New Year's Day '08

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The days are getting longer now and it feels great, even though today it has felt quite cold outside - mostly sunny, high temperature in lower 30's, some wind chilling breeze.
Kittee has been home for the holiday since last Thursday afternoon; a nice long weekend together. During this time we have been winter horseback riding Friday through Monday. A nice reprieve from the winter weather of snow, winds and rain of the past few weeks.


Friday, Kittee worked with/ rode Nugget and Derby in our riverside arena, as I worked on broken windswept electric fence tape.
Saturday, Kittee and I took Derby and Nugget on a short trail ride up to the foothill's snow level, just riding up the harvest/ back country road that is across from the ranch. It was a gorgeous late morning ride with plenty of warm sunshine. We rode until we hit snow and the road turned to ice. A little slick of barefoot horses. This was the first time we had ridden Derby off the ranch since July's bucking ride. I still have sore/broken ribs from that ride I feel almost every night while lying in bed.
Sunday morning the wind was howling here, and as our usual Sunday morning activities go this Sunday we took Shana (one of our horse boarders), Nugget, Derby, and Sinwaan (Shana's horse) to the Walla Walla Fairgrounds indoor arena. At the arena Kittee and I both rode Nugget and Derby (my first ride on Derby since July).
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We were planning to ride with Shana again today- New Year's Day, but the weather forecast was for mostly cloudy with winds from 20 to 30 mph... so Monday we headed out to our backyard riding range, on the north/bluff side of the Walla Walla again with Shana and our rides - Sinwaan, Nugget, and Misty. Shana had never been on Bowlus Hill so she was rather pleased to find what was on top. Yesterday's ride gave us a wonderful clear blue view of the Walla Walla River drainage and the Blue Mountains covered in snow. The view from Bowlus Hill is the river basin/confluence of the Walla Walla, Snake, the Mighty Columbia rivers, and the upper most part of the Blue Mountains of Oregon/Washington. This ride also give us quite a view on a clear day of the cities of Milton-Freewater, College Place and Walla Walla, not to mention the Cascade Mountain Range and The Washington Palouse --150 miles out across to the edge of the horizons. It was a good afternoon's ride that everyone enjoyed.

Today it was a bit too cold to horseback ride, so we didn't. This morning we started the day with the usual - holiday eggnog latte- while still under the electric blanket. Last night the outdoor temperature went into the mid-20's, and our fire burned down to just a bed of coals, which meant the house was quite chilly as the sun broke through our bedroom window this morning. I threw a nice size backlog in the fireplace at about 6 a.m. and we drank our hot latte's while we were waiting for the living room to warm up. Burrrrr.
This New Year's morning we were prompted to put on a little background music (Kittee's favorite R&R hit) and just warm up by the fire. We have a little video at the end of this blog if you would like to share the morning fire with us. We hope you can feel the warmth of our fireplace while watching this video.

You might notice in the above picture that Kittee has her foot in the air.
OUCH -*#$%@* !!
Yep, we heard that.

Kittee got stepped on yesterday as she was off-loading/handling Misty to head up Bowlus Hill. Fortunately they were both standing in a soft cultivated wheat field so her foot was able to sink into the ground as Misty was standing on it.


Nice hoof print here... don't you think?

We were not prompted to move too fast this day, as we were thinking about horseback riding to bring in the New Year, now we would NOT. We also had a new boarder coming to the ranch today, so we felt a need to stay close to home. Our new boarder was scheduled by our information(?), to come to the ranch "around mid-day". Well as I was taking our breakfast eggs out of the pan, Natchez -- "Nattie" shows up knocking at the door. Here is newly arrived Nattie putting our butts into gear earlier than expected.

It has been really interesting watching Nattie blend into the herd. Nattie is a nearly 3 year old filly that has been called a "Paint that A'int". Really a sweet girl and after the herd ran her around a bit to find out who she was, Nattie has appeared to be bonding with Baby, a 16 year old Arabian mare and her 6 year old daughter that have been boarding here for a couple of years. Very interesting to watch this three horse bonding, particularly as Baby and Nattie look so very much alike. These horses owners are really going to have to do a double take when they see this.

OH well, such is the way we bring in the New Year at McKuster Ranch. Our weather has been great and as the days get longer/ warmer, we are looking forward to more "Hiddy Hoe - Let's Gittyup and Go" riding time. Last year we were able to ride almost every weekend from January's MLK weekend until November's freeze. It was a very good year to live in NE Oregon.

Gee, do we love this place or what?

Now back to the eggnog/BV -Holiday Elixir- for the balance of this holiday weekend.

Happy New Year!


a horsey holiday weekend at McKuster Ranch, Yee Haaw, gittyup--- Dale

Christmas Day '07

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Our Christmas cactus is in full bloom today!!

It was shortly after sunrise that Kittee and I finished our last eggnog latte and climbed out from under the heated blanket. The sun was shining bright, and we were ready to get started; feeding horses, cats, ourselves and maybe do a little horseback riding in our riverside arena today. Our first sight of the day was the house cats sitting in the living room window soaking sun. It was a beautiful morning outside with temperature in the 40's. Looking out the back window of the house to scope out the horses, there was Jasmine, Ginger, and Sinwaan eating one of the barn doors. Hummmm, our day's work was being cut out for us from the get-go. I started on breakfast and Kittee headed out to feed the horses. When she came back in she announced that the ground was frozen, which meant that it was too hard to ride on now and when it thawed it would be too slick to ride on later. So much for horseback riding on Christmas Day.

We now just enjoy our coffee, breakfast, and plan to tackle a couple of chores around the ranch. After breakfast we cleaned up around the house a bit, and then dressed to work outside for the morning.

First thing was to cover the barn door that the horses were eating earlier with chicken wire, to create a tooth barrier. It was a few years ago that the pony sisters began to eat the barn, so we covered it with wire at that time. This fall after we let the goats into the paddock, they begin to eat the barn and found grain in the walls. Shortly thereafter we had horses trying to eat the barn alive, so I sprayed it with Habanero pepper sauce/oil. That slowed everyone down for about a week. We have now covered the barn with exterior plywood sheeting and chicken wire.

Next course of action for the day was to repair the electric fence tape that the wind had broken apart yesterday.
After mending the fence, we checked on one of the goat's feet that had been limping for the past day, we found nothing wrong there. After these morning outdoor chores, we headed for the house as the wind was blowing cold. Temperatures were suppose to be dropping today with snow coming in by nightfall.

With this weather forecast calling for skies to become cloudy, and snowfall by early evening, we decided to live by the home fire for the day. Getting back into the house Kittee proceed to fill the fireplace with newspaper and firewood, and with a handy little flame thrower she got the home fire cranked up for the day.

It wasn't too long she had the fire started, I was putting the finishing touches on the Xmas Eve blog I started yesterday after coming in from PDT, and Kittee began to look up the recipe for her lentil soup works.



















After I finished the Xmas Eve blog, we suited ourselves up for another trip out to visit horses, and feed them another course of alfalfa. We wanted everyone to be happy today.

Here are a few of the horses pics, up close and with hugs...




Derby up close













Sinwaan in your face

Nugget up close


















and Goldie.


Goldie is quite the dirty mud-bath mess in this pic, and she has enough pride that she asked that I use another pic of her for showoff.


This past week our Goldie had a day of sunshine, so I brushed her out and had her pose for a few pics.




Just to let you know that our guys and gals do not stay mud puppies for the duration of winter. Here is Goldie on the right cleaned up, and looking her usual self, without the mud.

About Goldie... I fell in love with her at first sight, actually we fell for each other upon first sight. Now, she is my 1000 lb. like golden retriever puppy and we are waiting for Rusty to show up and ask them both for AHA palomino Arabians gets to fill the ranch.



It is sometimes hard to believe how much from Kittee and myself, that our herd will put up with. They really are fun pet to have around the ranch, and then we can get on their backs and ride away!!!





Here Kittee is warming up Nugget, Ginger, and Shaiela's muzzle as the day is clouding up and snow is on the way.












After this turn out with the horses, we opened the back pasture and let everyone take a run. Kittee and I headed back for the house and she began to put together her excellent Lebanese lentil soup for the evening meal. This batch smells great.




























After preparing the pot of soup and getting it cooking, we gave the indoor cats a special Xmas treat of cans of tuna, went back out and fed the horses their Xmas sweet grain treat.















It was not until we sit down for our dinner bowl of soup that we realized that we had not stopped during the day to have lunch. This probably was part of the reason the bowl of soup disappeared so fast. After dinner, I started working on this blog, Kittee took her shower and was ready of bed by 6:00, but while she was in the shower I placed a very large log on the fire that tripped the damper closed and created a two alarm smoke screen through the house.

During this time my Mom called, Kittee answered the phone and told her we would call her back... she probably wondered what he hell was going on with these alarms sounding off. Let me tell you this is one hellava way to check smoke detectors on Christmas night. I called Mom back once the air cleared of smoke and ash we chatted for awhile.

While the house is standing wide open to rid it of smoke we notice it was now snowing outside as was the forecast for Christmas Night '07. With the fire still roaring in its place, this does lend to create the atmosphere of a warm winter's night, of nearly outdoor camping.

Well most of the smoke is about cleared from the house now, it is time to put another back log on the fire for the night. So here I will wish each and everyone a safe and Happy New Year.

A Christmas day in the life at McKuster Ranch -- Dale

Xmas Eve '07

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Kittee and I had a most pleasant time with the family in Pendleton this afternoon and evening.

Last week LaBelva called and invited us to join the Reed family Xmas Eve get together. Well knowing how these folks spread warm feelings and good food for our family get togethers the only reply was YES, we will be there.

Actually our west coast family tries to get together at least 2-3 times a year to have the opportunity to commune with each other and enjoy good food and good times.





Kittee and I got to the Reeds around 4 pm, and Aunt Pat, Elsie, Brilynn and Nicole were already there, partaking of good times. A bit later Lynn and Lois got off work and they joined us to make the family gethering complete.

LeBelva and Worth as usual had a complete food spread for the before dinner munchies, a full course meal, and after dinner deserts.What a spread of... turkey, ham, shrimp, dressing, shrimp cole slaw, potatoes, gravy, veggies, dinner rolls the size of two fist. It was much more that all of us could begin to consider cleaning up the dinner spread. Glad it was left with Worth and LeBelva, to have to finish off all that food.
Most everyone had to take a break, stretch back to rest and digest between the main meal and desserts.




















I wish now that I had taken pictures of the dessert spread, but probably what you would have seen here is a shot of all the pie (6 or 8), with many poses of the huckleberry cheese cake that disappeared from the table first. Mmmmmmm good.

Here are a few shots around the house of our good family time...





























Thank you LaBelva, Worth, for the wonderful family get together this Christmas Eve.


After the feast, the vino, the desserts, and the wonderful family time the party began to breakup and Kittee and I had to head back to the ranch with horses to feed. Coming home Kittee told me there was eggnog to go with the bottle of Crown Royal sitting on the kitchen counter. I did NOT know that... oh well, maybe next year.

Here is wishing you were here, and hoping you have a safe and very Happy Holiday Season.

A family holiday in the lives of Kittee and Dale

A winter's day

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Plan A for this day's activities began two weekends ago, when Kittee and I made the purchase of our ranch stallion "Rusty". We were thinking that we would make another day trip to Bend, OR today and spend the time we had to visit and groom Rusty. Now with the advent of winter weather we fall back on Plan B.

Plan B, this time of year when it is too wet to ride, and we have no need to burn-up the environment with gas or diesel, we entertain ourselves with horses, reading, rental movies and a little eggnog/BV. Here is a recap of some of the things we did to entertain ourselves at the ranch today.

Before breakfast this morning Kittee and I had our seasonal eggnog latte's while still under the heated electric blanket. Mmmmm good, better than candy and it's caffeinated. Then just after daybreak we slid out of bed and went out to feed the herd. Burrr, that's a refreshing way to start the day.It has now been snowing for the past three days, and we blanketed most of the herd a couple of days ago. Today we went through the herd during their breakfast making corrections to their blanket fits. Everyone seems to be snug and comfortable in their winter weather wear.



After feeding the herd, we had our hardy ranch breakfast and then headed back out for a morning of horseplay.


It has been a month or so since we opened the riverside pasture, so everyone was happy to go to "new" pasture... even covered with a few inches of snow. Here is a series of photos of the gang coming out of the gate...
























Everyone had a few warm up runs around the pasture then settled into grazing through the snow. We have attached a short 11 second video of the herd winter's jaunt in the snow if you would like to watch them run through today's snowy playground.


While the horses and goats were grazing, Kittee and I continued our walk around the lower 18 acres to survey the river, and deer browse. I had put out a bale of alfalfa about a month ago, along with a partial salt block, and today was quite surprised to find very little of it was gone.



While back at the river I had to do a little wading to get the feel of the water... it's cold.

Kittee and I then visited our riverside Contemplation Station.

It was a bit cool and too wet to sit on our rock seats but we took a few minutes by the river and found the river's winter scape to be quite beautiful, as it has been in every other season.

After all was said and done we left the girls and boys grazing in the riverside pasture, and with chilling toes, we headed for the house for a bite of lunch.

To beat this winter storm system hohumm's, tomorrow we have riding times at Walla Walla Fairgrounds' indoor arena... Gittyup!!!

a day in the life at McKuster Ranch --- Dale