Kittee turns 50-something

As I sit and write this blog update, I look outside and see the wind is blowing - hard. When I flip to TWC for weather conditions in Milton-Freewater it says that our current temp is 83° with a 29 mph wind and gust up to 36 mph. I see that our eastern and western horizons are brown out of view with blowing dust. I think I shall continue to sit by the computer, until the winds subsides. This morning at 6:30 I did take Shaiela to the vet in Walla Walla for a hormone shot to push her into a heat cycle with hope that she will be ready to breed this coming weekend. This evening when Kittee returns home I will go out and put Rusty and Kootenai together for them to again have a close encounter of the first kind. Their last encounter of 6/25-26 didn't work for us ~ them.

Looking over my shoulder at this past weekend, Kittee and I took it pretty easy, laid back. This was not our plans, as we hoped to be horseback riding most of the weekend, and had talked to downriver Robert about riding with us up into the timber on Lincton Mountain to beat the heat of this past weekend. We had thought about going trout fishing in a lake at the summit of the Blue Mountains on Sunday to beat the heat. All of that came to a SCREAMing halt, when Kittee (standing on a concrete floor) got her foot stepped on by Kootenai Saturday morning. We were at the vet's office in Walla Walla having Misty and Kootenai's pregnancy tested when that happened, and from there we came straight home. I put the mares out, Kittee came into the house, took an Aleve, a glass of wine, another glass of wine, and put her foot in the air for the rest of Saturday, Sunday, and another glass of wine. An unusual weekend of being totally kicked back, and laid out around the ranch, but with afternoon temperatures in the upper 90's I guess it was time to take a break.

Friday after Kittee's birthday, we just spent the day communing with horses, resting, and going to town to get Kittee's new OR driver's license. Gee did she have a tough time getting those things. I will have to have YOU talk with her about that situtation;>) I found it amusing being like a fly on the wall at the DMV.

Last Thursday, it was Kittee's birthday and she turned 50-something. I had invited some special friends to the ranch for a BBQ dinner and to celebrate Kittee's day. Most everyone started arriving around 5:00-5:30 and we had a most pleasant evening sitting around chatting, snacking, drinking, laughing, talking with horses, eating, sharing our warm evening and just getting another day older with each other.

The golden hue of this pic comes off the folks sitting here
and our natural western sunset lighting.

At our age it is kind of nice to think of days in golden terms, having fun. Older we all are, hopefully wiser, and happy.

Anyway that sizes up our past weekend.

It was last Tuesday and Wednesday that we had a contractor and crew come out and do a little work on our horse chewed barn. Each of the past few years, we have horses and goats trying to eat our barn during the winter when they have full access to it. This horsey chewing of wood is mostly due to horsey boredom. It will be interesting to see what they do now for winter boredom when the ground is covered with snow. We hope they won't be eating the face off of our 100+ years old barn any longer.
Since the 4th of July, hot and dry weather has come to our northeast Oregon Territory. Many of our days have now been in the upper 90's for the past week and a half, and I have run irrigation most days. Thank goodness for our push-button pump, my multi-valves system, and Big Gun delivery of irrigation.
Last Monday the 5th Kittee and I gave pony rides to the children and grandchildren of two of my co-workers. They came out about 11:00 a.m. and everyone gathered around and fell in love with Jasmine.

and then it was time for pony riding...






















































After the pony rides everyone gave Jasmine a hug and then went out to meet and pet the rest of the herd (except Rusty) and take a walk beside the river.

Sunday July 4th, Kittee and I rode horses around the ranch, before the heat of the day arrived. First there was Derby in English,

and then there was Sunny in western, this was Kittee second time for riding Sunny (a boarding mare)
and then there was my second ride on Goldie in western. Since coming back from the trainer, we have had such poor weather, or she was hormonal that I have not saddled up Goldie to put time in the saddle. She was again a very good girl and very sensitive to the bit and leg pressure. Maybe needless to say that I ride Goldie very carefully as we learn to connect with a saddle between us.And that is the way it is around McKuster Ranch. Wish you were here.

Happy Trails and Peace be with you,





Dale

PS. Kittee's foot is doing much better, even though she now has a hitch in her Gittyup, and a portion of her foot is still purple.

PPS. Did you have a chance to see the first blog posting I made today --- June 2010 recap

Celebrating Kittee's 47th... ?

Today was Kittee's birthday and she took the day off for for us to go for a ride. It made a most perfect birthday for Kittee and I. We started the day with our favorite ranch breakfast of fresh brewed McKuster Ranch strong black coffee, Apple Bread-French Toast and a large pattie of sausage. A great Oregon rancher's breakfast, much like dessert.

Right after breakfast we made a quick getaway from the table, dropped out dishes in the kitchen sink, went out the back door, loaded up the horse trailer, with tack, snacks, Derby and Nugget. The weather this day was cool; morning lows in the 50's, afternoon high in low-80's as compared to this past weekend's -4th of July- 100° days. After loading our stuff and horses we made a big U-turn in the driveway and headed upriver for the South Fork trail. After saddling up at riverside, we headed up the trail, with the river sparkling and the air rather crisp and clean, for our morning ride. Gee, this felt good. We made our way upriver through about six river fords when we decided this felt so good that we would have to do this again on Friday, (a story to be continued).

The ride went very smoothly, with no rattlesnakes or wasp encounters. When we made our upriver turn around Derby knew the way back to the trailer so he led the way stepping out quite briskly. Derby has a 1/16 Thoroughbred in his Poco Bueno pedigree, which gives him a smooth, fast ride on the trails. During this day's ride we encountered two couples hiking, and three guys mountain biking on the trail, the rest of the mileage/great outdoors we had to ourselves.


After we returned to the trailer, we gave the boys some river watering, a bag of hay, and we sit back and had a couple of beers to wash down the trail dust. While kicking back our ole riding buddy George Ehmer came riding by on an Appy, as he was finishing his mid-day ride up the river. Under both of George's shoulders were .45 revolvers and a Camelback water bag on his back... he was ready for anything... that's George.

Sitting by the river in the shade of the cottonwood trees, with our palomino amigos felt so good, that we were really getting psyched on doing this again for another round of outdoor relaxation on Friday.
By the time we got back to the ranch it was about 3 o'clock, so instead of having lunch I made a quick snack of smoked Oregon Spring Chinook with cheese crackers and a beer. That held us over well until dinner time at Kelly's.

While eating dinner at Kelly's we had the next door Posse Grounds' family night horse activities to watch. A very relaxing outing and view with our Blue Mountains as a backdrop.

After dinner we came home for a 6:00 pm appointment and watched horses... Goldie, Summer, Derby and Nugget until sunset and then got ready to call it a day. But then we remembered that Travis (our horses' trainer) had made Kittee a birthday cake. So after a long day of fun and run, we sit down for a piece (or few) of chocolate cake and milk.

Mmmmmm good!! I had told Travis about how old Kittee was to be this day, but he forgot and instead of making a wrong guess, he chose her to be 47 today.

And that's the way it was, a wonderful Birthday in the saddle ---- Dale

Kittee is L-? years old today

Stardate 070808
OK, in case you didn't get it... in those bygone days of Roman rule L-? = fifty something. We need not to be any more specific than that, as time marches on.

Today was the perfect day for a Kittee's birthday. Skies were as blue as Kittee's eyes, the sun was bright and warm as the glow showing on her face- picture above, and all the ranch horses and I were happy to be with her all day.

We started our day with a good strong cup of java, and then Kittee proceed to sit in the yard watching horses graze and having her bowl of huckleberry granola for breakfast. Afterward we walked through the herds, putting on fly mask, and pony grazing muzzle-mask. Had allot of fun chasing Ginger around for about 10 minutes to catch her and put her muzzle-mask on. That was fun as together Kittee and I took very few approaching /chasing steps but kept Ginger moving along -running around the horses- until she gave up; huffin/puffin and just stood still for the mask. Funny, silly little ponies.

After everyone was situated for the day with fresh water, plenty of green grass, we begin working in the garden until the temperature got July hot. Kittee loves this time of year- the heat thereof- she generally says "it very pleasant and about 85° outside" when actually the thermometer shows it is more like 95°+ and it's pretty freakin HOT.

After working in the garden, I turned on the irrigation for horsey comfort, we had a bite of lunch and got ready to spend the rest of the afternoon in Walla Walla. There we made our first stop at the "Ice-Burg" ice cream parlor/snack shop for a root beer float. Mmmmm, that was good, our first of the season. We have been talking about making root beer floats at home for the past couple of weeks. The "Ice-Burg" is an interesting soda stop. While we were there, they had Elvis Presley singing on the outdoor stereo and the old car-hop area has now been converted into a very small parking area for those that wish to order their treats at the front window and enjoy the ambiance of just sitting at this little drive-in. Picture this, they now have drive-thru windows on both sides of the building for the folks that do not wish to leave the A/C of their SUV's and walk up to the service windows. Kittee and I felt that the "Ice-Burg" is probably a 50-60 year old landmark of almost city center Walla Walla.

Next stop was to head for Staples, and Kittee got a new laptop Compaq computer; very nice machine... Windows Vista, large hard drive, CD/DVD read-writer, etc.

From Staples, we made a beeline to a favorite area restaurant for dinner. We went to Kelly's with our friend Miriam last Friday evening and our dinner was so good that Kittee wanted to have seafood fettucini again tonight. I had to agree with Kittee that this evening's dinner dish was better that the wonderful one we shared on Friday... had more seafood and salmon tonight. While waiting for our dinner to arrive, we had a cocktail and asked the waitress to hold off on dinner until Kittee had time to play/setup her new puter.

After dinner the air was a bit hot sitting in the sun, so we pulled the hammock and lawn chair into the shade of the front yard maple trees and sit back and relaxed see above picture.
As soon as the sun began sinking in the west, Kittee, Sylvester and I went out to check on the garden's growth for the day, thereafter we went out to check on the herds and our baby- Rosey.

Rosey is now taller than the ponies, not quite as heavy by a few hundred pounds. She spends more and more of her time grazing these day and trying to act like a "big" horse. The other day I watched her running, running running around the pasture and through the mare herd for maybe 10 minutes steady on. Just having fun being a little horse.

After the sun had set slowly in the west, we started rounding up our "stuff", turned off the irrigation works, headed for the house and called it Kittee's Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Kittee
~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you can see in these blog pictures, Kittee is now carrying her arm in a sling on an almost everyday basis. She still has a banged up/sore shoulder from the flying lesson given her by Shaiela and Rosey. Part of today's activities was trying to get in to see a doctor to take a look at the shoulder... no one available until September or October.
Needless to say we have not been horseback riding in awhile. Good news is, that my broken ribs of last July's bucking ride are almost healed (?), and hurt very little anymore... as time marches on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking back over the three day Fourth of July weekend, we had a pretty busy time and received two more boarders on Monday 7/7.

Last Friday our friend Miriam from the Portland area came in for a getaway to the country. She arrived here as Kittee and I were finishing the afternoon of horse baths. Over the weekend Kittee and I broke in our new horse/pony wash station. Kittee washed Ginger and Nugget and I washed Misty and Goldie. All went well, even though we had to work together on getting Goldie to stand steady in the wash station. After she got used to standing in the station she did fine for her first real bath.

After Miriam got here, I mixed up some Fuzzy Navels and we proceeded to sit back and relax before heading out for dinner. Being the Forth of July, we felt that our favorite Mexican restaurant would be the order of the day, hip hip hooray. Miriam always enjoys the La Ramada when she makes it out to M-F. As we pulled up to the restaurant we noticed that it was closed. We could not figure out how they could justify closing a real Mexican restaurant on the "Americans" Fourth of July... don't think we have ever seen it closed before except for Xmas. Anyways, we proceeded to pull through the parking lot and headed on up the highway for Kelly's restaurant. The weather was very mild (all weekend) and we had a most enjoyable dinner on the outside patio at Kelly's. The drinks were good, the seafood fettucini was good, and the company (folks we knew and did not know) were very enjoyable. Hey, Hey, Hey, get this... Miriam (now a two-time-grandmother) got carded when she ordered a Fuzzy Navel for her before dinner beverage. Hey, Hey, Hey ladies... wanta get a rush, go to Kelly's for dinner. By the time we got back home it was time for another round of Fuzzy Navels and then we called it a day.

Saturday started early for Kittee and I, and we let Miriam sleep in, until mid-morning. I was up by the sun about 5:00 a.m. and went out to commune with the horses, particularly Rusty. After our strong cup of java at about 6:00, with a wild blueberry granola breakfast, we were out taking care of horses, ponies, water troughs, and puttered around in the garden for awhile. At about 8:30 Miriam was up, so we then strolled back through the mare herd talking with everyone. Miriam had a good chance to pet our baby- Rosey. After the morning rounds were done, we got ready and headed out to the CTUIR Pow Wow at the Wildhorse Casino near Pendleton.

To stay out of the mid-day sun, I spent a couple of hours at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute reading books, while Kittee and Miriam spent their time watching Pow Wow dancing and drumming, looking for real Native American jewelry. By the time all of this was done, it was time to head back home and get ready to go to dinner, since all we had to eat this day was breakfast. This evening we took care of business at home and headed for La Ramada, Mexican restaurant once again. This night they were open, and we had our usual feast of good food.
Returning home we just blobbed out in the lawn furniture until after sunset. Thereafter called it a day... done.

Sunday, was quite a busy day. Sunday morning breakfast was previous dinner leftovers-- for Kittee and I it was seafood alfredo, and for Miriam's it was her vegetarian creamy pasta dish. Mmmmmm good stuff, again.
I started preparing for another McKuster Ranch BBQ for the evening. I had prepared most of the food works over the past couple of days so Sunday was easy "fixins" of just working on the chicken and pork ribs in preparation for the smoker.

After breakfast everyone went out to pasture to bid ado to the herds, and Miriam had a formal introduction to our handsome Arabian stallion -- Rusty. Miriam and Kittee also walked back along the river and took a perch at Contemplation Station. Before she had to bid farewell Miriam spent some time petting Rosey, and begin to think that she needed to find a place in northeast Oregon to retire to. Life is different here, and we love it.

Dave also from PDX country showed up about mid-morning to pet and groom his two Arabian girls. He was on too tight a schedule to be able to stay on for the evening's boarders' BBQ. Dave told us he couldn't take it anymore and was moving to Hermiston in October.

The rest of our day was taking care of small chores around the ranch and preparation for dinner. Around 6:00 p.m. Kasey and Travis showed up, shortly thereafter Jennifer, Henry, Leila and Gary got here for horse petting and another round of BBQ ribs with the side dish trimmings. This little party broke up next to dark with a breeze coming off of the Blues, and the air was cooling off quickly. Since most of the food prep had been done the days before, there wasn't much cleaning up to do and Kittee and I headed to bed shortly thereafter. It was a good day.

Monday, everything begin to settle back into place with the exception that we were to receive two new Arabian fillies on the ranch.

Kittee headed off to work, and about 8:30 I received a phone call from the equine transporter that he was about an hour from the ranch with sisters Sunny and Raji. After offloading these girls, the transport driver and I walked them around the pasture to introduce them to the fence line, water trough, salt block and grass. Raji the yearling probably ran a mile circling around me as I walked her around the pasture perimeter on lead.
They appeared to be quite happy to be standing on firm ground again after their ride from Scottsdale, AZ. Upon their hitting the ground I realized the had not lived on pasture grass before, so I made a quick trip to town and was able to find some prime eastern Oregon grass hay to cut into their diet. They are doing very well now.

Thus another weekend and Birthday in the lives of Kittee and Dale