Open House/50th Birthday Party

We had an open house on Saturday, September 25th, which also happened to be my 50th birthday! It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed visiting with alot of family and friends!


Our neighbor and friend, Judy Jacobs, made a fun cake for the open house and also a 50th birthday cake for me!


I finally got some pictures of our new house posted in my last post. So, if you weren't able to come that day, you can take the tour via the blog!

Our new little HOME on the Wild Horse Prairie

Tony and I have been living in our new house for about a month now. It is officially our new "home"! Everything has found a place, and we have been able to sit in the living room in the evenings and enjoy it! We still have quite a bit of landscaping to do next spring, but Tony has worked hard and we do have more than just a big sand pile!


Another view of the outside.


We are loving the open space of the living room/kitchen/dining room area!




The kitchen is very functional, with just the right amount of cabinets and counter top work space!




The large dining room space allows us to extend the table for more seating. The patio door also gives us alot of bright sunlight during the day!


The master bedroom.




The master bath.


The office.




The guest bath, which Emily refers to as the spa bath!


And, the guest room which also is Tressie's room with her crib, toys and baby gear!


We would love to have our family and friends stop by when they go "thru" Wild Horse!

Happy Birthday Hannah and Gabby!

Yesterday was our sweet Goldens, 8th birthday! Hammers Golden Hannah and Hammers Golden Gabby Girl are sisters. They have become part of our family and I can't believe its been 8 years ago that we got them! They are country bumpkin Goldens. You could stroll any city park in any city and see Goldens with beautiful, soft hair coats. Not our girls! They are country thru and thru! In fact, the other day I had to cut a big bunch of stickers out from behind Hannah's ears because I kept getting pricked when I tried to pet her! They also think that they are cow dogs, so don't anyone tell them that they aren't! If Tony goes out on horseback and doesn't want them to go, he has to pen them up!


Both Hannah and Gabby have given us three beautiful litters of Golden puppies. Here is Hannah with her last litter of eight. Her first two litters, she had 12 puppies each time. See the smile on her face. She was so happy to ONLY have eight!


Here's Gabby with her last litter. She had eight puppies in each litter.


This is one of my favorite puppy pictures! What a cute puppy face!


We call this picture, "Beware of the Dog"!


Want a real workout? Try taking pictures of eight puppies all going in different directions!


Tony and I would usually have to play with the puppies for 30 minutes to an hour to wear them out enough to get them to sit still to get one or two good pictures!


This was the last litter of puppies. We have some good friends in New Mexico who got a brother and sister pair. We still keep in touch with them and they let us know how the pups are doing! That has been one of the fun things about raising the puppies, is meeting other people who LOVE Goldens as much as we do!

Happy Fall Ya'll

Fall is my favorite time of the year! Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Fall from the Hammer Ranch!


This is the entrance to our new house, with our old house in the background.



My pumpkin harvest was a little sparse this year. Had a few I could use for decorating. Still have a few bigger ones on the vine hoping that they might get a little bigger before frost!

The Market Report

Grandpa and Tressie were reading the Ag Journal this morning before breakfast.


Tressie had the back page with the Winter's weekly market report. Well, Grandpa, do we sell now, or wait awhile?

I Want Watermelon!

Ok, so we finally gave her some after she grabbed the bowl and pulled it to her! She just kinda rolls it around in her mouth, but she thinks she likes it!

Landscaping

Well, we have gotten everything moved! Is it all organized and in it's place, you ask? Certainly not! We are working on it, and it is getting closer. We have been trying to get things ready up at the trailer for Emily, Justin and Tressie. They made the move yesterday, and now they too are trying to find a place for everything and get organized. To complicate matters, Tony was checking cattle and had a group of very sick calves. So, he and Justin spent most of the day doctoring them. We are hoping that they respond well to the medicine. It is so dry and dusty and then hot in the day time and cool at night. Could use some good moisture!

We have been trying to get some of the landscaping done. I was reading about the zeriscape plants that we wanted to plant, and they recommended planting in the fall while the soil is still warm to give the root system on the plants a boost for the spring. So, we ordered a bunch of plants from New Mexico.


When I say "we" have been landscaping, I use the term "we" very loosly! Tony has worked hard on the project! Justin helped him one day on a sidewalk, and the start of the retaining wall.


Some of the plants waiting for their new home.


More plants!


Tony working on one of the retaining walls. He has finished one, and started on the second one on the other side of the house.


Tony was in Burlington on Thursday and brought home a load of red rock to put around the plants. It looks really nice! We have most of the plants in, but need to finish the other retaining wall so we can get the remaining plants in. Will try to post some pictures of the finished project later!