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!

Seasons of Life

Five weeks of our maze and pumpkin patch season came to a close yesterday.

There have been thousands of people on the farm, and the phone was constanting ringing asking questions about the maze. We've seen hot and muddy weather, changing to cool and dry.

Two fields of green leafy vines shading pumpkins has turned into two trampled brown barren grounds. The maze field has shrink in size, from frost and the pads of feet. A farmstead filled with over a hundred huge blooming mums, to a few ready for the compost pile. The buffalo are enjoying solitude again without the tramloads of people drifting by.

Think of the change in the season, from mid September to November tomorrow, and how fast time changes.

If I sound melancolhy, its because I've spent the afternoon writing the funeral program for an uncle that died this week. He went into the hospital the Friday before our season officially started, and died the day after it ended - the whole time fighting problems from emergency surgery and the complications that finally overcome his body.

The seasons of his life finally ended after over 80 decades. And how do you fit a life into 350 words to fit a 5.5 by 8.5 page?

He was a kind soul, and a gentleman, always thoughtful of his family and friends. Leland was a farmer and a nature lover, attuned to the birds giving song, the weather in the sky, and he enjoyed the beauty of the countryside around him. Leland explored local roads and national highways, visiting family, historical sites, and collecting family genealogy. He had a pilot’s license and was a member of the Flying Farmers of America. One of Leland’s favorite pastimes was having daily coffee with friends.

Except for a brief marriage that ended in her early death, he spent his years alone until having a special friend for last eight years. But his time was always filled with family, friends, and nature.

We relied on his keen memory of details and facts. And I can just here his "Well, Let's see now...." when we'd come to him for help.

I think I'll ask him for help now to finish his story.

'Bye Leland, 'bye Fall...

Muddy Maze

Rain, rain, go away, come again...in November!

We're booked solid with school field trips between now and the end of the month, and it's raining again today. Two local groups still came out between storms, but two big schools that were coming from a distance rescheduled.

Our first two weekends of the maze season were hot and windy, and then the weather changed. Now we're working around cool and wet days instead. We've had some weather perfect days for some schools, like yesterday. The groups rode the tram out to see the buffalo herd, each shot the pumpkin slingshot, and walked through the maze. And of course their biggest thrill is picking out their own personal pumpkin from the pumpkin fields.

Weather is to improve for Friday and Saturday, so we'll hope for the best.

The area United Way had scheduled a fundraiser out here last Friday, and had to postpone until this Friday because of the weather. Let's hope the weather cooperates for them this time. We're making buffalo chili and fresh fruit pies for the event, so visitors will have a great meal before they walk through the maze and venture into the Haunted Trail.

If you're coming out to our maze this weekend, except a little mud, and a lot of fun!

881 lb. Pumpkin wins Kansas Contest

Weekend Two of our maze and pumpkin season is over and I'm catching up today. Both weekends have been hot and windy, with beautiful Mondays the next day.
Crowds have been pretty good considering the weather. Attendance is usually light until the middle of the month when the temperatures cool down and people in the mood for fall decorations and halloween.
People have enjoyed our maze and theme, and spend a relaxing 3-5 hours on our farm to walk through the maze, do all the activities, and ride the Prairie Tram to see the buffalo herd. Many stay for a meal and then go through the maze again with a Glow Stick, and finish the night with the Haunted Trial.
We hosted the Official Kansas Giant Pumpkin Contest this last Saturday. How do you weigh a giant pumpkin? Very carefully, and with a skid loader! We had seven entries, ranging from an 881 lber from a seasoned grower, to a 52 lb. pumpkin grown in a little girl's garden. (She did great for her first year, and I think it weighed about as much as she did.)
The winning pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 881 pounds, but the contest was kind of bittersweet for all of us. A family was supposed to bring a bigger pumpkin, measuring to weigh over 1000 lbs, which would have been Kansas' first ever grown that large. But the family didn't show up, so we starting weighing the pumpkins, hoping they had some kind of delay and were just running late.

Turns out their pumpkin, plus their Kansas State fair winning entry was smashed by vandals. We felt so bad for them. The young daughter had won second place at last year's contest, so we knew of the family and were rooting for this big accomplishment.

There was an article about the contest, and the vandalism in the newspapers, so we all "made the news", but not how we had planned.

We growers always worry about the weather when tending to our giants, but not about someone smashing our summer's efforts. The family were able to save some seeds, so I hope they can grow a winner for next year's contest.