This page is the visual documentation of the heroic struggle of an intrepid blogger who, in the name of love, is trying to bring the spirit of Montana to his hometown of Louisburg, North Carolina. This spirit is being captured in the form of a scrap metal bison, and the inspiration for capturing this spirit is the fabulous Mrs. Groovy—a known lover of Big Sky Country and the grooviest chick this intrepid blogger has ever known. Enjoy.

1/8/2020

The goal: Replicate as best I can, the scrap metal bison created by the legendary John Lopez.

The cart upon which the scrap metal bison will sit.

1/17/2020

The template for the bison silhouette.

1/29/2020

The cutout bison silhouette without legs. Many people mistook this cutout for a whale rather than a bison.

2/7/2020

Bison silhouette complete and ready for the cart.

2/28/2020

Billy Bob up on the bison cart. He’s mobile!

A scrap-metal guitar I made out of rebar and string. I made this while I was pondering how to advance the bison build.

More scrap-metal art while pondering the bison build. Here’s a spider made out of rebar and a colander.

Man, I did a lot of pondering on the bison build. Here’s a rooster I made out of rebar, sheet metal, spoons, and a pair of pliers.

Finally, a three-dimensional bison is taking shape. Here’s the placement of rebar to form the beginnings of Billy Bob’s head.

3/6/2020

Billy Bob’s head is beginning to take shape.

3/25/2020

More progress on Billy Bob’s head. And he finally has an eye!

4/8/2020

Billy Bob’s body is beginning to take shape.

4/17/2020

Billy Bob has back.

5/20/2020

Disaster strikes. In the process of upgrading the bison cart, I accidentally tipped Billy Bob over. Here he is propped up against our storage shelves, missing his back support leg.

I tried to right Billy Bob, of course, but his weight was too great and his back support leg snapped.

With the help of Groovy Brother and Groovy Jim, I got Billy Bob back on his cart. Here he is atop the new-and-improved cart with new-and-improved support legs.

6/6/2020

The legs are taking shape. Here’s a picture of Billy Bob’s back legs from the right.

And here’s another picture of his legs from the left.

7/10/2020

The scaffolding of Billy Bob’s back legs is finally done.

And it looks like the back end of a bison.

8/14/2020

The scaffolding for the front left leg is almost complete. To date, I have used roughly 500 linear feet of rebar. I figure I’ll need another 100 linear feet of rebar to complete the scaffolding.

And Billy Bob now has his left horn.

10/2/2020

Billy Bob’s scaffolding is finally complete, and it pretty much conforms to the shape of the bison template.

Here’s the view of the front scaffolding compared to an actual bison.

And here’s the rear view of the scaffolding compared to an actual bison.

11/20/2020

The hide-attaching phase of the bison build has begun.

12/24/2020

The hide around Billy Bob’s head is nearly complete.

And Billy Bob becomes the Country Christmas Bison for the holidays. Thanks mom for the wonderful scarf and hat.

Here’s a close-up of Billy Bob’s head. Notice the fur on his chin?

2/19/2021

The hide-attaching phase of the bison build is moving along. The right-back half of Billy Bob is more than halfway done.

Here’s another picture of the hide-attaching progress.

4/8/2021

And the left-side is catching up on the hide-attaching phase of the bison build.

Here’s another picture of the left side’s progress.

5/11/2021

6/17/2021

Making the transition of the left leg to the trunk of the beast was much harder than I anticipated.

The right-leg transition wasn’t much fun either.

The worst by far was filling in the crotch area.

To do this part of the crotch, I had to weld on my back. Now I know how Michelangelo felt when he was painting the Sistine Chapel.

7/8/2021

The hide-attaching phase is almost done on Billy Bob’s left side.

7/23/2021

And now the hide-attaching phase is almost done on Billy Bob’s right side.