Summer and the Winter Solstice

Last Sunday, after playing with horses most of the day Kittee and I separated our baby Summer from her mom to be weaned. They had both been kept in the barn’s infirmary stall since the week before and their visit to the vet clinic for knee injuries. Both are doing very well, and have healed well from their injuries. During this weaning process I kept Goldie in the barn stall to continue her knee medications and give her some confinement from Summer. For a day or two they called to each other from 30 yards apart, but not so far apart as to stress either of them out by a long distance separation. Aunt Misty is keeping a vigilant eye on Summer during this separation period.

Monday was the Winter Solstice above the 45th Parallel and for a couple of days this past week we had sunbreaks that gave us a ranch sunrises around 8:30 and a sunset at 3:05 with no aurora borealis sightings. Summer's foal coat for her first Winter Solstice has been very adequate for this time of year as she is very plush and soft to touch, and has never shone any sign of shivering. To celebrate the Winter Solstice this past week I brought home some fur tree boughs from upriver Dale's but they have offered no fragrance to the house. The high note on this time of year is... now that we have passed the solstice, it sure is nice to have each day getting longer, and I will be glad when they are warmer.

Ginger, Misty and Summer behind bars

It was Tuesday or Wednesday that I let Goldie out of the barn stall, and she went nuts for about 10-15 minutes running the fence lines along the pasture that Summer was in. After she settled down a bit I haltered her and lead her to the rear pasture to keep her distance from Summer as I was going upriver to help Dale work with his ranch website for the balance of the day. Going into the riverside pasture Raji wanted to join Goldie so I let her. Together they ran, with hooves and dirt clods flying in the air for about 5+ minutes. This was the most that Goldie had run since she was maybe 6 months pregnant; she worked up a pretty good sweat with this workout. After Goldie had settled down I put another half dozen mares in the pasture with her and Raji to keep company for the while. After all of this had settled down I headed up river to work with Dale.

Thursday, Kittee took the day off and we played with horses. The weather forecast was for clearing skies, cool crisp dry air, and warm sunshine on our shoulders for the balance of the week. So our hopes were to be horseback riding maybe by Thursday noon, all day Friday and Saturday. But, our winter weather did not break… it's December, the ground is frozen, the skies are mostly gray, sometimes foggy, and sometimes flaky fog falling on us most of the past week.
Anyway, come Thursday we had an invitation to spend the late afternoon and evening with family in Pendleton at cousin Worth and LeBelva’s house.

There we found everyone doing well, Worth, LaBelva, cousin Lynn, Lois, and Lois’ granddaughter Lucy, my Aunt Pat and Lois’ mom Elsie was also there.

































































Once again LaBelva managed to spread another Xmas Eve feast, of turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salads, pies, cake, chocolates, etc. before us for our over-indulging pleasure fix. I do believe that everyone made at least two passes at the spread of food, even Kittee. Lois brought along one of her extra large huckleberry cheesecakes which Lucy and I tried to warn everyone that we thought there was something really wrong with that cheesecake, and they shouldn't eat any of it. (The problem that Lucy and I thought we found with that cheesecake was that there may have been just too much wild huckleberry filling layered on top of the thick cheese layer, on top of the graham cracker crust.) I don’t think anyone listened to our warnings, so Lucy and I ate our share of cheesecake, and maybe that of Lynn's daughters. Both of Lynn's daughters were spending their holiday weekend in Dallas, TX where they called this family gathering while driving through a Texass snow storm. As Kittee and I were leaving the party, Worth gifted us with about 10+ pounds of elk meat, LeBelva with a loaf of banana bread, fudge, and some holiday cheer. Thank you, Thank you, LeBelva and Worth.
After Kittee and I returned home we went out, fed the herds of horses, goats, and cats, and wished everyone a happy Xmas eve. We didn’t have anybody talking back to us, so not sure where that old story came from.

Xmas day we spent with the horses, goats, and seven cats. Treating everybody with extra hay and sweet grain. Again we found nobody was talking, but felt sure that everyone appreciated their treats and hugs for the day.

Saturday, we had plans to go to the movies. After feeding the horses, having an eggnog latté for breakfast we loaded up and headed for Walla Walla. We had heard a week or so ago on NPR about the new sci-fi movie Avatar . WOW!!!! This movie has a Lucas Film connection, and was previewed by Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and George Lucas. The movie very much reminded me of, but was nothing like the ET and Star Wars epics. What a movie, and quite a story in looking at (and it will jump out at you) the powers of greed pursuant the US Industrial-Military complex of our times and that of 150 years from now. If you enjoy movies with lots of action, a tender love story, an odyssey with 3D effects, YOU should see Avatar in 3D (not plain screen)… quite a trip without leaving town.

Today after a breakfast of eggnog lattés in bed, Kittee and I got up, went out to feed the herds, and for breakfast we had cups of coffee and each a nice slice of peach pie. Mmmmmm good. Thereafter we went out to fire up Blue and hookup the horse trailer for Kittee to take Derby and Nugget to the Walla Walla Fairgrounds arena for a morning ride. I did not go on this run as the cold and fog has given me too many arthritis aches and pains to be outdoors for 2-3 hours in the cold and falling fog. I stayed home and played with my Summer, Misty, Goldie and Rusty this morning.

Goldie's Summer

Our Summer
Rusty's Summer

Summer at 6-months old

This afternoon we will be watching movies lounging in our home theater and drinking a beer or two, with a big bowl of guacamole and chips between us.

And that's the way it is around the ranch this past week. I am still on school holiday break for the upcoming week, with an out-of-town bus trip to make to Pendleton on Wednesday. The weather forecast for that day is snow, snow, snow.

Hope you and your have a safe and Happy New Year,
Dale and Kittee at McKuster Ranch life

Summer at 5-months old

This past week was a week’s vacation from my school bus chores. Speaking for myself it was rather relaxing, with sleeping in late a few mornings, working and playing with horses during the mid-day. With the seasonal re-introduction of eggnog at the Safeway store, Kittee and I now start everyday with an eggnog lattè. Mmmmmmm, what a treat to start the day with.
Our baby "Summer" turned 5 months old last Monday.

Well, in northeast Oregon we got sucked into the 21st Century a bit deeper last week. In order to furnish the Californicators with more electricity, there has been a massive host of wind turbines popping up in our area. Last week they turned on the marking lamps to a number of new installations and these things are now visible to our horse herd all night long. These things are about 9-10 miles away, but it bites my butt to see RED night light pollution in our Oregon Territory to satisfy the California oink, oink electricity hogs. Calfornicators, turn off the lights and your computers when you leave the room. What a waste to our beautiful Oregon Country skyline.

I shall descend from my soapbox now.

Last week was beautiful weather-wise, with highs in the upper 50’s most day and lows in the upper 30’s, plenty of sunshine. Tuesday and Wednesday our horse trainer – Travis came by, which allowed me to get a bit of mid-week riding in with Misty. We are still into cattle rustling training (maybe that should be re-phrased… cattle penning training) with Travis. While he was here, he saddle broke Sunny a boarding horse, and saddled up Raji a to be 3-year old boarder we have here.
This past week I got my confidence up enough to put Misty into a canter and attempted to make a 180° turn. We did it once, and that was about as much excitement in the saddle that I need to handle at this point in time/training. I am very pleased to say that the riding feels good and diminishes most of my lower back pains, just about as much as acupuncture treatments. Thursday night and half the day Friday we had rains, our round pen got swamped so I was unable to ride in there for the rest of the week.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day we were invited to join some upriver neighbors to share late lunch/dinner with them. Kittee and I had a most enjoyable time with Connie, Jerry and one of our very best young riding friends, Kasey. It was such a pleasure to be with these folks this day and we went with the instructions of "bring nothing with you". I find it really nice to be obligated to take nothing when invited to a feast and a party with dear friends and family. In this way the day starts relaxed and remains relaxed through the end. Again we ended up staying out way past our bedtime, and I was glad that I had put out hay that afternoon so the horses could have dinner by the 8 o’clock dinner hour (that is very late for them as well). When we got home all I had to do was open the gate to feed dinner.

Friday, with everything on the ground being wet, we made our in town rounds, and that afternoon cooked our turkey dinner to be picked upon for the balance of the week. I prepared the turkey and stuffing, while Kittee worked on potatoes, gravy and a large apple crisp. While all was cooking, we played cards and listened to rock-n-roll on the stereo. After dinner the outdoor cats were so happy with their turkey treats for dinner.

Saturday, we had made plans to have Kasey and her Bow from Montana, to come to the ranch and we were going riding. Kasey may try her hand at riding Rusty, with his Arabian saddle or her English saddle, but this week was too wet. I also had made plans, for Friday a.m., with a friend to smoke some wild Alaskan salmon that he had come upon, but that got rained out until Saturday. The smoking of salmon and petting of horses kind of overran my schedule of horseback riding, so Kittee, Kasey, and Sloane went horseback riding in the fields behind our bluff, while Randy and I had another beer and waited for the salmon to finish smoking.
After all the above activities and lunch were said and done, Kittee and I took the time to celebrate Summer with a 5-months-old birthday party, with allot of hugs, kisses and green grass grazing.
Sunday, our main objective was horseback riding in the arena, either in Walla Walla’s indoor arena or in our riverside arena depending on the ground conditions. The ground conditions here at the ranch were great, and the weather conditions over our heads was wonderful. So we spent the best part of two plus hours running and jumping our rides. Just having fun.













This is when I put Misty in the 180° turns at a canter, and worked her in quite a few 360° turns at a trotting gait. After all our riding we made a quick lunch of a couple of beers and the smoked salmon pastè that I had made Saturday night for this day. After lunch we got really energetic and wormed all the equines. This we usually do early in November, after a few killing frosts, but this year our weather has been warm and wonderful since our mid-October quick chill. After we finished worming everyone, Kittee had a procession coming at her for more pets and maybe more worming paste/treat(?).
To polish off this afternoon... I had found some October plums in our cool storage pantry this past week, so Sunday late afternoon I threw out/handed out plums to everyone's delight.

Yesterday was again beautiful outdoors and for the first time since my August 1st horse wreck I pulled out the OLE weed-eater and machete and went to work on a blackberry bush that had overgrown a portion of our electric fence. Again last evening I put out two meals for the mare herd, one for last evening’s dinner, another for this morning’s breakfast.
The weather forecast for today was for a.m. fog, giving way to afternoon sun breaks. I am glad I put out breakfast yesterday evening as today we are cool, gray and mostly damp with fog. Can't even find the bluff in the backyard this morning.

Now this looks like December.

But wait, the weather forecast is correct...
as I finish this blog posting I look out the office window and see that we are now lining up to get sun breaks for the rest of the day.

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

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

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

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