Converging. Convergence … multiple things making their way toward a single point … like a flock of birds lighting upon a fence … all with the same intent, being of one mind. At the onset, you may not realize that seemingly unrelated ‘things’ are laying claim to the words ‘intentional design’. One by one, the messenger birdies line up. Have you ever observed and experienced this phenomena? Many cultures believe that the unusual appearance of a bird(s) is a sign, a message. The old testament and the new testament of the Bible offers the dove as a loving example. This troubled old world could sure use a message of hope, wouldn’t you agree?
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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
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~ Mark TwainDebbie 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.’”
Column contents © Deb Bosworth. All rights reserved.
Being a farmgirl is not
about where you live,
but how you live.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.
Column contents © Rebekah Teal. All rights reserved.
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Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in awhile to climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods, to wash your spirit clean.
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~ John MuirCathi 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.”
Column contents © Cathi Belcher. All rights reserved.
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Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
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~ Anthony J. D’AngeloDori 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.
Column contents © Dori Troutman. All rights reserved.
Shery Jespersen
Previous Ranch Farmgirl,
Oct 2009 – Nov 2013Wyoming cattle rancher and outpost writer (rider), shares the “view from her saddle.” Shery is a leather and lace cowgirl-farmgirl who’s been horse-crazy all of her life. Her other interests include “junktiques,” arts and crafts, glamping, collecting antique china, and cultivating mirth.
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.”
Column contents © Mary Murray. All rights reserved.
Farmgirl
is a condition
of the heart.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!
Column contents © Alexandra Wilson. All rights reserved.
Libbie Zenger
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
June 2010 – Jan 2012Libbie’s a small town farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah on a 140-year-old farm with her husband and two darling little farmboys—as well as 30 ewes; 60 new little lambs; a handful of rams; a lovely milk cow, Evelynn; an old horse, Doc; two dogs; a bunch o’ chickens; and two kitties.
René Groom
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010René lives in Washington state’s wine country. She grew up in the dry-land wheat fields of E. Washington, where learning to drive the family truck and tractors, and “snipe hunting,” were rites of passage. She has dirt under her nails and in her veins. In true farmgirl fashion, there is no place on Earth she would rather be than on the farm.
Farmgirl spirit can take root anywhere—dirt or no dirt.
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”.
Column contents © Nicole Christensen. All rights reserved.
Paula Spencer
Previous Suburban Farmgirl,
October 2009 – October 2010Paula is a mom of four and a journalist who’s partial to writing about common sense and women’s interests. She’s lived in five great farm states (Michigan, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, and now North Carolina), though never on a farm. She’s nevertheless inordinately fond of heirloom tomatoes, fine stitching, early mornings, and making pies. And sock monkeys.
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Archives
One more thing about the lovely Dove. When I first started raising chickens – the gal I bought them from gave me a dove to keep in the coop. She told me a Dove would help keep the spider webs away. My lovely dove – named Dusty – alas met her maker by some unknown critter. I sure missed her. Loved the cooing too.
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REALLLLY? I suppose you have to get the dove when it is a baby so that it imprints on the chickens and stays around…? Hmm. ~Shery
Shery, what a wonderfully spiritual writing – thank you.
A little over 6 yrs. ago my sister and I moved from a large city to a new development on an old ranch – yes sorry the ranch had gone dry years before – but needless to say there are few trees of any consequence – I had put out several feeders to help the birds in this new habitat and all of a sudden one day I saw something moving on the ground – and then it flew to the fence – oh my goodness it was a Collard Dove. I had no idea what it was so I took pictures, as best I could and took them to ‘This Place is for the Birds’ – a wonderful bird feeding shop – on an old ranch, they told me what it was and what to feed it. We now have many of the ‘Peace’ birds, as I call them – what a joy to listen to and watch. Oh, by the way I am the one that had told you I have a huge cage – well now that I know you wanted it for a short time and I never got it to you – I am going to fix it so the ‘Peace’ can use it – yes it is very large – there will be perches, water and protection – not quite sure how I will do that but am thinking of tying some evergreen branches to the cage – just a little respite from the weather. Again thanks for writing. God Bless
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Hi Joan!! I bet you can just put some branches in the cage and wedge the ends between the bars. I really hope I can turn this dove loose. It is looking that way, she’s flying now … short bursts in the porch. I do NOT like the fantasies my young cat is entertaining. 😉 Shery
Thank you so much for sharing this. My husband, 88 year old mother and I enjoy the same doves in our yard everyday, it’s great watching them and the joy they bring.
We also do not have any doves here on the ranch in Colorado. Just big old black crows. In the winter we have loads of birds coming to the feeders I also have a large bowl on the porch fence that heats the water for them to have a nice warm drink in the winter.
I went to Harvard for my education and I remember the beautiful doves that would coo all day. They were so pretty and gentle looking. I always fed them when I ate my lunch sitting on the grass with my friends. I missed them very much when I graduated and left Cambridge. I also loved the big Red Cardinals (especially at Christmas) they have there and the Seagulls at the seashore.
Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving.
Treese/Colorado Cowgirl
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Back at ya, Treese … may your list of Thanksgiving blessings be long. When I lived in Ohio years back, I thought Cardinals were the most exotic thing I’d ever seen. We just don’t have that kind of color out thisaway. Brilliant red birds in tree branches laden with snow … Magical. Shery
Shery, thank you so much for writing this article! It’s everything I want to remind myself of everyday in one place. I’m going to save this article to read often and send it on to others who need these encouraging words. As I read, I could feel the Holy Spirit come alive in your words. It’s such a blessing to be used by Him. Enjoy your blessed doves and the significance they’ve given you.
This is a very thought provoking post, thanks for sharing from your heart. Ah yes, On the Wings of a Snow White Dove…one of my favorites hymns, so comforting!
Beautiful message, Shery! Like Katherine, I will also be saving this message and sharing with others!
Shery, thank you so much for sharing this with us. You said so many things that I have been thinking myself these last few weeks. I find the doves coming to your yard very interesting. I have a friend whose husband was diagnosed with cancer this year. Shortly after his finding out he had cancer, a dove showed up in their yard and has stayed all Summer. They truly believe it is a sign from God that he will be with them to love and comfort them. Thanks Again!
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I believe it too and hope that your friend will be victorious!!! A dove also showed up at my sister’s new residence (as one of the items on my list of dovey occurances in and around my life). For her, the single dove visitation served to jolt her awake in an area that she’d not been motivated to explore. I know, I know … some are skeptical. I was too. WAS. Thank you evryone for your kind words and for sharing here. ~Shery
Shery, This beautiful post brought tears to my eyes. I am very concerned about the future. Thank you.
Sheri…amen and amen. thank you! Your heart is loverly.