Have you ever surprised yourself by changing your mind on something you didn’t like, or perhaps even feared? That is just what has happened in our house!
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Debbie 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.’”
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.
Cathi 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.”
Dori 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.
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.”
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!
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”.
In 1969 I was given a boa constrictor “Rosie” to nurse back to health from a mouth infection. I used to take the snake to school as an instant lesson plan in case the teacher did not leave me any class work. The added benefit was that the children all stayed quiet and in their seats as the snake rode around the room on my shoulder or arm.
Hi Joanne, what a great story! Thank you so much for sharing! I can just see you with Rosie in tow, and the kids eyes all wide with wonder. Love that! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I too, am afraid of snakes. I must say you and Hubbie were very brave to allow snakes into your home, but a good lesson learned. Thanks for making snakes a little less scary.
Hi Judy, thank you! I was hoping to make them a little less scary! Thanks for reading and commenting! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nicole, I really enjoyed your article on snakes. In Minnesota we only have one poisonous snake and it is hidden in the bluffs along the river. But snakes are beautiful. Thanks for writing.
Hi Bonnie, thank you! It is pretty much the same here – the rattler we have here in Connecticut is mainly found along the rocky parts. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
You are still braver than me but I love hearing about your newest pets! Enjoy!
Thank you, Denise! I still can’t believe how much we have come to love our pets. Right now, I am no longer fearful of coming across a snake while out in the yard and garden; recently we have bears roaming our neighborhood. Love to see them but NOT up close! Thank you for reading and joining me here at the blog! Have a happy fall! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I grew up with an almost psychotic fear of snakes, inherited from my mother. As an adult, when I had a run-in with snakes, I would have a full-blown panic attack. You can imagine how that interfered with my new-found love of garden when I was in my 50’s. Anyway, I finally decided that it was going to either be my garden or the snakes, so I went to an outdoor spring festival where someone was demonstrating a large snake and letting people touch it. I swallowed my fear and ran my hand over it, letting it slither on me. It wasn’t cold and slimy, it was warm and smooth, like a nice leather belt. While I still do not like snakes and give them their space if I run across one, I no longer run in fear. Live and let live!
Hi Barbara, I love this! Many, many people share the fear of snakes. I love that you were brave, and did not let your fear of snakes keep you from doing something you enjoy, like gardening! I was surprised the first time I touched a snake at how it felt warm and smooth, too. Snakes keep the rodent population in check, so everything keeps balance. Thanks for sharing today, and happy gardening! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
You did not mentioned how big they get?
Hi Ann, typically, male snakes are small than females, so male ball pythons get to about two to four feet long, while females can be in the three to five feet length catagory. They are “fatter” snakes, with more girth around than corn snakes. Corn snakes can grow a max of two to five feet, but are much more “slender” than the ball python varieties. Thank you for asking! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
That was a beautiful tribute that made me smile. Thanks.
Hi Marlene, thank you so much! I am glad you enjoyed the post! Happy Fall! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve always loved snakes and I disheartens me so when so many folks have a morbid fear of a creature so beneficial but they never try to learn about that creature…. I have a cornsnake like Noodle above. Slinky is going on 19 years old now.
I have two resident black snakes in my garage. They take an egg from the hens once in a while which is fine by me and they keep the garage free of mice. A mutually beneficial relationship!
Your daughter is a champ!
Ellen
Hi Ellen, thank you so much! My daughter is not as outgoing as I tend to be (I can strike up a conversation with anyone, lol), but I love that she uses her pet snakes as a conversation starter. If someone is afraid of snakes, she will talk to them about her pets and how beneficial the snakes in the wild are.
We are both very excited to hear that your Slinky is nineteen! That is wonderful! We used to have a very large black or rat snake in our garage once, too, but I think it found its way out. I have not seen any skins in awhile.
Thank you so much for visiting the blog and saying hello! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nicole, what a wonderful story. I am so glad you and your husband grew accustomed to snakes and are no longer so afraid of them. My son and daughter-in-law have owned snakes for years and have had many different kinds and sizes and ages. They also have dogs and cats and hens and roosters. My daughter-in-law makes pets out of most of them – one rooster flies up on her shoulder when she goes inside the pen. She is amazing with animals. I always made pets out of my hens when I was younger – I also had a calf, cats, dogs, and birds in my menagerie. But never a snake as my dad and mom wouldn’t have allowed it. But my brothers and I would go into the woods and look under rocks to find red and blue racers – so much fun. Love reading your blogs.
Hi Sandi, thank you! I am so glad you enjoyed the post. Your son and daughter-in-law sound liuke my kind of people! We, too, have a gentle rooster and consider our hens pets. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your memories! I love that you have always had a “menagerie”, too! I also looked up blue racer snakes. We do not have them here in Connecticut, but we do have a close and very important relative, the black racer. 🙂
Thanks for reading and commenting. I always love hearing from you! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Loved your story, Nicole! Many years ago, when my children were young, I owned a nursery in Mississippi. We had water moccasins that occasionally would wrap their long bodies around a tall plant in a pot. We irrigated everyday, so they must have enjoyed the added moisture. I would hear one of my employees holler “Snake” and I would come running with a shovel to chop it’s head off. I know it sounds cruel but they are very poisonous and it was the only way to get rid of them. We also had little garter snakes that my kids played with. I remember my daughter playing with two of them one day, tying their tails in knots, draping them over her ears. She let them go at the end of the day. I bet those little snakes were so happy to be on their way!
Hi Barbara, thank you…I am so glad that you enjoyed the blog! Cute story about your daughter! Now, water moccasins are a VERYnscary snake if they are where they can bite! At my dad’s place he had in the hill country, we once had a rattle snake hiding in the kitchen under the oven! THAT was scary! I was always taught when up there never to put my feet in my shoes unless I checked inside them first, and we also always turned the sheets back before climbing into bed, just to be sure. We also had scorpions up there. We don’t really have things like that here in Connecticut, thankfully! Thanks for reading and commenting! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Loved the story about your “sweet” snakes.
It makes me want one…They seem interesting,
I’m sure you can get REALLY attached to them.
They probably DO, get a bad rap…
Thank you for enlightening us…
Hi Julie, thank you! Yes, they do get a bad rap, and pet ones are so easy to get attached to. They can really make great pets, and even recognize their owners/handlers. Now, Pi actually climbs up to be held when we open the tank and grab the snake hook! He loves attention. Just like any animal, they learn trust from being treated gently. I surprised myself by how attached I am to ours! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Very interesting and surprising how they can be good pets.
Love,
Mother
Thanks, Mama! Your granddaughter sees beauty in things many others don’t! 😉 Love you, Nicole
Farm girl Nicole,
Thank you so much for sharing your awesome story. My grandsons have had snakes over the years. They LOVE them! Me, not so much when they are out and about the house at times.
Farm Girl hugs, Marie
Hi Marie, what a wonderful grandma you are to have your grandsons bring their snakes over! Thanks for reading and commenting! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole