Hi readers, and Happy Spring! Hopefully, you are experiencing some nice weather where you are! It’s finally thawed here in the Northeast, though it’s really still taking a while for winter to get the message and completely move along. Today is cold, raw and rainy, but it’s not dampening MY spirits! There’s been a lot going on since we last “visited” together…including that I reached a milestone!
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”.
Have a BLESSED Birthday & 1/2 century celebration!
Hi Barb, thank you so much!! Have a great weekend!
Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Happy Birthday Nicole! Glad to hear that you were treated like royalty ;).
Thank you for your cheery, uplifting blogs. I hope you will keep those coming for another half-century.
Hi Tammy, thank you so very much! It was a memorable birthday, for sure! Thanks for reading and commenting! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Happy Birthday! When I turned 50, I decided I was going to turn it around, and become one year younger on each birthdate. . . hoping to reach “zero”. It’s so funny now, because I am younger than both of my grown children. Never one year older, simply one year younger. Enjoy!
Hi Colleen! Thank you! I had a really memorable one. As for your growing younger, that is FABULOUS! I love it. Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
A farm girl happy birthday to you and an early happy anniversary to you and your husband!
I am 51 and just celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary. Family and good friends are such a blessing.
Hi Tracey, Thank you, and a very Happy Anniversary to you and your sweetheart! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Happy 50th Birthday, Nicole!
You surely don’t look 50 years old!
I always look forward to your wonderful blogs. May you have a blessed, happy and healthy year and many more to come!
Awww! Thank you so very much, E.! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Happy Birthday! Really enjoy your posts and agree, older is wiser, and happier
Hi Kim, thank you. I am so happy you enjoy my posts. Have a Happy Easter! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Nicole, HAPPY 50th from your Kansas farmgirl friend!! You look wonderful and your blog is so full of fun. You are so wise to acknowledge the love you have for and receive from your little family and big group of friends. This is the most precious and important part of life. Keep celebrating your life and love all year. Cannot wait to hear about your new hobby. BYE for now.
Hi Pamela! Thank you ever so much! Hope you are having a wonderful, warm spring there in Kansas! We are starting to feel like spring here, with green showing and a few flowers blooming, though the trees have not quite “popped” out yet. Thank you for reading and writing to me here, and I can’t wait to tell you about my new hobby! Soon! Thanks again for the wonderful wishes! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
Hi Nicole. Did this work?
Yup! Thanks. Mine did, too, but something is happening with some of the others. Any news on that? Thanks! ~Nicole
I see it! 🙂