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They'll give you a home where the buffalo roam...

"Provide, provide," says the Robert Frost poem.

But today's farming economy isn't listening. In the mid- to late-80s, farmers began to redefine their goals to fit a rapidly-changing economy.

For John and Stephanie Stober, that involved abandoning certain dreams and building others. "They say, 'Happy are they who follow their dreams,' [but] if your dream doesn't work out, you need to pick up another," says Stephanie.

So the Stobers hand-picked an alternative they could share with others: offering absentee ownership of buffalo. "As a kid I always liked going to the Badlands and looking at the buffalo," says John. "I thought it would be neat someday to have some of these, never thinking it would happen."

In a busy society, most people don't have the time to care for an animal as exotic as the buffalo. Still, some have found that vacationing on the Stobers' ranch and visiting their own animals provides a unique getaway.

"We let other people enjoy what we've had for five generations," says Stephanie. On their "Prairie Gold Bison" ranch in Goodrich, the two feed, house, and nurture the animals for people who want to "own a piece of the Old West." Owners can share the calf crop with the Stobers (60 to 40 percent for absentee ownership) or pay a monthly fee for the buffalo's care. They also get to see the buffalo grow.

"Some people who own buffalo out here are in businesses all day long, and they just enjoy dropping us a note, wanting to know how their 'gals' are doing," says Stephanie.

The Stobers have prepared several "packages" which cater to those who just want to own buffalo, as well as those who prefer something more. Purchasers of the "Buffalo Run" package get every third calf, six days at the Stobers' cabin every year for ten years, their choice of a buffalo robe or print, a certificate of ownership, and a buffalo skull hand-painted by an American Indian.

Stephanie says she finds inspiration in a story about a little boy who bugged his father to buy a buffalo. She adds, "He and his sister now own buffalo at this ranch, and maybe when he's a father he can buy his son a buffalo to fulfill his own dreams."