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Ellisville Bison Dispatch |
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Since snowmobiling won’t be a very hot topic for the next few months, I thought it might be a good time to give the newsletter a fresh look and direction. There’s never a dull moment around buffalo, and I thought you might enjoy reading about ranch life to pass these summer months.
The recent warm spell spurred outside work as any day which can be spent outdoors is not to be wasted. First was the lawn. Hate thatching? How would you like to haul off a couple loads of this every spring? We filled this 20 foot trailer twice from my 1 acre lawn. Afterwards, I spread fertilizer with the 4-wheeler.
Next came the pastures. We drag them every spring to break up the old manure and stimulate new growth. It also cleans up twine, wire, rocks, trash, anything which doesn’t belong in a pasture. Here’s mom doing the East pasture. After we were done there, I went to Jodi’s to do the horse pastures. It was too wet for my heavy John Deere tractor, so I ended up doing it with the garden tractor. Even at that, there were spots I couldn’t go. Here’s a picture of me and my helper, Dora.
We almost lost Dora. She’s an Australian Blue Heeler and it’s their nature to herd animals. She loves messing with the horses and took a good kick to the head one evening. She was out cold, blood everywhere, and I thought we had lost her. But by the next evening, she was chasing horses again. Lucky we were there to get her out of the pasture, away from the horses. She’s one tough dog!
With the pastures and lawns done it was time to clean up the manure pile. The buffalo eat from a bunk feeder all winter, so the manure gets pretty deep around there. During the freezing winter months, it’s impossible to clean up, so after the spring thaw there’s always a generous pile to be hauled away. Here’s Landon hauling off manure with the Bobcat.
While we’re putting snowmobiles away, now’s the time to get motorcycles out. I taught my first motorcycle riders course of the 2005 season in 80 degree weather. The following weekend it snowed. That’s April in Wisconsin for you!
While the weather was nice Jodi hauled rocks for her flower garden. We layed them all out and filled the bed with topsoil. I’ll post some pictures after the flowers are started.
And….the 2005 calves started coming in! First one was born on April 19th, another over the weekend while we were at the Minnesota Horse Fair, and the 3rd on Monday the 25th. The weather has become more “seasonal” which means it’s time to tackle those jobs around the garage, barn, and basement, somewhat sheltered from mother nature. I’ll tell you more about these next time……
Larry |
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April 28, 2005 |
