#698 - Bears & Bison

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:04]Well, good morning everybody. Dave coming to you from the backyard here in Wyoming again. It's Sunday morning. It's uh it's 11:00 here in Wyoming Sunday morning.

[00:00:16]As you can see, we have another glorious weather day here.

[00:00:21]In fact, we're running about a month ahead as we kind of have been all year.

[00:00:25]Uh we're heading into a starting today we're heading into a week of mid 70s, which is pretty warm for May out here.

[00:00:37]Hanging it works so well yesterday.

[00:00:39]I'm doing it again today. My Liga Privada number nine Flying Pig.

[00:00:44]I really enjoyed it.

[00:00:46]This is always There's almost always a slight breeze to a wind out here, so it's just way easier to have a cigar than a pipe out here outside.

[00:00:55]That's why you see me my videos from the desk in the office.

[00:00:58]I'll smoke a pipe, but out here it's got to be a cigar, but >> [snorts] >> anyway, just thought I'd give you some updates.

[00:01:06]I've got some real good eye candy for you.

[00:01:08]So, I've got some uh got bison eye candy, and then the best bear eye candy I've ever filmed. So, that's uh that's what I'm going to show you next.

[00:01:18]Uh but my companion uh is right behind you on the camera.

[00:01:22]So, I'm going to show you Sasha, and then uh we'll come back.

[00:01:26]Here's Sasha sitting behind the camera.

[00:01:29]Ever vigilant looking for wildlife.

[00:01:33]Looking for anything to chase.

[00:01:37]You know, she's literally right behind you.

[00:01:43]So, the first clip that I'm going to show you coming up right here is uh the first two baby buffalo that I saw I've seen this season.

[00:01:52]Um I saw two days ago on the way into town, so it was my first we home.

[00:01:57]They're called red dogs, baby buffalo or baby bison are called red dogs.

[00:02:02]And so this is the first red dog sighting of the season for me. So anyway, here's a quick It's pretty short, but it's a quick clip from the truck cuz I as I got to see them for the first time uh it's on Friday. So anyway, here's some baby bison.

[00:02:19]My first red dogs.

[00:02:41]Okay, so the next thing is we actually had a giant male grizzly bear walk walk through the yard yesterday. Uh yesterday evening around 8:00 p.m. It's still broad daylight at 8:00 o'clock. So anyway, so what I'm going to show you it's uh it's five clips. Five little video clips of him walking from the backyard around the pond across the side yard and then out the front yard. And make sure you watch to the end cuz he uh he exits the property in a pretty funny way. So here you go, five clips. It's probably a minute and a half total, something like that. So I advise you to watch all five. It's pretty good.

[00:03:21]Anyway, this is from last night.

[00:03:24]Well, here's something you don't see every day.

[00:03:28]Bear wandering straight up here in the evening.

[00:05:11]>> This is one way to go around a tree.

[00:05:33]Up he goes.

[00:05:42]So anyway, that is by far my best bear encounter out here in Wyoming. I've seen them in the wild. I've seen them on side of the road. I've seen um a mama, a sow with two cubs. But, and I've seen the one in the pitch dark that Sausage jumped on last November. But, I've never been seeing one just walk completely across the property. You can see how he doesn't care about anything.

[00:06:06]He doesn't move fast for anybody. He is the apex killer out here in Wyoming.

[00:06:16]That's why you always carry bear spray and a and in my opinion, you carry a a bear gun. So, anyway, that's why I carry my when I'm out here on my own, I carry a 10 a Glock 10 mm with hard case called bear load just for that reason cuz you never know when they're going to wander up on you.

[00:06:34]So, anyway, we try to stay situationally aware. I would certainly never want to be in a position to shoot one.

[00:06:40]But, what you want and what life deals you can be different. So, anyway, it was just my best bear sighting yet right here on the property, literally right there.

[00:06:51]And I just wanted to get to you, so pretty funny how he walks over the tree uh on the way off the property. That was That cracked me up last night.

[00:07:04]All right, so what's next?

[00:07:06]All right, I took Sausage for a creek walk today like we used to do.

[00:07:10]Um but, the creek is way too high.

[00:07:14]We're definitely [snorts] at spring melt out flood stage. It's running It's running fast. It's running hard. It's running like chocolate milk.

[00:07:23]It's filled up the entire creek area, so it's really kind of hard to walk on it, but anyway, I um couple guys wanted to come up and fish this week, so I did these two clips for them.

[00:07:36]So, you can hear me talking to them.

[00:07:38]But, I wanted you to see what the creek looks like at flood stage. So, here's uh two quick clips for you on what it looks like when Pacific Creek is in its flood stage.

[00:07:51]Pretty brown. Can't see more than a couple inches in. And the hole I want to get to is out there.

[00:07:58]Can't even get to it right now.

[00:08:01]It's pretty brown. Running pretty high right now.

[00:08:08]Don't think it's worth your time to come up here this week.

[00:08:14]Maybe I'll show the brown better.

[00:08:18]And can't really see in there at all.

[00:08:28]So, I had an amazing >> [clears throat] >> coincidence on Friday. Ann Marie and I call it a god wink.

[00:08:34]I actually [snorts] got a call from >> [clears throat] >> the guy in charge of all US Forest Service fire apparatus, fire prioritization, and fire planning for the entire region.

[00:08:48]And um his name was Dave, by the way.

[00:08:50]Anyway, he said, "Hey, um we got a call about some fires up in your area and you've called in your fires every day. I just want to make sure that what we're getting calls about is you." And I said, "Yep, if it's on Pacific Creek Road, it's me."

[00:09:03]He goes, "Hey, we just really appreciate you calling in your open burns every day. You're the only one who does it. In fact, if you don't mind, I kind of like to drive up and meet you."

[00:09:12]>> [snorts] >> And so, he got in his truck and drove up here and we spent an hour together and um he was like, "Holy smokes, how did you know how to do all this?" And and I said, "You guys, US Forest Service publishes a wilderness property management guideline."

[00:09:28]He's like, "Oh my god, you actually read that thing?" And I said, "Yep, and I'm trying to follow it." And he said, "Man, you're you're what we're looking for, that private public partnership.

[00:09:38]You know, um he goes, "Now that your property is so clear, would you mind if we used it to stage equipment on if we do get a fire in your area?" And I'm like, "Not not at all. I would love We exchanged cell phone numbers. He goes, "If you ever have an incident, you just text me directly.

[00:09:53]You know, we'll get we'll get some assets to you." So, it was a great conversation. You know, I can't believe that, you know, God handed me that opportunity.

[00:10:02]And um but we did talk about what's coming up cuz you know, I made the comment that I'm worried about the fire season that's coming up. And he said, "We're definitely running a month or 6 weeks ahead of the calendar."

[00:10:14]And um he says, "We're not trying to create a public panic, but nationwide, the US Forest Service is planning for the worst fire season in US history across the board. I mean, the entire West Coast, the West, um the Southern Midwest, the Southeast, you know, we've seen it already. We had a fire So, we had our first forest fire yesterday.

[00:10:38]It It was a controlled burn that got out of control. I believe they have it under containment now.

[00:10:45]They have found three unattended campfires burning.

[00:10:50]Um anyway, and then um Nebraska had burned that million acres.

[00:10:56]Georgia had those huge fires. Florida had those huge fires.

[00:11:00]He's like, "We're planning for the worst one of in the history of the of the US."

[00:11:04]So, anyway, it just feels good to get ahead of it. Um I was joking with one of you guys, Jeff, earlier that you know, the difference between an action and an emergency is how much time you gave yourself to deal with it. So, I started planning for this in February.

[00:11:20]And cuz the you don't want to start calling tree services the day the fire's bearing down on your property.

[00:11:27]That's the difference between me planning an action item and you dealing with a full-blown emergency. So, anyway, it was great. It was a great privilege to meet this guy and be, you know, start to develop a bit of a friendship with him and he's a great guy. If If I need something to be able to swing some assets up here, that was great.

[00:11:47]All right, guys. It's long enough video.

[00:11:48]I think we're over 10 minutes. That's good enough. So, hope you have a good weekend. We'll see you on the next video. Bye, everybody.