Winter Coats

We had our first measurable snowfall this week, so of course I was out taking pictures of the buffalo in the snow. It's always fun to watch the calves discover what "the white stuff" will do when they kick up their heels and run. We only got a couple of inches of snow, so it's now melted and back to our winter brown landscape. There is a chance of freezing rain and snow coming in this weekend though.

This time of year the buffalo are warm and wooly in their winter coats, roaming the pasture at will. They walk by the window of my office in the Visitors Center twice a day to get a drink of water from the winter water tank that’s behind the building.

And inside, we're typing up holiday orders on the computer and occasionally putting on our winter coats because we're going in and out of the walk-in freezer as we pack Christmas meat orders.

Have you started your Christmas shopping? Please look through our website and shop! We’d appreciate your orders and we’ll get them sent our right away!

Buffalo's Pumpkin Pie

Weather changed from the temps. in the 70's to the 30's in one swift hour on Tuesday. Now it feels like winter and I envy bull Takoda's thick winter coat. He was enjoying his version of Thanksgiving "pumpkin pie" in this top photo.

The young bulls have been using the paths through the maze field to roam their winter food supply, and stay out of the chilly wind.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with family at our local community dinner, then visited in the afternoon.

I'm not a big shopper, so Friday I headed to the pasture office instead of town. I didn't want to mix with the early morning shoppers looking for the big Christmas sales.

This weekend I'm gearing up for your holiday orders, updating the shopping cart, checking the steak stock, etc. (Got your order in yet for gift buffalo sampler boxes? Please do so soon before we run out of steaks!)

I also have had several visitors stopping by the Gift Shop to pick up meat and see the buffalo too. It's not often someone from Hawaii can see buffalo, especially eating their version of pumpkin pie! That only happens at the Smoky Hill Bison Visitors Center!

The bulls are home!

The bulls are home!

Verne and help put up temporary cattle panels in the summer pasture and lured the yearling bulls inside with range cubes. These bulls have been in the summer pasture since May, enjoying native grasses, two ponds and the solitude of nature.

Every couple of weeks we'd give them a taste of cubes, working toward the day we'd catch and bring them back home.

This year it worked like a charm, and they were moved back to the homestead by trailer. The bulls were unloaded into the maze field so now they are roaming the paths like our visitors did this earlier this fall.

Pumpkins that have been decorating the farm's landscape have been gathered up and thrown in the maze field too. The buffs will enjoy them for a sweet treat to go with the Sudan Grass.

Now I can look out my office window and watch their antics as the bulls run full blast, storming in and out of the maze paths.

It's fun to watch them stomp and munch the pumpkins too, always looking for their favorite varieties, rolling aside the types they don't like until they run out of the sweet pie pumpkins.

They will be eating "Thanksgiving pumpkin pie" for the next month!

Cleaning up after Fall

We're enjoying beautiful calm weather this week, but the atmosphere is anything but calm as everyone in our farming township is trying to get outside projects done before the weather changes.

The neighborhood roads and fields are busy as farmers are hauling cattle home from summer pastures, putting chopped feed in silos, and cutting the last of the soybeans and milo. out of the fields.

While it's calm today, Verne is taking down the last of the maze signs, scarecrows, and stacking picnic tables that we used for outside seating during our maze season.

His next job is putting fencing back in place that was temporarily moved for activities like the pumpkin slingshot and corn cannon. (People shoot at targets in the pasture with ears of corn and mini pumpkins.) The buffalo use that stretch of fenced lane to move between sections of pasture so it needs to go back to it's original posts.

Right now the herd is enjoying their first taste of Sudan Grass, which is sweet and good winter food.

And we're having an end-of-the-maze season party tomorrow night so employees can celebrate, go over the past fall weekends, and plan ahead for next year.

I'm taking breaks to work outside, but I'm still catching up inside with computer work, and packing up things we don't need until next fall season.

The holidays are just around the corner, and we'll be gearing up for holiday orders next.

Whether is milo harvest for my farming neighbors, or meat internet orders for our ag business, the seasons are switching gears and we're all scurrying to beat the weather!