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”.
Happiness is a two-year-old boy and the toy tractor he just received for his birthday. 🙂
Love this post…..I too have discovered that the garden and playing in the dirt evokes much happiness in me. The smell of dirt….the satisfaction of eating something that started out as a little seed. It is wonderful. Love your fence…..I need to do that too, although my problem critters are the chickens that I keep. Thanks….for the reminder that happiness is contagious…..heres to catching it all over the country!
Right now, today, what brings me happiness is sitting on the beach with my husband and our daughter (who turns 20 tomorrow), just enjoying each other and the beauty of God’s creation. 🙂
I know that you are quite a bit younger than me, but you are on the path of finding the best of life in your quest for happiness. Working with the earth is a wonderful, relaxing, fruitful endeavor! Like I always remind myself ‘Even on the worst days, the sun still shines, and the birds still sing, and the garden still grows…’. We are truly blessed to find happiness at home!
Happiness is knowing the world will keep turning and the sun will come up tomorrow regardless of what happened today; and going to my parents house and just looking at nature after surviving this rat-infested city 😉
Today I’m happy that we get another sunny, warm day in Seattle! That I will be able to work in my garden when I get home (and get plenty of dirt under my nails). I’m also happy that I get to go home to my house and see my hudband and pets – all happy to see me!
Just finished reading your post. I’ve got gardening in my blood, from my grandfathers on both sides. Unfortunately, I lost one when I was only 9, and the other just 3 years ago. But I learned early on how special it is to plant a garden, weed it, water it, watch it grow with so many delightful offerings, and then harvest. A lot of work, to be sure, but the rewards are immense. I feel such peace when I’m in my garden. I’m on vacation right now, but still wondering if my strawberries have finished, wondering if my herbs survived the heat wave I heard we had last week, and, anticipating planting the veggies we temporarily potted so a family member could water them for us at their house. I’ll have much weeding to do before I can plant them.
Thanks for sharing. A garden definitely can make one very happy.
For me … happiness is waking up in my newly rebuilt home after losing our home and all of our worldly possessions 30 months ago due to a raging fire that swept thru our town. I feel very blessed to be HOME again … and HAPPY beyond belief!
Happiness is having a MaryJaneFarmgirl mention my garden and blog on your post. Giddy. Really. My hubs does so much of the work in the garden I cannot take a lot of credit for how pretty he keeps it. He is a worker and I just try to keep up with him half the time. But he is one of those mostly happy people and keeps me feeling younger than I am. And my grandchildren make me happier than I think possible when they are about. What a wonderful post I will have to go read your happiness quotes. And the water faucet what a smart man you have, just perfect!
Happiness is knowing that I have the freedom to work in my sewing room creating a quilt for a grandchild, son or daughter. Knowing that I have the freedom to walk through my vegetable or flowers gardens and feel the warmth of the sun on my face. Knowing that I can work in my kitchen to prepare something special for someone in need or to just share with family. Happiness is knowing and feeling just how good life is!
Off the top of my head- homeschooling my kids. A close second, how they say thank you, even for things like driving them to music class or taekwondo.
Right now, Happiness is the peace of having my mom on the mend from a broken hip, finally finishing school and now having the time to play in my little pots of dirt on the patio. It’s so lovely to sit out there at night in the summer.
Spending quality time with my man
Laughing with friends/family
Being creative..whether it’s attempting to arrange some flowers or herbs in a vase, making a jam, a new recipe, thinking of ways to save money, sewing, knitting, gardening…anything creative.
Cindy Bee
Hearing the Lord speak to me early in the morning, and bringing peace to my spirit.
Happiness = my kids, their music, a daughter who graduated with honors, listening to the music my kids play, a son that was hired fulltime and a boyfriend that makes a world of difference in my life and to take a ride on the motorcycle. Yeah, right now that is happiness to me.
Happiness is always spending time with my husband, daughter and son-in-law any time I can. And also, at this time of year sitting on the porch with a glass of tea or Cheerwine and a good book or magazine watching my flowers grow.
happiness is finally having running water to a small bathroom sink and toilet in my 190 year young home that I just bought and am trying to make livable! No more driving to the corner gas station!!!!!
Happiness is listening to my three year old jabber about the new book I got him yesterday. 🙂
Happiness is teaching my 5 year old great-grandaughter to enjoy gardening & nature as much as I do. It is also watching her plant her flowers & vegetables with her pink gloves & pink sunhat on as well as using her pink gardening tools. After gardening we sit & have a glass of tea & cookies while she’s sitting in her little pink lawnchair & sipping tea out of her pink glass. It doesn’t get any better than that. I also bought her a gardening book for children so that when she’s not actually gardening, she’s reading & dreaming about gardening — just like Grandma.
A moment ago I looked into the sweet face of my ‘garden’, my middle child with Down Syndrome, and surveyed the result of lots of sweat, hard work and frustration. And JOY! She leaves us little notes all over the house with a big smiley face and the word HAPPY written below. What a hoot.
what makes me happy? good question. I guess there are alot of things some day it is a just sitting in the swing just swinging.I too like the smell of dirt when it is just turned and fresh cut hay but the first tomato still warm with the salt shaker can bring a smile too.
Oh yes the garden!! I am in my garden for at least an hour a day. I love the birds singing
and the sun and the colors. It makes me happy and joyful and above all grateful. I am a
happy person and I make it my job to stay that way. I never want to waste time in any
negative state. Thank you for your post, it made me Happy!!!
Living on a farm makes me happy, always… But today as I mowed the pasture on my new Kabota…I was happy to see that I was winning my battle on the cheat grass…less each year. And the ‘good’ grass was thicker and taller this year… that is what made me happy today 🙂
It’s so fun to read all of your happiness posts. We just returned from a beach house vacation with kids, sister and her family. She was evacuated from her little mountain town due to raging wildfires in AZ and yet we found happiness in each other. Although she may lose her home, her family is safe and we were surrounded by beauty. We know we have one another, love and an understanding that happiness surpasses what we own on the outside. We will continue to look for the beauty around us and to strengthen the love between us.
a sunshiney day, a gentle breeze through the window, little kids giggling, holding hands, sheets dried on the clothesline….
Farmgirl friends! That’s what happiness is to me!!
Smack-dab what I was looinkg for-ty!
Thanks for the share!