Buffalo Dan's Bison

Me working on the fencing in an idyllic pastoral setting. It's been six months since I resigned from a very stable government career to pursue bison ranching full-time and I thought it would be a good idea to take a moment to reflect on my decision. I had written a whole bunch of stuff on this topic, but then decided to cut most of it and keep things simple.  Do I regret the decision to make such a radical change in my life course? No. Do I think it was the right thing for me to do? Probably, yes. Is my life better now than before? Yes, definitely.   Am I a more cheerful person surrounded by sunshine and rainbows all the time? No.  A number of people from my old job had this idea that I would be living some idyllic rural lifestyle.  I never had this misconception.  I grew up in the country and had already worked on the ranch for over a year.  When I'm at the ranch I'm almost always working hard on something and it is rare that I am not in some way suffer

Our target date for picking up our new bison bull is January 3rd, which isn't soon enough for our all female bison herd.  In addition to the three-year-old bull, will also be getting two bull calves.  Each will have a separate compartment in the trailer during transport. Last year we had set up the temporary electric portion of our fencing using untreated pine logs.  These have now been replaced by more reliable pressure treated posts.  Below are photos of the replacements starting from the northernmost portion of the temporary fencing. The new posts (left) were first install next to to old posts, then each wire was transferred.  Once all the wires were transferred the old brace was disassembled, the old posts were pulled, and the holes filled in.  The final phase of transferring the wires and pulling the posts is the most exhausting because once you start you usually can't stop until you're finished. The next brace was an inside corner brace.  Then an outsid

After we posted our ad for a bison bull in the NBA member's forum, we received a large number of reponsed and have found a seller in Texas with a bull that we intend to purchase.  In preparation for the transportation of the new bull we've been adding a few upgrades to our equipment. As mentioned in a previous post, Delta cattle trailers don't come with a painted bottom unless you ask for it.  I didn't know I had to request it when I ordered the trailer and only recently noticed the problem when I happend to look under the trailer.  Yesterday, I finally finished sanding and painting the underside of the trailer.  That was a very hard job, which I never never intend to do again.  I used an angle grinder with a wire wheel to scrape away all of the rust.  This took about two days of intermittent work.  I wore leather gloves, a respirator, and a face shield, but still manage to injure myself when I briefly and stupidly lost control of the angle grinder, which b