In 1935, when Slim was one year old, his folks moved to a ranch in the Badlands country on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest South Dakota. They lived in a log house on Bear In The Lodge Creek for a few years and later moved east of there into the Buzzard Basin area south of Eagle Nest Butte. They raised cows and horses and put up a lot of hay.
In 1954 Slim married Darlene Brodkorb and they purchased the Buzzard Basin ranch. They were blest with a daughter and three sons. After several years, they sold the ranch and started “Slim’s Custom Leatherâ€, a saddle and boot repair shop and hand tooled leather business, which they have operated for nearly 40 years, starting in Kadoka, South Dakota and later moving to New Underwood, South Dakota. They are now trying to downsize to the hand tooled and handmade leather items and Cowboy Poetry gatherings.
Sometime during high school Slim started writing poetry. Over the years he has had poems, stories and articles published in various anthologies plus many Cowboy, Horse, and Agriculture magazines and newspapers. Currently, his page on cowboypoetry.com shows several poems published, plus some gathering reports at other locations on that site. He also publishes a monthly column “The Saddle Rack†on his web site and cowboys-n-cowgirls.com.
In 2005 Slim started his own publishing company, adding it to their leather business, to publish his books. The company is now called Slim’s Leather & Publishing. Since 1981 he has published five books. Four are cowboy poetry and short western humor stories, and one book contains some of Slim’s original works and some of his mother’s original poetry. He also has published two books for his mother, Troy McNaught Westby, with another on the way for each of them. In March of 2006 Slim published his first CD, “A Life of Rhymeâ€, and has another CD in the works. Slim feels he has been blest in living and working in ranch country and dealing with horse and cow people all of his life and this carries over into his cowboy poetry.
Slim and Darlene have four children, seven grand children, and (at last count) ten great grand children.
IF SLIDE SHOW DON'T WORK, TRY TEMPORARILY REMOVING POP UP BLOCKER.
