Christmas Eve at the Bison Farm

It's Christmas eve and we're back to sun again after the most recent Saturday snow storm.

The herd just came in for water and are roaming back to the Sudan pasture. Christmas Eve is just another day to them.

Christmas orders that people placed with Smoky Hill Bison have been shipped and all tracked as delivered. I have another group of boxes to ship out on Wednesday, but for two days, we have quiet time on the farm.

Our family started celebrating Christmas last night with one group of relatives, and will continue with more family for the next two days. We celebrate with Swedish foods, gift giving and plenty of chocolate and ice cream! Tomorrow morning at 6:30 am we'll go to our annual Swedish church service called Julotta. Then it's back to check water tanks when its daylight, and to wish the animals Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays to everyone- from all of us at the Bison Farm!

Kansas ice storm

The world glistened outside after an ice storm hit the state Monday night...after an evening thunderstorm that dropped almost three inches of rain first. Trees and power lines and poles were no match for Mother Nature, so we've spent the week waiting for the sun to come out to thaw our icy world, and for the power company crews to make their way out to us in the country.
Then we got nine inches of snow on Friday night. But at least it didn't drift, like the western part of the state.
I'm very glad to say that we got electricity, phone and internet back on today! (I really missed my microwave, and the internet.)
When I was growing up in the 1950-60's we used the kerosene lamps every now and then, so we cope even now when power goes out. It's just the way it is here in the country- but usually we're only out for a few hours, not five days.
It wasn't good timing during the busiest shipping weeks of the year, but we coped and now ready for this shipping week.
I'm grateful for all the people trying to get our electricity back on in Kansas. They are working around the clock in cold slippery conditions to get homes and businesses running again.

Buffalo on Ice

I meant to write the title "Ice on Buffalo", but actually "Buffalo on Ice" is appropriate today too. We're getting a slow freezing drizzle, which is coating everything from roads, pasture grass, to the buffalo themselves. It's just plain bad weather to be out in today.

Verne put out more hay for them, so you can see that the herd is enjoying some food that isn't ice incrusted at the moment. But the buffs are made for this kind of weather, so we don't have to worry about them like the cattlemen do about their herds.

Their thick coats are keeping them warm, and their powerful heads and feet will break off the ice so they can get down to the grass.

It's very slick driving today, and events are being canceled by radio and TV news. By chance we don't have a company party scheduled here in the Visitors Center this evening, so we don't have to cancel it.

This afternoon I'm typing invoices for Monday and Verne is packing them. It's nice that we can get website orders in, and not have to depend on gift shop sales. (We still have a good stock of Bison Snack Boxes at www.BisonFarm.com ready to ship if you need some quick holiday gifts...)

So far the electricity has stayed on so the ice isn't too thick on the electric lines in the area. If so, we'll be cut off frm our power. We do have back-up generators for the walk-in freezer though if that happens.

The bad weather is predicted to last several days so we may be in for quite a storm, but that can be expected out here on our Kansas prairie...