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kevin

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Tumbleweed

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Location
western south dakota
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This is a picture that was in Range Magazine in the spring of 2003 and was taken by a photographer named Guy de Galard. The fellow on the white horse is a friend of mine named Kevin. I first met him at a craft fair in Rapid City. He noticed a braided rawhide scarf slide I was wearing and asked if I had braided it. He wanted to learn about rawhide so I invited him to come visit me and I'd show him what I knew about it. He came out and I gave him a cow hide I had. We cut it up into strings for a riata and I showed him how to braid it. Kevin was still in highschool but finished up early and came out and helped me calve out that spring. When calving was over I didn't need any more help so he went to work for my uncle on his ranch. Kevin worked for my uncle but later on would spend the spring and summers at the Padlock Ranch in Wyoming and Montana then the winters at my uncles.

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When Kevin went to work for my uncle there was and older fellow named Paul already working for him. Paul was born and raised near Gatesville Texas and had come up here many years ago to take care of some cattle that were owned by a fellow in Texas. I believe the fellow later sold the cattle and his ranch but Paul stayed in South Dakota. Paul was an older fellow who liked nothing better than to be on a ranch and nowhere else. He had been in a lot of wrecks over the years so he was kind of stove up but that didn't stop him from working or doing what ever needed to be done. When Kevin went to work for my uncle he moved in with Paul. Kevin was young and stout and could do the heavy liftin and Paul was good about keeping the house clean and picked up and also cooking meals. So they got along pretty good. Before Kevin came Paul had a problem with mice in the house that he hadn't got solved. Paul said one night he was layin in bed and just about asleep when he heard a....... Ker–BANG!!!!.... in the house that woke him up. Kevin was laughing and talking to himself out in the living room and had just shot a mouse with a 22 rifle. Guess that got to be a pretty regular occurrence and Paul told me Kevin was getting good at it and sure lowering the mouse population. My uncle never did say anything about all the bullet holes in the flour or walls so I guess he didn't mind. Those mice like to chew on rawhide strings so they were a pretty unwelcome guest around Kevin.

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Another friend of mine named Henry called me and wanted to learn about rawhide recently but I don't work with it anymore so we went to visit Kevin. He has stayed with it and does some of the finest rawhide work I've seen anywhere. He also builds saddles, Damascus steel bits and knives

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a bosal Kevin made

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knife and reins

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a saddle Kevin wanted to study that was a custom made one of mine that I kept getting thrown out of. Had a different one built so its pretty dusty from not getting used.

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Henry, Kevin with a snake that had been laying by the door since last fall and uncle Joe

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Tumbleweed, Kevin and Henry
 
Good pictures, Tumbleweed. Did you take the top one, of the horses on the move? It is really a classic. Heck, all the pictures are classics. Shooting mice with a twenty-two is certainly a lethal way of disposing of the little pests. Thanks for sharing these wonderful works of photo art with the rest of us.
 
Soapweed said:
Good pictures, Tumbleweed. Did you take the top one, of the horses on the move? It is really a classic. Heck, all the pictures are classics. Shooting mice with a twenty-two is certainly a lethal way of disposing of the little pests. Thanks for sharing these wonderful works of photo art with the rest of us.
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Soapweed thanks for the compliments on the photo's, even though I don't post on here to much I always enjoy yours and especialy get a chuckle out of the captions on them.

The first picture was in the spring 2003 issue of Range Magazine and was taken by a fellow by the name of Guy De Galard. I thought it was a good picture of Kevin so I copied it out of there and posted it along with the ones I took. Hope that ain't illegal or wrong. I slipped up and should have included the photograghers name with it and that it was in Range magazine when I was telling about Kevin.
 
Great pictures Tumbleweed, your friend looks like he has a good sense of humor as well as being a good hand with rawhide
 
Great pictures Tumleweed.You look familiar,did you play guitar in a western band some years ago?
 
You did post the name in the first photo, Tumbleweed. Unless you went back and edited it after the comment from Soapweed.

Tumbleweed helped me to make a riata, years ago. Many people don't realize that most of the work in making a riata is in the preperation of the strings. I still have the riata and it hangs on the wall of my saddle shop.

Kevin has gotten to where he does some awesome work. Joe was telling about a set of reins and romal he built and sent to a collecter this winter. Said he had 4 or 500 hundred hours into them. Buess the feller had lots of money!

Kevin's got a great sense of humor and is fun to be around. One spring he came down with Joe to Tumbleweeds branding with his brand new saddle he had built. He done a real nice job on it. After we got done eating, we went to ketch our horse and ride back to our pickup and trailers. Kevin was a little slower leaving the table then several others of us, so we unsaddled his horse and re-saddled him with the saddle on backwards. Of course we knew the horse was gentle and wouldn't throw a fit and hurt the saddle or himself. We were riding off quite a ways, when Kevin came out and found the horse and saddle and it sure tickled us when we could hear him cussing us (in a good way) almost a half mile away!

He can throw some pretty mean loops with a nylon or a riata, also. He comes to several of the local ranch ropin's and can make a loop of about 20 to 25 feet do fancy stuff in the air and then drop onto the critter, to make the ketch.

Good pics Tumbleweed. :)
 
Juan said:
Great pictures Tumleweed.You look familiar,did you play guitar in a western band some years ago?
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Yes me and Jinglebob both used to make a little music in dance halls and bars along with some other neighbors and friends. I've pretty much quit making music and for the most part just enjoy listening to others.
 
Tumbleweed, are you trying to tell us something, since you are the guy in the "white hat"? :lol:

Nice pictures and sounds like you guys know how to have fun.

I would love to own that photo that was in Range Magazine. Are there any prints for sale that you know of?

Thanks so much for sharing. Don't stop now~
 
Faster Horses I don't know about prints being available of that photo. I think photographers are usually willing to sell a signed print suitable for framing if someone wants one. There are many really good pictures in Range Magazine every issue and that's one of the things I like about it.

Hadn't thought about me being the only one in a white hat but after thinking about it and taking another look at the pictures I think those other guys do kind of look like outlaws :)
 
Very interesting pictures TW. I had the opportunity to meet Kevin last spring at an auction sale. He bought a huge trip hammer to help him hammer out the knives he makes. Kind of funny watching him bid, held his hand up until he owned it! Your first picture not only has Kevin on the white horse, but an old college buddy of mine Martin Anseth. Martin is the fella driving the team. Both Kevin and Martin seem to be good hands and are great guys.
 
Hey Tap, did you hear the funny comment that was going around when Walt Secrest had problems with those Texans on the last wagon train?

In a bar two guys were talking about what had transpired and one made the remark, "Walt Secrest is a son-of-b***h."

The other guy replied, "Yeah, but he is OUR son-of-a-b***h!"
 
Your story doesn't surprise me FH. Walt and some others split off from the rest of the herd, as they were sick of the BS that went on with it all the time. They took their stock, and continued on to Miles City on their own. They got to Miles City well before the main herd, but still waited outside of town so as not to steal their thunder.

I have heard that the rest of the crew at the Padlock kind of thinks of him as a legend around there. I bet he would have a good book, if he would put some of his life down on paper.
 
Tap said:
Your story doesn't surprise me FH. Walt and some others split off from the rest of the herd, as they were sick of the BS that went on with it all the time. They took their stock, and continued on to Miles City on their own. They got to Miles City well before the main herd, but still waited outside of town so as not to steal their thunder.

I have heard that the rest of the crew at the Padlock kind of thinks of him as a legend around there. I bet he would have a good book, if he would put some of his life down on paper.
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Just his years with Binion could probably fill a book!!!
 

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