Are We Still in Tennessee?

A few weeks ago, on our anniversary (12 years!! June 25) we took a really lovely family trip (with our new-found abundance of family time since Caleb's home almost all the time now) to the farm of some friends, down in Lost Cove on the side of the mountain. They have been telling us to come visit, bring the kids and see the animals for months now, because they've had a small herd of buffalo for about a year!  We finally got our ducks in a row, packed up a picnic brunch, and did it!  

They have a beautiful herd of I think 18 3-year-old cows and one bull, and so far (as of June 25th) 13 calves born this spring.  They weren't expecting a great crop of babies since the adults were all shipped across the country last year, and just figured that could adversely affect their breeding for the first year.  Happily, the buffalo apparently weren't too bothered by the transporting, though!  

The calves, of course, are just adorable with their gangly legs and all, and the adults are just beautiful!  They are all Plains bison, except for the bull who has a fair bit of Woods bison in him - he's easy to pick out because his hump is much more pronounced than the girls', and he's quite a bit larger in general.  I've put some pictures in the "Family" gallery, I had too many to put them in this post, and they would have bogged down the site for y'all, but you should definitely pop over there and take a look!

Our friends have a little - I'm not sure what to call it, actually, cabin is still too grandiose: it's a patio with a screened bedroom loft, almost a gazebo with sleeping quarters.  It is surrounded by a fence (all 4" metal posts, buffalo fencing is serious stuff!) so that they can come right up around the gazebo.  They are quite familiar with buffalo candy, otherwise known as alfalfa cubes.  Fortunately, all the bison were right there when we arrived (the farm is several hundred acres, so there was no guarantee they'd be easy to find), and a quick feeding of "candy" soon had them all right in front of the gazebo.  The boys initially hopped in the back of the Gator vehicle, but after one of the first-to-arrive, eager-for-candy cows stuck her face right in Malachi's lap, he rode inside the cab with Dad and our host :). Liam braved it out in the back the whole time, though, and I took Ewan in the car with our other host, so we could pull into the middle of the herd safely.  They are very docile animals, but like any large creature, can be unpredictable and simply unaware of the difference in scale.  They may just be looking for treats, and not intend to nibble off a baby finger, for instance :). 

It was so neat to see these guys up close, Caleb and I went to the Buffalo Preserve in Montana, and Yellowstone NP years ago, but those are the only other times I've seen them in person.  The boys have never seen bison in real life - and now we don't have to take them to Montana for it!  I was excited to see them since they are the source of my newest type of fiber - our friends have been collecting the naturally-shed wool all spring, and giving it to me.  

Buffalo have a thick winter coat, much like the Highland cows, and similarly they shed it in the spring by scrubbing it off onto trees and fences.  Unlike the cattle, though, it comes off in sheets of felt like material - it's not actually felt since the fibers are still loose rather than tightened down into each other, but it is webbed and matted into a snug sheet that just peels off the animal. If you look in the photos, you can see them dangling off several of the buffalo - it was so tempting to just reach out and yank one off, but I refrained!  I haven't had a chance to actually process any of it myself, but it is a very soft, fine wool.  It is both a soft, short fiber and a long, coarse guard hair, so dealing with it involves not just washing out all the dust, but pulling out all the guard hair - a fairly tedious job that I just haven't found time for!  If you have some extra time on your hands, though, I've listed some of the fiber as-is in my store here, give it a try! And if you know any hand-spinners, let them know - buffalo wool is hard to come by, and is a highly-valued, premium fiber!  And if any of you are interested in going to see some bison up close and personal, come visit, we'll take you down there :)