An Evening of Passion and Unbridled Fun at the Nukem Ranch

[fouronesix]

My oh my! Some of those even look like they have a little age on them. And yes, original GS Garcia bits or spurs are about at the top of valuable collectible tack- way over my budget. But I do appreciate nonetheless. I have a few earlier California style spurs including one pair by Mike Morales- a contemporary of GS Garcia. What's kind of interesting to me is that the overall quality of current production metal and silver smithing of bits and spurs done in Mexico, like I mentioned with such brands as E Garcia and others, is still very high. I think they are trying to maintain a tradition and not just pumping out mass produced repro items as is the case with so much of the Chinese junk.

Another thing that's interesting, at least to me, is the crescent moon designs in many of the earlier California styles. I see that theme in a bunch of your bits. I think that design has historical roots dating clear back to the occupation of Spain by the Moors.

Anyway, thanks for sharing the great photos!

[sparkz]

Very Nice Saddles and Bits!!!
where can some of those be had at?
Very nice tack for sure (far to good for my Hay-Burners)

Patrick

[fouronesix]

DUKE,
Here's a few old original spurs. Some South American types (showing the Espuela Grande influence) and North American Vaquero and California spurs. The Colt is a 1st generation early smokeless in a Heiser holster. I did make the grips for the Colt. The revolver was added to the pic so it all would be legit for the forum.

[John Allen]

fouronesix. I like the one in the back on the right. I looks like it has alot of detail on the spur.

[fouronesix]

The back row has three of the South American types. The one in the middle and similar are commonly reproduced even today, I guess because of the showy appearance and the large multi-point rowel (although most of the repros are kind of poorly done). The workmanship and age of the forged iron and the presence of a heel band to shank rivet on the originals are usually tell tale. And the originals will have a rowel that started out as a single piece of iron (commonly railroad iron), cut into a disc shape, tapered to the edge, then each tooth is formed by cutting and filing.

The ones in the back, on the left and right, are closer descendants of the Espuela Grande. The one on the left is of solid silver except for the rowel. The one on the right you are asking about, is of iron with silver inlays. And, it may be the older of the group.

[Lead Fred]

Dukester, You need lovely assistant to model your gun belt

Like this

[Just Duke]

Dukester, You need lovely assistant to model your gun belt

Like this

Got one!

[fouronesix]

Here's a "standard" 5" Crockett gal leg curb bit along with Crockett gal leg spur.
Growing up in the 50s-60s I never recall seeing any spade or ring bits in use. Most common by far was the common curb bit and once in a great while someone would have a half breed. All we had were the 5" curb bits. And, at least by the mid-1900s, the larger block-headed quarter horses were dominate as was the selection for larger and stockier framed horses. No wonder the smaller bits of less than 5" width were common in the 1700s-1800s with the predominate horses being some form of musteno or the various, thinner Spanish X Arabian types.

[msp2640]

Hey Duke, I know nothing about horses or the equipment that goes with them, but to my very untrained eye, it looks like you have a fantastic collection of nice stuff. I must say that your photo skills are top notch as well - Best of luck - Bill in MA

[Just Duke]

Hey Duke, I know nothing about horses or the equipment that goes with them, but to my very untrained eye, it looks like you have a fantastic collection of nice stuff. I must say that your photo skills are top notch as well - Best of luck - Bill in MA

Thank you. The gear is all for the ranch. Were going to go make cows to feed people.
Most ranchers and farmers are dying off and someone has to pick up the ball. Guess were it.
The huge collection of bits and spurs belongs to a fella that attends the Vaquero Festival in CA.
We are though accepting spur and bit contributions.
We have two of Barbies GF joining us in lieu of the unrecognizable beatings/divorces they went though. One showed up at the front door I thought it was someone dressed up in Zombie makeup she looked so bad. I thought it was a joke.
In lieu of this my neighbor that witnessed the fall out of the abuse took it upon himself to hold huge benefits for the battered womens shelter through his car club.
Anyway...... I'm a pleasant fun going fella living among-st violent angry people and wish to get out of here.
Heck just the other day at work of all places one of the other girls Nancy Kerrigan-ed Barbie with a pipe (only on he back of the knees) and told her she was to old to be working with the younger girls. She barely made it home but is now back out running again.
I have pics if anyone wants to PM me. Murphy has seen the pics BTW.
Sorry off topic. I'm just not really happy over the whole thing and need to vent.......

[fouronesix]

The huge collection of bits and spurs belongs to a fella that attends the Vaquero Festival in CA.

Thought so. For anyone not knowing about those- that collection of primarily "California style" bits and spurs would have a value well into 6 figures! Good reference book on the subject is "Bit and Spur Makers in the Vaquero Tradition" by Martin.

As to the rant... no problem, continue on. Everyone has to get it out once in a while. Very sad. Amazing what "human nature" can reveal sometimes.

Good luck with the ranch!

[mroliver77]

I need to vent some frustration. Point me out a couple of women abusers!

Duke I like this fellows thinking on beef and farming in general.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nIcfh2UqV8

[Just Duke]

I need to vent some frustration. Point me out a couple of women abusers!

Duke I like this fellows thinking on beef and farming in general.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nIcfh2UqV8

Yea he's a smart guy. We saw documentaries he did a few years ago and turned us onto the chicken tractors for organic fertilization.

[ballistim]

Duke you are obviously a man of many talents and if I still lived out west I'd be beating down your door.. or at least sneaking inside your ranch gate just to see what you're up to next. Rifle bedding, leatherwork, and I don't know anything to speak of regarding tack but I do know quality and beauty. I only spent 9 years in AZ before having to move back east after my younger brother died and pressure from family to come back along with losing my kids in a divorce and them coming back to my old home town. I can say that not a day goes by that I don't regret moving back, even though I am happily remarried and have kids & grand kids & a great paying job to be thankful for. Hope you don't mind if I kind of live vicariously through your posts of things I miss or wish I knew more about or could do. Riding up on South Mountain in Phoenix at night and looking over the valley all lit up, or hunting in Cochise Stronghold in the Coronado National Forest, or Zane Grey's cabin in Payson, I could go on but the days shooting jacks and cottontails are what I remember most, you get the idea. I'll just watch my favorite westerns and read my western fiction novels and be thankful for eastern whitetail in the freezer and hope to retire and move back. I'll settle for some holster for my new Vaquero that won't be anything compared to what you make. I'll keep reading your posts saying " someday..."

[Just Duke]

Duke you are obviously a man of many talents and if I still lived out west I'd be beating down your door.. or at least sneaking inside your ranch gate just to see what you're up to next. Rifle bedding, leatherwork, and I don't know anything to speak of regarding tack but I do know quality and beauty. I only spent 9 years in AZ before having to move back east after my younger brother died and pressure from family to come back along with losing my kids in a divorce and them coming back to my old home town. I can say that not a day goes by that I don't regret moving back, even though I am happily remarried and have kids & grand kids & a great paying job to be thankful for. Hope you don't mind if I kind of live vicariously through your posts of things I miss or wish I knew more about or could do. Riding up on South Mountain in Phoenix at night and looking over the valley all lit up, or hunting in Cochise Stronghold in the Coronado National Forest, or Zane Grey's cabin in Payson, I could go on but the days shooting jacks and cottontails are what I remember most, you get the idea. I'll just watch my favorite westerns and read my western fiction novels and be thankful for eastern whitetail in the freezer and hope to retire and move back. I'll settle for some holster for my new Vaquero that won't be anything compared to what you make. I'll keep reading your posts saying " someday..."

Thanks for the kind words sir but,
Please stay where your at. Trust me.
We have abandoned all hope of moving back to AJ or any other township of AZ.
This might apply to ones lifestyle but it doesn't apply to ours.
So here goes......
Big water wars going on between the farmers up north and the people of Phoenix. I'm not sure where they think they will get their food from if they win.
500 to 800K would net us a half acre in the slums of Scottsdale which is New River AZ. The same amount plus some change will buy us a Midwest ranch/farm and include a summer home in town and a winter ranch and 2 guest homes down south.
Hay is $18.00 for a 35 pound bale of hay in AZ. The midwest, lets start with TX $22.00 for 1200lb round bale and $27.00 average in MO. Those look like big shredded wheat for those not familiar.
AZ well water is silty tasting and no one there drinks it. You turn your shower on and it stinks. The indigenous personnel are numb to the smell though.
Their looking at shutting down the power plant in Goodyear several have told me. It is antiquated as it was built in the 70's by low life hippies.
I take extreme offence that the collective wealth deriving selfish recreation out of a quint essential squandering of water i.e. golf courses.
I find their mere presence a grotesques display of frivolous wealth and would serve the community better as farm or cattle graze. I have always thought this from the time I was 6 years old.
Set aside the admonition that once one hits retirement age that he feels he can just sit back and no longer contribute to repairing a die-ing planet.
The fella were looking at purchasing the ranch from just died a week ago at 92 and was only wheel chair bound for a few months.
You just can't hit a certain age and no longer contribute.
Seriously!!!!!! The youth of today are not stamped from the same mould we were. I'm surely not entrusting my future to the wii, latte, effeminate boy band, generation including that whirlpool of demons running a pyramid scream that reside in a sovereign country absconded from the US territory.


Look forward to 800 to $1200.00 utility bills per month for most of the year. 3 days before Christmas it was 95 degrees when we left.
As I told the wife, "look dear, We can throw a log in a fireplace, We can't throw a log in an air conditioner".
I still could never imagine while on horse at 122 degrees with full gear and rig riding among the Saguaros how anyone could have lived off the land back then. The AZ desert was biologically engineered to kill bipeds and has been very successful at it for the last 100K years . Sorta of a fail safe for existence.
The only way the peoples of AZ can reside there is food trucked in from and average of 1500 miles away. A virtual biosphere supported by the grace of others.......
The women their are hot!!! +++++1 and friendly......

I might add this also. With the purchase of a bandsaw mill I can build 2 2500 sq ft guest homes for no cost and offer them up for free rent and chow for anyone that wants to come help out. So far our offers have fallen on deaf ears in lieu of the so called easy city life........
Be scared. Be very scared. Ranching and farming is a quickly dieing profession as we have seen first hand. I hope this comes across crystal clear.
I have had many an edifying conversation with many members here via land line and most all are observant and know that all that I make is not for hobby or recreation that's for sure.
If I wanted a hobby I suppose I could build model airplanes or something.
When one arise's daily one should ask themselves what they can do to secure there future food source and include others.
I personally feel as history goes the 70 years of the easy life will be just a flash in the pan.

[ballistim]

I know Duke, all my old friends tell me to remember it the way it was when I lived there from '80 to '89 and have explained some of the issues you've mentioned as well as the border issue & economy being what I hear about the most. I lived in Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Tempe, Scottsdale (the longest) and northwest Tucson is where I ended up and loved it there until I had to leave. Sure a lot of my memories are because I was a young man starting out to raise a family where all my kids were born in an area where I had hoped to never leave and where I felt I belonged. I remember shooting at Rio Salado where I was a member for several years and met some great guys who where very helpful to a young guy on a tight budget in giving me tips on shooting, reloading, and casting. I learned about shooting silhouette from going to matches there and was hooked. Someday I have to shoot in the desert again, even if it's only at cans or rabbits! My wife was raised in Albuquerque so she understands how I feel, so it's kind of sad to hear the current state of things there but living here things are really bad too! The local economy has really made a change in the way people are here, even from 5 years ago you can see the changes. Retirement may take me to northern MI where I hunted as a boy and still do from time to time, but the economy is awful there and theft and poaching by locals out of work is rampant. I'll have to see what is best, probably would be too tough for an older guy to relocate somewhere else that I'd like such as Wyoming or Montana. Hope things improve in AZ!

/// Tim

[ballistim]

I just read your last post again and remember going to Payson and Heber every day off to look for any work I could find doing anything so I could live in the beauty of that area.

Digging ditch in the desert 15 hour days with a backhoe, stocking warehouse shelves, busting tires all day, willing to do anything to make it in the valley. after getting layed off from the local steel mill that my dad and both grandads retired from back here.

I'm proud of how all of my kids have turned out & all have a great work ethic, but by and large from what I see youth is wasted on the young of the day.

Thanks for letting me remember the better thoughts of living there though through your posts, I'll stay tuned!

[Just Duke]

I just read your last post again and remember going to Payson and Heber every day off to look for any work I could find doing anything so I could live in the beauty of that area.

Digging ditch in the desert 15 hour days with a backhoe, stocking warehouse shelves, busting tires all day, willing to do anything to make it in the valley. after getting layed off from the local steel mill that my dad and both grandads retired from back here.

I'm proud of how all of my kids have turned out & all have a great work ethic, but by and large from what I see youth is wasted on the young of the day.

Thanks for letting me remember the better thoughts of living there though through your posts, I'll stay tuned!

Thankfully through the full disclosure law the Realtors have informed us the wells from Payson to Strawberry have been running dry halfway though the summer. They have since started a city water plan and are piping water into the residences now. Not very self sustaining.
These water programs are set up by the demasculinated cupcake generation and are not infinite.
Prescott has since made it illegal to harvest/farm roof water........

I'm have no clue what media they educate the offspring of others with these days.
Years ago those with insight fabricated limericks for adolescents "pre programmed mindset" for a tool to carry into adulthood to secure theirs and our future.
I will enter this exhibit. Please watch as it applicable to this day and surely mirrors the frustration of my ventures.

[ballistim]

Can't even imagine that!

Hope the Prescott Rodeo and 4th of July is still something to look forward to, but was sad to hear news of the fire fighter's losing their lives.

Can remember diving in the CAP canal to cool off after dove hunting

Never got over idiots from the east trying to grow big lawns and flowers when water was such a precious commodity there, what with the desert landscape as beautiful as it is.

I live to close to Ann Arbor MI where politics and lifestyle is polar opposite to how I live, and am glad to live in a small rural area on my little five acres to avoid it, but I'm working second shift tonight so I am off to work to pay for all the people that don't!

/// Tim

[Just Duke]

Can't even imagine that!

Hope the Prescott Rodeo and 4th of July is still something to look forward to, but was sad to hear news of the fire fighter's losing their lives.

Can remember diving in the CAP canal to cool off after dove hunting

Never got over idiots from the east trying to grow big lawns and flowers when water was such a precious commodity there, what with the desert landscape as beautiful as it is.

I live to close to Ann Arbor MI where politics and lifestyle is polar opposite to how I live, and am glad to live in a small rural area on my little five acres to avoid it, but I'm working second shift tonight so I am off to work to pay for all the people that don't!

/// Tim

Very much understood. I live in a neighborhood of Tudor homes, pools and green lawns. It looks like Hansel and Gretel threw up here. You can't bring East coast living to the desert. It looks completely out of place and not indigenous to the cultural history of the South West.
They were all built under a guise to lure the uneducated cattle out here for the promise of high paying casino jobs. A pacifier.
We have no cultural infrastructure for the masses so most that move here don't stay long. Most fall to the vices this town offers and end up destroying themselves along with there families.
I have made it my mission to ask most I know or met here if they could leave would they do so. YES! they say. Never once have I heard no.