I’ve been obsessed with “nesting” recently. Actually, it would be more accurate to call it RE-feathering my nest. My old nest had runneth over with 20 years of “stuff” and it was high time to pitch & purge. Please tell me I’m not the only one with a PHD in “stuff”. By that, I mean “piled high & deep”.
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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”.
Shery: When you’ve had enough of winter sometimes the only place to turn is inside. Had one of our worst rainstorms of the year last weekend. Since we are moving to a smaller house with more land, I don’t have a lot of choice but to eliminate "Stuff". I actually have a studio area which I will not have in the future so downsizing the saved materials is so necessary. It made me kind of sad though because I work so much now there is not much time for that any more. I used to do watercolors which is a great project for when you’re laid up maybe incorporate some into collages with your magazine cast offs.
Horse dethatching as I call it will have to wait. Mine is so bad I can literally pluck the hair off like a chicken.
Will think of you in the next few weeks.
Hope the surgery goes well – I’m sure it will and I bet you’ll be up and ‘running’ real soon. You have to – spring has sprung!!! I love the banners and the Farmgirl Handmade Show – be sure to give us the date, time and location so some of us ‘locals’ can hopefully swing by and say Hi. Take care.
Hi Shery! Great post, very motivating! I’m doing the spring cleaning/re-feathering the nest thing here too…sometimes exhausting and overwhelming, but worth it! The good news is once you have something organized really well, it tends to stay that way-at least somewhat, lol!
I love your house and all your "stuff". I’ve been separated from my stuff for over a year now, and I have to tell you that sometimes I miss it, but mostly I don’t – it’s nice to have a break from it for sure.
I sent you an email a couple weeks ago, did you ever get it? I just remarked on how much we have in common, I collect many of the same things you do, and am into arts and crafts as well. What kinds of crafts do you do? I’m into mixed media and scrapbooking, I’ve been featured in the Somerset Studios line of magazines several times, are you familiar with those?
Also, I wanted to ask you; I signed for the Farmgirl forum, and never got a response back so that I could start participating, do you know what I should do about that?
Also, where is your Farmgirl Handmade show going to be? I’d love to see it!
Good luck with your surgery, and
happytrails!
Carlene
http://www.carlenefederer.blogspot.com/
PS-your fuzzy pony looks like mine, only Flossie manages to tangle her mane up into dreadlocks, lol!
Shery,
I laughed out loud at the "PhD…piled high and deep". I know that feeling, too! Love your pictures. What a great idea the banners are! Love them!
Farmgirl Hugs,
Nicole (your sister blogger, Suburban Farmgirl)
Thank you for asking about the show. It will be right here in Upton, Wyoming on April 16th. Carlene, I emailed you back. Hope you get it. I didn’t receive your previous emails though. Maybe we’ll have better luck this time. ??
Shery, as always I love your post. And I can really relate to this one. We will be moving next year (already have the house, we are starting to remodel). The place is bigger than our present home, but has less storage space 🙁 So, I have to go through my stuff, too. It seemed such a daunting task, but you have motivated me. I’m positive your surgery will go well and hope you’re back on your beloved horses in no time.
Karin
Farmgirl #2708
Hey there…my friend
Your room looks great…I need to get to thinning my down too. I have to decide what craft is my fav and stick with it…to much going on in mine. I will see you soon:)…bring some pumpkin choc chip bread:)
I just recently moved a few months ago so I can totally relate to the process of going through my stuff. I was born and raised in Wyoming and I love this beautiful state! I live in Utah now but my roots are still country. Thanks for sharing. Good luck with you surgery.
Oh Shery!!! You always write in a way that makes me feel as though I’m right there with you! Of course, like many other readers of your blog, I am/was buried in the PhD ‘stuff’ myself. Be grateful that you tackled it with intention rather then being forced to do it.
Even though I’d begun the process last spring, and have managed to dig my way through our first floor, creating a lighter, cleaner, simpler, happier space there, I had not kept up the motivation to do the same in our basement, which was truly buried, not only in my family’s 25+ years of stuff, by my parents 62+ years of accumulated stuff, too!
All those months of procrastination finally caught up with me. Our basement flooded the end of February and, ready or not, willing or not, it suddenly became a project that HAD to be done, ASAP! Not fun. We lost so, so much. Unfortunately, some of what was lost were irreplaceable family ‘treasures’ and memorabilia. Shoulda, woulda, coulda…
I just keep reminding myself that it’s all just ‘stuff’. Amazing how attached we get to ‘stuff’, though…isn’t it?
Hope your surgery goes well and that you’re back in the saddle again soon. Enjoy your newly created space. Every woman needs a (room) space of her own.
Your posts are always a joy to read. Thanks for sharing your life with us.
-Ruth
Oh my Stars! I think I went to the ‘same school’ as you, as I too have a PhD…lol! what creative mind doesn’t!
I wish I lived closer ‘cuz I would luv to come visit & shop your lil ‘country farmgirl flair’ shop in April.
Don’t fret the knee surgery, and enjoy the ‘down time’ before you know it, you will be out and about riding & gardening and enjoying your newly un-cluttered nest….but if you are anything like me,,,,clutter will (like a wee mouse) find it’s way back in…but it’s a chance we are willing to take! lol!
Happy Spring & Happy Trails
>^..^<
Yes Mam…. you’ve been reading my mail! Got the same darn thing going on around here! It’s just so hard to let go of all that wonderful stuff that just has to be good for somethin… someday… I’m proud of you cowgirl…. now I need to do it. LOVE the idea of your Farmgirl Handmade Show… our farmgirls keep talkin about that TOO! See what an inspiration you are. Love your banners too! What a great fun idea and they look so pretty! Take care of that knee… you’ll be back on that trusty steed of yours in no time.
Hi Shery:
Love you posts – I always look forward to reading them and laughing. Your pictures are right up my alley. You must be a Virgo – so creative. I too am a collector of STUFF – buttons, bows, country goodies and antiques. Your art show sounds wonderful – will you be selling any of your stuff online? Being down here in Las Cruces, NM is a fur piece to ride to Wyoming. I love the idea of bird nest jewelry (my bathroom is bird nests – wooden and cross stitched). Anyway keep up the good work and send more pictures.
I will say a prayer for your surgery and recovery and that you heal very quickly.
Love-
Rusty McHale
Hey Shery,
Last Spring I cleaned every nook and cranny of my home to be rid of items that I no longer felt attached to so that I could put out some of my "primitives" that I love. I had "saved" for a farmhouse later, but decided to enjoy them and "bloom where I’m planted." Now I love and enjoy those things each day that are in "their" place and are usable as well. Crocks are one of the great loves that I have and also use. I made homemade sauerkraut this past summer and it is great! I would love to have the soup recipe for sauerkraut that your farmgirls had at your meeting. If I were close by, I would give you all some sauerkraut…it makes great Reuben sandwiches, Turkey Pastrami is great with it as well. Also, it is as quoted in Mary Jane’s book, "the poor man’s physician."
Thank you for always writing such an interesting post and beautiful pictures!!
Reba
I totally understand about giving up stuff. Everything I’ve ever had to give up has claw marks on it. BTW…love your little personal space. And I always look forward to the beautiful pictures in your blog.
Kathy Lee
Shery,
I have so much enjoyed your blog postings over this long, cold winter in VT. This last post really hit me between the eyes…I can so relate: there’s a room upstairs that I can’t even get into it’s so full of excess stuff, and have been procrastinating, despite the books on organizing and de-cluttering I read to get me psyched up to do something about it. But your confessions of being a closet hoarder, pictures and wry humor may just be the impetus for me! One can only hope, and the good feeling you describe when you succeeded is very motivating! Thank you!!!
Oh My Gosh, Shery, I have a double PHD at my house. I have so much stuff you would not believe. My problem is I need to settle on one thing to do, I love to dabble in a lot of stuff, this makes for a mess of stuff. I dream of leaving it all for my kids to clean up and I know where it will end up…in the dump LOL I actually wake up in a sweat, and get worried. LOL I really need to have an auction or huge yard sale. HELP! Sorry to hear of your surgery and I will be praying you get well Quickly. Hugs farmsister #1020 Needy
Thanks, Shery, once again for your inspirational words and what a fabulous and ambitious farmgirl chapter you have. I’m envious! I look forward to the April Cluck for the banner instructions. Good luck with your surgery – knee surgery is not for wimps of which you are assuredly not! Ann
P.S. I love your blue canning jar lamp. Did you make it? Very sweet.
Shery, I completely agree with you. I have had my retreat room for two years and it is the best thing that I have done for myself. Every farmgirl should have a place to fix up her special stuff! Thank you for the great blog. Sharon
Help! What if we need it later, because times are bad???
Shery…after a complete knee replacement (and I love the results) I can relate to your plight. And I love the yellow your cabinet will be…you are a great and inspiring decorater! cora jo
hi Shery, good luck with your surgery, I hope you have a quick and speedy recovery!
Hording is worse when you’re in town than when your in the country, you can hide it all better on the farm! blessed be! carol branum
love the way you gather your ‘stuff’ together. so refreshing! after living in wyoming myself i know that i had to go someplace else if i wanted the kids to roll easter eggs down a hill that wasn’t covered w/snow; but that’s something that you eventually get used to about wyoming–but don’t get me wrong–i LOVE wyoming! such a sense of freedom and the warmth of very special people.
so many people strive for ‘the bigger, the better’ when it comes to their homes (trying to keep up with the Jones’es.)and i’ve found it comforting to see beauty in such things as a daffodil in an old coffee pot, a collection of threads in an old mason jar–decorating in a simple cozy manner that comes from the heart. it has encouraged me too.
thanks for helping me make my own home become a haven for the heart.