Buffalo Dan's Bison

I've learned a few things about working with metal the hard way: 1) If you are using a MIG welder, make sure you have the polarity set correctly.  Having the wrong polarity really messes up the weld.  I welded together much of my welding cart this way before I realized I had the wrong setting. 2) Whenever I am using a bench-top grinder, an angle grinder, or a chop saw (basically anything that cuts off tiny slivers of metal), I now always wear a full face shield.  Initially I had been wearing protective glasses, but they did not provide enough protection and I eventually had to spend several hours (mostly waiting around) at the emergency room getting a tiny sliver of steel pulled out of my eye.  I now used a clear full face shield I purchased online for less than $20 and it is awesome.  I no longer have to worry about metal hitting my face, or my goggles slipping down.  The view is also a lot clearer. 3) Before doing any cutting, grinding, or welding, I now wear a respirator.  I

In anticipation of the manual labor that will be a key component of the new business, I've been purchasing a number of clothing items traditionally worn for such jobs.  From a farming/working perspective, these items are excellent.  Take, for example, a pair of leather fencing gloves I purchased for handling fencing wire.  They are well-fitted, double-stitched, and tough, which is prefect to protecting your hands from being ripped open by the extremely sharp ends of fencing wire. However, while these items serve a truly useful roll, they are often less than stellar in the fashion realm.  Chief among them has to be brown bib overalls, which I am now declaring the new Anti-Sexy.  Move over coffee-breath and flatulence, because you have a new king.  You could have finely chiselled abs and a well-tone ass and no-one would be the wiser if you were wearing brown bibs.

Right now my wife and I are in the process of searching for suitable land to set up our bison operation.  This is a long tedious process that involves a lot of boring meetings with mortgage people, appraisals, and coordination with numerous other parties.  My mind isn't as wired for these types of things as my wife's mind is, so I mostly sit quietly and nod.  It's not that I'm unable to reason about financial or contractual matters, it's more that I find it excruciatingly boring and trust her completely.  I've found that, as our marriage has progressed, we've developed an ever more pronounced division of labor. Anyway, in an effort to reduce long term business costs and increase my self-reliance, I decided to teach myself welding.  A lot of farm equipment will eventually need repair and some of the basic items can be fabricated, so, in the long run, I think this is an important skill to have. After considerable reading and You Tube research,

Trying to find leasable land for bison in the eastern United States has not been easy.  First, I've got nothing against the people who have responded to my ads.  They've mostly been nice decent people and in most any other situation I'd probably enjoy working with them.  However, when you're trying to start something like a bison herd, which requires a lot of coordination on many different fronts, some of my experiences have been trying. Consequently, I've decided that, for starting a herd, I'm better off owning my first few acres of pasture than leasing them. 

Trying to start-up a business is very busy.  Since Friday, I've met with a prospective pasture "lessor", met with an attorney, registered as a business, met with a CPA, begun formalizing a leasing agreement, begun planning for fence installation, and started the bison buying process. An interesting thing I've observed is that when you're starting your own small business, the pace at which many things move is very much up to you.  This has both a good side and a bad side.  On the one hand, you don't have to sit around waiting for the bureaucracy of a large employer.  On the other hand, you can very easily burn yourself out.  This is sometime I will have to work at self regulating. 

This is my first blog entry for what I hope will be a successful effort to start raising my own bison.  My intention is to start out with a small herd of 5 to 10 young bison on about 40 acres of leased land in the eastern US and, based upon how things go, expand from there.  Part of my reason for doing this is that I've realized that I'm getting older and may not be able to start something like this when I'm ready to retire.  I made this realization about a year and a half ago I became very ill with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. During my recovery, I realized that nothing in the future is certain and if I were ever to try to do something significant in my life, I had to start doing it now.  So, after a year and a half of research, planning, and saving money, I'm ready to give it a try. Currently, I'm in the process of searching for pasture to lease at a reasonable rate.  I've looked at a couple of places already, but they were either overpriced or too small.