Finishing off Winter with March Madness

This past week has been busy, busy, leading up to Spring Break.
Last Friday Downriver Robert came up and did some mid-morning horseback riding, while Kittee was defending the Rights, the Wrongs, and the nearly insane, in Milton-Freewater city court. She had a good morning working with Judge Sam and hardnose Prosecutor Dave. Not long after court and my afternoon bus run we sat back, put Kittee’s foot in the air and had a beer to celebrate TGIF. Thereafter we headed out to do a split hamburger and sweet potato fries, a beer at Kelly’s for dinner. Had a wonderful dinner w/tip for less than 15 bucks… for the both of us. Now that is what I call frugal, and having fun.

Mid-Week ACC Basketball @ McKuster Ranch

When we got back home Kittee wanted to watch a movie, and I had an appointment to watch ACC basketball on our new high speed broadband Internet connection. Tonight was the second ACC b-ball game I got to watch during the past week, and since Kittee brought home a new wide screen 'puter monitor this evening it was almost like sitting in the Greensboro Coliseum in realtime. Gee, we are really enjoying our high speed cable connection with whole house wi-fi.

NCSU beats Clemson in a close one...
Yeehaa, good game, good beer

But due to our busy, busy outdoor schedule after Friday evening, I didn’t get back to watch any further ACC basketball tournament. I was really hoping to watch the Carolina and Duke games but it didn’t happen. I do plan to follow our ACC teams through the NCAA tournament play. GO DUKE!!!

Friday evening on our way back home from Kelly's we hit a few snowflakes, Saturday morning's daybreak showed snow on the eastern mountains...

Rusty coming and going... running his mini-pasture, he enjoyed
seeing the fresh snowfall on the eastern horizon

The mare herd working on breakfast after some heavy
overnight rain and fresh snow across The Blues

Saturday, we started the day with coffee in bed, Kittee's foot elevated for a day off. I went out to feed the herds, take the above pictures, then came in to put together a hardy morning breakfast of hot yellow grits with whole kernel white corn, bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, and eggs, before our farrier Kevin was to show up. Again like clockwork, Kevin was here at 9:00 a.m. to trim 60 hooves to start his day. All of this went well, with the slight exception of Summer. She wanted to be just a little testy that day, but she did A-OK for a baby horse, and holding all four feet up - off the ground.

Saturday afternoon, it was a bit chilly outside, so I spent the afternoon working on creating a Facebook page for our Walla² Fly Fishers club. That was interesting, and I hope will help keep everyone in the club posted/reminded of what's happening in our Walla Walla River Valley fly fishing world with the click of a mouse.

Sunday, another day which started much like Saturday with my feeding the herds, taking a few pictures of the new snowfall on the mountains, down to the 2000’ level, while Kittee's foot was elevated. After feeding the herds I put together a relaxed morning breakfast of hotcakes and sausage in preparation for another horseback riding day. Again Downriver Robert came upriver, caught Nugget, I called Misty in out of pasture for her tack- saddle/bridle, and Kittee brought in Derby to test ride her banged up foot in the stirrup, for the first time in a week. All went well for everyone as we had a rather slow start to this day, late breakfast, and easy riding time.

Misty and I were the only one’s to push our talents in the saddle as I ran her through the arena obstacle course as though we were chasing cattle, and racing barrels. LOTS of fun and good exercise for both of us. With our jogging, cantering, and running the obstacle course Misty did not work up very much of a sweat that day with mild air temperatures of mid-day, but when she took her saddle off she rolled. That is as much of a ritual for her as getting a scoop of sweet grain after a morning of fun run.

After Misty's after-ride-roll, she gets hugs and kisses.
Such a sweet pet, a sweet ride. We love these horses.

This past weekend everything around here was looking a bit more like spring with daffodils almost in full bloom, the willow tree in the front pasture and the lilac bush next to the house is starting to leaf out. Sunny a boarder mare was showing some signs of being in heat, and Rusty had his nose/curled lip pointed towards the sky.
Spring is in the air.








The Fairy Ring in our front yard made a complete circle this weekend.

Our afternoon temperatures Sunday were in the mid-50’s as we sit out sunning, Kittee with her feet up, while everyone had a beer to wash the arena’s riding dust out of our throats, from our late morning, mid-day riding session. Life is tough around McKuster Ranch, but someone has to be here to handle the situation.

Sunday afternoon, I sprayed our ½ acre garden area with Round Up, as the grass is growing well in there right now, and it is nearly time to burn it off and start tilling. Hope to be planting Sugar Snap Peas, chard, lettuce, etc. soon.

Monday, again after my a.m. bus route Robert and I rode horses and after my p.m. bus route I worked on fences until time to go to the watershed council meeting.

Tuesday was about the same work schedule without any horseback riding for that day. Tuesday after my p.m. bus run I sprayed 5 acres of the riverside pasture with Round Up as I will be harrow/spike raking it and re-sowing that pasture in new grass the next couple of weeks, as well as fertilizing our lower 18 acres for spring green horse munching.

Tonight's dinner- St. Patrick's Day '10, I have just put the lid on a boiling 2½ gallon pot of Irish style potlicker comprised of a corned beef brisket, potatoes, onions, 8-quarters of two green cabbage, salt and pepper. Now going out to feed the herds, with plans of a pint of Henry's Classic Dark brew and dinner when I get back in. It is now 7:00 p.m. with plenty of daylight to play in. We love Daylight Savings Time around here.

Busy, Busy, Busy as today was the last day of school before Spring Break and there is plenty to do around the ranch, pasture work, garden work, irrigation work, horseback riding, fishing, fly tying. Starting tomorrow, I have 11 days out of school--- winter is over, Spring Break is here. Gitty up!

That’s the way it is around the ranch this past week, and daylight savings time has felt GRRRRReat all week. --- Dale

Early March '10

This past weekend we stayed close to the ranch, riding and tending to our herds of horses, goats, and cats. Kittee had last Friday off ~out of court~ so we had downriver Robert come up and together we rode the arena with Derby, Nugget and Misty. It was rather uneventful, as we trotted everyone, then Kittee pulled the saddle off Derby and rode him bareback while I cantered Misty a few time halfway around the arena. Robert broke Nugget into a trot a few times. After our riding session I jumped on the school bus and made my p.m. run.

Saturday started much the same as Friday; while I prepared breakfast, Kittee went out and fed the herds. After breakfast we call downriver Robert to see if he wanted to ride with us, he did and so he came up, we groomed our horses and headed for the arena. Again we had another beautiful warm, sunshiny morning to enjoy the great outdoors. I got back to the arena with Misty first, we got warmed up and before Kittee and Robert got to the arena Misty and I were trotting the arena, and I was putting her into tight circles... to the left and to the right while staying in a trot. Misty and I are working up to making these moves at a canter run in the near future. When Kittee with Shaiela, and Robert with Nugget got to the arena, Misty and I were ready to make a couple of passes around the arena in a canter. Everyone is connecting with their steed much better now and we started talking about riding the Ole Cache Hollow Trail on Sunday, or maybe heading out across the backyard and working our way up Bowlus Hill.

After Kittee and Robert made a few laps, walking Shaiela and Nugget around the arena, Kittee had her stirrup fall off. (?) Not sure how that could happen... but it did. So Kittee stopped Shaiela and dismounted. Oppppps, in the process of dismounting she twisted her ankle and heard a snap. With that happening, Kittee politely said... OUCH! and a few other words. She instantly knew her riding was finished for this day. Kittee immediately got off her feet and put her foot up. As I went riding by, to catch and put up Shaiela, I did take a few pictures of her enjoying the morning's sunshine.

Robert and I continued to make a few more laps around the arena, but soon our riding was done so we threw Kittee on Nugget's back, hopped her to the house and passed her a beer as we tack-down and put away our rides for the day. After everything was put away and we settled back with Kittee, her crutches and a beer, Robert ask if we would like to take a break that evening and come down to have dinner with he and wife Sherry... join him in having some very smooooooth Kentucky pain reliever. We thought that would help Kittee's painfully delicate condition well.
Later in the afternoon Jennifer came out to play with and trim Ginger's hooves. Ginger is still with Kittee and I for the winter, and we consider her "our" pony even though we sold her to Jennifer for a buck. She and sister Jasmine have had a wonder winter sharing their pasture once again with the herd of goats, and visiting over the fence with Derby, Nugget, Summer and the herd of mares.
Saturday late afternoon, Kittee and I had a most pleasant evening with Robert and Sherry, watching the sunset from Robert's favorite sunset viewing station, sipping whiskey, having dinner, and then watching a BBC nature DVD. While watching the nature documentary, Sherry brought out servings of the best pineapple up-side-down cake, I think I have ever eaten. This evening of physical/spiritual therapy did work well for Kittee's ankle injury.

Sunday was our scheduled day for late winter worming of the horses. Kittee was taken out of this picture with her foot wrapped in ace bandage, and walking with crutches. Fortunately for me Robert and offered to help with our worming if Sherry had nothing else planned for Sunday. Sherry didn't, so he did. Now worming a herd of horses ~17~ is not a bad or really hard job, but it is much better when there is another set of helping hands to make it happen. Thank YOU, Robert for your help. After our worming session, Robert and I saddled up Misty and Nugget and rode for about an hour, before the wormer started kicking in and made our rides start feeling a bit puny.
NOTE: We have been keeping Goldfish in our stock tanks since last summer, just to help keep the tanks clean and eat the algae/ horse food scraps. Two days after worming, all the Goldfish in one of our mare's water tanks were dead. Reading the fine print of the pamphlet that comes with the wormer, it says that the stuff can be very hazardous to aquatic life. So we learned... the residual wormer paste in the horses mouth can KILL fish. FYI -- FTR
By the end of this beautiful late winter day, the good news was... Kittee was able to hobble around without using crutches, even though her foot was still swollen and tender. I was able to get a few late afternoon shots of the progress of the daffodil bloom late Sunday afternoon. I did notice this past Friday on my bus run, that the daffodils in town are now in full bloom. It has felt and looks like spring is here, even though Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights has snow in the weather forecast for here and the mountains to our east.
Monday Kittee was able to walk around in a bedroom slipper and drove to work and back home well. Sunday and Monday nights the mountains did re-cover with fresh snow. Hopefully we are on our way to getting a good 10' spring accumulation on the hills.

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

February 2010

It has been a month since I made a posting to our ranch life blog. I wish I could say that it was because I have been spending allot of time in the great outdoors in the wonderful February/ springlike weather we have had in the past month. I will have to say that this February has been as beautiful as any in recent memory. Looking back over the month, I think we had two to four days with morning frost here at the ranch. Most days were covered with sunshine by late afternoon even though many days started out with gray, sometimes rainy and foggy weather conditions. Except for the few days with frost, our low temperatures have been in the mid to upper 30’s with high’s ranging from lower 40’s to mid-60’s. The grass has begun to turn green, growing in the pastures, on the bluff and horses have been pecking at the grass nibblets between morning and afternoon hay feedings. Everyone here is in good flesh for this time of winter.

Today was another gloriously beautiful day with sunrise coming through our bedroom window at 7:00 sharp. Skies were clear all day with afternoon temperatures near 60. This evening we had a very clear, not colorful sunset at 5:15 sharp as I was looking out our bedroom window. We now have a full 13-hours of functional daylight everyday. Today our downriver neighbor Robert came up and horseback rode (see video attached) with Kittee, as I felt like I should hold off from horseback riding another day or so while recouping from my 3-week-old chest/head cold.

Kittee and I started this month with high hopes of horseback riding every chance we could get. It worked well that way for the first week of the month, then I started getting sick with a chest cold, which turned into a chest/head cold, then Kittee got it. This last week of the month I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, so Thursday I went to the doctor and got some medication to clear/clean the mess out. Kittee began to improve on her own Wednesday. As this weekend came around we were both doing much better, health wise.

This month we spotted our first robin in Rusty’s keep on February 7th, and a week later we heard Redwing Blackbird songs from the tumbling muster weed field across the road. Throughout the month we have had flocks of Canada geese and ducks flying overhead many times a day, the ringneck pheasants cocks have been crowing throughout the days from the brush and bunch grass, and lately in the evening the owls begin their mating hoots to each other. Last evening I spent out with the mare herd after dark, watching the full moon rise and petting the girls all around me. Except for the morning foggy chills, it has been very much like early spring and the fruit growers in the valley have become quite concerned about their fruit trees and a way too early budding season now developing. Smokey has also found plenty of gopher mounds to keep an eye on for fresh meat during the past week or so.

During the past couple of weeks of feeling bad, and days being chilly and damp, night still being long… there was something on the FaceBook ditty, that provoked a lot of old family pictures to come to surface. I posted a number of photos to my Faceback album and I think three of my favorite are...










Grandparents
in '51


















Parents in '48

The McKids in '64

and the McKid's home in N.C. probably in April in bloom

During this month of illness, Kittee and I have had a chance to watch quite a few videos, some from the public library, some borrowed from friends, some bought from a local video store going out of business.

One that I was quite intrigued with was Unlocking The Mystery Of Life -- a study into Darwinism and intelligent design. Looking at natural organism’s rotary motors that spin at 100,000 rpm, and the complexity of DNA. If you can find this DVD, try to get a chance to watch it. It will give you allot to ponder on... How did this world happen to be??? I don't think it was by chance and chemistry, coming together in a warm briny cesspool spinning through the universe. A very interesting video presentation of natural facts.
Also in our video watching we borrowed from a friend two really good PBR story videos --
8 Seconds and Cowboy Up, both really good stories and
8 Seconds is the true story about the life of Lane Frost.


Now with three weeks of being "under-the-weather" during our beautiful February, I have spent the last two day "raking" around the ranch pastures and garden, and see the work I have cut out for me in the month of March. Hoping that winter doesn't come back around and bite us in the butt, with all the outdoor work and play I need to catchup on. This is a quick shot of the driveway daffodils this day 28 February.

Let me not forget to mention the stonefly hatch we are having around the ranch this week. Today I encountered quite a few stoneflies while at the riverside arena, and then when I got back to the house I found more stoneflies around the back porch, sitting on the picnic table. 'Tis also the season for the spring stonefly hatch...
























And that the way it has been around the ranch this February 2010 --
Dale

Keeping the home fires burning ~or~ coming out of the fog.

Last Sunday was beautiful, we enjoyed our horseback riding time so much that downriver Robert, and I scheduled two other days this week to saddle-up and ride. Last Sunday the cats were happy to be standing in their window jungle and soaking in the sunshine. This past week was full of promise that we would get to spend time outdoors and in the sunshine. That didn’t happen.

It was Wednesday morning I got out of bed to grab a cup of coffee for Kittee and I at 5:15. The moon was shining bright and the sky was full of stars. Under those conditions I had not slept well during the night, but it was time to have a cup of coffee and prepare for my morning’s school bus route. Kittee and I lay in bed sipping coffee until time for me to hit the deck, get ready for the road. I looked outside and saw that the red light beacons on the wind turbines to our west, now pumping electricity to California were not visible. That seemed strange with all else being clear, but by the time I went out to get in my school bus everything was shrouded in fog. That morning it took an extra five minutes to get to my first stop, due to plowing through the fog bank that was rolling in for the day. Later that morning I called out on our school bus radio/communication system and asked if anyone had seen my school bus anywhere that morning, and if they could tell me where I might be found. The fog was really thick.

Getting home it was time to feed the herds and by the time I got the mare herd’s hay spread, they almost had disappeared in the fog bank.

Robert and I were hoping to go riding this day since the forecast was for sunshine. That didn’t happen. That morning after feeding, Robert and I did make a quick trip downriver looking at the river for some slots to do some Walla Walla River steelhead fishing during the balance of these winter months.
Since I had a short night’s rest, when I got back home the cats and I took a short nap before I went back out on my p.m. school bus route. Wednesday evening our Walla² Fly Fishers club had our first winter fly tying workshop and fortunately I was well rested and able stay out past my 9:00 p.m. bedtime. We had a good evening of fly tying with 13 people showing up for this first session.

Thursday, the weather forecast showed that there was to be a break in the weather and a good chance of sunshine. Again Robert and I made our plans to get in some riding time on Thursday morning before I had to make a sports trip to Pendleton on Thursday afternoon. I got home from my a.m. bus route, feed the horses ASAP, in a small rain shower and fog. Again our riding time was cancelled. On my trip to Pendleton, about halfway there the sun came out, the temperature when we got there was 50° under clear skies, but not at home. So this week was a washout with some hope of sunshine and warmer weather for the weekend.

Friday, Kittee had court duty in Milton-Freewater, so we were hoping that maybe we would get a weather break in the afternoon for some riding time. The weather stayed cool and cloudy all day Friday so our chance for afternoon riding didn’t happen. After Kittee's court time, she dropped by the M-F library and picked up the DVD set of Alex Haley's ROOTS, so we have watched these episodse for the past several night's entertainment.

Yesterday while preparing breakfast I learned it is Doppelganger Week on the Facebook channel, so I am playing along
this week using John Lennon as my celeb look alike from days gone by. Have had some folks tell me I have some resemblance to John, with short hair and longer hair.
Give Peace a change

Yesterday there was an afternoon break in the rain and dense fog, so Kittee and I went out and petted the horses for awhile.

Kittee spent her time petting mares; I spent mine petting Rusty. I had the chance to bring Misty, Goldie and Summer out of pasture earlier in the day while I was dropping hay, and I had a chance to pet them at that time. After we finished petting everyone, I grabbed a couple more sticks of wood and we heading back for the fireplace and listened one again to – A Prairie Home Companion coming from Tucson, AZ. and this week’s news from Lake Wobegon, MN. This week's show gave me a chance to reminisce about the winter of '72, when I parked my Mach-1 Mustang and hitchhiked across the USA setting up camp in the middle of the desert just west of Tucson in late January and part of February of that year... it was a neat place to winter. That was my first experience of living in the wild with coyotes, sidewinder rattlesnakes, scorpions, and Gila Monsters of the southwest. Anyway back to PHC, this week it sounded like the folks in Lake Wobegon are now in the very depths of their winter with cold, cold, snowy weather hitting those folks hard this past week.
see video attached

Sitting around the fire, listening to NPR

While listening to PHC, Kittee almost finished reading the Journals of Lewis and Clark - the Corps of Discovery, and I was doing some Internet surfing on the laptop computer via our full house WiFi system. Amazing what modern technology has done to the ole ranch house.

Today, we woke up with rain falling on everything. Kittee went out and fed the herd, I prepared breakfast and re-kindled the fire, for us to sit near for the rest of this day. This afternoon our living room has once again reached 70° as we sit by the fire, outside thermometer is reading 42°, and we are about to have a sun break for the afternoon as I look out our office window.

With the sun coming out, I think I shall go throw another log on the fire and go out and enjoy the sun and horse until the weather changes again.

Late this afternoon everyone enjoyed standing broadside to the sun...

and we had a real sunset this evening.

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

Happy Trails until we meet again,
Dale

The taste of Spring… how sweet it is.

The past two weeks we have had a beautiful early spring in January. This past week going out to pre-trip my school bus each morning, I only had need to wear an outer shell fleece vest, and had daybreak to light my way as I drove out of the driveway. It felt so good to know that spring is just around the corner, and we now have 12 hours of functional daylight each day. Until Saturday night we have not seen the 30° temperatures in about two weeks. No snow here, but a few miles to our east the snow level dropped to below the 2000’ last night, it didn’t freeze or frost here at the ranch.

Today we woke up with bright daylight coming through our bedroom window around 7:00 and the sun came over the mountains to the east at 8:13. We were up-and-at’em before sunrise with coffee in hand, feeding the herd, ourselves and thinking of horseback riding. With Saturday’s rain each of our rides took the opportunity to get down in the mud and roll, so the first order of business for this day’s ride was brush, brush, brush the mud out of their coats. Today, we had invited our downriver neighbor Robert to join us for a ride. While riding in our riverside arena Robert took it easy on Nugget...

while Kittee and Derby got into abit of rail jumping.




























It has been awhile since Robert has done any horseback riding (he and wife Sherry put their old-aged horses down several years ago), but like riding a bicycle, Robert got the feel of being back in the saddle pretty quickly (his saddle belong to his Grandfather – WOW a mid-1930’s vintage Hamley’s saddle). Before we finished riding Robert wanted to do a bit of trotting around with Nugget, so we all made a lap around the arena trotting, then Misty and I went into a canter. Misty finished her canter sprint with an approach to the jumping rail only to slow down in time to step over the rail. I have had her jump with me before so I was half way ready for a leap through the air on my steed.


Most of Saturday, we had rain so I spent a portion of the day working on cleaning and oiling my saddle leather.

Saturday afternoon, Kittee and I relaxed next to the radio and listened to NPR – A Prairie Home Companion and this week’s news from Lake Wobegon, MN. After listening to NPR we had dinner of large bowls of chilie bean soup, with corn chips/ cornbread, and after dinner proceed to our theater room for a Saturday night movie – Ocean’s Twelve.

This past week around the ranch, we have had plenty of fresh air, warm sunshine and I got in a lot of horse petting time. Travis our horse trainer, was here late one afternoon when I came in from my bus route to work with a couple of horses. He was having kind of a hard time with catchup, so I went out walked up to each horse and walked it back to the paddock with my arm around its neck. I also spent too much time re-configuring our computer with email address that I lost in making the changeover from dial-up email service to broadband cable. That was a bit of a bummer, losing all my archived emails from family, friends and business… but 'tis the price of progress I guess.

Saturday was Summer’s seven month’s birthday, but with the rain and damp we did not celebrate it until today’s sunshine. She is still growing, maturing and is as hug-able as ever. A sweet baby she is.

Summer at one month old.

Before I leave this blog posting, I would like to share with you a video from Baxter Black, DVM. I found this on a Facebook posting/YouTube... it is so very "American", a rural life's passion spoken from the the heart. Kittee and I enjoy Baxter Black wit and thoughts. After you take about 2 minutes to listen to this video, you might want to watch Baxter talking about "Just a dog". Hope you will follow these links and enjoy... it says alot about where I am sitting today.

Well that is about all the news from McKuster Ranch this week, where Kittee and Dale are getting a little older; the horses are getting prettier, and the cats are just laying around, getting fatter.

Hope you have a good week, where you are.
Dale