Happy Birthday Dear Kittee, Happy Birthday to you.

Woke up Friday to find another morning's snow covering at the 1300' level, in our yard.
Kittee and I started our day with coffee, breakfast was a bowl of cereal to get a quick start on the day. This, was the first day of my three day weekend. There was no school (a teachers' in-service workday) with no students for me to transport. Kittee had to work half a day.

Again I had plans to get a lot of outdoor chores done during this 3-day weekend. Snow didn't look like a great way to start this day, like we haven't had enough snow already. The weather forecast was for things to change as the weekend progressed, this I was looking forward to.

Kittee had Milton-Freewater court session Friday a.m. so I figured I would go watch her court proceeding until the weather changed, or we found something better to do. We also had plans to go to Tollgate to pick up Kittee's early Birthday present today, but Tollgate had an additional 8" of snow overnight, so those plans appeared to have been snowed out. After court was over, we had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in M-F and then went to Walla Walla to take care of some business there and get our monthly supply of wild blueberry granola and yellow grits.
Arriving back at the ranch the sun had broken out of the clouds so we went out and groomed horses. I did start laying out a small pasture area for Rusty Friday afternoon, so he could have more time outside his keep grazing without having too much exposure with the rest of the herd. The rest of the afternoon, evening we just kicked back and relaxed with a beer watching the sunset.

Saturday started out beautifully, with a touch of morning frost and pure sunshine from above.

Kittee went out and threw hay to the herds, while I prepared our breakfast favorite of apple bread - French Toast with sausage on the side. Again this was more like having a dessert than a meal to start the day. After breakfast we started grooming horses again with anticipation of getting to do a horseback ride on Sunday, maybe even this afternoon if we didn't go to Tollgate. I continued to work on Rusty's pasture layout, while Kittee rode Nugget in the round pen. We were staying busy; waiting for a 2 o'clock telephone call from Tollgate to see if the roads were clear enough to go after Kittee's present. While outside working with the herd the call came that the roads in Tollgate were clear. When we came in for our lunch break we got the call, grabbed some lunch and were on our way.

Now, let me give you a little story from a couple of years ago. I think it was on a back country trip into Minam Lodge, that we meet a woman with a six-pack of beer in her saddlebags, a package of Marlboro cigarettes in her pocket and one in her lips and as we found her; she was drinking a beer at 10:30 a.m. Can you get this picture... a blond woman geared up to take a four hour back country wilderness ride on the back of a Mule with a beer in hand at 1030 hours? The Mule was a cool character on the trail, and probably kept that woman from going over the side of the mountain being the more stable of the two.
It was again sometime last winter '07-'08 that Kittee and I were at the Walla Walla indoor riding arena and there we met a talking Mule, I think Jingles was his name. Well since then Kittee has wanted a Mule. It was about two months ago I ran into a vet-tech / friend or mine in the grocery store, and we were talking about equines. I mentioned to Lori that we had quite enough equines, but were still thinking that if the opportunity arose for us to get a Mule or a Leopard Appaloosa, we might jump it that chance. I told Lori that Kittee really wanted a talking Mule. Well to make a long story short, Lori had a Mule and now for Kittee's birthday I got her this Mule.

Let me introduce "Miles" Kittee's talking Mule. At McKuster Ranch birthdays and X-mas come on the occasion of we get what we are looking for, not on a particular date found on everyone else's calendar. Kittee does get to celebrate July 8th as her special day.

Miles is a most gentle character, and yes he does talk to us. As we took him out to pasture, Kittee walked him around the pasture a couple of times while I was reseting electric fence and Miles met the Riches -neighbors across the road- he talked with them a bit. After Kittee made a couple of circles, I walked Miles around and introduced him to the welcoming committee that had formed across the gate in the paddock. Derby was most interested in this new guy on the farm.

The rest of the evening Kittee and I spent brushing and talking with Miles and letting him settle into his new home. After petting Miles we sit back next to his pasture with a glass of wine and enjoyed the sunset until the air became a bit too cool to sit out. Sunset this weekend was at 7:21.

This was our Saturday, and with the advent of what really feels like Spring, we will be leaving PHC-Garrison Keillor and the news from Lake Wobegon to those that are indoor bound. Gee it feel good to be out in the fresh air and wide open spaces around our home. With a busy day planned for Sunday we went to bed early so we could get an early start.

Daybreak now is about 5:30 with sunrise happening at 7:15 this weekend.
Kittee and I started early Sunday with her going out to feed horses and goats, I prepared a pot of grits, with sausage patties to start our day. Right after breakfast we headed back for the arena to do repairs of the winter's storm/wind damage. We had horseback riding on our minds for this day. About half way through this job Lori dropped by to visit and say hello to Miles and Rusty. Lori had never met Rusty, and I have been inviting her out everytime I see her at Doc Kennedy's vet clinic... "come out and visit with my stallion Rusty." One of Lori's best friends and neighbor was Rusty's first owner about 8 years ago.

Anyway, after Lori left we got back to finish our arena repair work and took a quick lunch break. Thereafter we got Nugget and Misty saddled up and went for a short arena ride.

This was our first time really spent on horses this spring so we were not going to over do it for them or ourselves.

We rode about an hour to an hour and a half (first time since Kittee broke her wrist) and everyone was happy to be out on this nice spring warm-up. We are hoping that if we can find the time we will be able to get in a little horseback riding in on Monday afternoon/evening.

With the feeling in the air that 60° and 70° days might become the norm around here I am happy to announce that Spring has sprung at McKuster Ranch.

And so this is the way it is around the ranch this 3-day weekend. Wish you could be here.

Happy Trails,
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.

Made in China --- NOT

Just a quick blog posting to bring me up-to-date on the happenings around our McKuster Ranch life this past week.

Last Wednesday for the second time in as many Wednesdays, Kittee and I made an evening trip to Walla Walla to be part of the organizing of a new fly fishing club there. The week before our meeting was an interested parties gathering, to "test the waters" of Walla Walla for a fly fishing club. With 11 folks at that meeting we voted to do it again this past Wednesday and discuss organization of a FFF fishing club. We are now on our way to fishing/working together, and calling our group the Walla² Fly Fishers.

March's view of our Walla² River canyon

Last week we were in the throws of March’s winter the early part of the week. Monday we must have had a dozen March snow squalls/ sun breaks come through Milton-Freewater, while the temperature remained in the 40’s. Middle of the week I came home and had a most pleasant late winter's afternoon with horses as I opened our #1 pasture for the first time this year.

Everyone was happy to have the change of scenery.

That same afternoon after messing around with horses, brushing, and picking hooves, I came around to the front of the house to do something and found Kittee had gotten home early. Coming into the house there was no Kittee to be found, so I started calling… Kittee, Kittee, Kittee. No answer. I walked out the backdoor and found Kittee coming from the barn wearing a new pair of fine crafted working chinks. WOW!!!

Here is a picture of Kittee in her new chinks with winterized Rosey.

These were not your everyday working chinks. No way. These chinks had been crafted by a fine leather craftsman in Pendleton, not in China. A leather craftsman that Kittee is working with and he offered to pay her part of her dues with this work of art. Even though there is NO price tag on these chinks –that once hung in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame as a work of art – she accepted them.

With only a day and a half of almost springlike weather this past week; most of our activities were of the indoor nature. Saturday evening we spent the evening with one of our horsey groups in Walla².

Yep, we did an "early" St. Pat’s Day spaghetti dinner with Kittee and Bob as part of the evening’s entertainment.

We stayed out way past our bedtime for this "early" celebration. Yawn - yawn

Not often do I get caught in front of the camera, but this night I did.












Sunday, was a day of rest and doing cleanup / organizing around Custer Law Office. We got back home in time to take care of horses, have a bowl of soup, and a movie.

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

Just a note if you or any horsey friends might wish to have some custom leather work done, we will invite you to contact Stacy for fine leather work ---
NOT made in China.

I hope from this pictures you can see the detail of this craftsmanship. There are three layers of leather --- tan, red, and the multi-colored embossed layer of leaves/ buck'n bronc.

Anyone there interested in having a pair of working / riding chinks -kinda- like these?

Kittee can put you in touch with Stacey to get-er-done.




Just to finish this blog posting I have to show off my handsome stallion Rusty, as last week in the sun he was feeling good and prancing around his keep, wanting to go out with the herd in pasture #1.

I am planning to have a backhoe come in soon and we are going to build a private pasture for Rusty to run around and graze as soon as the weather breaks.

Hope you have a great St. Pat's Day celebration.

And that’s the way it is… waiting for spring at McKuster Ranch

The beginning of my 4-Day School Holiday…

This morning Sylvester woke me knocking on the bedroom door at 5:00 a.m., wanting to go outside. This is a usual thing for him as I have our radio alarm clock set at 5:15 for wake up coffee time, and to put him out. Today was the first day of a 4-day school weekend, so I did not set the alarm to go off as I was hoping that maybe we could sleep in for awhile. That idea didn’t work, as Sylvester kept working with the door knob until I got up to let him out. While pushing Sylvester out the front door I saw that the entire outdoor landscape had turned white overnight. Thought to myself… it’s still February. This was quite a surprise and the reason I am making this blog posting today. I find it refreshing in July when temperatures are 105° to open these winter blogs and reminisce about winter's cool/cold crisp air. I also will share this posting with my sister in Charleston, SC who has written me that they have seen no winter in their coastal area this year. Anyway, for the past week or 10 days we have had close to spring like weather, and I was hoping this would last through this weekend's school break.
After putting the Slyguy out I went back to bed to soak and nap for awhile (so I thought). When I got back under the bed covers, Kittee asked if I was ready for coffee, as she was ready to get up and make a pot being she was to be in PDT court at 8:00. I said “Why not?, and take a good look outside while you are at it”.
So the day began at 35° and all is dashed with white.

While feeding the outside cats this morning I noticed that robins were everywhere.

and the inside cats noticed the same.


February snow... kind of messed up my plans of working in the garden this weekend. One good bit of news today is that I found allot of garlic sprouting around Rusty’s keep, so I think I will separate and transplant these sprouts into the cultivated garden beds and see what we might get once again for fresh (Mmmmmm good) garlic this season.

Have heard the old saying about the weather… wait 5 minutes and it will change. Well today that has been a matter of fact. This morning while feeding the horses and goats, it was 40°, there was icicles hanging on the gate rails, sun was shining, and it was snowing.


By 11:30 it was very bright and the temperature had reached 50°. At 11:45 it was pouring snow horizontally and the temperature was 42°.


At 1:00 p.m. we have no snow, and again covered with sunshine, (I'm ready to bring out the garden tiller) sure wish it were dry enough to work the garden today. Will probably end up just tying flies for the weekend.
I just had a knock on the front door...

...it was my upriver pal Dale Cosper just dropped by to chat for awhile. We had a nice visit; discussing politics, weather, horses, (he just bought two more young mares the past week or so), wine, women, songs, and the old bull elk that was in our backyard a month ago, etc. As Dale was leaving the clouds were beginning to thicken again, he said there was going to be more snow, and as I close this blog posting the air is full of horizontal snowfall once again.
Oh, wait... the snow is now falling heavily almost straight to the ground. The ground and the horses' backs are turning white with the air temperature now at 36°; 4:15 pm; it's still February 26th. Waiting for spring '09 to arrive.

A day in the life
around the ranch--- Dale

There’re back; the spring song birds have arrived.

This past week around the ranch we had our first breath of spring. Monday and Tuesday our daytime temperatures were in the 60’s and it felt great. Monday there were flocks of robins flying all around the area. The maples in the front yard Monday afternoon when I left to do my bus route were full of chirping robins.

Tuesday afternoon the temperature hit 65° and I found most the mares lazed out and taking a sunbathe. Derby, Nugget and Rusty were also flagged out soaking up rays, life was wonderful in horsey terms.

Tuesday afternoon before my bus route I mucked out Rusty’s keep, and had him running inside his keep, doing inside and outside turns. Together we had a good time and both of us worked up a bit of a sweat. I hope we can do this much more often as spring progresses. Yesterday I was talking with our next door neighbor and he said he was watching Rusty and I working and commented what a beautiful sight watching Rusty's moves. Wednesday our temperature was a bit cooler, but the Red Wing Blackbirds were back. I didn’t get a chance to see them but as I was talking with Derby, Nugget and the ponies after doing my p.m. bus route I heard about 4-6 Red Wings trilling to each other, and again as I walked around the front yard and headed back to the barn to talk with the rest of the herd. It felt and sounded wonderful. A touch of spring in the middle of winter.

That evening we had a beautiful not colorful sunset with the light of dusk lasting until after 6:00 p.m. Thursday our beautiful weather was broken up by rain, the day was mostly gray and wet. I knew this would blow my chance to play and work with Rusty during the weekend, but it’s February. Friday and Saturday our temperatures were back into the daytime 40’s with a fair amount of sunshine after the a.m. fog burned off, and today it has turned into February.

Other things happening around McKuster Ranch is Kittee’s wrist is healing well. It has been three weeks since her wrist plate was installed, last week she had the large cast and stitches removed and this week she has lived in a much smaller cast and is able to move her fingers.

Since Kittee has broken her wrist, we have been laying low, just taking care of and petting horses. Derby did have a hoof abscess a couple of weeks ago, so he spent the day at the vet’s office having the abscess drained, and he is doing well now.

Just a note here during the past month or so we have had moved in a new barn cat that goes by the name of Tuxedo. "Tux" seems to get along well with everyone here at the ranch, and does spend most of his time in the barn taking care of the unwanted critters that may be hanging out there.

Yesterday for the first time since Kittee broke her wrist, I brought Rosey out and Kittee gave her a through brush down. They both enjoyed that. After Rosey's brushing we gave her some grain and measured her... she is now 12.2 hands tall.

Today has been foggy and frozen and we are just staying close to the fireplace as everything outside is laced in white.

All the horses, cats, and front yard trees are laced in white today. It feels and looks like February, even though the temperatures have been in the mid-30's all day. For the benefit of my sister living in Charleston, S.C. (who tells me they have had no winter this year) I shall share with everyone these shots taken around the ranch today...

Ole One Eyed Barny

taking his bath after breakfast this a.m.

Goats and ponies finishing breakfast on this foggy morning.

An afternoon pic of everyone finishing their lunch as I type out
this blog posting

The only hint of springtime around here today was a few robins bouncing around in the rime ice.

And that's the way it is around the ranch this week.

Happy Trails,
Dale

Is there a doctor in the house? I repeat, is there a...

Last Sunday we had a pretty nice day with our afternoon temperatures in the upper 50's. Our nighttime lows were in the 40's all last weekend. Late Sunday afternoon our horse trainer Travis Webster came by the ranch to begin his work with Rosey. For about a half hour he worked on sacking Rosey out, keeping her feet moving. After that she was pretty comfortable with having a tarp hanging around her neck.

Monday this week we had a beautiful day, day time high temp was 60° -much like springtime. We found a new home for Walter Pigeon, with a local fella that keeps and races about 250 birds. I talked with him for over an hour about racing pigeons and found that very interesting. I feel that Walter will be happy with a new flock of bird to make home with.

Tuesday morning Travis was back out to work with Rosey again,
























as we are prepping her for spring and summer show times. Again he worked on sacking her out then they worked on lead handling, because Kittee has had some trouble with Rosey balking when Kittee drops the lead rope. After this Travis worked Rosey on turns -- inside and outside turns. We found that Rosey was quite responsive and by the end of the training session she had worked up a sweat. This was the first time she had worked this hard.

Wednesday we went back into a usual gray January winter. Off and on, day and night the fog has been rolling by the ranch leaving a fine mist of white on everything. We are now in a perpetual covering of fog frosting, not rime ice or snow. Daytime highs are 36°-40° and nighttime lows being 28°-30°... usually January weather.

Thursday morning after make my early a.m. bus run, I was able to flag down Meryl Demaris as he was going up river. We chatted for awhile, and he asked me if I had seen the 7-point bull elk hanging out in the backyard. Well no I hadn't, but that day while eating a quick lunch, looking out our kitchen window, I noticed what seem to be a large rock moving on the backyard bluff.


I quickly grabbed our field glasses and saw that the movement had a massive set of antlers. WOW!! Those antlers were as tall as the bull elk at his withers. These pictures are made from our kitchen window of the bull elk about a half mile upriver. Wish I had a telephoto lens for this little video/still photo camera. Our field glasses really brought him into view-- up close and personal.

Thursday also found me having to take Derby to the vet's office to have a hoof abscess removed, running my MidCo midday pre-kindergarten bus route, going back to pickup Derby in mid-afternoon, running my afternoon M-F school bus route, and then taking the Mac-Hi basketball teams to Athena for their evening basketball games. Quite a full day of running.

Friday was the beginning of a four-day Holiday weekend!!! Yep, working with the school system... Friday was an in-service work day for teachers, so I had no students to transport, Monday is MLK holiday -off, Saturdays and Sundays are always free. What a neat system to work in. After all of Thursday's running around, I was looking forward to Friday being a laid back, take care of the horses kind of day. Most of Friday morning, I took care of paying mid-month billings, dropped by the library to pickup a book and some videos for the long weekend. Friday afternoon I worked on a pasta sauce for dinner, and waited for Kittee to arrive home. When she got home we shared our day over a beer and she had a McKuster Ranch Cider. Since I am sporting a head cold right now, Kittee offered to go out and do the evening feeding of the herds. As I was about to take the pasta off the stove, Kittee came through the back door and said she had fallen, and wanted me to look at her left wrist... this did not look good.

I turned off the stove and we headed for St. Mary's ER.


Calling Dr. FRANCIS, Calling Dr. BOB... you have a patient in the ER.

Calling Dr. FRANCIS... now where is Bob when we need him?

Well Dr. Bob was not here to help Kittee this evening, neither was our other TWO local orthopedic surgeons; so now we have a third orthopedic surgeon we can now call on in times of need. Yep, we are keeping these guys busy as we reach 50-something. It was about 8:00 p.m. when we determined that it would be best for Kittee to go to surgery for the evening to repair her broken wrist...

She came out of surgery doing fine, but hurting so I stayed with her in the recovery room until her pain was under control and we moved her to a room for the overnight lodging.

I was able to get home just a bit after midnight and went out to take care of the herd and turn off the barn lighting.

This morning I awoke alone and ready for a nap, (GEE those late nights out are getting rougher as I get older) but I got up, made a pot of coffee, fed the herds and headed for the hospital. Found that Kittee had a good night's rest, a wonderful breakfast, and was bright eyed and cheery, ready to go home.

We won't be playing any fast, furious hands of double solitary tonight. I'llbetcha Icouldawon every game this evening;>)

So now we are home on a 4-day Holiday weekend to watch a few videos, read some new magazines that came in this week, have a shot or two of whiskey, listen to a PHC this evening with Garrison Keillor, bringing us a new program-- the story/news of life in Lake Wobegon this past week.

And that's the way it is.
Five Kats laid back on the living room sofa, and Kittee reading about Dewey - The Small Town Library Cat.

A week in the life at the ranch --- Dale