Hi everyone –
(note – pictures and videos are somewhat graphic)
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=602181234948727571/l=471113240/g=88767098/cobrandOid=1000131/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lkhanson&view=videos
Thanks again for all those who participated in the 2009 Spring Buffalo Harvest, and for all those who have participated in the past.
Following is a synopsis of the harvest this year –
I drove to Pryor, Montana, on Tuesday the 3rd of February, and, through a series of mishaps (wife being sick and needing vitamins – Vitamin Cottage not opening until 9:00 AM, trying to pick up the trailer and realizing that my buddy had my hitch pin and needing to go buy a new one, trying to use my credit card and finding out that it expired and I needed to go back home and retrieve/activate my new one), I didn’t get out of town until 12:30 PM. For a 9-10 hour drive, I really wanted to leave at 4:00 AM. But, 8 hours later, there I was, just passing 6th Avenue and I-25 close to downtown Denver.
Otherwise, the drive was uneventful. I arrived at Tana’s around 9:30, I passed Joe and Tana their ceremonial tobacco, and we discussed a little bit about the next day, and went to sleep.
The next morning, 5:00 AM, we set the equipment out to be smudged, and proceeded to perform Pipe Ceremony. We then waited for Tana’s friend Jerry, who is a plant specialist, and has made many improvements to Tana’s land by planting native grasses and shrubs. He was assisting in the harvest and representing a client who wanted a buffalo mount. With him came the nationally-recognized Don Keever, a local taxidermist, and his father, Charlie, as an assistant. Don runs the Anglers and Antlers taxidermy shop. I would include their website, but they’re going through ISP issues right now…
So, they arrive, Tana smudges us and the equipment, and we head out onto the land.
Joe originally thought that we were going to have to go way over to a section of land called “The Moccasin” – as that was where the buffalo were hanging out. It’s an area on the far-south of Tana’s house, and we would have to cross neighbor’s fields to get there. However, the day I drove up, the buffalo moved over to the pasture just over the hill from the house, in the area close to “Turtle Pond.” They were waiting at the gate, wanting to get in. Joe let them in and they were waiting there the morning of the harvest. At the end of this summary, Joe has a further adventure at Turtle Pond that I included for your enjoyment.
We drove up and the buffalo immediately came over and surrounded the vehicle. Joe talked to Jerry and Don/Charlie about what the procedure was, and I get my rifle ready. I was waiting for one to separate itself out from the herd, which can be tricky. It has to be a bull, 2 ½ years or older, and making itself available so that there are no buffalo behind it. Then, when I take aim, I have to wait for it to turn its body, head sideways, so I can put the shot behind the ear. I then wait to make sure that it’s sure that it really wants to be the one harvested. I’ve taken aim on some, and, at the last second, they bolt back into the herd. The rifle immediately comes up, and we wait for another one. I also make sure that Joe is ready as my backup.
One of the buffalo eventually sorts itself out of the herd, I confirm with Don/Jerry that it would be a good one for the mount (all of Tana’s bulls are trophy quality – due to the genetics of the original herd bull, Rainbow, who was over 7-foot high at the haunches at 6-years-old). I take aim, squeeze the trigger, and it goes down. We immediately surround the buffalo with the vehicles, and I get out to put tobacco on the buffalo and say a prayer (blessing the meat, the sustenance it provides, the beauty of the hide, the skull, all the uses that will be made, etc.).
Jerry (the guy with dark and grey hair with glasses in the pictures) and I pose for pictures for his client, and then Don gets to work skinning and prepping the hide for the mount. We then finish up with that one, when another bull walks across an opening. I make a mortal shot, but, it doesn’t immediately drop. Joe is right there with the follow-up shot, and it drops. I felt horrible about it not being a 1-shot kill, even though there was an immediate follow-up shot. It’s the 1st time that has happened. You essentially have a 2-inch circle where you are trying to put the bullet, right behind the ear and a little lower. If you are off by a fraction of an inch, it won’t drop right away, due to how tough these animals are. But, we say prayers, do tobacco, process it, and get it all taken care of, get it loaded in the trailer, and head into town to drop it off at the butcher shop. I make the specifications for the cuts of meat, and we head back to the ranch.
The next morning we have a ‘hunter’ coming to the ranch to shoot his own buffalo for the butcher shop. He seems a little hesitant about having to do the smudging, as his wife asked if it was a Christian ceremony. Tana explained it as something along these lines (here). We then went up to the land, and have a discussion about what will happen after the buffalo goes down. I explained that I was going to be the backup shot, in case it was needed. After it was all said and done, it was needed. The guy was shooting a .243, with a 140 grain bullet. For those who don’t know about bullet sizes, it’s has even less mass than what I use in a 30.06 (I use 180 Grain). When he shoots, it runs about 50 feet. I make the follow-up shot, and it immediately drops. I have a sense of exculpation, based on the previous day’s events.
The hunter then tells us that he needs to bring his animal into his butcher already skinned. We weren’t planning on skinning that day, as we had two more to process. In the videos listed above, videos 1-8 are all of us processing his buffalo. So, we skin it out there in the field and get it loaded into the guy’s truck. We shake hands and he leaves.
The next two bulls we harvest that day were one-shot kills. In fact, the 2nd bull walked out into a clearing, right in front of us, laid down, looked at us, put his head on the ground, then looked at us again. I don’t think that buffalo could have given us any clearer of a message. One shot behind the ear with my 30.06 (with Barnes bullets) and it was over with. I use Barnes all-copper bullets because they are dependable, reliable, and, you don’t have to worry about lead poisoning in the meat. Not that I’m worried about that – but, I want it to be absolutely safe for anyone who consumes the meat. Again, another trip into town to drop off the buffalo, and we then head back to the ranch. I brought some elk green chili with me, and we all (Tana, Joe, Jerry, Patrick, and me) enjoyed it around the dinner table.
The next day Don and his father come back to assist with the last two we are harvesting. Since the meat on these two are going towards the ranch, Joe makes the shots. I am backup, but it was not needed. One of the videos is Joe shooting the bull, with me as backup. The 1st bull Don is using as a shoulder mount, to repair some work a different taxidermist did – (the other taxidermist let the cape sit too long and it rotted before he sent it to Don). So, Don got to work on making the special cuts needed for a head mount, then, we loaded it up and Joe shot the 2nd Buffalo. All went according to plan. As Joe was the one to shoot, he did the tobacco and prayers. I used his stag-horned-handled knife (blade is a Forschner-Victorinox) to slice the throat. Joe then went about removing the head while I cut the sternum and slit open the belly. We then hoisted it in the air by the back legs and removed the kidneys, liver, and heart (first we remove the Pryor-mountain oysters). We then remove the tongue from the head.
Later, after we returned from the butcher, Tana said she heard a gunshot out south of her ranch house. Joe and I grabbed our rifles and hopped in the truck to go investigate. We drove out to where the herd was waiting at the gate to be let out of the pasture, and head back to the Moccasin. Not surprising – their work was done – we had done the harvesting and they were ready to go. But, Joe was expecting a few more people to come out a week later to harvest a few more, so, he kept them in that pasture. I walked along the fence to make sure that every buffalo that was lying down had its head up, watching as I walked, to ensure there were none shot. None showed signs of distress, so, we figured that the gunshot must have been further east, and not on her property.
On the ‘rez’ it can really be like the ‘wild west’ in many respects. The natives (the Mountain Crow) have little regard for fences, boundaries, etc., when hunting on the reservation. So, at any given time, you may hear gunshots on the mountain, prairie, etc., surrounding her house. Tana gets concerned that they would try to shoot her buffalo and make off with it. Interestingly enough, the 1st batch of buffalo meat I received from Tana about 5 years ago – one of the rib steaks had a perfectly-formed bullet in it. I found it when I was cleaning the meat (I always trim game meat from any fat, sliver-skin, cartilage, etc. – just my preference) and I found a little pencil-sized hole. I opened it up and out came a bullet. It hadn’t expanded, which meant it had probably been shot from 800 or more yards away (it didn’t have enough foot-pounds of energy upon impact to expand, let alone go through the animal). It must have been like having a splinter in the back for the animal. The point being that she never knows who might be sneaking onto her land and taking pot-shots at her herd. She does, however, allow the tribe to come onto her land every year and harvest an animal, to ‘keep peace’ as it were. The Crow, generally speaking, have little regard for non-Crow, especially other tribes. Tana is not Crow, but part Lakota, part Caucasian. However, as times are changing, with further acceptance, the Crow Nation adopted now-President Obama as part of their tribe, and members of the Crow Nation took part in the Inaugural parade.
That evening, we did a closing pipe ceremony (to close out the harvest, honor the 7 directions, the buffalo, etc.), and Tana took the opportunity to instruct me on the proper usage of the pipe. There are two types of pipe – a ‘passing pipe’ and a ‘medicine pipe.’ I was recently passed a medicine pipe, from my friend Clara, and needed instruction on how to use it so I would not dishonor the meaning and tradition behind it.
I left the next morning at 4:00 to be back in the early afternoon to spend some time with my wife that weekend. Two weeks later, over the weekend, I went with my buddy Matt A to pick up the meat. Tana has a refrigeration truck (both freezer and refrigerator) as she had picked up the meat on Wednesday. Matt, Joe, and I headed up to feed the buffalo, and then came back to the ranch house to load up all the coolers with meat (I own four 150-quart coolers, two 130-quart coolers, and I borrowed some coolers for the trip.) . After getting that done, and all strapped in to head back the next day, we ate dinner and went to bed. We left at 3:30 the next morning (Matt was not pleased with this), and we made it back to Denver by 12:30. Kaoru came over to help sort all the meat into the bags, and spent the next week distributing.
I hope you enjoyed the overview, and, if you ordered, I hope you enjoy the meat. We plan on another harvest this fall/winter. Stay tuned!
Following the harvest, they had more snow on the ranch, and had some additional harvests. Joe had an adventure with the buffalo, as he recounts here following - Leif
It started out a beautiful February morning. I had a gentleman and 3 of his friends coming up to harvest a 2 1/2 year old bull buffalo to be used for his dinner table. He also was going to have the robe tanned and the head turned into a European Mount So I had a friend of mine that is an award winning taxidermist come up to skin the animal.
Everything went great with the harvest as it always does and after we were all back at the ranch house and everyone had left I went to my house for a morning cup of coffee. As I sat there contemplating how well things were going I was still amazed at how well I have become connected to this large family of animals and how they have accepted me into their family as one of them.
When we do a harvest here, all of the Buffalo know that we are there to help them move on to be able to complete their circle of life. One of the Bulls will present itself to us by standing off to one side or moving right up close to us and it is as if He is saying " Yes, I am the one that wishes to leave today."
On this particular day the herd was split apart and in the first group there wasn't one bull that presented itself so I drove to the other group and asked them to come join the rest and then I drove back up to join the rest of our guests and all of the Buffalo followed me. As they approached there was one bull leading the way and He walked right up to us and separated himself so that he could be harvested with nobody else close.
When He was harvested we all drove our vehicles to surround it. I placed some tobacco on his head and over his heart and said a prayer of thanks for the nourishment that he will provide and the warmth of the robe and the beauty that the mount will provide.
As I always do after a harvest, I loaded up a bale of hay to go feed the herd and sit and spend some time with them. As I drove to the pasture they were in, I saw Junior our largest bull. Third, his son and another bull which is also a son of Junior but a year younger, standing by the gate waiting for Me. I at first thought that they had been waiting for me to bring the food and spend time in the middle of the herd but when I got to the gate I saw that a cow buffalo had fallen through the ice on a pond inside the gate...
I had never been in a situation like this before and had no idea how to get her out or was quite sure how the other Buffalo Bulls would react to me trying to get her out. They all protect each other from any danger they sense. They all know that whatever I do is good for them so I was pretty sure I would be O.K. But with animals that can be over 2000 # it is better to be safe than sorry. As I got on the ice with the cow I could see that she had broken through the ice on one edge and had been trying to get out by going forward instead of backing up. I walked up right in front of her and told her that I was there to save her and meant no harm. She looked at me and I could feel that she knew that all would be O.K. now. I had a rope on the back of the truck and I put it around her horns in the hopes of by turning her head she might be able to turn around and walk out. I kept talking to her and letting her know that I was there to help. After trying to turn her both directions it became apparent that it wouldn't work, she was too far in!
I knew that she was too far in and that at weighing close to 1000# I couldn't pull her out by her neck without harming her... I told her that I would be back and asked the bulls to stay with her and comfort her until I returned.
I went back to the shop and gathered an Axe, a pick, shovel and a large spud bar and a tow rope. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I knew I was going to save her.
I went back to them and the bulls were still there as they weren't going to leave one of their family in danger. I still had the rope around her horns and started to break the ice away from her side so she had a big enough hole to turn around in but all she wanted to do was go forward. At that point I decided that if that is what she wanted I would help her out that way. I had been wondering how I would ever get that rope off of her when she got out so I took it off. As I started breaking ice that was close to 1 foot thick on the side of her and then in front of her I kept talking to her to keep her calm. I could feel how she was feeling being in that situation. Trapped, but help was there.
As I kept breaking ice she was moving forward and finally she could get her knees on the ice but not out. Finally I had broken out enough that she was able to get both front legs out and then her back legs also. She was Free!
As she stood there still on the ice she turned and looked at me and I am sure she smiled and said Thank You.
She walked up to the 3 bulls that had stayed there and waited for her and they slowly started to walk up to join the rest of the herd. She was wet and looked tired but was still in good shape. I followed behind them and rolled out the hay for the herd and sat on the back of the truck and drank that cup of coffee and said some prayers of thanks that I was able to be there to save one of my family.
It is so fitting that the name of this ranch is HAPPY HEART RANCH because there sure were a lot of them here that day.
That is just one many exciting days I have on this great place on our Mother Earth that I have been put in charge of taking care of.
MAN WHO CARES FOR THE LAND
Joseph V Larson
(note – pictures and videos are somewhat graphic)
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=602181234948727571/l=471113240/g=88767098/cobrandOid=1000131/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lkhanson&view=videos
Thanks again for all those who participated in the 2009 Spring Buffalo Harvest, and for all those who have participated in the past.
Following is a synopsis of the harvest this year –
I drove to Pryor, Montana, on Tuesday the 3rd of February, and, through a series of mishaps (wife being sick and needing vitamins – Vitamin Cottage not opening until 9:00 AM, trying to pick up the trailer and realizing that my buddy had my hitch pin and needing to go buy a new one, trying to use my credit card and finding out that it expired and I needed to go back home and retrieve/activate my new one), I didn’t get out of town until 12:30 PM. For a 9-10 hour drive, I really wanted to leave at 4:00 AM. But, 8 hours later, there I was, just passing 6th Avenue and I-25 close to downtown Denver.
Otherwise, the drive was uneventful. I arrived at Tana’s around 9:30, I passed Joe and Tana their ceremonial tobacco, and we discussed a little bit about the next day, and went to sleep.
The next morning, 5:00 AM, we set the equipment out to be smudged, and proceeded to perform Pipe Ceremony. We then waited for Tana’s friend Jerry, who is a plant specialist, and has made many improvements to Tana’s land by planting native grasses and shrubs. He was assisting in the harvest and representing a client who wanted a buffalo mount. With him came the nationally-recognized Don Keever, a local taxidermist, and his father, Charlie, as an assistant. Don runs the Anglers and Antlers taxidermy shop. I would include their website, but they’re going through ISP issues right now…
So, they arrive, Tana smudges us and the equipment, and we head out onto the land.
Joe originally thought that we were going to have to go way over to a section of land called “The Moccasin” – as that was where the buffalo were hanging out. It’s an area on the far-south of Tana’s house, and we would have to cross neighbor’s fields to get there. However, the day I drove up, the buffalo moved over to the pasture just over the hill from the house, in the area close to “Turtle Pond.” They were waiting at the gate, wanting to get in. Joe let them in and they were waiting there the morning of the harvest. At the end of this summary, Joe has a further adventure at Turtle Pond that I included for your enjoyment.
We drove up and the buffalo immediately came over and surrounded the vehicle. Joe talked to Jerry and Don/Charlie about what the procedure was, and I get my rifle ready. I was waiting for one to separate itself out from the herd, which can be tricky. It has to be a bull, 2 ½ years or older, and making itself available so that there are no buffalo behind it. Then, when I take aim, I have to wait for it to turn its body, head sideways, so I can put the shot behind the ear. I then wait to make sure that it’s sure that it really wants to be the one harvested. I’ve taken aim on some, and, at the last second, they bolt back into the herd. The rifle immediately comes up, and we wait for another one. I also make sure that Joe is ready as my backup.
One of the buffalo eventually sorts itself out of the herd, I confirm with Don/Jerry that it would be a good one for the mount (all of Tana’s bulls are trophy quality – due to the genetics of the original herd bull, Rainbow, who was over 7-foot high at the haunches at 6-years-old). I take aim, squeeze the trigger, and it goes down. We immediately surround the buffalo with the vehicles, and I get out to put tobacco on the buffalo and say a prayer (blessing the meat, the sustenance it provides, the beauty of the hide, the skull, all the uses that will be made, etc.).
Jerry (the guy with dark and grey hair with glasses in the pictures) and I pose for pictures for his client, and then Don gets to work skinning and prepping the hide for the mount. We then finish up with that one, when another bull walks across an opening. I make a mortal shot, but, it doesn’t immediately drop. Joe is right there with the follow-up shot, and it drops. I felt horrible about it not being a 1-shot kill, even though there was an immediate follow-up shot. It’s the 1st time that has happened. You essentially have a 2-inch circle where you are trying to put the bullet, right behind the ear and a little lower. If you are off by a fraction of an inch, it won’t drop right away, due to how tough these animals are. But, we say prayers, do tobacco, process it, and get it all taken care of, get it loaded in the trailer, and head into town to drop it off at the butcher shop. I make the specifications for the cuts of meat, and we head back to the ranch.
The next morning we have a ‘hunter’ coming to the ranch to shoot his own buffalo for the butcher shop. He seems a little hesitant about having to do the smudging, as his wife asked if it was a Christian ceremony. Tana explained it as something along these lines (here). We then went up to the land, and have a discussion about what will happen after the buffalo goes down. I explained that I was going to be the backup shot, in case it was needed. After it was all said and done, it was needed. The guy was shooting a .243, with a 140 grain bullet. For those who don’t know about bullet sizes, it’s has even less mass than what I use in a 30.06 (I use 180 Grain). When he shoots, it runs about 50 feet. I make the follow-up shot, and it immediately drops. I have a sense of exculpation, based on the previous day’s events.
The hunter then tells us that he needs to bring his animal into his butcher already skinned. We weren’t planning on skinning that day, as we had two more to process. In the videos listed above, videos 1-8 are all of us processing his buffalo. So, we skin it out there in the field and get it loaded into the guy’s truck. We shake hands and he leaves.
The next two bulls we harvest that day were one-shot kills. In fact, the 2nd bull walked out into a clearing, right in front of us, laid down, looked at us, put his head on the ground, then looked at us again. I don’t think that buffalo could have given us any clearer of a message. One shot behind the ear with my 30.06 (with Barnes bullets) and it was over with. I use Barnes all-copper bullets because they are dependable, reliable, and, you don’t have to worry about lead poisoning in the meat. Not that I’m worried about that – but, I want it to be absolutely safe for anyone who consumes the meat. Again, another trip into town to drop off the buffalo, and we then head back to the ranch. I brought some elk green chili with me, and we all (Tana, Joe, Jerry, Patrick, and me) enjoyed it around the dinner table.
The next day Don and his father come back to assist with the last two we are harvesting. Since the meat on these two are going towards the ranch, Joe makes the shots. I am backup, but it was not needed. One of the videos is Joe shooting the bull, with me as backup. The 1st bull Don is using as a shoulder mount, to repair some work a different taxidermist did – (the other taxidermist let the cape sit too long and it rotted before he sent it to Don). So, Don got to work on making the special cuts needed for a head mount, then, we loaded it up and Joe shot the 2nd Buffalo. All went according to plan. As Joe was the one to shoot, he did the tobacco and prayers. I used his stag-horned-handled knife (blade is a Forschner-Victorinox) to slice the throat. Joe then went about removing the head while I cut the sternum and slit open the belly. We then hoisted it in the air by the back legs and removed the kidneys, liver, and heart (first we remove the Pryor-mountain oysters). We then remove the tongue from the head.
Later, after we returned from the butcher, Tana said she heard a gunshot out south of her ranch house. Joe and I grabbed our rifles and hopped in the truck to go investigate. We drove out to where the herd was waiting at the gate to be let out of the pasture, and head back to the Moccasin. Not surprising – their work was done – we had done the harvesting and they were ready to go. But, Joe was expecting a few more people to come out a week later to harvest a few more, so, he kept them in that pasture. I walked along the fence to make sure that every buffalo that was lying down had its head up, watching as I walked, to ensure there were none shot. None showed signs of distress, so, we figured that the gunshot must have been further east, and not on her property.
On the ‘rez’ it can really be like the ‘wild west’ in many respects. The natives (the Mountain Crow) have little regard for fences, boundaries, etc., when hunting on the reservation. So, at any given time, you may hear gunshots on the mountain, prairie, etc., surrounding her house. Tana gets concerned that they would try to shoot her buffalo and make off with it. Interestingly enough, the 1st batch of buffalo meat I received from Tana about 5 years ago – one of the rib steaks had a perfectly-formed bullet in it. I found it when I was cleaning the meat (I always trim game meat from any fat, sliver-skin, cartilage, etc. – just my preference) and I found a little pencil-sized hole. I opened it up and out came a bullet. It hadn’t expanded, which meant it had probably been shot from 800 or more yards away (it didn’t have enough foot-pounds of energy upon impact to expand, let alone go through the animal). It must have been like having a splinter in the back for the animal. The point being that she never knows who might be sneaking onto her land and taking pot-shots at her herd. She does, however, allow the tribe to come onto her land every year and harvest an animal, to ‘keep peace’ as it were. The Crow, generally speaking, have little regard for non-Crow, especially other tribes. Tana is not Crow, but part Lakota, part Caucasian. However, as times are changing, with further acceptance, the Crow Nation adopted now-President Obama as part of their tribe, and members of the Crow Nation took part in the Inaugural parade.
That evening, we did a closing pipe ceremony (to close out the harvest, honor the 7 directions, the buffalo, etc.), and Tana took the opportunity to instruct me on the proper usage of the pipe. There are two types of pipe – a ‘passing pipe’ and a ‘medicine pipe.’ I was recently passed a medicine pipe, from my friend Clara, and needed instruction on how to use it so I would not dishonor the meaning and tradition behind it.
I left the next morning at 4:00 to be back in the early afternoon to spend some time with my wife that weekend. Two weeks later, over the weekend, I went with my buddy Matt A to pick up the meat. Tana has a refrigeration truck (both freezer and refrigerator) as she had picked up the meat on Wednesday. Matt, Joe, and I headed up to feed the buffalo, and then came back to the ranch house to load up all the coolers with meat (I own four 150-quart coolers, two 130-quart coolers, and I borrowed some coolers for the trip.) . After getting that done, and all strapped in to head back the next day, we ate dinner and went to bed. We left at 3:30 the next morning (Matt was not pleased with this), and we made it back to Denver by 12:30. Kaoru came over to help sort all the meat into the bags, and spent the next week distributing.
I hope you enjoyed the overview, and, if you ordered, I hope you enjoy the meat. We plan on another harvest this fall/winter. Stay tuned!
Following the harvest, they had more snow on the ranch, and had some additional harvests. Joe had an adventure with the buffalo, as he recounts here following - Leif
It started out a beautiful February morning. I had a gentleman and 3 of his friends coming up to harvest a 2 1/2 year old bull buffalo to be used for his dinner table. He also was going to have the robe tanned and the head turned into a European Mount So I had a friend of mine that is an award winning taxidermist come up to skin the animal.
Everything went great with the harvest as it always does and after we were all back at the ranch house and everyone had left I went to my house for a morning cup of coffee. As I sat there contemplating how well things were going I was still amazed at how well I have become connected to this large family of animals and how they have accepted me into their family as one of them.
When we do a harvest here, all of the Buffalo know that we are there to help them move on to be able to complete their circle of life. One of the Bulls will present itself to us by standing off to one side or moving right up close to us and it is as if He is saying " Yes, I am the one that wishes to leave today."
On this particular day the herd was split apart and in the first group there wasn't one bull that presented itself so I drove to the other group and asked them to come join the rest and then I drove back up to join the rest of our guests and all of the Buffalo followed me. As they approached there was one bull leading the way and He walked right up to us and separated himself so that he could be harvested with nobody else close.
When He was harvested we all drove our vehicles to surround it. I placed some tobacco on his head and over his heart and said a prayer of thanks for the nourishment that he will provide and the warmth of the robe and the beauty that the mount will provide.
As I always do after a harvest, I loaded up a bale of hay to go feed the herd and sit and spend some time with them. As I drove to the pasture they were in, I saw Junior our largest bull. Third, his son and another bull which is also a son of Junior but a year younger, standing by the gate waiting for Me. I at first thought that they had been waiting for me to bring the food and spend time in the middle of the herd but when I got to the gate I saw that a cow buffalo had fallen through the ice on a pond inside the gate...
I had never been in a situation like this before and had no idea how to get her out or was quite sure how the other Buffalo Bulls would react to me trying to get her out. They all protect each other from any danger they sense. They all know that whatever I do is good for them so I was pretty sure I would be O.K. But with animals that can be over 2000 # it is better to be safe than sorry. As I got on the ice with the cow I could see that she had broken through the ice on one edge and had been trying to get out by going forward instead of backing up. I walked up right in front of her and told her that I was there to save her and meant no harm. She looked at me and I could feel that she knew that all would be O.K. now. I had a rope on the back of the truck and I put it around her horns in the hopes of by turning her head she might be able to turn around and walk out. I kept talking to her and letting her know that I was there to help. After trying to turn her both directions it became apparent that it wouldn't work, she was too far in!
I knew that she was too far in and that at weighing close to 1000# I couldn't pull her out by her neck without harming her... I told her that I would be back and asked the bulls to stay with her and comfort her until I returned.
I went back to the shop and gathered an Axe, a pick, shovel and a large spud bar and a tow rope. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I knew I was going to save her.
I went back to them and the bulls were still there as they weren't going to leave one of their family in danger. I still had the rope around her horns and started to break the ice away from her side so she had a big enough hole to turn around in but all she wanted to do was go forward. At that point I decided that if that is what she wanted I would help her out that way. I had been wondering how I would ever get that rope off of her when she got out so I took it off. As I started breaking ice that was close to 1 foot thick on the side of her and then in front of her I kept talking to her to keep her calm. I could feel how she was feeling being in that situation. Trapped, but help was there.
As I kept breaking ice she was moving forward and finally she could get her knees on the ice but not out. Finally I had broken out enough that she was able to get both front legs out and then her back legs also. She was Free!
As she stood there still on the ice she turned and looked at me and I am sure she smiled and said Thank You.
She walked up to the 3 bulls that had stayed there and waited for her and they slowly started to walk up to join the rest of the herd. She was wet and looked tired but was still in good shape. I followed behind them and rolled out the hay for the herd and sat on the back of the truck and drank that cup of coffee and said some prayers of thanks that I was able to be there to save one of my family.
It is so fitting that the name of this ranch is HAPPY HEART RANCH because there sure were a lot of them here that day.
That is just one many exciting days I have on this great place on our Mother Earth that I have been put in charge of taking care of.
MAN WHO CARES FOR THE LAND
Joseph V Larson
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