Buffalo Dan's Bison

When we purchased and installed our modest photovoltaic (solar electric) system last winter it made an incredible improvement to our quality of life on the ranch.  With it we are able to have enough AC power day or night to use a computer, recharge cell phones, operate the trailer heater, and many other things vital to functioning in a modern capacity. Because I was working a full-time job and had just acquired (rather traumatically ) my first 10 bison, I never had the opportunity to properly install all of the solar equipment.  Now that I am ranching full-time, I've finally gotten a chance to do a better job.  The following pictures illustrate these improvements.  My improvised outdoor housing for the batteries, charge controller, and inverter.  A truly sad arrangement, but it did keep the equipment dry.  A wooden pallet was stacked on top of the containers to keep them from blowing away in the wind.  The batteries and other equipment with the covers take

When I first saw this I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but, after some research, I determined that the bison in the above photo performed what is known as a flehmen response .  While at first this rather grotesque posture may in some ways resemble the famous photos of Hugh Jackman running on a beach, I assure you humans do not exhibit flehmening.   A flehmen response a form of olfaction (i.e. smelling something) using sensory organs other than the ones more frequently employed in normal olfaction.  As shown in the photograph below, when a bison uses its main olfactory system, it raises its nose and sniffs the air.  However, when a bison uses flehmening it will extend its face forward and raise its upper lip.  According to wikipedia, this response is often used to detect phermones. 

The breadaway arm after treatment with citrus degreaser.  The broken off part (upper right) has been lined up with the rest of the piece.  The other week while using my New Holland 451 sickle bar mower I inadvertently hit a post with the mower bar and broke a part in the mower called the "breakaway arm."  Based upon the way the breakaway arm is physically positioned in the mower it appears that it is not actually supposed to break.  Rather, the arm is designed to pop out of a spring loaded clamp and rotate in such a manor that sickle bar will swing backwards without being damaged.  Once the tractor is safely stopped, the bar can be swung back into place and the breakaway arm loaded back into the the clamp.  A close up of the broken portion.  The red-orange color is from rust.  When it was originally broken, the break appeared much more silvery or white, which could mean the part was made from white cast iron.  Based upon what I've read, white cast iron is not rep

 On thing American bison frequently like doing is rolling around, or wallowing, in dusty soil.  No one really knows for sure why but it is thought that it might help spread scent, control insects, and enhance social cohesion.  Our bison will usually wallow in just about any type of soil, but seem to prefer fine sand over clay and the dustier the better.  Getting photographs of a full-blown wallow wasn't easy as they usually don't wallow when I'm around. The typical wallow starts with the bison rolling on to one side from a sitting position. The roll continues untill both legs are up and off the ground.  I didn't get a photo of it during this roll, but the momentum of the roll is often great enough that, at its peak, all four legs are sticking straight out at an angle of between 45 and 90 degrees from the ground. The first roll completed and she starts into another one. Really grind that dirt into your fur.  You can see the legs sticking straig