It was the best of times; it was the worst of times...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” it was 1775.

C. Dickens

September 2010, it was the best of times; it was the worst of times…

September 1st was the last day of school before a very long Labor Day Holiday weekend. Actually it turned out to be a full week off from work. Kittee and I had plenty of horseback riding plans lined up, and there was no one as in the past weeks to barge in on our plans, in their inconsiderate manner. Thursday, Sept. 2, Kittee went into Pendleton to take care of her business, I handled horses and in the late afternoon did a bit of fishing.





















It was a great day for handling horses, cooling off in the river and catching fish.

My first hookup of the day on a Royal Trude

The last hookup of the day

Friday was Kittee’s half day off as we headed into the holiday weekend. I did a few chores around the ranch, spent some time with Summer working in the round pen and after Kittee got home everyone had a most relaxing afternoon.



Saturday we had made plans with Lisa, one of our boarders to ride the OLE Cache Hollow Trail and around Lincton Mtn, along Kennear Rd. above Couse Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful day for horseback riding, felt much like an October day.



On the way back to the ranch, Lisa and Cloud had a bit of a bad encounter with a tractor working a wheat field along the road and Lisa found herself on the ground, got bruised but not hurt badly. After getting back to the ranch we offered Lisa some aspirin, a beer and made plans to go riding again on Sunday into the timber near Tollgate.

Sunday the 5th Lisa arrived at the ranch late in the morning, which was quite clear and rather cool. Each of us groomed out our horse loaded the trailer and headed for the hills. It was a most beautiful day on the mountain and Lisa could hardly believe the views and the places we get to ride horses so close to home.
After our ride this day, we made plans to ride the harvested wheat fields and Bowlus Hill behind the ranch on Monday.

Monday, being Labor Day we started the day out slow and easy. After Kittee and I having a late breakfast and grooming horses, we waited for Lisa to come out to the ranch. With her small wreck on Saturday and the ride Sunday she was moving a bit slow as well. Kittee and I went ahead and saddled up Derby and Nugget while Lisa worked with Cloud on trailer loading training. So for awhile Kittee and I rode the front pasture with our steeds. I was having a great time on Nugget as we cantered back and forth across the pasture, taking turns at a canter and running back to Kittee and Derby. On the last run around that day, Nugget and I were walking back towards the house with Kittee and Derby, when our horses spooked.


All I remember was picking myself off the ground and saying to Kittee, “I glad I was wearing a helmet on that fall.” I don’t remember what happened; I don't remember anything about the next 15 minutes. One of my spurs came off in the fall so I told Kittee that Nugget and I would go back to the house and reset the spur and I would remount and be right back. That didn’t happen. When I sit down to reset my spur I lose consciousness for about 10 or so minutes. When I came back to reality, Kittee and I made a trip to the ER for a CAT scan.

Everything appeared to be working properly.

The doctor called it a concussion and told me to take it easy for a few days, maybe stay off the horses for a couple of weeks or a month. I have.

Tuesday and Wednesday with a doctor’s release I stayed home, no work and took life easy. Thursday and Friday I was functional again, went back to work but not making any fast moves. Quite a week.

Saturday, the 11th Kittee and I had plans only to go to the Wheelin Walla Walla car show, but first she wanted to ride our filly Rosey once again. Rosey is turning out to be quite a little Arabian champ.















































After Kittee's riding lesson we headed for Walla Walla, WA. Again this year there was a great show on Main Street Walla Walla. The auto pride and prizes of the Pacific Northwest showed up for a beautiful weekend of sunshine and most pleasant temperatures.

Main Street - looking east

Main Street - looking west

Kittee and I had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant we had never eaten at before-- I ♥ Teriyaki. The sweet and sour chicken was good, but the teriyaki beef was outrageously good. I could have eaten a couple of pounds of the teriyaki beef. After the car show we came home petted horses and had a relaxing evening watching the sunset.

Sunday, the 12th was the day for our annual ranch BBQ with the family from Pendleton. Usually we have these BBQ get togethers on Memorial Weekend, but this year we made plans to be out-of-town, so we had this beautiful weekend to celebrate our family's togetherness. Everyone was to arrive in the late afternoon, even Nicole was coming in from NM, so it gave me time to polish off the meal that I had been preparing since Saturday afternoon. It was about noon while I was working on dinner there came a knock on the door, I answered it and a plain-clothes officer handed me a Petition for Divorce signed by K Custer. Yep, she has now decided to practice her Dom-Rel law on us. I am afraid my wife is truly SAD, and it is getting worse, she will seek no help, so this is where we are.

Well needless to say that really set the tone for my mid-day activities (and the same way I am feeling now - sad for my wife, broken hearted for us), but this day I was determined to ignore Kittee’s move during our family's time together.
We did have a good time sitting around and Kittee played with Lucy and Jasmine in the round pen.

Aunt Pat- it is she that brought this family
to the Oregon Territory - Thank you

The smoked BBQ ribs turned out well and we had a bit of leftovers to make BBQ/cole slaw sandwiches throughout the week. Mmmmmm good stuff.

The rest of that week was the 100th Pendleton “Let’er Buck” Round-Up week. This was my 57th year of attending the Round-Up. I haven’t gone each and every year but I have been at the Pendleton rodeo since 1953. Need I say anymore than I love it?

"Let'er Buck"
a new statue unveiled this month

Again this year on Round-Up Wednesday, I took the Special Needs children of the Milton-Freewater School District to the Special Kids' Rodeo of that day.
That is special, and I hope that this day for these kids will mean as much to them and my first trip to Round-Up meant to me.








After the p.m. school bus run Kittee and some acquaintances from La Grande drop by the ranch for a beer, a walk through the horse herd and a trip to town for dinner. There we also met Miriam and her little granddaughter from Portland at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Round-Up Thursday, Kittee and I had breakfast at home, went to pick up Miriam and her granddaughter at the B&B in town where they were staying (Ellie cannot be around the indoor house cats), and headed for Pendleton. We spent the rest of the morning hours just strolling Main Street, then headed for our seats in the brand new west grand stands of the new and improved Pendleton Round-Up rodeo grounds. The new section is very nice and the whole décor has improved greatly, even with a new scoreboard. To save most of a thousand words, I shall let the pictures and videos attached tell the tale of this year’s rodeo. It was a good. "Let'er Buck"




We had a "good old boy" from Goldston, NC to entertain the crowds between events --- Keith Isley PRCA 2009 Clown of the Year

Between the East Oregonian newspaper and myself we have a pretty good collection here of the rodeo happenings. Hope you enjoy these videos…
(right click links with your mouse
to open in a new window)

2010 Round-Up Kickoff Ceremony

2010 Saddle Bronc Finals

2010 Steer Wrestling Finals

2010 Bareback Bronc Finals

2010 Calf Roping Finals

2010 Hide Race

Wild Horse Race

Wild Horse Race II

2010 Wild Cow Milking

and then we had PBR,

and more Bull Riding

and Bull Riding

and more Bull Riding

and then we had women Barrel Racing,

with more Barrel Racing,

and more Barrel Racing.

You can also visit the McKusterRanch YouTube channel for more 2010 "Let'er Buck" video action.

Round-Up Friday I fired up my school bus earlier that usual and headed for the Milton-Freewater Middle School to pick up the marching band and took them to Pendleton for the big Westward Ho Parade. This made a good show, and they say there was over 1300 horses in the parade this year. There was a lot of horses in this parade.

and a 2010 Westward Ho Parade video.

After the parade we had lunch in Pendleton, loaded up the band, headed back for school and the p.m. bus route run. It was a good day.
It was a good week of fun and activities.

Wish YOU could have been HERE.

Saturday after breakfast Miriam and granddaughter Ellie came out to the ranch and petted horses and then took a pony ride with Jasmine.

Saturday evening our Walla² Fly Fishers held our first banquet with guest speaker Brian O’Keefe.
I met Brian when I owned the fly shop in Pendleton and many of you fly fishers may know Brian from the fishing photos he has published and has had published in many fly fishing magazines around the country. Brian has a really nice presentation of his fly fishing adventures from around the world, categorized by the different fish species he had stalked. If you ever get a chance, talk to Brian sometime. A really nice guy to know, it was good to see Brian again.

The next morning, Sunday I rolled out of the sack way before dawn as some of the Walla² Fly Fishers had made plans to go to the Deschutes River to fish for steelhead. With everyone meeting in Milton-Freewater at 5:30 a.m. we made a beeline for the river, just making one pit stop in Biggs. It was a wonderful day on the Deschutes with off and on overcast, a few drizzles, and sunbreaks throughout the day. It just felt good to be on the river that day.

There was six of us and we fish the river hard. By historical standards, Round-Up week is the best time of the year to have your feet in the Deschutes and expect to catch steelhead and some fall Chinook. This day for our group was a good day for fishing, not a good day for catching. For the whole day of fishing, we saw two fish on line and one of our party hooked a sucker in the back for the day’s only catch. Gee it felt good to be back on that river, even without a steelie coming back home with us. Just the anticipation of hooking a 10+ pound fish make most cast exciting.

Since the last week of August, we have been watching elk from our front porch/ front yard. Most of these have been cows and calves up to 45 of them one evening. On Tuesday the 21st the bulls showed themselves. What a majestic sight that was while standing in the front yard.

Now it is not every evening, but 4-5 out of 7 evenings we now have elk standing on the hill in the front yard. A pretty nice site for the home front grazing range.

A couple of days after the bull sightings, we had a Great Blue Heron to land in the backyard pasture and spent about a half hour picking at something in the tall grass.

I have never seen these guys feeding in grass, since they are actually fishers and we have them flying up and down the river all the time. A couple of days after the Heron was hanging out in the backyard, we had a nice Redtail Hawk working the same pastures. He probably spent 10 minutes going after something in the grass and then sitting on the RR tie supporting the irrigation Big Guns surveying his range. I should have pull out my camera and shot him, but I didn’t.

This year I have spotted so much wildlife in my comings and goings beginning with the beautiful Bald Eagle in the winter, and another while fishing in WA, the great bucks on Lincton Mtn., the osprey catching fish up at Notellum Pond, twin fawns playing in the backyard, etc. For being close to home this year we have seen almost everything Oregon has to offer except seals, otters, bear, cougar, wolves and I had just assume not see them around the house.

Summer had her 15 months old birthday in late September. It is really hard to believe how much she has grown during this summer. What a sweet getting to be a big girl now, she is.


Saturday the 25th, I was still recovering from my concussion of Labor Day and have not been horseback riding since then. Things just feel a little strange, and I am keeping my feet on the ground. This day the Bluebutt flies were flying in swarms. Each year these insects come out in progressive larger and larger swarms during September and October. An interesting annual event I have found in NE Oregon including Pendleton and Baker City.


This time of year we also see lots of starlings working the pastures for insects. Great organic pest controllers...Sunday, September 26th was another beautiful day. I spent the morning working with Summer in the round pen. Just before lunch I tied up a new fly pattern to imitate an October Caddis nymph.
Later that afternoon I ventured back to the river and tried my new fly pattern. First cast out hooked this guy...
Below is a beautiful Redband, with golden-green colors. I was too close to get all of him in the picture, what a nice fish to take on my caddis nymph...
This afternoon I had six nice hookups, one took my fly and left with it, another I could not get to move out of its lie. While fishing that afternoon I revisited the wild honey bee hive I had found in the bluff earlier in the month. It hadn't grown much but appeared to be weighted with much more honey than a few weeks ago.
That evening as the sun sank slowly into the western sky...
So this is how I wrapped-up this September, as the air is getting cooler, days are getting shorter, and fish are putting on their fall feed bag. Life is good, even with a heart that aches for my wife's pain. I guess that's life, take each day as it comes.

And so that’s the way it is around the ranch, the Oregon Territory in September 2010.

♫ Happy Trails to You until We met again ♫

Peace




Dale