YCGL - Friday, June 16, 2023 - Day 2a - Harrisburg, NE - Up Close and Persoal

 I slept well Thursday night.  That's always good on the first night out.  

Drove across the border into Nebraska and stopped in Mitchell.  Had lunch and some stops there, but got a text from the Rocky Hollow Buffalo Company (my next Harvest Host) that the ranch tour was going to take place and when could I get there.  I was able to get down there and parked in my spot  by 2:30.

The owner and another couple and I took off in the ATV to go out into the pasture where the herd was located.  He has six pastures he can alternate with.  I was sitting shotgun and the couple were in back.  

We came up over a rise and met the first of the bunch, three younger bulls.  They were inching up on us until Fred showed up.  Fred is alpha bull.  Fred is very big.  Fred weighs about 1450 pounds.  Here's Fred.

Fred starts to come up to us and we leave.  We'll see more of him later.  

We have treats to give the bison.  It is a compressed distiller's grain pellet.  It must be pretty good.  I haven't tasted it yet, but they seemed to like it.  This is a typical piece.

The bucket with the treats is on the floor of the front seat of the ATV.  Note: there are no doors, there are no side straps, there are obviously no seat belts.  Just to give you a hint, a bison's head fits in the door openings.  

Part of our safety check out was informing us to keep our heads and bodies inside the cab.  And when an animal sticks its head in, lean back away from it.  And don't try to pick up a treat if you dropped it.  You don't want to get between a bison and a treat its going after.  

We didn't feed Fred.  We drove away from the bulls and into the herd.  (I won't tell the joke about the herd of cows that was put in a rocket and fired off into orbit.  They were the "herd shot around the world."  Sorry Emerson.)  The herd was mostly females and calves.  The calves were born in April and May.  

This is Sweetness.  Sweetness followed us around and stuck her head in whenever we stopped.  She could get most of her head into my lap.  That was quite exciting.  

Her ear-tag is I90.  She seems to be in most of my pictures.  Notice her horns and the mirror.  We've been warned that they can get their horns stuck in the mirror or the hand grip.  They don't like that and can get agitated.  You don't want 1000 pounds of bison agitated in your lap. 

Just so you know.  

There are other animals in the herd.  There were about 10 calves.  They are still wary of this weird machine and the ugly bison sitting in it, passing out light colored tootsie rolls.  They don't come close and run when you do.  

Fred taking a dust bath to get rid of flys.  

Or just rolling around because it feels good.  

Smacking a lady on the nose to get  her to back up.  I generally wouldn't recommend it for most people.

"Building strong bodies in 12 ways."  (I think that was Wonder Bread.)  The calf nudged its way in to the wanted spigot and almost lifted her off the ground.  Feisty little fellow. 

All I can say is if those idiots in Yellowstone want a picture of their babies riding on the back of a buffalo, they've got a heck of a lot better chance here than there.  But I still wouldn't want to try it.

Ok, I've been joking about this whole thing.  It is so mind boggling to be in a herd of bison and being accepted by them.  Its hard to explain, though maybe its fairly obvious.   It was an incredible, unique experience.  

And I'll admit, by the time I got back to the trailer, I was exhausted.  My adrenalin rush crashed.  I tried to log on and I only had one bar on my phone and none on my hot spot device.  I fell asleep and took a nap, woke up, microwaved some chicken enchiladas I had sealed and frozen.  And went to bed.  I got 10 hours of bed time last night.  I needed it.  

I got up this morning, walked around a bit and then took off for home.  I'm here tonight and getting stuff for Minnesota packed up.  I'm taking a couple of days to get there, and will meet up with family on Thursday night and then head over to Windom and see the classmates before the Reunion on Saturday.  But there'll be more to tell along the way.  

"And as the sun sets slowly in the west,...."