Our First Buffalo!

Brent's part of our herd arrived!  He did the animals in 2 trips.  It took all day.  While they were coming, we were able to get more water pumped for the animals.  It was a busy day making sure everything was set up, but it all worked out.  The animals were so fun to watch.  They didn't like us to get close to them though.  It seems like it took all day for them to settle down.  They finally started drinking so that was good.  

We got 24 bison cows.  It will be fun to see how many babies we get from them as some are confirmed pregnant! 

Finishing up for the Bison!

The neighbor's cows came over for a visit.  Luckily, he came to collect the animals.  Looks like we really need to work on our fencing between our neighbor now.  

Anyway, the work continues.  Now we are setting up the water trough for the animals and getting the gates hung.  The huge snowstorm made for an interesting few weeks.  We were really worried that our rainwater collection system would freeze, but it looks like it survived!  Getting the water trough set up was a lot more difficult with the PVC being in short supply.  It all worked out, but just in time!  I guess we like to live on the edge... and get things done just in time.  

 

Snowy Ranch

We were really concerned about the Ranch during the crazy snowy weather (aka Snovid).  The weather was finally good enough to check it out.  The road up to the ranch had been a huge ice problem and we wouldn't have been able to get up it any earlier in the week.  Our small lake had frozen over.  We were really concerned about our water collection system.  If that burst, we were going to have problems!  Luckily it held and everything was great at the ranch.  It's fun to see the ranch all covered in white!  So pretty!

 

Fixing the Pipes

After a week without water Jeff was able to get enough plumping parts to repair the busted pipe.  We were really hoping a plumber could come out and do it, but there were so many burst pipes in Texas that we didn't want to wait another week for a plumber.  Our friend Alex had been by a few times during the week to help out, but the pipes were still frozen.  Finally, Saturday they were thawed out enough for Jeff to work on.  We didn't want to have to deconstruct so much, but the pipes wouldn't come apart at the fittings.  We ended up rebuilding the whole faucet system at the same time.  Grateful for Jeff's willingness to learn and take care of our family!