#82 - KC Bison Ranch

Buy the boots -- they just might change your life!

Breathtaking. Majestic. Unforgettable.  All of this and more when you experience the KC Bison Ranch in Dahlonega, GA.  With 'all the feels' of the scenic North Georgia mountains, KC Bison Ranch is positioned between two of the areas premier wineries.  

But beyond the scenery -- oh what a story do we have on how it came to be!  A pair of boots from a store in Nashville and a short time later, a nearly 62ac bison ranch in Dahlonega, plus an incredible event/wedding venue AND new modern craftsman lodges, complete with a Western vibe perfectly suited for the location.  

And with this episode, a great 'life reminder' for us all:  Most of your critics in life aren't really cynical of you or what you're doing; under it all, they're filled with regret for not pursuing their own dreams.  

Here's to pursuing your own dreams & making our community better as a part of it!  And by gollie -- buy the boots. 

To find KC Bison Ranch online, visit:

https://www.weddingsattheoverlook.com/

https://kcbisonlodges.com/

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the North Georgia Life Podcast. Is Jake your host? Today we are at the KC Bison Ranch in Dahlonega, Georgia. That is correct. There is a bison ranch in Dahlonega, Georgia. It is. It was one of those places When I came home from recording the podcast, , I was telling my wife about it and I'm like, you're not like, this is why I do the podcast like this.

You're not going to believe how incredible the story is of how something like a bison ranch came to be. It started with a pair of boots, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen. Their kind of target is, , special events, weddings things like that. But they are, , literally they are Sam. Their property is sandwiched.

Between two of the best wineries in North Georgia. We've got, we've got a, a handful in the area gosh, I think it was maybe 2021 that we did a episode with Frogtown Frogtown [00:01:00] Winery, which is on the, the front kind of street facing part of the property. And then it's, it's literally you have Frog Town and then you had the Bison Ranch.

This is on like the same little street. And then you have one another winery right behind them. So it is so cool. So cool. They're, they're, , a venue for their events. Is just, I mean, it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And in the, you know, in the, the background fields of, , all the windows, when we, we were in the property recording, , but you just got this herd of bison and the, the story of how it came to be.

Is just so incredible. And you'll hear this year several of the stories from, , episodes that we have recorded that are, are being rolled out. If you have a dream, like listen, like go back into the, the, , however many podcasts we have, I don't, I don't know what number this is gonna be, 80 something and just like start taking notes.

Of these [00:02:00] people who are small business owners, entrepreneurs you know, started restaurants, started, you know, events, venues, different things like this, businesses and just like start making some notes of some, some symmetry some, some of the, the wisdom they have, some of the connectedness in terms of what they're sharing.

It, it's, it's like a, a masterclass on how to go from where you're at, where you don't love to like filling, fulfilling your dreams. And th and this is, this is just one more chapter in that in that book. So if you need to go up to North Georgia for any reason. This is a great reason to go. You know how to find us Facebook, Instagram, north Georgia Live podcast@gmail.com.

Hey, as, as you're going out exploring some of these places, I'm gonna try to be better about reminding myself to remind you, , the power of local reviews. So the places that you're going through to the podcast hey, leave them a Google [00:03:00] Review if you, if you found out about them through the podcast, like mention the podcast in the, in the review.

Because it helps just, it is just this web of exposure for, , local, small businesses and the things that make North Georgia great. And so many people have no idea. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to. That live in the North George area that have no idea that some of the things that we've had on the podcast are in like in an hour or two max from them.

And I'm just like, what? You know, the, I'm like, what do, what are we doing with our lives? The same stuff that makes us like smash our head against the wall of like, there's got to be more. Excitement around me in life. And absolutely there is, and this is one of the ways you find it. This is part of the goal of the podcast, is to get us out and help us embrace life where we live.

I if, , episodes like this are at all interesting or anything like that like the episode, [00:04:00] subscribe, leave us a review on whatever platform you're listening on and just, I hope you enjoy an incredible story. About how a bison ranch came from a pair of boots. Welcome back to the North Georgia Life Podcast.

It is Jake, your host. Today we're at a very unique location in the beautiful Dahlonega area in the North Georgia foothills. And, , we are at the Casey Bison Ranch, which if you hear that, you're just like Bison Ranch. North Georgia. Yes, that's why we do the podcast. And we are here with Kemp Chapman, who's the owner, operator, CEO.

, All things, you probably have about 14 hats that you wear, but at least big do. Big dog in charge. And, , Ashley Maryanski, who is the venue manager and. It handles so many of the logistics and a lot of the things that Kim probably just wants to hand off, that would be the case. So, , Kim, give us a, just a quick background on you.

Are you a Georgia native? Did you grow up in this area? Like how did you find your way through life to dahlonega? Yeah, [00:05:00] I was born in Georgia, in Atlanta and lived on the south side of town for many, many years and started gradually moving north when I was college age. Went to University of Georgia, graduated from there, and just keep moving north.

I've been in Buckhead, Roswell, Alpharetta coming and now here. And you've been here for how long? Three years. Three years. So not that long. Not long at all. Work history. Life history. Like what? I mean, this is not like a, I started a bison ranch, as one does correct. I, I was a sales guy, so even in college I knew that I was gonna sell something and had a lot of different sales jobs.

I guess the two that I spent the longest at was mortgages and insurance was the most recent. So. Kind of joke now that I sell love and it, it seems to work. That's, that's the part that doesn't have anything to do with the bison, although I love them too. So you are, [00:06:00] you're in the sales mortgage that, that was like your career.

You just like, that was your working life of doing those, predominantly, those industries. And then what happened, because that's not like a normal transition. Like I sold my insurance brokerage and I bought a bunch of large mammals in a farm. Well, I've always had an affinity for large mammals, so I've got some really big dogs.

And so I like unusual animals that are a little bit out of the ordinary. So I was in Nashville, Tennessee. About five years ago for the Georgia Vanderbilt game with some friends of mine, and one of my friends went to the Kova store while we were at a bar downtown and he bought a pair of boots and he comes walking in with his new boots on.

And I'm like, Adam, where'd you get the boots? And he said, there's a Kova store down the street. And he telling us how cool it was and everything. I knew what Kovas was because I'd seen 'em advertise on [00:07:00] Yellowstone. So I started thinking I hadn't had boots since college and I needed some boots. So I bought me a pair of Tecovas.

That was about two months later, they send me a newsletter on their. Email list called The Outpost, and the first article that I read in the outpost was about a guy that moved from Chicago to Montana to start a bison ranch. And. I was fascinated and I thought that's a really cool thing. And he was an attorney, so he wasn't a farmer.

And I never was either, I was a city boy all my life, had one friend that had a farm that I used to go visit. And I loved it, but I had no experience at all. Like I wonder if I could do that and I wonder if I could do it in Georgia. And pretty soon I found out that yes I could. There are a few other people in Georgia doing it and all over the southeast.

Really so. Started thinking about it, didn't tell anybody. Started looking at property. Got a realtor that was helping me and was [00:08:00] doing a lot of research. Bought the manual from the National Bison Association. Read the whole thing in about a week on how to raise bison, and watched every YouTube video I could find, which there are hundreds of them.

If not thousands. And I was just more and more fascinated. I started visiting bison ranches all over the southeast and every time the feeling that I got when I would get in there side by side or whatever, we used to go out and get near the bison their majesty and their magnificence just enthralled me.

I was like, okay, I could do this. And so I decided, yeah, I'm doing it. And then I started telling people. You would've thought Yes. That, that, I mean, they wanted to, to commit me, yeah. To a a mental ward or something. And because I had a great, I just renovated a lake house on Lake Lanier. I spent a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort, and it was only a year and a [00:09:00] half into that after that that that I had this idea.

And they wanted me to retire and live on Lake Lanier the rest of my life. And my kids wanted to be able to bring their, their kids over there and enjoy the lake life that we had been enjoying for 12 years. And I said, well, nope, I'm doing this. So it took me nine months to find the property. And how many acres do you have here?

We have 61 acres, 61 acres. Nine months is really not a terrible weight for that much acreage. That is. I mean, I, you've, you've done some, some work putting it mildly on the property, but but that's, that's not a terrible way. I am very curious, the gap between your starting the It is a, it is an idea.

I'm starting the research. No, this is actually gonna happen, and then not getting committed to a an asylum or a mental ward by your friends and family. I [00:10:00] think everybody goes through, maybe not everybody. A lot of people go through the what am I doing? What, what do I want to do? And then when there aren't people bought into your idea, like we need to be honest, like there's some things that are just bad ideas.

Like they're not, this is not a viable thing. But then there's also people that have. Like just these dreams. Elon Musk is, is an obvious example of somebody that just said like, we can, we can build something that's more of a commercial NASA and it be viable. And like if you didn't think that was crazy when he said it, like you're probably a little crazy.

'cause that's such a big thing. But we've, we've had several people on the podcast before. That are, are doing, I say similar operations. That's one of the reasons I do this because I would say you people, all of us I'm equally crazy in my own right. You're not wired like everybody else. And to try to explain to everybody else who is perfectly content running in a hamster [00:11:00] wheel, why you're getting off where you're going when that's.

That's a comfortable life and that's comfortable existence in work, and it's just like, I'm gonna keep punching the clock for another 20 years and then I'm gonna retire. I mean, it's fine if that's what you want, but if you're just doing that because you don't, you're not gonna pursue a bigger dream.

Several people that I'm, I'm thinking of that we've done on the podcast, it's just like, okay, you have to have some degree of like, wits about you. You have to have a. Unreasonable amount of determination and work ethic because it's all gonna be you for a while. But what was that process like from going, I'm walking out of Kova store, I read an article.

To trying to convince your family I'm not actually crazy, like, hear me out. When that's not their vision, that's not their mindset, that's not their plan. That's a big gap. You [00:12:00] used the, the perfect word to, to bring that topic up because I felt like from the very beginning. That God gave me this dream. Hmm.

I mean, I'm a, I'm a person of faith and things don't happen for no reason. So I just, I knew deep down in my heart that there was a, a pur, a bigger purpose behind this. And so a couple things happened. In fact, you can go downstairs and look at some things that we have on the wall that have some quotes during that time.

And when I was trying to convince myself that I was doing the right thing and convince everyone else that I was doing what I should be doing there was a book that I picked up and I'd actually had the book for a couple of years and. I had, I didn't read it until this time, is called Dream Big Oh yeah.

By Bob Goff. Yep. And the book is all about when you know you have a dream to help people and build something bigger than yourself don't let the naysayers [00:13:00] and the skeptics and the doubters talk you out of that dream. And so. It was just spot on that I picked it up at the exact time that I needed to read it.

Mm. You know, another thing that happened, I went to a concert down at Mercedes Benz to see Kenny Chesney, and I didn't even know the opening acts when I heard who they were, but this guy comes out on the stage named Cody Johnson, and he starts singing. If you have a Dream, chase it. If you, if you have a chance, take it.

And I'm like, he's singing to me. Wow. So I was like, that's perfect timing. And so I just became more resolved through several things that happened that that this is what I was gonna do. And I had every intention of staying in the insurance business. And just having a bison ranch.

But the wedding venue idea came to mind when I visited another bison ranch. The guy had a, a venue on his property and he told me about how he hosts weddings. And it was very simple, very plain [00:14:00] building just more of a. Pavilion than anything else. And so I thought that's a good idea. So the further I got into that, the, the, the more resolved I was to, to move forward with with what we've done here.

And where was that? Right? Where was that? That one was in Tennessee. Tennessee where? Where I actually bought my first 10 bison from. Okay. Transitioning to the process of starting something like this, you've been officially open for how long now? The wedding venue opened in May of 24, so it'll be two years, two years real soon.

When did you have your first bison on the property, or when did you start really making this an operation? Yeah. It's funny you said the nine months was pretty quick to find the property, and I guess it was because there was no property hardly for sale. In Lumpkin County, which is where I wanted to be.

And the property that we bought wasn't for sale. You know, I, I feel like God made it available through some very providential circumstances that people that introduced it to me and I was able to buy it. But [00:15:00] after I bought it, it took another 16 months of clearing and building fences and doing all the infrastructure, everything that I needed to do to be ready for the bison to get here.

So they've been here for exactly two years. They came in February of. 24. It is not like you just go down to the Pendergrass flea market and you're just like, you know, you know, buying a, buying a goat or some chickens. I mean, how did you even source where you were getting your bison from? Take us through that process.

Yeah, very much. I mean, I interviewed a lot of people, so I talked to people all over. I tried to focus on the east because very early on someone told me that you're gonna do better. And I met another rancher who had brought a lot of bison over from Montana or somewhere out west, and he lost about half of 'em to disease within the first year.

And so the bison that are already acclimated to the eastern climate, which is very different than the arid climate out west are [00:16:00] gonna do better. So. I just visited ranches mostly in Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina until I found one that had a surplus that needed to get rid of some. And and he was also, his ranch was just impeccable.

It was one of the best ones. I mean, I've seen everything I've seen just converted cattle farms with four wires of barb wire and barb wiring, you're wondering. How do they keep those animals in? I mean, I've seen everything. So, I tried to focus on the best practices that I, that I've talked to people about and listened to them when I picked where I was gonna buy my animals from.

Okay. Moving from, okay, we've got, we've got bison on the property. We found this person who is doing a, a successful venue wedding operation. Which I, you know, I don't, bison wouldn't be like my first thing of like, let's, what's, what's a good backdrop for, you know, the bride? Like, what about giant mammals?

But like, [00:17:00] what better, I mean what more unique talking point at your high school reunion than like, oh, here's my wedding pictures. Like what? So great talking point, but, but how did you go from, okay, we've got a farm to, we're actually setting up. A just an absolutely gorgeous property and, and facility.

And where like, how do, how do you go about the concept of building this and then marketing this and then finding Ashley, how does this, 'cause these are the pieces for people who have the, the dream and have the entrepreneurial mind. These are some of the big things of like, how do, but how do I find that person?

How do I start this process? Yeah, that's interesting. I. Just know that the pieces fell into place because I feel like, I feel like God was involved the whole time and just made it happen. I, I, I could see the, the landscape. I felt like an artist. I had this, this blank canvas and I was clearing trees and you know, putting up things that were gonna make the [00:18:00] property look more beautiful.

I, when I was looking for property, I wanted a mountain view, of course. Wanted a pond, a, a. Creek and pastures and all those beautiful things never pictured the vineyards. You know, when I found the property right in the middle of all these gorgeous vineyards, that was just like a, a big icing on the cake.

And but I, I could always see the bison in the background Hmm. For wedding pictures. That was never strange to me at all. And in fact, it's been a big draw. Oh, I'm sorry. We've had people come from all over the southeast that came strictly because of the bison. We get some phenomenal pictures and you know, as far as everything else coming together, I didn't know we, we tried to align with some other people in the wedding business because we didn't know anything about weddings. One thing that's a big. Piece of this is, I had a friend from way back, I've known since our twenties that called me one day and he saw what I was doing on Facebook and he said, Kim, I wanna come see what you're doing.

And I said, sure, come on up. And so he did. And he, he looks at [00:19:00] me and he says, do you need a partner? And I said, no, I don't think so. He said, well, I, I retired and I don't have anything to do right now, and I'd love to partner with you on this. Specifically the wedding venue. When I described to him what, what I had planned.

And one thing led to another and, and he became my partner. Well, that helped us build way more than just a pavilion. To have our weddings. We built a super nice facility that cost a lot more money that I had than I had intended to to spend. So, so that was something that was just came out of the blue.

Then as far as Ashley goes, we had a grand opening. And we had the livestock Commissioner here Tyler Harper, and we had some other politicians and different people here for our grand opening. And Ashley just happened to come because my daughter invited her, and I've known Ashley for 10 years. I've known her since she was a a kid.

And so she looked at me and said. You know, I've always wanted to work in the wedding business and I said, no, I had no [00:20:00] idea you wanted to do that. So I'll let her talk about that a little bit. So are you from the coming area? Is that was, was that where you were at? Yes. Okay. Yeah, so his daughter, Casey and I were best friends in high school and I got invited to the grand opening and I knew that Kim sold his Lake Caststone bison.

But I had no idea that he would be building a wedding venue. And this has always been my dream career. So I pressed him for a couple months. I bartended a couple of our first weddings and then he called me up and he was like, I need a venue manager and a vendor coordinator. You think you can handle it?

So I dropped everything I was doing and I put my faith into God. 'cause I knew this was all godsend. And here we are today. And so you didn't have a background in doing this, so he's starting this brand new. You're starting this brand new. Y'all have done pretty well. The place is beautiful. The God hand on it is, is necessary and [00:21:00] obviously very helpful, but like the logistics of, okay, so what do we actually do?

Who are our suppliers? How do I do this? When, when you've apprenticed in a position like that, or you've been an assistant to somebody you have you at least have your, your training wheels in terms of what your, your, your actual function is. But you're coming into this. Having had a dream.

Did you have any training to give you, like your start? Nope. No training at all. I, my twin sister actually was supposed to get married a few years ago and it fell through and she is unfortunately no longer with us. So I have just always had the dream since then to make this happen, and so Kim and I just put our brains together and figured out the best of the best, and we've just.

Been great partners in this industry. Like what's a normal day like? Like what is normal day like? It, or maybe what's the average [00:22:00] week look like for somebody who is bored out of their minds or really just not, they have a dream they have put on hold or given up on, and. They're listening to this and they're just like, okay, if he can do it, if she can do it, maybe I can do it.

What? What's the flow of the week look like? And then like what would you tell someone who's in that place? Yeah, I would just say talk to people if you have an idea or have a dream and keep it to yourself. It's a lot easier to talk yourself out of it, but when there's so many resources available now I found the directory for the National Bison Association and I just picked up the phone and started calling people and I said, Hey, tell me what this has been like for you.

Tell me, you know, where you've been, where, where you are now, where you plan on going with this. And I heard so many different [00:23:00] stories that I was able to take bits and pieces of. And use the ones that, that sounded like I could make that happen. And the more encouraged I got. It was interesting that probably half of the people that I talked to had no experience with ranching whatsoever.

That's turned out to be a blessing. It's a blessing that we had no experience in the wedding business because we don't do things status quo. We try to do things better than other people do, and Ashley could probably talk a little bit more about that. We have different strengths and weaknesses and so we.

Make great partners when it comes to learning and our processes. This year we've got 75 weddings so far, and last year, our first year we had 60. Wow. So we've definitely learned a lot. I don't know exactly when this will be released. We're according this end of February. So end of February. [00:24:00] You've already got 75 for this year on the books?

Yes. Wow. I think for 80 to maybe 85. I'm gonna try and cap it at 80, but we'll see. Let's transition to your space, your area of expertise. If you were giving counsel to the couple to be, I would say the, the bride to be, but really the, you know, both husband and wife, what would you give them just in terms of from your capacity and your vantage point?

Like, here's some things to make your life, your wedding, planning, your, you know, your day better, easier, less stressful. You see it on a different angle than they're experiencing it. And they're planning it, right? Yeah. And you see a lot of them. So what would you give someone as a piece of counsel? 110%.

Be sure to have a wedding coordinator and planner to take all of the stress off, and your vendors are super important. Starting with catering. Catering can really make or break your event and. Just to have people [00:25:00] to lean on and not try and do all of this on your own. I recommend getting a wedding planning book so that you can make sure that you have everything lined up in a timely manner and just being organized, but leaning on your planner to guide you through all of the processes.

And what is your the capacity here? Our maximum is two 50. Our first wedding was actually 350 and we made it work, but that's when we decided to make it as comfortable as possible for everybody. It's a large overage? Yeah, a two 50. Wow. But our average wedding is probably around 1 50, 180. Okay. Being a couple years in, you've worked out some of the, you know, some of the kinks, smoothed out some operational things.

Do you have a best memory, funniest story? Just anything that, just when you're going through, you know, something hard, you just, like, it brings a little bit of life and light back to your your day and then maybe the [00:26:00] biggest lesson you've learned in terms of if you had to go back and start over again.

What would you change or do quicker or not do at all? I would say there's really nothing that I would do over or do different. I think I mean we've certainly learned a lot and we've got a couple of good stories. Our best stories are probably in the reviews that we get from people that sometime during the process we're not so happy.

Our, one of our best reviews that we have right now on Google is from a dad that had some major issues with certain things that he thought he was getting that for some reason he thought he was not going to get in. In the end he did and ended up saying. That the day that he spent here with his daughter for her wedding was absolutely the best day of his life.

Wow. We have good, good brides, good families. We were warned to be on the outlook for [00:27:00] things that are not gonna be so easy, but. I think, you know, Ashley does an amazing job at communicating with people through the whole process. That's our, our number one thing is clear and consistent communication.

And she just cares so much about our couples that they sense that and they form a bond that takes them through their wedding day and we just don't run into the issues that we were told we would. So that's, that's been the big, the biggest thing. Just share briefly about that for people who may be thinking about the wedding planning operation.

Just tell them kind of what makes you your operation here unique or a little bit different. Absolutely. So. I start with the couples from the front end and I will schedule their tours, do their tours, book them, go through the next step processes With booking vendors, we're an all inclusive venue, so they'll pick through any of our vendors on our [00:28:00] preferred vendors list.

I'll get them in contact, handle the booking, and once everything is set in stone, they'll move on to wedding planning with their planner. So. We have three wedding planners that will come in and go over the timeline, layout and play by play of the day with our couples, and they'll be here day of to make sure that everything is running smoothly.

And then I'll be here, Kim will be here, sometimes Adam will be here if I'm not here to manage. And just piggyback the. Wedding planner day of so that the bride can just enjoy her day. Yeah. Without any of the stressors of making sure that all the vendors are here and everything's got running smoothly.

One thing I'll say, going back a little bit further, when the wedding venue idea came along was, it was interesting 'cause I was going to a lot of weddings, my. Both of my kids are in that age range in their twenties where a lot of their friends were getting married and I was their friend too 'cause they used to come to our lake house.

So I got [00:29:00] invited to their weddings and so it was easy for me to go and look for things that I wanted to replicate and. Things that I wanted to make sure we avoided. And so the whole idea was to build a place and conduct weddings in a way that if I was looking for a place for my own daughter to get married, I would choose that place.

And most of the places that I went to didn't fit that. Description. So I think we've done a really good job of, of trying to address not only the concerns that the brides and their moms have, but the concerns that the dads have. And that that has helped us quite a bit a sucker for a good laugh.

Is there a, a funniest story that. You can share or, and it doesn't have to be from a wedding, it can be just from anything related to the property itself. There is one wedding that Ashley can tell you a little bit more than I can about it because I happen to not be here for the main, but we did, we did have a few [00:30:00] issues.

Most weddings are pretty, pretty tame, pretty calm. But this one had had a, a guy that wanted to dance on the tables and he wanted to take our golf cart for a little joy ride. And he, he kept the keys. We have a, we have a security. Off-duty officer on duty for all of our weddings, and he rarely has anything to do, but he was quite busy this night.

In fact, he had to call for backup. We were told that every on-duty officer in Lumpkin County that night was here on our property. And nobody got hurt. Nothing happened. So it, it turned out to be a funny story. Yeah. You know, I was thinking about the time that the bison got out. I was, I was thinking like they'd gotten to get loose.

I know people that lose their cows on the road all the time, and I'm like, how does your cows get out again? Okay. This particular day was, was interesting. How long ago was this? This [00:31:00] was August of last year. Well, when I was building the ranch, people told me it doesn't matter what kind of fence you build.

Yep. They can get through it and get out if they want to. Yeah, the key is making 'em not want to. So I've done a great job of that. My bison are very happy. They get plenty of food, plenty of water, plenty of attention, and so everything's great until you leave a gate open. And go to bed. So the next morning I wake up and I'm having my coffee and a neighbor calls and says, Hey Kim, I think it's your bison out here on my pasture.

And I said, if they're bison, it probably, or mine, 'cause nobody else around here has bison. So sure enough, I drive a mile away and these bison are just happy as they can be on. My neighbor's pasture and it turned into a three day ordeal to get them back. Something that I never want [00:32:00] to relive. But we ended up corralling them and putting 'em on a trailer to get 'em back over here.

And I'm a lot more careful with the gates these days. Yeah, I bet. They, they, how how many got out? They do what they want to do. The key is, is all of them, the key is making them do, making them want to do what you want them to do. So, but the good thing is they stay together 'cause they're very much herd animals.

So. They don't spread out and, you know, go 20 different directions. They, they're all one pack. And I had, I was getting calls from the sheriff, Hey, we found your bison in somebody, somebody's yard. And then they were just all over the place. So, you know, once we were able to set up a temporary portable corral we were able to, to push 'em all into that corral at the same time.

So you said all of them were loose? How many is all of them? 22 at the time. Oh gosh. Throwing around a long ago. Wow. All right. Well that's, yeah. I mean, that's like people live through the you know, Snowmageddon have [00:33:00] lived through the the bison escape of 25. So y'all have been around North Georgia long enough.

What is a place that you love? People may know of it, but there's something you specifically you love about it, or people may have never heard about it if you were gonna. Give people some little golden nugget from North Georgia that you absolutely love and you can't say Casey Basin Ranch. Well, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is all the fantastic wineries that we have in the area and the distillery, big Creek Distillery.

We know we've just gotten to be good friends with all of these people because they're neighbors. And it's a great way to experience and enjoy the area when you come stay. In our new lodges that we built on the property we have currently have four lodges and we're building the fifth one.

We will be able to sleep a total of 41 people right here on site. And within five miles of us, we have six wineries. And a distillery. I was gonna ask you on the, on the lodging that you [00:34:00] have, we call 'em lodges. Lodges. They're, they, they have a Western vibe. Yes. A western field. Much bigger than a, a cottage or even a cabin.

Yeah. You know, we've got a five bedroom, a four bedroom, a couple, three bedrooms. So, they all have a hot tub. All of 'em at one have a fireplace and they have the most amazing views because out the back door, sitting on your back deck, you can see the sunrise and the, and the pastures and the bison, and out the front, you can see the sunset.

Both directions. You can see vineyards everywhere. The bison rides. Is that not a real thing? We ha We've had several groomsmen ask us, Hey, can I ride the bison? And I say, absolutely. As long as you'll let me video you doing it. Yeah. And, and sign a waiver. But of course, no, it is not gonna happen. I do have my, my big herd bull Herschel will let me pet him on the nose and on the head.

But I don't let other people do it. He knows me and he's very self-assured and and, and doesn't choose to challenge me because typically [00:35:00] I have food when, when I'm doing that. So he's, he's a good boy. I will take the couple out to take pictures with the vice and during cocktail hour, so that's really fun.

They're like big dogs. You just can't pet 'em. They love to show off during cocktail hour. They'll go and hang out by the fence area so the guests can mingle with them and then we'll take them up on a pasture to, for the couple to take pictures with them. That's awesome. They are very curious and they do, they do love people.

The question that I get asked, I think most often, because I'm here for the tours a lot of times and people look at me and say. Why bison? Why didn't you do horses? Why didn't you do cows? Whatever. And you know, at first when I had this dream, I wasn't quite sure why bison, other than the fact that the buffalo nickel was my favorite coin to collect when I was a kid growing up.

But as time went by. I understood because I'm not sure if you've heard this before, a lot of people haven't that bison have a mentality. We all face storms in life and when the [00:36:00] bison faces a storm, they, unlike other animals, they will go head on into it. They're the perfect symbol of strength and resilience and perseverance.

And now I know that God was using the bison to remind me of a period in my life when I went through some major storms a little over 20 years ago. I had a lot of financial difficulties pretty much lost everything. Went through a divorce and had a seven year period of my life that was kind of a desert season.

But during that time I learned to be content with what I had. Hmm. And now I look around and I'm very content with what I have, but I, I'm also reminded when I look at the bison about the storms that I went through in that, in that time of my life and how God helped get me through those. And you know, Ashley shared a minute ago about a similar situation in her life when she went through a, a, a storm with, with her sister.

So, she appreciates that too. Your day to day in general, some of the most practical, [00:37:00] best. Guidance that you've received, you gravitate back to and it it is just a good sounding board for life. Yeah, I would say the adversity every time we faced a, a storm, we faced some other storm. Since we've been developing the property we had when I finished clearing, I'm a perfect example.

We had every tree mark that we wanted to save and we took all the others out. And about two months later, we had a tornado come through and it wiped out a hundred trees that I had wanted to save. Mm. But we turned that adversity into a beautiful mantle. One of the trees was a, a, a wormy maple that we made our mantle for our fireplace out of.

In fact, we have one in our lodge and one in the venue here that came from that tree. So, you know, we just learn a lot every time we face. Something and you know, just turn, turn adversity into opportunity. It's there. There's always sunshine coming around the next corner. Mm. If you don't, don't let those things [00:38:00] get you down.

Yeah. I would say to put your faith in the Lord and what you go through, you will grow through and he will work within you to help others. In your circumstances, Kim and I actually share a devotional and we both read the same daily devotional and sometimes we'll talk about it, but the other day the devotional was about sharing your story.

So it is just kind of ironic. Yeah. As I get older I share with people periodically and like if you don't go through some major stuff in life, you're the rare exception and. There's a whole lot of people that wherever they're going in the morning, they're crying on the way there. And they'll never tell anybody 'cause they don't have money to talk to.

And maybe that's why they're they're a little sour when you get to 'em. And, you know, I just don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about this. But there's a lady at a at a, a store that I go to periodically every time I've been in. And I've probably been in there, I don't know, 15 times over the years [00:39:00] last.

Three, four or five years. So not a lot, but just, you know, she's, she's one of the people that's always in there. I think she's either owner or married to the owner or whatever. And this one particular time I went in I had our, our son with us and she was asking some questions about, about him and I was like, oh, he, you know, he loves to read.

And then she, she went off on this tangent. About how much she loved that he was loving to read. And it was the most, it was the most conversation that I, I'm like, I didn't know you had excitement in, in anything in life. Like, just not, you know, it's, I don't say like a curmudgeony kind of attitude, but that was what I had experienced every other time I'd been in there and then somehow she transitioned to telling me that she had seven children.

And she had had to bury six of them. Oh man. And I, I like, I'll never forget that. I'm like, [00:40:00] I probably have a pretty bad attitude. A lot of taste too. Like the weight of carrying that and just trying to li to go about, you know, running a business and living a normal life. And I'm like, there's so many people that are like that.

Like, it's a lot that people deal with. And so, anytime I can have conversations with you know, people like y'all that have shared a sample of your, your, your life and the challenges you've been through and have a great operation here and. Have smiles on your face and have hope like what better opportunity to take, to say like, like share some of that light and some, some of that hope with others.

So, thank you for doing that. You mentioned earlier on about what my life was before I, I decided to do this and, and it had become a little mundane, it was very routine. I had built a successful insurance business that was, I just didn't feel like I was impacting lives or, you know, I wasn't able to tell stories the way that I can now.

And I, and I could sense, I, I knew early on, I looked forward to [00:41:00] the fact that I would be meeting so many thousands of people. I mean, in a year's time. Now I think about it and we'll probably have. Somewhere around 20,000 people or so come through here that I have the opportunity to meet and tell these stories to which is, is way better than, than the environment I used to be in.

So I just love that I didn't mention that. One of the biggest inspirations for the bison thing when I discovered the guy that. Started the ranch in Montana was how he did field harvesting for the animals and how he didn't do the traditional meat harvest where you put animals on a trailer and take 'em to the slaughterhouse.

And that's a big aspect of what we do here because we do sell bison meat and it's humanely harvested. A bison's a wild animal, and the cruelest thing you can do is capture it and put it on a trailer the last day of its life and, and then kill it. So we don't do that. I [00:42:00] mean that our bison is happy as they can be right up until the moment that their life ends.

And it's just a natural si cycle of life. So that's, that's really important to us. We've done. Five so far. Well, it was a major challenge too with the state because you have to deal with the USDA and with the state to get approval to do that. Oh wow. And no one had ever done it. I had to do a tremendous amount of research and find a processor that would cooperate with me.

And we were the first ones ever in the state of Geor, Georgia to do, uSDA inspected field harvest. So the state veterinarian and the USDA inspector, they all come out and they watch the process and, and talk to them. After it was said and done, they said it was by far the most humane harvest of any animal they had ever seen.

'cause they have to watch 'em happen at the slaughterhouses too. It was just, it was so refreshing and so enlightening to see that. Yeah. So a question I like to do before the end of every episode is called the lightning Round, which. I say generally doesn't [00:43:00] have anything to do with what we're talking about.

This one has a little bit to do. If you had to pick any superpower that you would love to have here at the Bison Ranch, what would it be and why? I would wanna be able to fly. Yeah. I've always had dreams about being able to fly growing up, but if I could hover over this property check everything out.

From the, from, from a bird's eye view, that would be an amazing thing to happen. We had an eagle out here when we were constructing this venue that he took residents here for just a few months and watching him, just imagining what that must be like as he circled and he would dive into our pond and get fish.

So that was, that was really cool. So just flying or like Superman flying in super strength. 'cause I'm just thinking if you're, I mean, if you're gonna be able to fly, you might as well be able to pick up a bison that wandered [00:44:00] off and bring it back. Well that, that was my first thought. I'm like that and, and I think, didn't Superman hold Lois Lane?

In her arms one time. Yeah. Or, or let her fly with him. So I would, I would want Ashley to be able to fly with me, so I'd have to have that, that strength as well. Lowe's Lane was slightly lighter than a bison. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I mean, when they're born, they only weigh 55 pounds or 50 pounds. People don't know that.

They're very small. Wow. So, so they're actually a lot smaller than her at that time. We'll be having hopefully this year we've got nine potential. Red dogs, they call 'em when they're born 'cause they look like a red dog. Okay. When is birthing time for bison? April. April and May typically. Okay. So I got, so I have to ask, this is totally unplanned.

But I know I have several family members that I don't know if they got anything done when the pandas at the zoo were on. [00:45:00] The delivery schedule and they were wanting to watch the baby pandas. Are you going to have a webcam or anything like that for the red dog? Baby cam? We have not to, to so far been able to watch one actually give birth.

They will go off to themselves and do it probably early, early in the morning when nobody's looking. So, I hadn't thought about really doing the webcam, but it would be too hard. They would go somewhere away from the web. Webcam to, to give birth, but we will let people come out right after, because I mean, within 30 minutes they're up and running around and they're so cool to look at. For people who are either coming here, do you have just visiting hours or is it just for scheduling weddings and events that you have? People that can come out here? We do a little bit of both. Pretty much by appointment. We don't really have hours where we're open to the public.

But if someone calls me. And says, I wanna come see the bison. [00:46:00] If I'm here, which is most of the time, then I always try to accommodate that. I mean, I feel like God's given me this, this setting and this opportunity and these wonderful animals not to, not to keep 'em to myself. I mean, I want other people to see how majestic and how I, I just feel like they're, they're one of the best creations that God ever came up with.

How do people go about. Reaching out to you, Ashley, assume you're the point of contact for setting up weddings fi people finding you on social media, website, any, any contact information for people that want to start following you your operation, or get connected and scheduling an event.

Yeah, people mostly find us on Instagram weddings at the overlook or on our website weddings at the Overlook at Casey Bison Ranch. And you can inquire through the website to get emails and texts. Okay. And you can always just directly email me at ashley at weddings@theoverlook.com. Okay. I hope to come back when it's a little bit nicer weather and see more of the, the grounds, [00:47:00] but the the facility you have here is absolutely beautiful.

So you guys doing a great job on that. Thank you. Yes, we'd love for you to come back in the spring. It's my favorite time. We're just a couple of months away from everything being green and having baby bison running around all over the place. So, it, it's a very, very beautiful time here on the ranch.