Buffalo Dan's Bison

Jess and I initially had high hopes for late winter bison calving this year, but we're now not sure what to expect.  As mentioned in previous posts a bison herd can technically have two breeding seasons (based upon what I've read).  A major one in late summer and a minor one in early spring.  Gestation lasts about nine and one half months with calves born in either late winter or spring depending on the date of conception. The vulgar (from a human perspective) act of urine sampling was a common sight last spring. Though we'd never actually witnessed the bison engaging in the "act" ("it" doesn't last very long for bison from what I've heard), our hope for late winter calves this year had been inspired by our older bull's behavior last spring.  At that time the bull's mind seemed to have become clouded with a single-minded interest in the females.  Most of his time was spent actively courting and urine sampling and anything that cam

The tractor sporting its newly fabricated forklift attachment with detachable lights and the generator and welder in the foreground.  This is a major improvement over the bucket fork attachment I had previously fabricated .  While the previous attachment did work, it exerted too much concentrated force on the blade of the bucket and eventually caused damages that needed specialized repairs.  Also, because the loader bucket remained attached in the previous design it was much harder to actually see how the fork was positioned from my seat in the tractor.  As a bonus I've added a place to attach detachable lights on the forklift.  This allows the tractor to double as a light tower at night.   Recently I moved the welding equipment I use for ranch work from my garage in northern Virginia to my ranch in southern Virginia.  This move was made possible by the purchase of a shipping container, which provides me with a place to store an electric generator needed to power much of the we

In spite of the ever increasing size of many of the bison females there are still no definite signs of impending labor.  I will, of course, immediately post an update if a calf should appear. 

 In a previous post on setting up a water distribution system I discussed the installation of an underground water storage tank with reference to the future installation of buried water distribution lines.  This current post documents the installation of our first buried water line which runs about 800 feet downhill from the water storage tank to a frost-free hydrant near our camper and work area. Many places sell attachments that enable subsoilers to bury pipe, but, because they are very simple in design, I decided to build my own. This photo shows the entire apparatus (above ground) with the plastic pipe inserted.  I later found it to be more effective to have the pipe uncoiled and laid along a course parallel to the tractors anticipated path.  This eliminated the need to stop and move the coil every so often and reduced the likelihood of kinks in the pipe.  Initially I had constructed the pipelayer to have some freedom of movement (left).  However, I later opted to make