Under the full moon

Waiting for sunrise

Well again this past week Kittee and I have been very busy, myself around the ranch, Kittee at her office, both of us working on protecting our Walla Walla River Valley from the onslaught of the wind turbine construction steamroller trying to cover our end of the county, with wind generators, now almost everywhere you look.

Last Saturday was the last day of trout fishing in our Walla Walla River, and I was too busy to go fishing. But I guess that was OK, as most of this past week we have lived under the full moon (like the pic above), and I have found that fishing under a full moon is almost useless. Saturday morning Kittee and I went to the funeral of our dear departed friend Cliff, in Walla Walla. After the funeral we had time for a lunch break and then our farrier, Kevin Walker came for his fall visit. The rest of Saturday afternoon we worked on horses’ hooves. This was Summer first actually farrier handling, and she did well. Again I have been imprinting her since the day she was born to have her feet handled and become accustomed to having her feet tapped, tapped on so when the day come for her to be shod she will be prepared for that new venture.


Last Sunday I tried to put Nugget and Derby with the rest of the herd for the winter. November 1st seemed to be a good time to do that, as I remember from the past. So Sunday morning I laid out nearly two bales of hay, more than enough for everyone to be happy, and turned the entire herd (less Rusty) out to feed.

All went well, until everyone had a full gutload of hay. Then Nugget’s attention turned to Misty and Kootenai as Kootenai was showing some signs of being in heat. Nuggets being his OLE stud self decided to chase these girls around for awhile, so Kittee and I had to go out a separated the boys from the girls. Since the cold snaps of a few weeks ago we have now become another banana belt in this area, with temperatures most days near or above 60. So I guess some of the horses around here are now confusing this warm fall weather/ season with spring.

Also Sunday, Travis our horse trainer came by and got me started with some riding lesson to prep me for moving cattle. The day will come we will need to use our back 55 acres, and I feel that cattle will be the best way to do that. So I have started working with Misty on making cattle moving moves including 180º turns while in a trot or canter.


Misty was such a willing girl to do all I asked of her, except going into a canter. With my past experience of broken bones, I have held her back allot, and I think she is now confused when I ask her to run, run, run… but we will get over that as I get my running confidence back. I am also hoping this training will help me be better prepared to saddle up and ride off with Rusty in the near future. So anyway, I was able to find/make the time to ride Misty 4 or 5 times this past week, and that felt good. We have both been out of shape with our summer layoff and with a few day of workout we have shed a few pounds and toughen up just a bit. Something I am learning is that the more horseback riding I get to do the less backache I have to deal with.

During the mid-week, I was able to fire up the lawn mower and mow down the garden and orchard area of the old dead weeds that had taken over. This was the first time I had really worked in the garden since August 1st. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to burn off the old crop rows and maybe get the garden tilled before cold, wet weather sets in for the winter.

Yesterday, Kittee and I had a bit of a break, so she brushed out Nugget and I tacked up Misty and we spent awhile riding in the arena. Again I was trying to get back up into the canter mode with Misty, but we didn’t run for long as my bones don’t seem to be ready for that yet. I still feel my broken ribs on a daily basis and the busted sternum is still sore. Anyway, we did get some nice riding done while under a warm November sun. Later in the afternoon, we had Doc. Sarah Metcalf show up at the ranch, after her day’s drive from Boise. After she got settled in we set back and listened for a little while to NPR, then chatted – horse talk. After dinner Doc Sarah headed back to her dental clinic/ travel lodge, Kittee and I prepped for bed and started watching On Golden Pond, since our world in northeast Oregon has turned quite golden this time of year.

Today we started with coffee in bed, followed by having breakfast with Doc. Sarah. Thereafter we all went to work with horses. Our friend Shana came out to help Sarah with handling horses, and Kittee and I groomed horses prior to their visit to the dentist office. Since Nugget was our major dental works guy from years past, I did get a few photos to help remember how the story goes, and all went well…
With all the horses we worked with today, we found that Nugget's teeth are looking great, so we hope we have saved him from an early demised of losing all his front incisors which he was on his way of doing a few years ago. Thank you Doc Sarah for helping to save our Nugget. The other good news from today's dental clinic was that Goldie and Rusty have great looking/ perfect teeth, so hopefully this will pass along to their offspring as we continue to breed these two.

Tomorrow after my a.m. bus route, we will be working on 7-10 more horses before the end of the day. Tuesday and Wednesday of this coming week, I will be making full day school bus trips to Pendleton, and Kittee is planning to present a case to the Oregon Court of Appeals in Salem on Thursday. So again it looks like a busy, busy week in front of us.

And that is the way it has been around the ranch this past week as we have been living under the full moon, mostly clear autumn skies with warm sunshine days --- Dale

Summer is 4 months old ~or~ winding up summer

Once again snow has covered the Blue Mtns. just east of the ranch today. I understand from talking with my boss that the Breaks of the So. Fork Walla Walla/ Tollgate (where Kittee and I were married) received 3" fresh snow this a.m.. Wind and some rain is blowing stiffly around our country and with this last weekend’s beautiful weather having past, it really feels like we are now headed for November with its gray, cold weather in our faces. Talking with my sister on Sunday evening -her birthday- she reminded me that we were both getting a bit older. I told her that I could feel it as I now feel the cold, more than ever, and joints ache... Burrr, looks/feels like winter is heading this way.

Last evening Kittee and I were very saddened to hear that our dear friend Cliff, in Walla Walla had died. This also added a chill to the pending winter, as Cliff always had a warm smile and a chuckle to go with everyday we spent horsing around with him and his wonderful wife Lila. Cliff, we will miss you; rest in peace dear friend.

With the change of seasons, I finished my over-the-road school sports/activities trips for this season, making trips last week to Baker, Pendleton, and Pasco, WA. Today there were some bus trips going over the Blues and having to be snow chains equipped. Yep, there’s snow on them thar hills.

As November rapidly approaches I am now feeding the herds twice a day, most days and will have to be on standby soon for those days that the snow blows, and the herds are fed 3 times a day. Good news… Sunday, I found a wooly worm in the haystack and it had only two very small black bands on its head and tail ends. Maybe this winter will be a bit milder and have a little less snow than the past couple of winters we have had here.

The other big news around the ranch this past week is Summer turned 4 months old and she learned to trailer load on Sunday. Oh she was so cute (again), learning to go UP and DOWN the trailer ramp. Horses don’t see very well right in front of their nose. Summer, for what she could see, knew that the way into the horse trailer was higher that the ground she had always walked upon. Like all horses, seeing a trailer for the first time, she was not sure about the world inside that big darken cave on wheels. First thing I did was to load Goldie, Summer’s mom into the trailer… that was easy. Goldie and I did that a half dozen times with Summer watching. It still appeared to be a mystery to Summer, as to what was going on with that mobile cave thing. After loading and off-loading Goldie a number of times, I put a flake of hay in the head of the trailer and walked away. Goldie was very happy to go in and out of the trailer at that point to grab bites of hay, and sometimes she would share with Summer on her way out. Last week Summer also started eating “large” mouthfuls of hay instead of her usual nibble portions.

After awhile of going this route with Goldie and Summer, I tied Goldie at the front of the trailer, put a halter and lead on Summer, and with help of Kittee working the butt rope, we began coaxing Summer up the trailer ramp and into the trailer. Again and again it was quite amusing to watch Summer making high steps trying to find the elevation change of the ramp.

again, and again...

After about a dozen entries we closed Goldie, Summer, myself up in the trailer, and Kittee drove around the pasture a bit so Summer and I could get the feel of being "trailered" around. I now know why horses can get a case of nerves (very sweaty) when being trailered for any distance.

Also while working with Summer on lead, I usually put a rope around her girth and cinch it up “tight” to give her the feeling of being cinched, hopefully to make her ready for the time to saddle-up, get ready to ride.

I polished off Sunday afternoon, working with Travis (our horse trainer) and Misty mare in the round pen, working on quick turn maneuvers, and working my horse at a higher speed. I am still a bit light footed on the gittyup, with my broken ribs telling me to hang on. It made a good workout for both Misty and me for this day, and I realize we have a way to go together before we start chasing cattle around the ranch. Kittee had ridden Derby earlier in the day, so she just sit back and watched Misty and I during this workout.

Other than these big happening during the past week around the ranch, Saturday Kittee took Nugget out to a Women's (horsy club) Only trail ride/obstacle course outing. She said that Nugget was the champ of the day, taking the lead in most events, as well as being his usually horsy eye candy. That’s Nugget, it is hard to find a horse better that he. I looked long and hard to find that horse for Kittee. What a guy!

Now, as I get ready to close this blog positing I look outside the office window and see that we are once again covered with sunshine and clear blue skies.

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

Our northeast Oregon trout season comes to a close at dark on Saturday 10/31, so the balance of this week after my bus runs, I hope to be working in the backyard –river– inviting all the legal size trout I can find, back to the house for dinner.

And that’s the way it is... around the ranch these days.

Happy Trails --- Dale

Back in the saddle again

Daybreak Saturday 10-10

The past couple of weeks has once again been quite busy for Kittee and I. Kittee seems to be having trials in the State, Tribal, City of Pendleton, City of Milton-Freewater courts on a weekly basis. I have my daily bus runs a.m. and p.m., making sports trips out of town a couple of days a week, I have been trying to go fishing in the backyard at least once a week, and now I am back in the saddle again. These fishing outings and horseback riding really feel good, as I have been laying low, putting on weight since my horsey wreck of August 1st. Here my fishing friend Jan holds her last hook-up of the day. On Jan's last two catches of the day, I showed her my Ketchum Release tool, and she found it quite beneficial in not having to handle the fish we catch.

Anyways...

It was Saturday before last that Kittee and I awoke to a most rosey daybreak (see above) which made a beautiful start for our day. This day for breakfast we had some seasonal O'Henry peaches, some of our backyard walnuts, other special ingredients and a pat of butter in our bowls of hot oatmeal. Just like our apple bread French Toast, this breakfast too is much like having dessert to start the day. Today we planned to ride horses. Yep I had healed enough that I wanted to get on my gentle, sweet, Misty mare. Actually I was hoping to do this before October 1st, but with the rains and snow of the week before, my broken bones and back didn't feel like getting on a horse. Anyway, this day was the day to saddle up Misty and try my riding ability once again. In the warmth of the late morning, Kittee had been riding since just after breakfast, I brushed Misty off and tacked her up for a short ride.
This felt good, and once in the saddle I did not feel the broken ribs. That was a good thing.


Now it has been since August 1st that I was in the saddle on Nugget, and it was way back in June since Misty was under saddle, so we kept this outing rather short and sweet, mostly for Misty's sake, since I am sitting on her back sporting a big round gut these days. After our rides and lunch Kittee and I went down the river to a plum orchard and picked some more plum for ourselves and the herds. The weather forecast was for a hard freeze to be heading our way, so we knew those tree ripened plums were not going to last for long. That day we picked maybe 60 pounds of plums.

The next day, Sunday we were hoping to ride again, but the weather turned to gray and wet, then it turned cold once again... really cold for several days. So for Sunday we spent playing cards and watching a movie or two. This was our season's second cold snap, and overnight temperatures dropped into the lower 20's. Monday the skies had cleared but our irrigation system looked like this...
By Monday afternoon our clear blue, cold skies were turning gray again as I was taking a sport trip with the MacHi girls soccer team to Umatilla. It was a nice ride, but a bit chilly to sit out and watch the game.

The team once again played a good game, but when they came back to the bus everyone was covered with plenty of heavy clothing and many of the girls were wrapped in blankets. It was turning cold at 5:30 that day as we headed for a submarine sandwich dinner and our way home.

On Tuesday, I once again climbed into the M-F school's trip bus and made another trip to Umatilla, the day was cold and wet. But this time I was taking the Central Middle School girl's volleyball teams for a three match set of afternoon volleyball games inside the gym. We stayed much warmer on this outing, and the games were good and pretty even. Again, I think... this is not a bad way to earn extra money and pay for our horses' upkeep. As the ole saying goes... "The least expensive part of buying a horse, is buying a horse."

Now as we get back to this past weekend, the entire weather pattern has changed and once again life in Northeast Oregon is nice and balmy. This weekend our temperatures were in the low 70's with plenty of sunshine to go around. Saturday Kittee and I rode horses in the riverside arena and back pasture. This time I put Misty into a nice jog as we circled and wove the arena track. Gee do I feel that workout in my legs today. Kittee rode Nugget in the arena while I was prepping Misty to ride, then she cantered him through the pastures to put some wind in their faces. Saturday evening while playing cards and listening to NPR's A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor a guy came knocking at our door and presented us with a photo of the lower 18 acres spread of McKuster Ranch that had been taken from a helicopter this past early spring.

He did take some money for the photo, but we thought this was a nice picture of the place, less the bluff and our back of the river 60 acres of cattle range. I can see from this photo and also a few weeks ago while putting up No Trespassing signs that next spring I have a couple of pastures that need to be reseeded. But this past year was our seventh year at the ranch, so it is about time to re-groom some of our pastures, and I am still tweaking the irrigation system to cover most of this ground. Having a farm/ranch with livestock is an eternal job.

Sunday, we were just going to groom horses before Kittee had to get ready to make a trip to Eugene. Then our old next door neighbor came by and invited us up to his place and to pick apples and pears. So we closed up shop here at the ranch and headed up the river to visit with Rick and his family and pick fruit. We picked about two bushels of apples, two dozen pears for us and about two bushels of holey apples and pears for the herds. By the time we got back to the ranch it was time for Kittee to clean up / pack up and head down the trail to Eugene for an attorney's conference on Monday and Tuesday. This afternoon I hope to get in a little backyard fishing after my p.m. bus route, and the rest of the week I am making school bus sporting outing to Baker on Tuesday and to Pasco, WA and Pendleton, OR on Wednesday.... busy, busy, busy,

and that's the way it is, around McKuster Ranch these days --- Dale

PS. To answer your question... Where is Kittee in this picture of Dale going fishing in their backyard? Kittee is not fishing. Kind of sad tale as it was a fly fishing outing that brought us to our beloved McKuster Ranch to begin with. Kittee has not done any fishing since a sunny Sunday afternoon in June. Is there anyone out there that wants to go fishing with me???

There it is, our first snow of the season... burrr.

This morning as I was firing up the Double Deuce, I noticed that there was frost on the neighborhood pumpkins, our first of the season. We also found that we got our first dose of snow across the mountains, east of the ranch with yesterday's daybreak. Burrrrr, it's getting chilly. I understand talking with hunters at the coffee stop this morning that Tollgate received 6" of fresh snow this weekend.

This past week has been fairly busy for Kittee and I. Kittee had allot of court trial prep to get ready for; as this week she is in trial everyday, and I stayed busy prepping the ranch for the onset of winter, already.

Sunday morning after feeding the herds (For The Record - we started feeding hay on Saturday when the rain started and the temperatures begin to drop) Kittee and I spend half the morning watching it rain and playing cards with the cats...

or maybe I should say that I spent the morning playing cards with Kats.
The weather did break later in the day, with clearing skies and plenty of sunshine so Kittee and I went to a neighbor's plum orchard and picked maybe 30-35 pounds of plums for ourselves and the herds of horses and goats that live here. After pitching out maybe 6-8 pounds of honey sweet and juicy tree ripened plums to the horses, we then sat basking in the sun in the backyard and watched 10 mule deer strolling the backyard bluff. Since I knew deer hunting/rifle season was opening here on Saturday, and I spent part of last week posting all of our property with No Trespassing signs. So while watching the deer in our sanctuary, we noticed one doe's head and ears behind some rocks being stationary, (while all the other deer were moving all over the bluff's draw) we thought something might be wrong with her (maybe rifle/arrow wound) so we hiked to the back of our property to check out the situation. When we got to the top of the draw, we spotted 7 of the deer (six does and one buck) and they all moved off, around the face of the bluff together including that stationary doe, so we felt that all was well.

Friday and Saturday were winter weather prep days around the ranch. The weather forecast was for wind, rain to come into the area and snow to hit the mountains by Sunday morning. Friday I made sure that all our hay was tarped well and finished harrowing the rest of the pastures before some a.m. drizzle began to fall.

Thursday was a most pleasant day weather-wise here in Milton-Freewater. That morning it showed a threat of showers over the mountains, but after my a.m. bus run and some horse herd work, I headed into town to make a bus trip with the high school girls' soccer teams. We had 100 miles to go to the west for a full afternoon of soccer in Boardman next to the Might Columbia River. Nice dry country this time of the year in that desert area. I had the opportunity to sit back in my bus' driver's captain chair and watch two games of well played girls soccer. Got pretty exciting...


MacHi, has some of the best soccer teams (girls and boys) in the state, so as expected the varsity and JV teams both won their games. I found this to be a most enjoyable way to earn a living for this week.

Last Wednesday, a new Walla² Fly Fishers club member came out to the ranch and we fished for awhile after my early run bus route was finished. It was a pretty afternoon, but temperatures for the season had already begun to drop. That afternoon the air temperature was 64° and the water temperature was 46°, quite a change from the week before.

With the onset of the full moon, the drastic drop in air and water temperatures, Jan and I had a pretty slow fishing day. The river and atmosphere was beautiful, but with only one hook-up apiece and a hour and a half of 46° leaky wader experience, Jan was ready to call it a day. I didn't realize that she was persevering, getting her river legs, casting stroke timing in sync, and while hiking around with a cold wet foot. A tough little fly fishing lady, but she has fly fished Alaska, so she know what she is doing.

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

October Caddis season ~or~ Summer is 3 months old

For The Record ---

This afternoon was the first time I have been fishing since coming off Nugget and breaking ribs, puncturing a lung. It was a perfect early autumn fly fishing afternoon. Air temperature this afternoon around 4:00 was 84° and the water temperature was 52° - burrr - that was chilly upon stepping in up to my knees. Got used to the temperatures fairly quickly.

The last couple of days I have seen alot of October Caddis around the ranch and while driving up the river. I felt it was time to jump into the river and try out my back and fly fishing skills once again.

I found quite a few October Caddis flying over the river, but found no surface/ fish activity, so I started the p.m. fishing with a Copper John. I also found that the river bottom has reformed with alot of river rocks filling in the holes I have fished in the past. It wasn't too long that I found some pocket water and proceeded to hook a nice pan size redband rainbow.


This fish gave me a pretty good fight on the 1wt. as we fought up to the C&R. After letting this guy go back to swimming the river I worked my fly over a few more production hole that gave me no results. Then I came up to the big cross vain rock weir that we (CTUIR & BPA) put in the river a couple of years ago and begin catching fish right off the bat. As I cast my fly from right to left, below the boulders across the waterway I got pounded by a flying Hail Mary redband salmonoid football. This fish had to of been 13" maybe 14" or more. The fish hit my fly and ran to my side of the pool, I set the hook, it then ran back to the center of the pool, made a high flying leap through the air and shot downstream. As I turned the fish at the bottom of the pool and pointed it upriver, the hook with its micro-barb made a short rodeo as it went flying through the air. A nice quick fight with a weighty fish making a long line release, that was exciting. I plan to go back and look for him again soon.

From this point I move probably 1500' up river through McKuster Ranch waters looking for another nice pool to work. It has been two years since I cover this stretch of the river, and I now find that many of the pools I used to work through have filled with river rock. I finally got to a stretch of water that used to be a very fishy pool, now it is a 2' deep trough along the south bank, but held a number of nice trout.
After fishing this portion of the river I turned and began fishing downstream and caught about six more nice fish (8"-9"ers) in a bottom of the bluff trough, half way back to the house. So all in all by the time I was heading home having fished for about 3 hours I had caught maybe two dozen nice trout for the afternoon's effort. I was quite amazed at the river bottom's reconfiguration through the ranch's river way.
All fish today were caught on a Copper John and I witnessed no fish/October Caddis - dry fly surface action.


Today was Summer's three month birthday, gee is she getting larger/taller. Between my school bus runs I was able to get out to pasture and give her a good petting and lots of hugs, along with Goldie, Misty, Rosey, Kootenie, Raji, and Sunny. Not too much to say that a few picture can't tell about her and life around the ranch...

Summer 2009

1-week old

1-month old

2-months old

~~ 3-months old ~~

Gee, I love to hug and pet this little girl.

And that the way it is --- a day in the life, Dale

Round Up Week '09

I think I shall start this blog posting by backing up in time just a few years. Actually I will backup to September 9, 2001 - Round Up Sunday. It was a beautiful afternoon, we had lots of family and friends around Kittee and I when we went to the Breaks of the So. Fork Walla Walla River. There we did our "I do's." Since that time we have seen allot of comings and goings of family, friends and horses. We have had some very good times together with all.

This year we had a bit of a conflict with schedules on our September 9th anniversary date, so as we have a few times in the past, we declared Round Up Sunday to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

This year we again had a most beautiful day to head for the Breaks of the So. Fork and celebrate our day of eight years ago.

After having our berry hot cake and sausage breakfast, we proceeded out to the barn and pastures and visited with and fed / watered the herd. Then as the morning was getting quite warm, we loaded the car, went to town for some hard bread, cheese, and grapes. We were given a bottle of champagne by a friend earlier in the week. After getting our needs, we headed for the hills. It was a most pleasant ride heading up Hwy 204 and then riding through the forest out to the breaks. There we grabbed our "stuff" and headed out to the rock near where we were married. Really nothing has changed, as we hope it will always remain the same... for us.

We laid out our comforter over what appeared some very bumpy ground that was covered with hardened elk hoof prints. We popped our bottle of champagne and proceed to toast, relax and enjoy our day basking under the sun, with a cool breeze blowing over us. Here it was most comfortable with the breeze, as in the valley this day it was to be in the mid-90's.

This was pretty neat, being back in this place, laying out under the blue, blue skies with a great view of the Walla Walla, Snake, and Columbia River(s) valleys at our feet and hawk flying, screaming over our heads.

We spent about 3 hours at our wedding site this day and then decided to head back to the ranch for an afternoon of refreshment and relaxation with the herds. Going home we took the road through the back country - Lincton Mtn. Road which come out on Walla Walla River Rd. a few hundred yards from our home.

After settling in at the house we stirred up a couple of root beer floats for the afternoon refreshment and a little cool off. Yep, it was in the 90's when we got home. We took the afternoon to sit out in the backyard to watch horses.
It was cute to watch Summer and Jasmine scratch each others withers over the paddock fence. Summer is now slightly taller than 6 year old Jasmine and they are good pals.Wednesday, Kittee had business in Pendleton and our dear friends Ed and Bill were in La Grande on business and heading for Pendleton for dinner with Kittee and to watch the show at Happy Canyon. They were going to eat at the Pendleton's -City Center- Rainbow Cafe --- that is truly a relic from the past... cafe with greasy grill, bar, nicotine covered walls...

but when they found out that all they were serving for Round Up week was pre-packaged cold cut sandwiches and chips with beer or whiskey, they opted to go to dinner at Raphael's a truly fine eating establishment. There Kittee found a treat in her wild huckleberry martini.

After dinner they made it on to the Happy Canyon open air pageant for their evening's entertainment. I am sorry that I missed dinner at Raphael's, but I have seen the Happy Canyon show and since I had taking a bus load of kids to Pendleton earlier that day, I didn't feel the need to make another trip to town. Anyway, all plans were to go to Rodeo on Thursday.

Thursday, we met Bill and Ed at their motel room and headed for The Saddle restaurant for breakfast. They had spent the night in Pendleton to catch the flavor of Round Up week and this their first rodeo. Again it was so good to see these guys as we enjoyed a great breakfast at The Saddle complete with a red-beer for me and Bloody Marys for Ed and Bill. Mmmmmm good. After breakfast, Kittee being designated driver we headed for City Center and strolled the streets waiting for the "Let'er Buck" rodeo start time.

While walking the streets of Pendleton , we stopped at Hamley's for to view some of the high $$$ hometown saddles, arts and craft works housed there...

and this little jewel below sold right out from under Ed and Kittee's viewing for about 800 bucks.
















Wouldn't this statute make a fine mantle piece?

After looking over Hamley's saddle and western store, we headed for the World Famous "Let'er Buck" Pendleton rodeo...


From here I will share these pictures that Bill took of this occasion as he has a good eye and trigger finger for some great shot of...

Thursday's Party Time...
















Bareback bronc riders riding, and bouncing off the ground...


Indians racing...

You might notice, all Indian racers ride bareback... very fast

Cowboys roping...

Ed with his love for a pink Cadillac...

There were tribal leaders leading...

and portions of different tribes from the Pacific Northwest dancing...

There were the outstanding barrel racers running the course...




Now believe it or not, Bill and Ed went and spent some time in the Let'er Buck Room well equipped with bar-flies along the wall...

and playing grab ass with assorted lounge lizards in the hall.

After all the rodeo was said and done, everyone headed back to the ranch. Bill and Ed beat us getting home as Kittee and I stopped by her Pendleton office, so when we got home the guys had pulled out some avocados that Bill had brought back from Florida and quickly stirred up a wonderful guacamole dip to enjoy we all went out to our favorite Mexican dinner. Oh, Oh, I almost forgot; somewhere between the rodeo and sitting down for dinner our friend Miriam showed up in town and joined our party for dinner. After a delicious dinner the fellas went on to spend the night in Walla Walla. So they said... " we came expecting to have a good time at the Round Up, but it was much more entertaining than we had ever expected". They plan to return for next year's 100th Anniversary Special Show of the "Let'er Buck" rodeo.

I will be buying tickets in mid-October for the 2010 World Famous "Let'er Buck" Pendleton Round Up. If you would like for me to get you a ticket please RSVP --- asap.
North Grandstands has already SOLD OUT!!!

The rest of this year's Round Up week we spent with Miriam. She and Kittee headed for Pendleton on Friday to shop the town. She, Kittee and I on Saturday after breakfast breezed over to Walla Walla for her to shop the town. Sunday everyone just crashed and relaxed after breakfast until it was time about mid-afternoon for Miriam to hit the trail back to the Westside and her city life.

And that's the way is was around the ranch and in Pendleton during this year's Round Up Week.

Will you join us for the party next year?????