“One man’s trash is another’s treasure”. I think breathing new life into something is an art! Lately, I’ve been lucky, finding fantastic items to restore and repurpose. Last week, I found something I’ve wanted forever, that’s got me giddy like a little kid on Christmas! Little did I know, this item wouldn’t just speak to me, it would tell me its history!
Dear Sisters,
I hope this note finds you all healthy and happy for the upcoming Memorial Weekend holiday. A farmgirls work is never done, even on the holidays. There’s still plenty of feeding, planting, milking, cleaning and caring to be done but that can wait a few minutes! I’m reminiscing about Cottage Day’s to come and I’d love some company! We’ve got so much to be grateful for and the beach is the perfect place to find some quiet and remember those who have fought and still fight for our luxurious freedom every day. Come with me and we’ll clear our heads together at the beach! Only one condition. Check your cell phone at the cottage door! No selfies, snap chats, tweets or tumbles allowed!!! Continue reading
How are you doing? Have you recently taken a moment to stop, breathe and just be? Often, these moments are too few and far between. This is especially true during this time of the year. With spring showers (or snow…or even drought depending on where you are!) comes a deluge of other to-dos. There’s the proverbial spring cleaning that seems to drag on and on; there are seeds to spread, seedlings to pot up and plants to get in the ground; there are lawn mowers to tune and bicycles to clean up; and there is always, ALWAYS, something to re-organize.
Busy workers hilling potatoes.
During the spring there is definitely a lot of do-ing. It seems like we reserve the winter for our times of reflection and pause–and it makes total sense! It feels right and natural to take time to reflect and meditate on life when the do-ing is lessened. However, I believe that we should aim to include these moments throughout our days, weeks, seasons and lives.
Springtime on the Farm
I was just about to plant my tomato seedlings last week when I struck up a conversation with an elderly man at the store. He said, “absolutely not, do not plant your tomatoes yet. You’ll be sorry.” You gotta be kidding me? It’s mid-May!
He was right. Here’s my lawn this morning. May 19th! Frost. I’m not complaining; I love the chilly mornings! On my birthday a few days ago, we had a fire going in the fireplace all day. I enjoyed it BIG time! I think mainly because it was so different from the birthday weather where I spent most of my life.
I’m so glad I chatted with that fellow. My tomatoes are still safe and sound inside.
When an issue of MaryJanesFarm arrives, I can’t wait to read it! I’ll browse, go back, and finally devour it page-by-page. One favorite feature is MaryJane’s column “Seven Wonders”. This post has seven little changes I’ve done that are often overlooked.
Dear Sisters,
Do you ever wonder how many of us would become mother’s if we had to apply for the job like we do other kinds of work? The job description might go something like this:
WANTED: Mom’s for Hire. Apply Within
Must be 25 – 40 ( give or take a few years ) and healthy. NO DRUGS, BOOZE OR TOBACCO
Woman wanted for the high-ranking position of Motherhood. Must be ambitious, smart, sensitive, funny, compassionate, flexible, domestic, career minded, spiritual, diplomatic, tenacious, creative, discerning, intuitive, energetic, a good cook, handy with a butter knife, able to operate on disturbed sleep ( for the rest of your life ), have a strong stomach, and willing to work long hours.
No retirement. Guaranteed moments of sheer ecstasy and pride, joy and terror, heart-break and confusion, laughter, comfort, amusement, and, and, and…
Come on in and help me add to this list of ” reasonable, eh ehem, Mom requirements ”
Dear Sisters,
Do you ever wonder how many of us would become mother’s if we had to apply for the job like we do other kinds of work? The job description might go something like this:
WANTED: Mom’s for Hire. Apply Within
Must be 25 – 40 ( give or take a few years ) and healthy. NO DRUGS, BOOZE OR TOBACCO
Woman wanted for the high-ranking position of Motherhood. Must be ambitious, smart, sensitive, funny, compassionate, flexible, domestic, career minded, spiritual, diplomatic, tenacious, creative, discerning, intuitive, energetic, a good cook, handy with a butter knife, able to operate on disturbed sleep ( for the rest of your life ), have a strong stomach, and willing to work long hours.
No retirement. Guaranteed moments of sheer ecstasy and pride, joy and terror, heart-break and confusion, laughter, comfort, amusement, and, and, and…
Come on in and help me add to this list of ” reasonable, eh ehem, Mom requirements ”
Hashtags. I don’t really understand them….Well, I understand them on the basic level. People add them to the end of social media things so that they can later be searched for according to the hashtag used. It’s simple, really. I guess it could also be useful for some things–like major breaking news in countries with strict media laws or whatever. However, their pervasive overuse on social media has long ago surpassed ridiculous and is now comical. I read a funny thing the other day that went something along the lines of this: “I just saw an old phone from the nineties and it had a hashtag on it! Why would an old phone need one of those? Hashtags didn’t exist back then!” Haha. Silly teenagers who don’t know what a pound sign is.
Anyhow, I digress as per the usual.
On New Year’s Eve, my friend stayed with us and applied the hashtag #yurtlyfe to the pictures she took that evening. We thought it was clever and amusing; we had a good laugh. Well, I searched the internet with this hashtag and it turns out she is not the first one to use it (sorry, Emma). #yurtlifebestlife didn’t bring up any Google hits, so what does that say? Perhaps I’m a social media word genius…or maybe, just maybe, yurt life isn’t really the best life…
You know you’re in a yurt when every picture has a lattice in the background!
I’ve always found that the first step is the hardest to take.
And so, I issued a challenge on FaceBook. And now I’m challenging you too.
Move yourself up on your priority list. Do something just for you.
Walk everyday for 31 days….for YOURSELF.
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.’”
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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!
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”.
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