Buffalo Dan's Bison

A female bison laying down to wallow in the dry sandy soil.  The lighter colored thick winter fur is starting to fall off around her head and neck indicating the start of the bison shedding season.  Soon all the bison will begin to look shaggier than normal as the old hair starts to fall off.  Our older bull (foreground) has started shedding as well.  He is still the king of the pasture, but in a few years the younger bulls (background) will grow into a formidable opponent. 

The mower last summer before restoration (left) and after restoration (right). After months of work, I've virtually finished restoration of my New Holland 451 sickle bar mower.  With the exception of two guard plates which are being repainted the correct color, the entire mower has been completely restored and is now in full working condition. The first test run of the newly restored mower.  It cuts grass wonderfully.  Initially my plan had been to take apart only some sections of the mower for reconditioning, but the more I disassembled the mower the more I saw that needed repair.  Some of the bolts were so old and rusted that they literally broke off while I was trying to remove them.  Other bolts were missing and still others nearly worn through.  Basically the entire mower was ready to fly apart at a moments notice.  Had I known in advance the amount of work required to carry out this restoration I would probably have opted to just buy a new mower, but I sure di

 Every once in a while I like to post an update on how I use computer and electronic technology to assist with my agricultural pursuits.  Previous posts on technology were not explicitly called out as such and were often mixed with other, non-technical things.  In an effort to improve the organization and searchability of my posts, I've decided to more clearly distinguish such posts in the future.  This current post represents my first technology post. The main advancement I've made recently has been the resolution of a surveillance system software glitch that has plagued me since I first began using the system over a year ago.  For unknown reasons, the system would from time to time decide to stop sending surveillance and security information and refuse to accept any remote commands.  During these times only a manual power reset would enable the system to resume normal operations.  Needless to say that was not an acceptable situation.  Because the malfunction had bothe