Dori,
I absolutely love your post!! I love feed sacks, too. A lot of my dresses were made from feed sacks, I have one on in my fifth grade school picture. I sold most of mine a few years ago as sewing/quilting has become too painful. Enjoy those grandgirls they grow up so fast. You have blessed my day with your talents!

Loved your post! I love the vintage fabric also. I have being working everyday on a school house quilt with pine trees and deer in the border. Cold weather forced us inside and that is where I wanted to stay, close to my fabric and sewing machine!

Ok wow! Loved the screaming laugher in the video. Yes I too adore feed sack cloth and I am fortunate to have received a large supply of it upon my mother’s recent passing. I just may sew one of those adorable buntings with it, now that you inspired me. I’m so over the snow and this would be a great project. Best, Kim

Dear Dori,
As you know I love, love, love your posts and blog. You are the kindest, sweetest person I have come across. Thank you for sharing the fabric and pattern for the bunting. I really love it and plan to do it in my kitchen when I get my forever home. The prices are a little steep for this old gal but I plan n purchasing a little at a time. I like making aprons and stuffed animals. I also got 2 patterns off line for a pillow case and a baby receiving blanket. I plan on making. I did pick up some material at Goodwill that will work for both. I will also watch for sales on the material I will need. I have a picture “black and white” of me in a dress my older sister made for me. She was quite a seamstress. She could make anything without a pattern. I was the youngest of 5 so things were tight for my parents. I was born 17 years after her. We all have memories of our wonderful, amazing families. I realize some don’t and I feel for them.
Hugs from this old Farm/Ranch gal.
Kay

I love the photos of the feedsack quilts! I can remember visiting at my grandparent’s farm and being there when the feed delivery truck came. Grandpa called my Grandma to come outside and pick out the prints she wanted. Seems like it took 2 or 3 sacks to make a dress. I had lots of feedsack dresses when I was a little girl.

My Mother used bleached white feedsacks sewed together to make tablecloths which she embroidered. I admire these great ladies who did so much with what they had!

I always enjoy your posts!

Such a lovely idea for the bathroom, the bunting and the framed pieces. The fabric is so sweet.

I love your projects & the quilts! My favorite is vintage fabrics too, and I have collected some of those same prints. LOVE Moda fabrics too! 🙂

Hi Dori, I loved your tutorial on the feed sacks and the bunting pieces. I am definately going to make one for my sewing room. Also thanks for your sledding video. It made me smile.

Spring just starting to arrive over here in Lincolnshire UK we have a lone goose who honks to the wild geese who fly over but won’t allow any to land on his pond, we have had to give him a mirror to look at himself in as he used to look at himself in our workers hub caps and not let them get to their cars!!
Love to read all the blogs and agree about the solitude, not just a time to be alone but a time for reflection and realisation of what we have around us.

Beautiful pictures! Those calves look so happy with their mothers.

Oh Dori, you made me cry. I love cows too. They say so much with their eyes! Isn’t it wonderful how much you can learn, just by observation alone? Now you’ll know the technical stuff too, but I think you’re doing just fine without it. Congratulations!

Thank you Dori, your post was very well timed! Our power went off last night and by morning all our cows had no water. With the help of several generators we are back in business but all morning I’ve been thinking……why do we do this?! We run about 125 Herefords and you have reminded me why. Thank you!

Dori, that is such a good post and Yes they are special. I don’t have one (wish I did) I have seen pictures such as yours and they make me smile. I lived on a farm when growing up, My father worked there and I got to know a lot about farming. Not an expert mine you learn to love it. Keep the post coming and Hugs to you and the herd. farm sister #1020 Juanita

Hi Dori,
Every time I read your posts I giggle, because we have much in common. I’d be right there knitting and crocheting along with ya! I don’t have cows, but I LOVE them. Growing up in Texas, my dad’s ranch was a weekend getaway for us, so we didn’t have cows, but the ranch next door did and many of the other ranch owners near us did as well. I love their sweet eyes and big noses, love to watch them graze, and when we go to county fairs, guess where you will find me first? Yep, the cattle shows. I crossed a line off my bucket list when my farmgirl sisterhood chapter and I took a class at a farm and we all learned (among other things) how to milk a cow by hand. I started collecting cow memorabilia in high school. I had to stop and tell people I didn’t collect it anymore because some it got to be crazy! I kept some of my most favorite cow themed pieces. Lucky you, with your beautiful herd! Enjoy! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole (Suburban Farmgirl)

Love the pictures!

I have to tell you a funny story. My cousin raises beef cattle and has never raised a calf. He and his grown son do the farm together. One time they bought several cattle and 3 of them turned out to be cows. They gave birth and his son had to look on the internet to see how to get the calf to drink. I thought I would die laughing. Just goes to show he who farms does not know everything.

Look forward to my Mary Jane magazine coming in the mail. Always something to share with all the sisters!

Such beautiful pictures, and your feelings about your cows echo my own feelings. We raise little Irish Dexter cattle here in Central Illinois and I look forward to calving season every year. Thank you for sharing your precious cows with all of us.

Beautiful! Hubby and I moved from CA to Tennessee almost 10 years ago and still love it. We aren’t on a farm but our little half acre feels like it compared to what we had back home!

I love your story. Thanks for sharing it

Loved the story. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful, inspirational story! Congratulations on all accounts!

What a wonder story and beautiful place!

My side of the family has been farming for over 160 years in Illinois. For four years my immediate family lived on a 160 acre farm owned by myself and other family members. Unfortunately, we had to move when my husband and I lost our jobs. We moved to Nebraska where we hope to begin hobby farming again. We miss having geese, ducks, and goats –which we had to sell when we moved– but we know that when we buy our next place it will be *ours* and hopefully our last move as well.
In the meantime we keep looking for property and dreaming of our future home.

my dear Dori: I loved hearing your farm story and truly I cannot “picture” you two anywhere but there. So thankful our paths have crossed. So thankful for your way with words, my friend

Isn’t it funny how you just know when things are right? And it sounds like you didn’t have to look at lots of properties. Was it really the first? Amazing, too, how “good things come to those who wait”. I’m so happy that you and your family are realizing your dreams. You surely deserve it. Continued blessings and happiness to you and yours.

Dori;
What a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing. I am happy you are cancer free and so happy that you got your farm.
I always thought one day I would live on a farm. Not so sure anymore, but I won’t give up on hoping and praying for it.
Stay well and blessed
Mary

Loved hearing your happy ending story. Thank you for sharing your lovely family and personal bits.

Oh Dori,

What an inspiring journey. Your home and farm must be all the sweeter, just knowing what you have gone through to be where you are today. Your story gives me hope to keep dreaming of my “someday” farm!! In the meantime, there is no reason why I can’t “farmgirl it up” on the little plot of land I have right now. Thank you for sharing your story. And THANK YOU for the MILK COW KITCHEN book!!!!! I will be watching for the mailman everyday now!!

Congratulations and God Bless on being Cancer Free! Your farm is beautiful! Love the views from your house as I’m sure you do too. I have lived on a farm for over 30 years and there nothing like it that you can compare it to. Keep up the wonderful blogging! Hugs Melinda!

Oh Dori…I was so moved by your beautiful post. At times I become discouraged because I want to retire to the country but I don’t think I’ll be able to so. Then I read your beautiful post… your courage and faith during your medical struggles and how you never lost faith that your dreams would come true and it gives me such hope. Bless you and your family always

Thank you for sharing your story I know it inspires others. Have you tried to make the farm a profitable industry, at least paying taxes ?
We bought forty acres nine years ago on the southern Mendocino coast of Ca. My husband and I both thought it was wonderful for it had a lot of flat land . We had just married a few years before and this was us creating our own space. After we made the offer I realized I was pregnant, I thought at first it was just menopause…We still moved forward and blessings came from everywhere to allow it all to be built into a permaculture farm. My husband cut the trees we milled into our wood to build our buildings. It’s a little much for us now, we are very tired and more needs to be done. But it’s slowed to a more comfortable pace. We have 110 fruit trees, 25 olives, two acres of vegetable and flower gardens. We market flowers, eggs, vegetables and bread to supplement our income. We have to still work outside to support further development of the property.

Love it! love color…hate winter with a passion…. makes me doubly depress (deal with seasonal depression-becase I can’t get enough if the D vitamin, sunshine) so color for me in the winter is stimulating too! Seeing your beautiful photographs ooze my mind to look for ways to get thru the dreary winter bles. Just love the scenery….. those rolling hills ….I miss from Pennsylvania…so here where I live I look for birds and critters in the winter. Books also get me thru the middle of winter…all that color in the book stimulate me to be creative…its probably what draws me to Mary James magazine….and Pinterest….. wish Mary Jane Farms could have a magazine issue come- out every month! I need stimulation in the winter more because of my depression! I don’t know how I would get the winter without magazines and those with color do help me! Recently I
took an interest in making some thing new once a month and reorganizing my house because of the stimulation I get from magazines.

The book is beautiful. I would love to read it and share it with a couple friends.

This looks like a great book. I’m a former librarian and have a great appreciation for books. I love the pictures and the feel of the pages as I turn them. Not a Kindle fan.

I LOVE Mary Jane’s magazine and your blog!! It is so refreshing to step inside your world and see what it happening on the farm! Love those sweet baby calves!!

Dori, I love your black and white cow photos…I could imagine them in print, framed in a black frame, hanging on a wall or over a fireplace. Great shots! I’d want to sit and watch those cows all day!

I love your kitchen! So colorful and cheerful. I noticed your colorful vintage Pyrex right away, too. 😉 Anyway, we get bleak, grey, wet weather with no sun for long periods of time here in Connecticut. That’s when I hunker down and enjoy “indoor color”, too. I love to spend time in the kitchen, where it’s colorful and bright and cheery. I also love to craft with color, as well. Winter gives us a break from the outdoor chores of summer.

This is another great post, another one where I think, “Gosh, I want to meet this farmgirl!” 🙂

Farmgirl Hugs,
Nicole (Suburban Farmgirl Blogger)

Like you, I prefer summer but relish the winters for the change of scenery. Although I don’t live in the gorgeous countryside like you, I still like being able to see things that aren’t visible when the trees are full. Thanks for sharing your wonderful farm scenery!

I agree the endless days with clouds and haze can get to a person. I live near Lake Michigan and we are in what seems to be endless clouds for days and weeks at a time. But winter has its own beauty. I love the stillness and peacefulness winter brings. I love seeing the dried grasses blow against the background of white. The biggest reason I love winter…because it makes spring so unbelievably special. I have a counter in my office at work that is counting down the days to the first day of spring…we are under 60 days! Get out those seed catalogs and start making your plans. We will be digging in the warmed earth again soon. Until then, why not make a picnic and have it on the floor of your favorite room? No, it won’t be the same without fresh sliced tomatoes, or fresh picked corn on the cob, but who can resist a good potato salad? Hang in there everyone, Spring is coming. Force some spring bulbs to brighten your day or do as my craft club is doing this weekend, make some paper flowers to brighten the corners of your room.

Comment!

I’m one of the odd ones who love winter.
Our Michigan winters can be cold. But God shows His beauty in ways the other seasons can’t.
But I love the fall as well.

Here in Southern California winter is the only time we get green & color. The rest of the year is so dry everything is brown. Being a Minnesota girl this is hard because I am used to just the opposite. So while the rest of the country is freezing which by the way I miss terribly I enjoy three months of green grass & trees because I know the other nine months will be brown and that’s when I will have my “summertime blues”.

So…possibly relocating with a very special man. It’s an exciting proposition…living in God’s Country…rolling hills, Black Angus dotting the landscape…making a home in the country…a cozy, rustic place… “A Little Bit o’ Little House”. I’m excited for the adventure that awaits and yet, terrified of the unknown. Puttin’ on my Big Girl Boots though and packing my canner and Mason jars with love and heading North!

LOVE your calf photos! We have a dairy herd and we start calving in March. (Our winters are a little more white than yours 🙂 so we don’t have any calves in the winter). It’s amazing how much joy and “color” they can bring into our lives isn’t it? MaryJane’s book looks great in your colorful house, but I can’t help admiring the spoons holding it up. Did you make that? Thanks for sharing your farm life with us and for the great giveaway!

I love the way nature makes things look different in different seasons! The pictures of Mama and her calf make me happy as I have such a love for how they know what to do and do it well….especially in the cold weather….being from Ohio originally, we did not see many babies born in the wintertime, but now we are in NC and we live on a dirt road….we see new borns all the time now and each new one we see as we drive past, we make sure to mention to each other how beautiful this season is and how these little ones do so well here…Thanks for your great blog! I read it all the time and I so love you pictures….love the vintage kitchen ware 🙂 we have some of the same!~!

Hi Dori,
Looks like you have a lot of comments already. I was going to buy this book but what with saving for the move out of here to a rental for a while, I have not been able too. Would be nice to have the very book I would love to have and get it without having to wait for a year before purchasing it. Instead I could have something so interesting to read while I am waiting. Love your blog.
Hugs,
Kay

I don’t have calves or cows or even a farm…but I love to read your postings! You have a delightful way with words, my friend

How fun! Love your Brahma calf and the story of his name! We raise Brahma Bucking bulls here, so the naming is even more interesting because the rodeo announcer always tells the crown their names.

I have Awesome Sauce, Broken Heart Bull, Tooth Fairy, Scary Larry and Vice. (Vice was always getting his head stuck somewhere when he was a calf.)

Naming the horses is even more fun and we have so many we are always looking for good bucking horse names! Give me a shout if you think of any good ones!

I don’t have calves or cows or even a farm…but I love to read your postings! You have a delightful way with words, my friend

How fun! Love your Brahma calf and the story of his name! We raise Brahma Bucking bulls here, so the naming is even more interesting because the rodeo announcer always tells the crown their names.

I have Awesome Sauce, Broken Heart Bull, Tooth Fairy, Scary Larry and Vice. (Vice was always getting his head stuck somewhere when he was a calf.)

Naming the horses is even more fun and we have so many we are always looking for good bucking horse names! Give me a shout if you think of any good ones!

Oh my gosh. I want the same thing. I do everything at such a fast pace. Just not sure how to get it all done if I slow down.. I’ve been working on making time to enjoy more. People still better watch out at the grocery store. Don’t think I’ll slow down there unless there’s someone fun to talk to

Dori,
I think you hit the nail on the head for me! i seem to go through my days with goals in mind. I have to get this done by this time, etc. So often I think I am slowing down and savoring the moments, but when I look back on the days, they seem to have passed too quickly. I usually don’t try to make New Year resolutions either, but trying to slow down and enjoy seems to be one that I should make. My years are many (just having a birthday) and not as much time left to savor perhaps. Better “get ‘er done” now. Thanks. Your post made me stop and think. Happy, healthy, slower, New Year to you.

Dear Dori,

I HEAR YOU!!! I have been feeling the same way, and am aiming for the same
goal. Why do we rush through just because everyone around us is rushing
through? I am going to choose a different path, and enjoy my journey.
I look forward to hearing about your enjoyable times in the “slower” mode. 🙂

Happy New Year and blessings,
Marilyn

Hi Dori,
Now you younger people now why people look at us “older” people and say ” I don’t ever want to slow down like them. Well, maybe we were made to slow down so we could enjoy the trip. Even out to the mail box or even grocery shopping. You never know who is in the same store. Maybe someone that you have not seen in awhile. Someone you could reconnect with if you just slowed down like us. Yes, I am one of those “older” people. I now enjoy going to the store and take a while to look around and visit with those very people I did not take the time to speak to until I “just slowed down”.
Yes, Dori, enjoy your trip as you slow down and look around. You just might see someone or something that takes your breath away.
May all your days to come be filled with peace, joy, and love.
Kay

Very cute ideas! Love this! Thanks and Merry Christmas from one farmgal to another! Cindy,Wilder, Idaho

I’m with you on canning jars! All kinds of uses! When I have jars that, for whatever reason, no longer seal for proper canning purposes they become great jars for other uses. Over the years I have used a lot of Yankee jar candles (a few other brands) and those jars are what I store my buttons and other craft embellishments in. Handy they are!

You are a very bright person!

Awww yes love the windmill and they are still very important in many areas yet today. I live on and old ranch that is now a housing area but very rural feeling, I have a 8′ decorative windmill that, in the windy prairie spins most of the time and I love it. Thanks for the memories. God bless.

Dori, What a beautiful post! I love the pictures, too. Reminds me of the old windmills peppering the drive as we would drive to my dad’s ranch in the Texas hill country. That last picture of the windmill at sunset is stunning…you should frame a copy of that! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole (Suburban Farmgirl)

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful stories, Ms Dori and Ms Carol. Windmills are such a wonderful site and such a reflection of our life out here in the west. I never fail to love seeing and hearing an old windmill pumping that valuable resource called water……. And if a windmill could talk, what stories they could share…. When my mom and dad bought their place out in Gila from the Dominguez’s, it was nostalgic to learn that my real dad, Kenneth McKinney had actually been the well driller and installed the windmills on two of the old wells several decades earlier. That was super cool to me cause he had died in an accident when I was 5….so now when I see the old windmill, I often think of my family before me and the heritage and legacy they have left. It always evokes such warm feelings to hear the sucker rod going up and down as the fins turning in the wind. Thanks so much for sharing.

Ohhhhhh how your photos remind me of my 13 years in Lakewood, NM halfway between Artesia and Carlsbad. Yes, it was quite a trek to the airport in El Paso! Those years were full of windmills, cattle, cotton fields, single digit humidity, jack rabbits, road runners and rattle snakes! I have since discovered what I suspected all along…that I am a true beach bum. The ocean is where I started out as a child. I was lucky enough to retire early and roam the country in a motorhome looking for the perfect place to retire “for good”. I found it right back where I started and I agree…slow down and enjoy. Wherever you are, you are in the right place for right now.

Great ‘out n about’! Yes ‘home’ is always ‘HOME’. Praying your Mom heals perfectly and quickly. God bless.

Sounds like you had a wonderful childhood. Your childhood home is beautiful. Today’s blog reminded me of my childhood years spent in such pursuits on my grandparents’ farm, which the family still refers to as “The Place”. The terrain and vegetation of your home place reminds me very much of my beloved Place located in Erath County in Texas. Although I am 65 and have not lived in Texas since 1970, I still roam over The Place in my heart and mind. Thank you for sharing your walk.

I would love to read more about your Home and what you father learned and experienced as a New Mexico rancher.

I too went home this past weekend to San Diego Calif. all by Google Earth.
Stopped in to see the places I lived and loved growing up, where our first was
born, I could see and smell the beauty of the Pacific ocean, and the roads I used to
walk to high school on.
It was wonderful, not quite as good as actually going home, but it surely did a good job of bringing back precious memories.
Happy Fall, (early winter here in the Ozarks this week!!) Diana, Noel, Mo

Hi Dori,
Love your ‘home’ place. Wishin’ your mom a speedy recovery and how sweet you are to go help your family.
Your New Mexico homeland reminds me of the terrain around Terlingua TX, where we owned 40 acres, which we sold before moving to higher ground in the TN Smokies, which is ‘home’ to us now.
The old barn probably has good bones, which is why it has lasted for so long and with a bit of upkeep it will last for many more years.
Looking forward to your next blog Dori – always good reading.

Thanks for sharing your “home place”. Thanks for sharing your life with the rest of us. I would also like to know what was the reason your parents decided to become ranchers? Hope your Mom has a speedy recovery and glad that you get to spend some “home” time!!!

Hi Dori,
Welcome home. Yes, I too have felt “Home” is always the place you grew up and had such found memories. As we get older the good things that happened to us get stronger in our memories and the bad, well they just start fading and that is the beauty of getting as old as 71, you barely even think about the bad ones.
Ask your Dad what was the first thing he saw in your Mother that sparked the interest in him to keep seeing and eventually to marry her? Also, what kept him there besides your Mother? I know I am an old nosey but it always has interested me in how people meet.
Where I grew up was mostly sagebrush and more sagebrush. Up further in the high hills there is old growth fir and pine and a lake or two. My Dad grew up in a small town just South of there and new the country around us well.
Yes where ever your husband and or kids are is home and is special but not like “home”. That will be with you forever, no matter how the area changes. You can still see I your minds eye the way it was.
Speedy recovery for your Mom. Tell her though not to rush it, time means better healing.
Hugs and Thanksgiving wishes to you and your families,
Kay

Beautiful! Reminds me off my parent’s place in NM.

Love the trip down memory lane. This part of the country is so different from what I know. How fun to experience this through your child-hood memories. I don’t have a specific question for your dad – but would love to read his thoughts. Best, Kim