wild” since I put Rusty’s keep in, which went over most of our old garlic garden area. I hope from these transplants we will see plenty of fresh German Red and Elephant garlic this summer, and fall.
This evening we had a great pasta verde dinner from Rusty's keep. A couple of years ago when I built his Nobel panel round pen I enclosed our asparagus and garlic patch. I had to put him somewhere and the only space we had was the asparagus and garlic garden area. I expected a horse would eat asparagus as soon as it came out to the ground... but not so. So tonight Kittee suggest that we make a pasta dish for dinner, and I suggested that we try to salvage some asparagus from Rusty's keep and the dinner came out great. Thank you Miriam for the fresh supply of olive oil you brought to us last weekend, it went great with the garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and asparagus to make our pasta dressing... Mmmmm good.

And that the way it has been this weekend around the ranch --- Dale

Peace be with you.




Some wind noise in the microphone on these videos, so you might turn down the sound volume.

Hope you enjoy.