Where are all the Buffalo?

This is a question we’re asked all the time…

We’ve even had folks contact us to ask if we’d like to purchase bison calves or ask if we sell Buffalo Burgers. I always tell them no but we can do some pretty gnarly buffalo wings! Actually, you’ll find some pretty amazing animals on our farmstead but, at least for now, there aren’t any buffalos!

A little back story

So how’d we come up with the name “Buffalo Acres”? To answer that we have to go back over 20 years to late 2003. That’s when Tisha and I first started dating.

Tisha always says, “You can’t help who you love!” You see, we met when we both worked at Family Christian Store in Phoenix. She was the Inventory Control Specialist and I had recently applied as the interim manager. It was love at first sight! Well, maybe not first sight… it took a couple of months before I had a chance to grow on her, haha. She was there the day I applied for the job and she wondered to herself how I could be so darned slow! She says it took me forever to complete the application. She thought, “this guy will never make it!” But hey, I wanted to be thorough. She was gone for the next month volunteering for the Arizona Southern Baptist Disaster Relief helping serve fire fighters in the largest and most destructive forest fire up until that time in Northern Arizona. A short time after she retuned and discovered me working there, she decided she liked me “maybe just a little bit!” There was only one problem… I was 14 years older than her!

Meet the Family

I have to admit that I was pretty nervous about meeting Tisha’s family. Her dad wasn’t a huge man but he looked like he could take care of business and her brother and sister… I was pretty sure they could too! But her mom was another story. She came into the store from time to time and she was always very nice to me. In fact, before she knew that Tisha and I were dating she even said that I might be good boy friend material! Apparently, since she accepted me I was okay!

But the real “family” test came the first time Tisha asked me to go to church with her. She grew up in the church and everyone there was her Christian Family. They were the ones she was a little worried about. This first time I went she had a few rules I was to follow… “don’t put your arm around me, don’t kiss me in front of anyone, and don’t say that we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. That comes later!” I asked her, “How do I say I love you then?” She told me to come up with a code word and the first thing that popped into my mind was “Buffalo!” If I wanted to tell her that I loved her, I would just say “buffalo” and of course, she would say “buffalo” back to me.

“I Buffalo You”

So “buffalo” became our code word for “love”. And a few years down the road it would also become the safe word for our family. If one of us needed help, one of the kids was in a bad situation and needed to secretly tell us to come get them over the phone, or we sent someone to pick them up, we would use the code word, “buffalo”. The word “buffalo” became our expression of love, safety, and family. It is also our promise to each other. We have a framed painting in our living room that we’ve had since very early on. It’s a picture of a herd of buffalo on the range and under the picture is the title… just one word: “Survivors”. Buffalos fought their way back from near extinction. They are survivors and so are we. As long as we have family we will survive whatever comes our way and not one of us will ever be truly alone! We have had to fall back on this promise many times in our 20+ years of marriage. From car accidents and lost jobs to a child who was never supposed to walk or talk we are survivors.

Buffalo Acres is “Love Acres”

So there you have it. Buffalo Acres is Love Acres. But it’s more than just a word. It’s a description of something that a single word can’t describe. Heck, a whole book of words would have a hard time describing it. Yes, it’s the love we have fore each other, the bond that our family shares; but it’s also the peace and safety that our home provides for us. From the moment we go through the gate we know that we’re home. No matter what’s taking place outside of that gate, we are in a place where we are loved, accepted, and safe. We can let loose. We can cry, we can laugh, we can hope, and we can dream. For us, Buffalo Acres, “Love Acres”, is truly our magical place.