The first forum mascot...buffalo

Yeah, OK. From the land of my grandfather:



but sorry, a different continent.

lousubcap said:

Good that you have the pics and memories...cherish them.

That's just an illustration. Getting back to the bison lands of Poland is a big dream of mine.

As far as pics, and memories, I found the oldest pic so far (fully dressed, of course) of Grandpa and Grandma sitting on a beach, maybe on Lake Mich, or around Detroit circa 1915. He was an iron worker coming from near Gdansk. Have a few dozen of his tools. His bench vise opens wide enough to hold a sewer pipe. As a teen, I used it for weight training. Used one of his hammers today to chisel out a foundation crack in concrete.

Can we make Kentucky Jelly the forum condiment? 

I will post this here as well I suppose.  I need to raise awareness of the greatness of the guy on the buffalo. 
https://youtu.be/iJ4T9CQA0UM

Oops Wrong Buffalo Bill  

@SmokeyPitt  

Ron, best wishes in CO!  Never forget your bluegrass roots!  All the best brother!!

Yes, the buffalo!

Pghegger said:

Taken on our trip to Yellowstone this summer

Awesome brother!!

A small addition, which I may have mentioned before.

Indiana's state symbol has a buffalo on it. There's a neighborhood a few blocks from me called "Parkovash."  It was where the Bison cows calved in the spring, and so the Potawatami, who spoke some French, called it "Cow Park," or "Parque au Vache." (excuse my French, which is all but non-existant.)

A few years ago, a local farm started raising bison, and I went to visit them. The lady of the house chaperoned me, cautioning that I not make any sudden moves. Bison have poor eyesight, and have a tendency to rush at things they don't recognize, and then try to skid to a halt when they figure out what it is.  The youngest cow, and her calf came over first, then the rest of the herd. The bull just stood at the top of the hill. I asked how much the bull weighed. He looked like a shaggy wall. She said he weighed 4200 pounds when they got him, but was now far too big and untractable to be weighed again.

A few months later, I went out again to make a meat purchase. No one was around. Eventually, the gent drove up to the shop w. a load of railroad ties on forks on the front of his tractor. I asked him what was going on. He said, "Oh, someone decided to take a walk last night, and now I've got to rebuild the fence."

And another anecdote. My daughter worked as an intern at a timber wolf refuge. They had a small number of bison there, including one very old bull, who was literally out to pasture, mostly sleeping. They'd let the twin male alpha wolves out to practice their wolf behavior. They came creeping up behind the old bull, and were down getting ready to make a run at his back side. The bull stood up and the alpha males turned tail immediately.