As a mom, my year isn’t a calendar year, but one that ends when lazy days of summer bid farewell. A new year starts with the return of fall. Even when my daughter grows up, I bet I’ll still feel that way. I still love the smell of new pencils, a fresh box of crayons, and the scent of new leather shoes! Back-to-school means a fresh start, more hectic schedules, and saying goodbye to long summer days of fun. Having grown up in a climate that is hot most of the time, I really appreciate the four seasons we have in Connecticut, savoring every minute of our short but beautiful summers. My daughter doesn’t attend camp, but has plenty to write about when her teacher asks “What did you do all summer?” Come sit a spell with me while I reminisce about what we did and share some fun ideas for entertaining young’uns.
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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
Keep it up- each one is better then the last . So much of what you write brings memories of when you were little running wild at the ranch.
Love,
Dad
Thank you, Daddy! Love you! -Nicole
Hi Nicole! Thank you SO much for this post- I grew up in Ridgefield, Ct. and have such fond memories of the beautiful summers there. Your photo of the walking trail really reminded me of how beautiful my hometown is. Thanks for the walk down memory lane! Meredith
Hi Meredith! Thank you so much for reading. I was just in Ridgefield recently, another lovely town. I was happy to see Main Street hasn’t changed too much in the past years. -Nicole
Hi Nicole,
Loved your artwork with the sunscreens. Another idea to try is to buy a blank canvas bag or apron and pick colorful flowers or ferns and arrange them on the canvas and cover with a piece of wax paper and then hit with a hammer and it transfers to the canvas. I think then you have to soak in salt water to set the colors so that they will not wash out. (It has been a long time since I made one) Just thought it might be something you and your daughter would enjoy doing.
love reading your blogs
Be Blessed
Ms Scarlette
Oh that sounds fun! What a neat idea! Thank you so much for sharing! -Nicole
Thank you for great ideas! I can use them
next summer when the grand kids come by. We are big bird and butterfly watchers here and the books are a great gift idea for them also when the holidays come by.
Kelly, thank you for reading. The books have proven to be something my whole family enjoys and my daughter does not grow out of. Enjoy! – Nicole
Hi Nicole,
You’re right–even though my kids are grown, to me the new year begins in late August/early September. I don’t think that will ever change! Fall is such a good time for a new fresh start. Thanks for sharing this fun nature craft. Such pretty results!
Betsy
Thank you, Betsy! -Nicole
Another great post. Thank you Nicole. We are just starting over with grand children and you have opened new ideas for educating them to their surroundings.You are definitely an inspiration.
Thank you so much Denise! Congratulations on your grandchildren! -Nicole
Love the Blog. Summer is a wonderful time with your children. Mine are grown now, still I hold those days close to my heart. Too many parents forget to take that time with their children. My son, now 30, can not wait to show me a new plant he is growing. My daughter has grown into 110% tree hugger. I smile and know there is a lot of my teaching and my father’s in me there. I could not of spent my life doing any thing to make me happier.
Theresa, what a sweet, wonderful comment to the blog. Thank you. I feel the same way…my daughter is my greatest gift and nothing I’ve done or could do could make me as happy as being her mom. Thank you so much for reading and commenting. – Nicole
Love the blog Nicole! In the past 2 years I have really found my inner farm girl, and have loved sharing my farm girl-ness with my daughter Hannah(age 14). We’ve made jams together and just this summer sewed matching sun dresses, which turned out to be more like night gowns…We had fun learning to sew and laughing at the baggy results. Time with our young-ons is so precious and we should never pass up the chance to give to them the gifts that we have been given.Thanks for the listen and keep up the great work!
Kirsten, thank you for sharing! I bet those sundresses are adorable – and something your daughter will never forget. Keep making those wonderful memories with your girl! -Nicole