Fall color on the grassy ‘high plains’ is more subtle, but just as lovely as the tree’d up hill country nearby. On the ranch, we’ve been doing a lot of ‘fall-work’. Socially, my farmgirl pals and I have been having a rollicking good time and savoring every autumn moment. Come on in and see for yourself …
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“
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
”
~ Mark TwainDebbie Bosworth
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
Column contents © Deb Bosworth. All rights reserved.
Being a farmgirl is not
about where you live,
but how you live.Rebekah Teal
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
Column contents © Rebekah Teal. All rights reserved.
“
Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in awhile to climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods, to wash your spirit clean.
”
~ John MuirCathi Belcher
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Column contents © Cathi Belcher. All rights reserved.
“
Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
”
~ Anthony J. D’AngeloDori Troutman
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
Column contents © Dori Troutman. All rights reserved.
Shery Jespersen
Previous Ranch Farmgirl,
Oct 2009 – Nov 2013Wyoming cattle rancher and outpost writer (rider), shares the “view from her saddle.” Shery is a leather and lace cowgirl-farmgirl who’s been horse-crazy all of her life. Her other interests include “junktiques,” arts and crafts, glamping, collecting antique china, and cultivating mirth.
Mary Murray
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
Column contents © Mary Murray. All rights reserved.
Farmgirl
is a condition
of the heart.Alexandra Wilson
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Column contents © Alexandra Wilson. All rights reserved.
Libbie Zenger
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
June 2010 – Jan 2012Libbie’s a small town farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah on a 140-year-old farm with her husband and two darling little farmboys—as well as 30 ewes; 60 new little lambs; a handful of rams; a lovely milk cow, Evelynn; an old horse, Doc; two dogs; a bunch o’ chickens; and two kitties.
René Groom
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010René lives in Washington state’s wine country. She grew up in the dry-land wheat fields of E. Washington, where learning to drive the family truck and tractors, and “snipe hunting,” were rites of passage. She has dirt under her nails and in her veins. In true farmgirl fashion, there is no place on Earth she would rather be than on the farm.
Farmgirl spirit can take root anywhere—dirt or no dirt.
Nicole Christensen
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
Column contents © Nicole Christensen. All rights reserved.
Paula Spencer
Previous Suburban Farmgirl,
October 2009 – October 2010Paula is a mom of four and a journalist who’s partial to writing about common sense and women’s interests. She’s lived in five great farm states (Michigan, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, and now North Carolina), though never on a farm. She’s nevertheless inordinately fond of heirloom tomatoes, fine stitching, early mornings, and making pies. And sock monkeys.
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Archives
Shery,
Just want you to know that I look forward to reading your blog each week or so. Love your photos and your thoughts. I am a farmgirl, too. I currently live north of Colville, WA, on 20 acres, with my daughter, rat terrier-type dog, couple of cats, 15+ hens. As a California transplant, I am "living my dream", of being in the country, although I commute to town most days for a desk job, to pay for it all! I envy you your beautiful ranch, horses, etc….not that I don’t like my own place, but love yours, too!
Thanks for taking the time to share your days with us, Sincerely HW
Wow…lots of interesting and fun stuff to read about this week! You live in such a beautiful area…I love the rolling pastureland. I wish we had that surrounding us other than farmland. There’s nothing at all wrong with farmland and it is beautiful when the crops are growing but when the fields are left bare and strong winds hit them BOY do we get hit with dust! I found your info on RT’s very interesting…we’ll have to consider that breed. Loved the party pictures…too bad about the horse having a sore hoof. The trees are just starting to turn color here on the farm..this is my favorite time of year. I’m definitely not looking forward to winter and I’m hoping that this year is a lot kinder to us. Enjoy your weather!
Maura 🙂
Really Shery? REALLY???? You get me everytime I read your posts! LOL!!!How do you do it??? I know, you’re a talented gal that’s how!!! Oh, the beauty of your photos and images formed in my head by your words can transport a gal 3000 miles from home and in a nano second, I’m there ( wish I was )!!! It’s all so warm and fally looking… Your info on RTs was very interesting… Being a Corgi lover ( and owner ) I was SURE they were the only dog for a farmgirl! HA!!! You know I’m kidding….WE do love our Max… he’s great with the hens and a wonderful companion dog… We just don’t say the words sheep or cow around him…He’s in the herding group and we don’t want him to get his hopes up! LOVE LOVE LOVE~ ALL OF IT!
FARMGIRL HUGS and a very happy Farmgirl Fall to you!
Deb ( your beachy farmgirl pal from the shorelines)
PS. Pat the ponies for me!!!
Thanks for taking the time to take photos and tell us all the tiny details about your farm girl (ranch) life. It is very interesting and I get a lot of ideas from it. I am in a new area, hubby and I just bought a mini-farm and I would love to belong to a farm girl group but there isn’t one around here. I don’t know if I have the confidence to start one myself. Maybe someday.
As always… I love "visiting" with you at your blog…
I have to share with you… for me, RoseHip tea is a Winter staple… I have been drinking it since I was a little girl. When I lived in germany, my Oma (grandmother) in Germany would serve it to me as a source of vita-C.
To this day, I still drink it in the Winter…and I have family send it to me from Germany…somethings one just can’t change, and getting my RoseHip ‘Hagebutten’ tea from Germany is a tradition.
Wish I could have been at your delightful Harvest Fest event… I luv all the goodies I see/saw in your posting.
Oh sigh! part of me is not yet ready for Winter & yet another part of me want’s to start decorating…
What’s a gal to do? lol!
hugz
>^..^<
Dear Shery,
I don’t know how you do it. Most days I feel like I am barely keeping up and you make it all so beautiful, so heartwarming, so fun… I love reading your blog, keeps me inspired and remembering to stop and smell the hay some days!
Thank you.
Love.
Terces
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Dearest Terces, Many days I barely keep up. Some days I just don’t. So, move over and we can sit on a big ole pile of laundry & share a glass of wine :o) Nothing rids us of the tyranny of obligations, so you might as well enjoy peace-of-mind moments and tell ‘life’ it can wait for your soul to catch up with you. Thank you for the kind words…and you’re welcome. Shery
Love the pictures, looks like you all had a blast at your fall sale. Sounds very similar to the Harvest Festival the Lamoille Women’s club puts on every year. That’s where I first tried homemade apple butter.
I have yet to try rosehip tea but I did pick a bunch last year and made rosehip jelly. I may have to go pick what’s left in our favorite choke cherry foraging spot to set aside for tea.
I brought home a Jersey cow too!! I love love love her! The fresh milk, butter, cheeses, cream…how did I ever get along without her?! I’m currently milking her in my newly finished green house, until the milking parlor gets its makeover.
Sounds like that fall festival was a lot of fun too. Too bad about the horses’ sore foot, but at least he got lots of pats and well wishes.
Thankx for the visit (pictures)!
Your pictures always take my breath away. The high plain meadows are beautiful. Reading your blog always takes me away from chores for a spell.
I love Michele’s "art junk" bird houses. Are they just for decoration or can they be hung in a tree to be used? I would love to buy one.
I am in Southern Colorado and it is getting very cold here in the early mornings and my daughter told me next week it is going to be really chilly. She even got out her bed quilts and comforters. Guess I had better do the same.
Blessings, Jeanne
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Hi Jeanne, Some of Michele’s birdhouses are not just decorative. Several of them have a hinged door so that they can be cleaned out. But, she just sells them locally and at shows. I’ll sure tell her that you like them though. :o)
Thanks you for the kind words. Shery
I have to put my vote in for the corgis! We have had them for years, they are the best pets, herding dogs, and as soon as I teach them how to get varmints, well, they will be great at that too! Ha! Loved the info on the RT- might have to look into that breed one day! Thanks for your fabulous post, as always……Meredith
What a beautiful life! I love your posts they are always so inspiring, beautiful and informative. I always learn something new after reading your posts, thanks so much.
What a wonderful blog. Thank you for taking the time to share it with everyone. So much to feast my eyes on. I especially loved all of the outdoor photos. The part about the rat terriers was very educational. I might consider getting a rat terrier if I get to the point that I need another dog.
Your horse is beautiful. I’ve never seen that shade of palamino before, but up close, she certainly is. With all of those lovely dapples, I was expecting a grey at first. Beautiful, beautiful.
I’m very envious of all the grass that you’ve got. It looks like a perfect location for a ranching farmgirl.
What a wonderful blog. Thank you for taking the time to share it with everyone. So much to feast my eyes on. I especially loved all of the outdoor photos. The part about the rat terriers was very educational. I might consider getting a rat terrier if I get to the point that I need another dog.
Your horse is beautiful. I’ve never seen that shade of palamino before, but up close, she certainly is. With all of those lovely dapples, I was expecting a grey at first. Beautiful, beautiful.
I’m very envious of all the grass that you’ve got. It looks like a perfect location for a ranching farmgirl.
What a great blog