We've been trying to get our corral reconstructed after building holding pens, but have had difficulties getting it done. Aside from having to take care of some other tasks before rebuilding it, we have also had a lot of rain the past few weeks, which made working in the field with heavy equipment risky.

But this past weekend was perfect! We got up early Saturday, had a good breakfast, and then headed out to the field with the tractor and Ranger. Greg, our son, was there to help us. So was our bison herd.

They were farther down the field from where we'd be working. When they hear the Ranger, they will usually come up, looking for goodies, but they seemed to know that we didn't have any this time, probably because we just shut the vehicle off.

Kevin picked up a couple of panels, using the hay spikes on the front of the tractor to move them because they are big and heavy. The bison heard the panels clanking together and came to investigate. They watched us, sniffed at the panels and milled around us. Then, they suddenly took off back down the pasture.

They soon returned with the rest of the herd. We think the first crowd went back to tell the others about free entertainment. Now all the animals were watching us and wandering through the area, which made it a little crowded to work in.

Bison are skittish, probably because they don't see well. It's a good idea to avoid walking behind them because they can kick with amazing speed if you surprise them. All the bison handling books tell you to work as quietly as possible. This may be when you're working them in the chutes, so they don't get stressed. In a situation where we're trying to work among them, though, I keep up a steady stream of conversation and use slow hand gestures to try to indicate where I need to walk. This seems to work to make sure they always know where I am and sometimes helps to get them to move out of the way.

Whatever the reasons, we didn't have any bison-related incidents. We did however have a corral incident. We had the panels incorrectly aligned before we got them all set up together, and a huge section fell over. Klemm, our big bull, went over to it. I had thought he might push it upright for us, but no such luck. He sniffed it and moved away.

Eventually, the bison got tired of the show, and they all went down field to rest or graze. We were able to proceed with the reconstruction quickly then, and now have the corral up and joined to the holding pens we had constructed.

Later that evening, we took range cake to the bison, and they seemed delighted to be back in their reconstructed corral, eating cake out of the feed bunks. We were also happy because we finally finished the corral!