Animals Make Me Happy

 
Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.   -- John Muir 
This is our cat, Magic Storm.  She is about 10 months old and has been with us for about eight months.  Magic Storm, who has big, green eyes and is small for her age, doesn’t meow like other cats – she chirps and squeaks to let us know what she wants.



We also call her Laundry Cat because if there’s a pile of clean laundry anywhere to be found, she’s on it.        





Our other cat, Tabitha has been with us for about four years.  She apparently knows I want to take her picture because she’s nowhere to be seen.  Tabitha is a big, beautiful blue-eyed girl who has a tiny voice like a kitten and almost never misbehaves.  However, she’s not crazy about Magic Storm, and she shows her displeasure by peeing in my closet.  [Update:  I finally have a picture of Tabitha.  She doesn’t like the flash so she kept squinting, but you can see see a bit of her blue eyes.]  

This is a baby bison.  When we start our ranch, we anticipate starting our herd with about a dozen female bison calves.  These calves will grow up and become the foundation for our larger, growing herd.  Bison are wild animals and cannot be “tamed” in the same way cattle or sheep have become domesticated. 





Some experienced bison ranchers advise handling and hand-feeding the calves that are the first members of the herd to establish trust.  These female calves will grow up to become the leaders of the herd from which the others will take their cue.   If the dominant females trust us, then the rest of the herd will follow suit.



We plan to have six free-ranging chickens on our ranch, just enough to provide eggs for our family.  If you’re city-raised like me and you’ve never touched a chicken, you might be surprised at the silky softness of their feathers.   Raising chickens should be an easy task, but I wonder whether Tabitha and Magic Storm will want to catch and eat them.  Tabitha has brought us many small animals:  mice, snakes, lizards, birds, and even a mole.  Will she also hunt chickens?


I like goats; they’re cute, funny, and full of personality, which is why one of the first things Page said about our new ranch is that we will have a couple of goats. 


Page and I plan to raise our bison with love and respect.  We will name each and every one of them, learn about their personalities,  and provide the best possible environment for their growth and happiness.  Yes, in the end, they will end up as someone’s nourishment, but there are methods for this to happen that are humane and respectful of the bison’s place in the natural world.  Page and I have already discussed this and are learning about stress-free and painless techniques for harvesting bison, which I will eventually describe in this blog.  These techniques, and every other aspect of our business, will be a reflection of our overall vision for our new venture.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.   --Mohandas Gandhi

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The Promise of Minnie Jewel

How many people do you know who are living the life they truly want to live, the one that would most bring them fulfillment as well as peace?  Personally, I know very few, maybe even none.

When I was a kid, my mom told me that if she had been a man she would have learned to fly airplanes.  Now, you have to understand that as a nine-year-old who'd seen her mother constantly set aside her own needs to cater to her family, this was a revelation so stunning as to be practically unbelievable.  My mother, flying an airplane?  She didn't even get her driver's license until she was in her 30s.  Even so, I could see by the way she said it that she meant it, and I never forgot it.

My mom grew up in a time (the 30s) and a place (rural Arkansas) where becoming a pilot was a huge dream for anyone, much less a girl who was one of twelve kids and a farmer's daughter.  But, I know that had she seen it as a real possibility instead of an unattainable fantasy, she could have easily done it because my mom is that smart.

Our moms influence our lives in so many ways, so when Page and I were thinking about a name for our new venture, it was natural that we thought of our moms.  Page's mother was in many ways the polar opposite of mine -- fiery, gregarious, hot-tempered -- a temperament one might expect from a direct descendant of the McCoy side of the famous feuding Hatfields and McCoys.  But, in the same way that my mom's quiet, nurturing nature shaped me, his mom's more demanding love made him strong and resilient.

So, with all that in mind, we chose a name for our new undertaking to honor them and to bless our new venture with their different, but equally influential, spirits.  To our moms, Minnie Henrietta Eudora McCoy and Lola Jewel Cassady, we give you our love and our future:  the Minnie Jewel Buffalo Ranch.

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Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

Before I started this blog, during my readings about buffalo I came upon a story about Native American hunters and their mythological relationship to bison.  According to this article, some Native Americans believed that bison were spiritually aware of their interconnection with humans and that a bison would "give itself up" to a hunter who honored and respected that connection.  Accordingly, Native Americans were respectful of the bison's gifts:  flesh for nourishment; hair for ropes; skins for blankets, moccasins and clothing; and bones and horns for tools, bowls, and spoons.

Our modern culture does not have that close connection to its animal food sources, and it shows in how we treat them.  As I began reading about the current state of bison ranching, I saw that people who raise bison for food and other products generally fall into two camps:  cattle-rancher types who have taken modern techniques and processes for raising and harvesting cattle and applied them to bison; and naturalist types who strive to provide a natural, stress-free environment for their bison, as free as possible from human interference.

In the cattle-rancher model, the bison are treated solely as commodities and so, like cattle, are grain fed while living in confinement for three months prior to their slaughter, to fatten them up.  In the naturalist model, bison roam freely within the confines of the ranch and feed on a variety of pasture and natural grasses, with quality supplemental food offered only during the winter as needed.

I already knew which type of rancher I wanted to be, but I wasn't so sure about my farm-raised, beef-loving partner, Page.  Since we had never actually discussed it, I started wondering if Page and I would have the same values and philosophy about how we wanted to conduct ourselves as ranchers -- our effect on the environment, the care and respect for the animals, and how to balance that with the need to earn money while doing it.  Page and I often poke fun at each other's political and philosophical leanings:  I'm a bleeding-heart, animal-loving, tree-hugging liberal and he's a selfish, hard-line conservative capitalist.  We joke because we know that neither of these stereotypes suits us, even if there is a small grain of truth to each of them.

So, it was with just a little trepidation that I broached the subject with Page.  I described what I'd learned about various methods and philosophies for raising bison and how those methods affected the quality of the meat and the quality of life for the bison.  I tried not to express an opinion one way or another, although I'm sure Page could guess where my feelings would lie.  I even pointed out that some of the ranchers who favor grain feeding say it makes the buffalo meat tastier and more tender.  I paused and waited for a response, hoping that this would not be something that we would have to hash out.

Page turned to gaze out the window as he considered what I was saying, and without looking at me he said "You know, when they do that [referring to grain feeding], it's to fatten 'em up so they weigh more; it doesn't make 'em taste better."  I was encouraged by this response, but still unsure, so I followed up with "so what do you think about grass feeding only?" This time, Page turned and grinned at me; he knew what was going on and was chuckling at my liberal earnestness; my heart started to sink, as I anticipated some smiling but rather callous response about how we're going to be in business and we can't worry about stuff like that.  Instead, he said "I think that's the way to go.  People care about that nowadays."  Turns out that not only does Businessman Page see grass-fed bison as the wave of the future, but he also cares about the effect of our actions on the environment and the well being of the animals.

Happily, one perceived obstacle, that turned out not to be an obstacle, was out of the way.  At that moment, I knew that our venture was another step closer to becoming real, because my partner and I shared a vision that included care and respect for the natural environment and our place in it.

For more information about the benefits of grass feeding, read Grass-Fed Basics by Jo Robinson.

Buffalo Dream Catcher - Home

The idea

It all started in a cardiologist’s waiting room. My fiance’, Page, was paying a visit to Karen, the lively physicians assistant who knew just how to talk to a southern-born man. It had already been determined through an angiogram that Page’s arteries were clear, but we were here to find out the results of further testing, to figure out why he sometimes still had trouble breathing.

I picked up a magazine, the name of which I no longer remember, but it was oversized and had lots of beautiful photography. Page was also reading and discovered, to his delight, that his weight gain over the past two years was simply because he was happily living with me -- a recent study had said so. Of course, this is Page’s interpretation, which he was thrilled to share with me.

After a few laughs over that one, I thumbed through the magazine, skimming articles until I came across one written by a man who had converted his cattle ranch to buffalo. The bison are native to North America and he soon discovered that raising them was easier and more natural than raising cattle. They had evolved to live in the Prairie, where his ranch was located, and removing the cattle and adding the buffalo had brought new life to his ranch. The native grasses and flowers were returning, along with wildlife that hadn’t been seen for a long time.

By the time we were called to Karen’s exam room, the few paragraphs I had read had captured my imagination, and were still lingering in my thoughts while I focused on Page’s breathing problems (he had asthma), medications, and Karen’s admonitions about diet and exercise.

On the ride home in the car, I mentioned the article to Page. Page and I had, over the few years we’d been together, casually discussed moving to the country, even having a very small farm, but never in great detail or with any actual plan to do so. Money was tight, since Page was no longer working full time. But something about the idea of owning and raising buffalo had lit a tiny seed of desire within me. I’ve wanted to live in the country for a long time. I was raised in a small town, but I am not a country girl by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve never experienced the hard work needed to keep a farm running, and I know next to nothing about it. But, the idea has always felt right to me. Now, my thoughts kept returning to the buffalo. I knew enough about them to know that their meat is much healthier than beef. And I knew enough about Page to know that he might like the idea of raising buffalo. He grew up on a farm in Florida and knew about animals, farms, and hard work. Page has always been a nonconformist, and I had a hunch that raising buffalo, instead of something more ordinary like cows or pigs, would appeal to his adventurous side. I was right; he kind of liked the idea. But, for now, that’s all it was: a crazy idea.

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