Garden Plant 2012

I remember going out to my great-grandmother's house in the summer. My Aunt Katherine and I would go out on the weekends to help her clean her house. Out behind her house she had a garden where I could go out and pull a carrot right out of the ground. I thought it was something! Though we are heavily involved in Agriculture; living in a small neighborhood we never had a garden ourselves until last year.

Last summer Drew and I were still living at our townhouse, but were in the process of buying a house. We planted a small garden at my parent's house. As the garden was growing and we were house hunting, we came across Sunset Drive. As we looked at the backyard, one of the first things that Drew was planning out in his mind was where the garden was going to go!

Fastword nearly one year and it was time to plant the Hatmaker garden at our home. We have had several nights out on the deck where we walked through the yard and discussed the different possible places it could be planted. Our yard has several large established trees and our yard gets plenty of shade, so we finally decided on a spot near the deck along the fence.

We decided to do a raised bed utilizing landscape fabric and landscaping timbers. We planted seed packets of okra, peas, and lettuce. Zucchini, Squash, and Banana Peppers plants line the front of the garden.

Unfortunately, I am a bit impatient when it comes to waiting on the garden to grow. I wish they were magic seed packets that would grow quickly with a little water and TLC. After our trip out of town last week we returned home to sprouts of okra and today peas are sprouting!

I am ready to get some fresh veggies out of our garden and headed to the table! Stay tuned for more of Garden Plant 2012!

Dining in 1776

While in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the Stars and Stripes Sale, I get the urge to become a historian. I absolutely love to go on the tour with Carol and takes in the sights of the battlefield. It is such a humbling experience to be where to many Americans lost their lives.

This was our (Drew and I) second trip to Gettysburg for the sale. Tracking down my unique eats in town, last year I wanted to try a place called the Dobbins House, but didn't get a chance to. So you better believe it was on my to do list this year.

The Dobbins House was built in 1776 by Rev. Alexander Dobbin. This makes it the oldest and most historic home in Gettysburg. Rev. Dobbin bought the land and built the home to handle his family (19 children) and his school. His school was a Classical School, much to the equivalent of a combined Theological Seminary and liberal arts college. In the mid-1800's a secret crawl space was used as a part of the Underground Railroad, and has been featured on National Geographic.


Today the historic house appears virtually the same as it did over 200 years ago. It has stone walls, seven fireplaces, and hand carved woodwork have been restored to their original beauty with interior decor in traditional 18th century style. They have added a small venue to the right side of the building that can be used for weddings and parties that also houses a small gift shop. You can dine in two different locations. There is the Dobbin House, where we ate. It is alittle more elegant and they recommend reservations. If you are looking for something a little more low key, the Tavern serves appetizers, soups, and sandwiches. They are known for their onion soup!

Our party of seven was seated in an old canopy bed frame in which we dined by only two candles.It was a little dark! All of the servers dress in traditional 18th century clothing. Our server informs us that the china and flatware that we would be using matches fragments that we found in the cellar. The China was a beautiful blue and white oriental piece called Blue Willow.

All of the entrees were accompanied by a huge basket of delicious breads, a salad, and your choice or baked potato or sweet potato. Drew ordered the crab cakes and I chose a dish they called Crab Meat Ala Dobbin. My dish was basically yummy fresh crab meat with melted butter, salt and pepper. It was yummy! Everyone else at our table had either the prime rib or filet.

Overall it was a really neat dining experience. Something you definitely don't get from a chain restaurant. If you are looking for a place that will fill your belly with history and good food, than I definitely recommend the Dobbin House.

Styling in Stillwater

Drew and I are in Stillwater this week on the campus of Oklahoma State University. We are attending a cattle marketing seminar featuring Christy Collins. I don't typically do posts on my fashion diaries even though I feel most of the time I do a decent job on my wardrobe. I wanted to look nice this week for the seminar, so I really tried hard on my outfits. Yesterday I was especially proud of my ensemble that I had Drew take a picture of me.

Jewelry: Stella and Dot Top: Gap Jeans: Lane Bryant Boots: Lucchese Boots Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Weekend!

Walls of Memories

Take a walk down memory lane...

If you have ever been to DP Sales Management World Headquarters, you will know that my dad loves to show everyone the office and most importantly, the shrine of old Simmental magazines and photos that he has. He will quickly start pulling out the old Simmental Shields. And of course the old pictures of people that you might certainly know.

A little while back Drew had the idea to join together some of the best of the old and new cattle that DP has been apart of. So one evening after my dad had spoke to Walt Brownary's wife on the phone and relived many great memories of Walt, he pulled out some old Walt Brownary classics. Drew and I looked at each other. What a perfect opportunity! He was giving us what we needed! So, I told him that I was going to scan them so I could write a blog about them. Hello!

While he was gone on a week long trip to Canada, Missouri, and Kansas; mom, Drew, and I hung up the new Simmental shrine. Not only did we do some photos of past Champions, herd sires, and donor cows, we also framed his EKU Diploma, Kentucky FFA State Degree, and ASA membership certificate.

When he came home from his trip, we all sat - WAITING and WAITING for him to go downstairs. He had no interest. Finally, after quite some time. Mom asked him if he was going to go see her new television in the office. He went downstairs, into the laundry room (we followed behind), and walked into the office and didn't notice a thing. He finally looked to the side wall and saw our masterpiece.










I think it is so exciting and such a wonderful group of memories. I'm especially proud of the 5 photo frame that has animals that were all bred by me. Three of them were past show champions and the two bulls are popular Simmental herdsires. There might be another one of those made some day. :)

On the cover

Secretly or maybe not so secretly, I have always wanted to be a fabulous photographer. I can remember the days looking back at amazing photos that Christy Collins has taken. I actually have a few framed in my house now. Uber celebrity moment!

I have a pretty decent camera, lens, and flash, but when it comes to knowing all the cool ways to do things- I get kind of lost. I tinker. I shoot photos. My husband even enjoys it too.

One of my jobs in the PR department of DP Sales Management is to take photos for our sale reports, future catalogs, and advertising. I try to get shots of people and cattle that we can use in upcoming promotional materials. Last year at the Family Traditions sale in Auburn, KY I shot this photo. (insert ewww's and ahhh's here)



I was pretty impressed with myself as the female in the background is slightly blurred. I was excited. I showed Drew my new masterpiece. So, this year when it came around to throwing out ideas for the cover of the catalog I sent in my photo for consideration. And.... ta da!




Here is my photo on the cover of the Family Traditions Female Sale catalog. It's amazing what a little light work, color enhancing, and cropping can do to a photo. This catalog is still in the proofing stage, so its kind of top secret, but I was pretty excited and thought it looked so good. I had one other photo make it on a previous cover, but it was in black and white. This one is in color and beautiful!

If you want to see the entire catalog, you will have to wait a few days for it to be available online. Drew and I have about 11 lots to sell as well. So definitely make sure you check it out! It will be available on our DP Sales Management facebook page or at www.parkelivestock.com

Introducing.....

Our family is growing!

Though we have known this for a few weeks, this is the first time we are making it official. Our family has grown!

Meet Tuck!



We picked Tuck up this evening from our dear friends Casey and Amber Buzzard. Amber's female is Corgi is beautiful and when she told me back in November that she was breeding her, my wheels were turning. Drew and I had been discussing the right time to get another dog. With Gabby turning a year old, we figured it was time to get her a brusband (brother/husband) and most importantly, a playmate.

Of course, we are at a sale this weekend so we are spending our first night together in a hotel. I am happy to report that they are both passed out (along with my husband) on the bed. Gabby didn't seem like she didn't want anything to do with Tuck at first. She still has her moments of growling when he gets to close to her food, toys, or Grandma. But we have shared some of our toys tonight and played chase. I know it will take some time, but I think Gabby will really love him.

Whirl of a weekend

No pun intended


From earlier posts you know that Drew and I were in Florida last week for his Adjuster's School work conference. He was working, I was vacationing. We had a wonderful trip until the day we were to depart, and head home for the Kentucky Beef Expo and Drew's birthday. Friday was the day Kentucky was suppose to get some serious severe weather. I am terrified of severe weather and the talk of it all on the weather channel was seriously freaking me out. I was in Florida and my family, friends, and Gabby Mae were in Kentucky dodging storms. Let's just say, I was a mess.


This didn't make for a great day of flying. My nerves were shot. Luckily and thankfully, both of our families in Kentucky and Tennessee were not harmed in the storms. Our first flight leaving Florida was bumpy, but we arrived in Atlanta on time. We headed to get some dinner and margarita (again, nerves = shot) during our layover. While we were in Atlanta the weather got nasty there, and as we were waiting for our plane to board there was a tornado warning in Atlanta. Again, thankfully our plane did board. We left about an hour later than scheduled, and a flight that should have taken 50 minutes too 2 hours. We arrived in Louisville just in time to wish Drew a happy birthday. Hello 1 am!


We did make it in for the Kentucky Beef Expo sale day though. Which was very helpful since we manage the Simmental sale and assist with the Shorthorn sale. We hit the ground running. Literally. Finally, after all sales were over, we were able to go celebrate the best day - Drew's birthday!

Drew had requested we go to the Cheesecake Factory, but the wait was long. Instead we opted for El Nopal next to the hotel for some good Mexican and margaritas. See a trend this weekend? I know I have told him a million times, but Happy Birthday to my love! Lauren and I did surprise him though with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory to get birthday dessert after dinner!







We stuck around on Sunday to watch a bit of the show at the Kentucky Beef Expo. Though we were very happy to come home to a town spared by the destruction and our home in one piece. Some people in Kentucky were not that lucky though. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers over the next few weeks as they rebuild.

That was an eventful weekend we had. I'll take the very, calm boring ones from now on please!

This morning we woke up to 4 inches of snow! Happy Monday!