Spring Break '10 is over & Duke is sweeping the NCAA

Go Duke!!! ~~~ Go Carolina!!!

Having been raised in North Carolina, being an Ole ACC fan,
it is hard for me to turn my back on these two teams,
and my ole pal Dr. Bob who played for Duke
in his undergrad days while being tall.

Go Duke!!! ~~~ Go Carolina!!!

I just finished my nice long stretch of Spring Break 2010. It actually began on Thursday the 18th as school was out of session that day and also Friday the 19th. What a break.

Thursday, I made a road trip with the MacHi Track team to Pendleton for a major division meet. It was a beautiful day for running track events. After dropping the students off at PDT High School I dropped the trip bus off at the Caterpillar shop to be worked on. Kittee came out to the CAT shop, picked me up and we headed for downtown PDT for a very good lunchbreak. I spend a bit of time running around town buying our 2010 Pendleton Round Up tickets, some Stretch Magic for tying flies, and some spicy Bloody Mary mixer to make red beers when I got home, and for Spring Break. Round Up tickets- there were NONE available for Friday and Saturday's rodeo, and only a few for Wednesday and Thursday. I bought tickets for Thursday's show and there are no seats yet assigned. What I got was a voucher for money paid, as the Round Up Grandstands are being rebuilt and added on to for this year's BIG event.

“Let’er Buck”!!

This should be quite the show year for the 100th Anniversary. This year will make my 57th year of showing up at the Pendleton Round Up.

“Let’er Buck”!!!

Friday, Kittee had Milton-Freewater city court in the a.m. and that afternoon we did some horseback riding with Downriver Robert in our riverside arena. That same afternoon, our dear friend Kasey, home from college, dropped by and had her first Rusty ride. She is now only the second person to ride Rusty, so that was exciting to watch, not scary. After Kasey settled into the saddle, she kept saying "Dale you can ride Rusty... he is easy." I told Kasey that she can ride him all she wants to, and I hope by the cool of autumn I will be riding him. Our handsome Arabian stallion - sire of Summer.

A frame from our YouTube video of Kasey's - Rusty ride
and YouTube video of Kasey's - Rusty ride II

A beautiful end-of-winter afternoon.

Saturday and Sunday Kittee started coming down with a cold, the weather was beginning to turn back into winter, so we spent most of our time indoors those days. Saturday evening I missed all of the Carolina B-ball game but saw that we won and are still in the NIT Tournament. Hip-hip-Hooray.

Sunday we had a few sun breaks and I was able to get a full blooming photo of our driveway daffodils.

as once again Sunday the mountains to the east went snow capped.

The first part of the week –Spring Break– the weather was early spring-like crappy, cool, some sunshine with showers.

Monday and Tuesday I bussed the MacHi Girls’ Softball team to Boardman, OR for a two-day tournament. The eastern view of the snow capped mountains as we left Milton-Freewater was a beautiful eastern Oregon Blue Mtns. site. Traveling west on I-84 the Washington Cascade snow capped mountains were visible most of the way to Boardman in the morning sun. There the weather was favorable, mostly clear and dry with plenty of pollen in the air, when we got to Boardman. Monday with an afternoon shower, the hay fever attack was not too bad, but Tuesday being a very nice sunshiny day, the hay fever clobbered me. I had to spend half my day watching the ball games from inside the bus. The MacHi girls made a winning sweep of the tournament, with a slight close call -Pilot Rock comeback- half way through the last game. Go Girls!!

Wednesday I was pretty whipped by the Monday – Tuesday hay fever attacks, so I spent most of the day Wednesday and part of Thursday indoors working on our Walla² Fly Fishers Facebook site.












The Facebook site is progressing well and on Friday and Saturday we had some splendid fly hatches around the ranch, so that gave me some great specimens to expand the fishing club’s site with fly hatch info.

Thursday we had a pretty horses sunset to enjoy.

Friday we also had a good day on horseback in our arena. Kittee still has a sore foot from when she sprained it a couple of weeks ago so she has been riding easy in the stirrups, and Misty and I are working more and more on leg and rein control, without using the bit very much. We were getting good at that last year before I had a wreck on Nugget and busted some ribs. Friday evening I polished off the day watching Duke win over Purdue...

This one was not a nail biter...

Saturday, we just hung out around the ranch doing one small chore after another. I have been working on our pastures, Kittee worked a couple of horses in the round pen and washed Sunny’s mane.

Sunny is an Arabian boarder from AZ and her mom Jaz has given Kittee permission to ride her through the summer. Sunny and her sister Raji have been here for almost two years, and will be returning to AZ after the summer heat wave for Jaz and family to ride.

Saturday we celebrated Summer’s eight-month birthday.

Sunday after a breakfast of sausage gravy biscuits, eggs and coffee we headed out to groom our rides for the day. Downriver Robert came up and worked on Nugget and thereafter we had a most enjoyable riding session. Again I worked with Misty not using stirrups or reins in the arena. After that bit of schooling we went out to pasture, where I found Misty a bit unwilling to follow my cues so she really got a good workout. I too enjoy these arena & field workouts as it is a time of connection with my horse, and a chance to work up a sweat for both of us. Lately I have had to downsize my blue jeans, and that is feeling better.
I did get to watch the Duke against Baylor game from the get go Sunday, that was a good game.

Once again the mountains to the east got snow capped Sunday night. Made it cool getting back on the bus, going back to work at 6:30 a.m. Monday.

So all and all, over the Spring Break I had a chance to get most of the pastures I wanted to re-sown, I got the garden sprayed with Roundup and a few rows burnt off with the Red Devil torch, and found that as the lawn grass is getting taller, that I have a dead 8-year old battery in the lawn tractor. Gonna have to go to town soon for a battery and propane.

Now with the garden ⅓ prepped, as soon as it stops raining, I can spread horse manure across the burned off rows and in a couple of weeks I will be tilling and planting... fresh veggies for '10.

And that the way it has been around the ranch
during Spring Break ’10 --- Dale

Spring Break '09

It was a beautiful first day of spring last Friday March 20. During the mid-day break I was able to bring out the lawn tractor and mow down the remaining dried weeds left in the garden, and spread fertilizer across one of our pasture areas… forecast for Saturday was for rain to move in. With the last student to leave the Double Deuce, I was on Spring Break ’09. I made a beeline straight for the ranch with visions of all I could accomplish this afternoon, it is now DST and that makes a world of difference when living life outdoors. The skies were clear and the temperature was a most pleasant 70°, a perfect afternoon - first day of spring.

I still find is hard to believe the number of "holidays" there are working for the state... in the school system. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining because this job does give me time to get things done around the ranch that a 9 to 5 would not allow without consuming most weekends.

First things first for this Spring Break, the ground was drying out so I made a couple of passes through Rusty’s keep to mucked out his living quarters, brushed him off as we both enjoyed the fresh air and warm sunshine.


After working with Rusty I fired up the rotor tiller, first time since way back when and went to work breaking ground for our ’09 garden season. Gee, it felt good to be back into the garden works once again.

Kittee got a couple of picture of my tilling the garden for the record, as well as a couple of cat photos.

After making two or three passes over each garden row with the tiller it was time to join Kittee to brush and pet horses until beer-thirty. We brought out a couple of beers and just enjoyed the warm spring afternoon and petted the herd, watching the sunset until dinner prep time. Kittee made her clam spaghetti dish for us, while I went out to evening feed and water the equines. By the time we finished dinner it was time to call this a day. Saturday’s forecast was calling for rain to move in and what we hoped to do would have to happen fast.

First thing Saturday morning I hit the floor running to feed the horses so they would be out of my way ASAP for me to start fertilizing before the rain moved in. After putting out hay, I came back in and started breakfast for Kittee and I, the first time in quite awhile we had our apple bread French Toast with sausage and coffee, WOW, what a way to start the day… with dessert for a meal. Right after breakfast I jumped up from the table and headed for the barn and a ton of fertilizer. I was able to spread fertilizer over three pasture areas, which is what I hope to get done this a.m., before the clouds became very threatening. Just as I finished spreading the last load of fertilizer and was heading back to the barn I began to get hit with raindrops; my morning’s mission accomplished. Much to my good fortune it did not rain very hard, so after lunch I was able to work in the garden, opening a fresh tilled row for garlic transplanting, Kittee was working with Rosey and even groomed Nugget and saddled him up for a ride in the round pen. After I finished with the garlic transplant row it started raining, and raining, hailing and raining all the way through Sunday. Dissolved the fertilizer I had spread on Friday and Saturday into the ground very well.

Monday, the alarm clock went off at 4:20 a.m. in preparation for a school bus trip to take the M-F high school girls fast pitch softball teams to Boardman for the day. After a bit of breakfast, shower, and shave I headed for town to get the school trip bus ready to roll for a 6:00 departure time. We were ready-to-ride at 6:00, but were a bit delayed waiting for donut delivery that took until about 6:15. I have learned that on ALL school trips, there is a reason to be at least 15 minutes late on our departure time. Anyway, it was a good day for a trip as the clouds broke away and the sun was once again warm for the day, the girls won two of their three games. I returned about 8:00 p.m. that evening.

I had some pretty big work-around-the-ranch plans for all day Tuesday, but as I was leaving town on Monday a.m. I received a call over the bus radio from our Transportation Director asking me if I could/ would like to make an all day school trip run on Tuesday. This trip would be taking the boy’s baseball team to Heppner for the day. Sound like a good time and make some money to me, so my reply was… YEP, I can do that.

On Tuesday my time of departure was to be 6:30 a.m. so Monday evening I was able to reset the alarm clock for a 5:00 wakeup call since I was driving the trip bus home after Monday’s trip. Again this was a good trip, but the weather in Heppner was cloudy and very windy all day long – Burrrr, it was chilly out there. The high school boy’s baseball team played a double header that day, and won both games. During the a.m. game I stayed in the bus and read a book. As I sit and watching the afternoon game I reminisce of the days I used to watch the young rookies "Steady" Eddie Murray and "The Iron Man" Cal Ripken, Jr. play in front of me when I lived NC.
I shall digress here for just a minute.
Thinking about the Charlotte O's and those guys who are now in the MLB Hall of Fame... too old to play MLB. That was in my regular ballpark visiting days when a few 25¢ beers, a couple of 10¢ hot-dog made dinner at the park as I and friends were sitting right behind the O's dugout – enjoying the game and shouting at “Steady” Eddie playing first base. Those were some “Wild and Crazy” days we had then. This is for real… one evening I had Ted Giannoulas The “San Diego Chicken” not in costume but still a real entertainer/nice guy to be around; came to my house for an after game/birthday party. My home then was only a block from Charlotte’s Crockett Ball Park. These are some fond memories of days gone by.

Back to Tuesday; I was also thinking of the work I wanted to get done while on Spring Break… maybe tomorrow. It was a bit after 7:00 p.m. when I got home from the ball games, in time to feed the herd with daylight.

Wednesday, I had a slow start with NO alarm clocks/ radios going off to remind me to get up. Kittee even crept around quietly as not to wake me. It felt good to sleep in that day. I was up about 7:30 to feed the herd just before it started raining, snowing, hailing, sleeting with a few sun breaks through out the day. Made a good day to stay indoors, take a Spring Break, and make a corned beef casserole for dinner for Kittee and I. Kittee has been working late most every evening the past week or so as her law practice is very busy, and beginning Monday she is hiring a new office hand.

Thursday, started about the same way as Wednesday except with sunshine and all the rain, snow, sleet and hail from the day before was frozen over with a nice covering of frost. Even though the sun was shining it looked like another poor day for working outdoor around the ranch in half frozen mud, so I took care of some office/computer business, went to town to do some work around the apartments, did a little shopping for the weekend.

By mid-afternoon when I returned from town the daffodils had begun to bloom.

With sunshine and a nice breeze on Thursday most of the day, Friday the ground was dry enough to get out and get some things done around the farm. After feeding the herd, I started working on cleaning up the tackroom area in the barn, I spend most of the rest of the day in sunshine, again mucking out Rusty’s keep, brushing out Rusty and then most of the herd until Travis our trainer showed up to help me get started “re-training” Rusty. Over winter I have had Rusty in the round pen a few times, but now with the advent of spring I plan to really get down to business with him and have him under saddle in a couple of months and hopefully be riding him by summer. We worked with Travis for about 45 minutes to an hour on Friday afternoon and got back into the groove we had left last fall with our workouts. After finishing our workout Friday, Rusty was following me around like a puppy… a “good feeling” accomplishment. I hope the weather will co-operate with us this spring that Rusty and I can make these workout a couple or few times a week.

Saturday the weather started out overcast and 50°. By the time I was able to feed and water the herd it had started drizzling only to turn into an off and on rainy day. The snow level on the mountains to our east went up and down the mountains all day long. Made another less than great day for just working on our ranch website, dinging around the Internet, dropping hay from the loft, and feeding horses during a few lulls in the rainfall. One good feeling I got out of this day was that in sizing up the balance of our 27 tons of winter hay store, it looks like we will make it to the second cutting of hay this summer without having to buy more, that’s a good feeling.

Getting up this morning I see that we have snow at the 1600’ level with splattering around the house. I think that everyone around here including the cat pride, horse and goat herds are ready for warm sunshine and a real Spring Break; ready for 80°.
I am now getting ready to head for town to get some T-post to build a containment for Rusty to graze outside his keep.

and that's the way it is as I polish off my Spring Break '09.