After my last post about feeling wanderlusty and yearning for a change of scenery, it appears that my wishes have been granted. The last few weeks have been full of growth, new faces at Farm School, almost an hour and a half increase in sunlight (!!), and new adventures in chicken egg incubation.
Our homemade candler. This egg is infertile.
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”.
I enjoyed this article very much! It was fun following the progress of the eggs and how the children experienced this along the way – all the teachable moments! Standing on eggs!! I’m tempted (sort of) to try that. 😀
I love the kind of school you have. It’s just the kind I would love to have started myself, or to have had available to my daughter when she was so young. Keep up the great work!
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Thanks Theresa! Louise’s Farm School is a great program, and I’m honored to be a part of all of the fun and learning that goes on here.
I love the "abdomen" and "digest". That is so funny.
and the standing on the eggs thing. But did *you* stand on the eggs? I’m curious to try this now. But I want to know if you did it too.
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Hi Nan! I did not stand on the eggs! However, I have seen videos of adults doing it. We laid down parchment paper, opened a carton of eggs and snipped off the parts of the carton that were taller than the eggs Then we laid another sheet of parchment paper over the eggs and very gently stepped onto them with flat feet, using our friends for support until all of our weight was distributed. It was a hit with the kids!
What a wonderful post! You bring a breath of fresh spring air to my gardener’s mind…imagine doing all that in Alaska! Wow! Keep up the great work, indeed!
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Thanks, Nancy! Agriculture is a challenge in Alaska, but it’s a challenge I’m eager to take on!
Thank you for your "illuminating" story of the incubating eggs! I have two inquisitive granddaughters who would love to attend a school such as yours, if we had one here in central California. Happy Spring!
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Thanks Fawn!
There are more and more schools like this popping up all over the place. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for Californian opportunities :).
Ahhh, so many memories come flooding back whenever I read your post! Alaska is definitely a beautiful and unique place….My husband and I lived in Alaska for 13 years, our firstborn son was born there, I attended APU but back then they did not have the school/farm – what a wonderful and fun opportunity – and we were the first in our neighborhood to plant a garden…we even had a resident young bull moose one winter who enjoyed our raspberry bushes and we had one inquisitive enough to peek in our kitchen window. And, oh yes, I’ve been to the peak of Pioneer Peak 🙂 Thank you so much for your posts – Alaska has a special place in our hearts and Palmer especially since it is farmgirl country. Enjoy your chicks – we have one hen who hatched out 2 in February and we have a broody hen now on a nest of 5 or 6 – gotta love spring! ————————————————–Thanks for the Alaska connection, KJ! I’m looking forward to climbing Pioneer Peak this summer!
I enjoyed your blog entry! I just had to tell you that I DO have a broody hen sitting on nine eggs right now. I homeschool my boys (ages 4 and 6) and I can’t believe the amount of teaching that comes from having chickens. Tonight, we will try to candle the eggs. Wish us (and Georgiana, our broody Buff Orpington) luck. If none of them hatch, I think I will buy some chicks from the feed store for her and sneak them under her at night. She’s going to be a good mama. We should have REAL peeps by Easter. ———————————————————————————Thanks for the chicken story Anna! Georgiana sounds like a farmgirl’s best friend. Good luck with the candling, it’s very fun!
Yes, I am a Mary Jane. I have a broody hen and we bought 6 eggs from someone with roosters and have put them under the hen. Unfortunately, the other two hens keep laying their eggs on top of the broody hen and I broke one of the good eggs while trying to get the other unfertile eggs out. April 7 or 8 is due date. Hopefully we get some chicks. I have never raised them but the hen was on the nest broody for so long we decided to give it a try.
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Thanks for the story, Mary Jane! Good luck with your eggs and chicks!
The egg story is fascinating! I’m (almost) tempted to get a brooder and give it a try!
Thank you for sharing!
Nancy
http://www.liveasavorylife.com
A good flashlight in a dark closet works great. Just hold the egg right on the light lens and you can see everything. This is definitely ‘chick’ season. I’m trying to resist the temptation of buying half a dozen. My will power is seriously weakening. ;o) If only all the children in this nation could benefit from such a wholesome education.