The year is almost up ... but so much more to come

December, January and February are very busy times in our lives.  The bison fiber harvest gets going; likewise bison auctions and moving bison from place to place ... or at least that last one is pretty much over.

First Saturday in December every year for the past 30 plus years the Kansas Buffalo Association has held it's fall production auction in Salina KS.  For the past 20 plus years my dear friend Dick Gehring (Black Kettle Buffalo) has chaired the event ... and this year I went up to help out with gate pulling; animal moving and yes, some whiskey drinking!        

(BTW, that is Dick in the upper part of the picture in the sale ring ... he did not sell). 

If you have never been to a bison auction, I will post some video clips on UTube shortly - just search Kansas Buffalo Auction.  The lead picture is just a piece of the sale ring, handlers and auctioneers..  This last picture was pretty much my view of things from noon till 4.  These are three yearling bulls that have just come out of the sale ring (I open/close the gate) and once they are assigned to a load out pen I open/close the exit gate.  Dusty, noisy but I wouldn't trade it for anything else.   Always a lot of excitement; excrement and camaraderie. 

Part of the fascination this trip was booking into an AirBnB in a renovated (partly) church.  .  Beautiful and truly haunting.  The wind was really up Saturday evening .... and the old building talked to me all night long.  What a grand experience.

I am now back at the store; shipping orders as quickly as I can get them out the door ... and thankful for all our friends, old and new, that get to share our fascination with the grandest (I think it is a proper word) of American "critters"; the American bison.