It’s a new year! The passing holidays also marks another milestone: I’ve had my chickens over a year! Having backyard chickens has been so rewarding. Come see how things are going at “Fowl Knox”!
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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”.
Hi Nicole, I miss having chickens. We raised our kids with chickens – they sold eggs and we matched their money! Then we retired and moved to our farm here in Tennessee and have spent the last 3 years building a house and now a garage/shop. The chicken coop is slated for this summer! I cannot wait. I loved our hens. And don’t you agree that once you eat home-grown eggs you cannot stand the store bought ones? I’m lucky my daughter has hens so I still don’t have to buy them! Love your hens… and even love your rooster!
– Dori, the Ranch Farmgirl –
P.S. I love your idea of keeping the radio playing quietly near the pen. That is brilliant.
Thanks, Dori! I bet you can’t wait to get your chickens this summer! There truly is nothing like fresh eggs. I love that your kids grew up with chickens, and how you matched their egg sales – that’s teaching them great work ethics, too.
As for the radio, it really does work. The day the fox came back was the day that it had gotten turned off by my Roo stepping on top! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I enjoy reading all about your chickens. I too, have chickens and I love all 8 of them. I started out with a lot more but have lost a few to either hawks or the dog that is up the road from us. It has been a learning experience for me and it is a labor of love taking care of them. I live in Tennessee so we do get cold and sometimes their water freezes up but I bought a heated dog dish that is working out great – just in case you have same problem….
Hi Teresa! The hawks are really something, aren’t they? I had one fly inches above my head when I was on my deck and holding my little chihuahua! I always know when they are around because the squirrels and chipmunks hide.
Aren’t those heated dishes the best? Tractor Supply makes a base for the metal chicken waterer that automatically turns on if the temps go below freezing. I didn’t know about the dog dish, but that is a great idea too! Thanks for mentioning! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
A great tour of the chicken suburb. I am blessed that, my sons family lives in the Black Forest of Colorado, they have the same concerns for their chickens – no bear yet but always aware that they can come too, I live close enough that I get to enjoy the wonderful eggs. Your girls and boy are beautiful and their produce – yummmy.
Thanks, Joan! I never thought about bear…eek! We have black bears in our area, and they’ve been seen on my street. Thankfully, I haven’t seen one up close. I’d probably die of fright before it got a chance to eat me, ha ha. I have seen a track in the snow before that certainly looked like a bear, though. So far, bears have not approached the coop that I know of. Thanks for “stopping by”! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
What a good chicken mama you are. Your chickens are beautiful. My friend April has a rooster named lance romance who doesn’t act as nice as yours. Keep up the good work. Bonnie
Thanks, Bonnie! Oh my – I love your friend’s rooster name! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Thank you. This article wasso right on. Chickens are my dream and one day be a reality. You made me smile.
Hi Roksanna, I hear you. I dreamed of chickens for so long. It’s been great. The hardest part (and most expensive) was the initial set up. I hope you get to have your dream of chickens someday, too! Thanks for “stopping by”! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Such pretty pictures! I am so glad I got to see your chickens and beautiful rooster, “Spot” last July. Enjoyed reading all about them and comments you received.
Love, Mother
Thanks, Mama! I am so glad you got to see them, too! I always think of your story of your little hen that your grandma gave you. Love you, Nicole
You go farmgirl! Glad you are enjoying your chickens. My parents had 150 laying hens when I was a teenager and my younger sister and I had to gather eggs twice daily. We washed them and helped my mom get then candled, sized and packaged for delivery on my mom’s twice/weekly egg routes.
We don’t have chickens currently because I really don’t want them. We would/will if necessary, but we have SOOOOOOO many predators it would be a major undertaking to have them.
We have three different neighbors that have chickens that I’m able to get eggs from so we do enjoy FRESH eggs!
CJ
Hi CJ! Wow! 150 Chickens!That’s neat how the egg washing, candling and packaging was a family affair. Lovely! Aren’t fresh eggs the best? I can say I am an egg “snob” now (ha ha), because nothing beats the taste of a fresh egg! Thanks for sharing your memories with me! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nicole . . . I still have the two different sizing scales we used in that operation. The first one very simple and labor intensive. The second one a bit more efficient.
To be honest with you, my sister and I disliked the process!
I bet as a teen, I wouldn’t have liked it either, to be honest. Audrey doesn’t care for feeding them and won’t touch the eggs until they are washed (though she loves eating the eggs)! Do you use your scales as decor now? Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I use the first one, which is red and cute. The other one is in the shed as it’s kinda big for anyplace in my kitchen.
I have a few hens too and I enjoyed reading about your flock.
Hi Marci, Aren’t hens the best? I am so glad I am zoned where I can experience having them. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole