Happy New Year, Farmgirls!
It’s been awhile; and while so much has happened, much is still the same. I hope this finds you all well after a successful and joyful holiday season. This was the first holiday season for our family of 6 (after Covid derailed it all last year), and it was a wonderful couple of weeks with lots of family time, food and, of course, gift giving.
Nova loves the holidays!
Hello Farmgirls!
Whew, it’s already decidedly autumnal here. How has this summer been for you? It has gone by lightning fast for us. We have been busy with many visitors and an ever more energetic group of kids. Of course, after a year of being apart from some of the people we love the most, it was amazing to see grandparents, cousins, siblings, and friends. My mom celebrated her 70th birthday and we were able gather and celebrate. It was one of those parties that ended up being even better than we imagined it could be. My brother and sister in law went all out with the “70” decorations—balloons, yard signs, candles, the whole shebang. We are not a decorate-for-birthdays kind of family, so it was very fun!
Cousins visited and played in the tundra
Brood (noun): a family of young animals, especially of a bird, produced at one hatching or birth.
(verb): think deeply about something that makes one unhappy.
(noun, informal): all of the children in a family.
From the Old English brod: “to breed”.
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few kids who have grown up on small scale farms. A favorite activity is often–“How many mouths are there to feed on our farm?” Even on a small farm, these numbers can add up! A couple acre plot with chickens, ducks, pigs, a horse or cow or two, dogs, kids, cats…even if the animals have a lot of space, can already be in the hundreds-of-mouths-to-feed territory. The count can be especially high if the counters try to estimate numbers of bees in a hive or worms in the vermipost bin.
Kiki/Hana Gana/Shadow–My favorite hen
Hello Farmgirls,
Has spring sprung where you are? How are you doing? “March Madness” (not the “sports games” kind as Ava calls it) is almost behind us as the ever quickening addition of light to our days starts to wind down. The Equinox to Solstice slide has begun.
Alaskan kids are lucky! Most people never get to see a glacier in real life. These kids get to see them when they are babies, and practically out our back door. (Maybe I’m thinking about writing, here)
Farmgirls.
Hello! It’s been awhile.
Hey! It’s me. I’m back.
I missed you, and I apologize for the long silence on my end. This year has been many, many things, with one of the main things being: TOUGH! It has also been beautiful and fun and sad and boring and confirming and confusing and… all of the things. I have a feeling many of you have had similar feelings and experiences. After writing in April, I missed my next post and then just could not get myself to write. I thought of the readers and other Farmgirls and knew I should at least pop in to say, “Hey! I’m alive and okay!” but there was this huge mental block holding me back. I have to admit that my mental health was hanging in there, but the break from writing deadlines was necessary to keep it that way. Time kept moving on as it does, and it got to that weird place where my absence had been too long to address. Thankfully, one of MaryJane’s dutiful employees reached out and asked if I’d be up for writing again (Thanks, B!). Writing is one of my best outlets, and I appreciate being gently nudged back into practice.
Hello Farmgirls,
Ummm. I’m nearly at a loss of what to write. It all seems pretty trivial at the moment, but maybe a little triviality is part of what we need during these unprecedented times?
First off, how are you all? I truly believe the nation and world is in a collective stage of grief. Many of us have had our fair or unfair shares of grief in life, so it is a familiar feeling–only different in that everyone is experiencing it. There is so much uncertainty in where this is going and what the world will look like when it’s “over.” I’ve spoken about it with others experienced and studied in grief, we are grieving the loss of an imagined future. This is normal and okay. Sometimes it’s good to have a way to label our experiences and emotions. Please be kind to yourselves and loved ones while we navigate these murky waters. Cracking under the pressure is expected, crying at the most menial of occurrences is a healthy way that your body and psyche forces you to check in, ignoring it all is a natural coping mechanism. Acceptance that this is happening is the goal. It is where we can find our own integrity.
Moki has been increasingly lazy, or perhaps depressed? Either way, she is cute–finding different pillows to lounge on.
Okay, I know, I know–I’m a little obsessed. It is time for my yearly ode to snow. I just love it so much that I can’t help myself. In reality, it is so much on my mind over the last few weeks that I can’t think of much else to write about! It all starts with or comes back to snow. Living the rural life with a fair amount of land, not too many indoor options for kids, and a lot of driveway means that a lot of snow results in a lot of work and play!
Fern enjoys the good stuff.
Happy New Year and New Decade Farmgirl Friends!
Our snow family greeting the new year and new decade!
It’s been a big time for change and newness around here as we get settled into our new (to us) house, new routines and new part of town. I’ve been asked approximately 4.3 million times how we are liking our new house, if we are all moved in, etc. etc. My usual reply is–yes! It’s great and yes all of our stuff is in the house. Note: I did not say we are all moved in :). It’s proving to be difficult to “move in” with all of this newness happening with young kids around. I’m generally okay with this and try to find the humor in it…but there are times of darkness and turmoil! (like when I decided to collect and organize ALL OF OUR SHOES).
Happy Holidays, Farmgirls!
Hope you are all doing well during this busy and cheerful season. We’ve had an eventful few weeks up here in the North. It started with a girls’ trip that Ava and I took to Seattle to visit Ava’s cousin and have some sister-free fun!
On the plane, ready for take off!
Hey Hey Farmgirl sisters,
How are you all doing? I’m having one of those uninspired (or perhaps unmotivated?) snaps in life, a writer’s block if you will. If I recall this is normal for me during this time of the year, during the break between harvest season and celebration season. There’s a stagnancy in the air. As strange as it sounds, I believe it’s good to be uninspired sometimes. For me it’s a feeling of contentment in that there is nothing that needs to be bettered, accomplished, pursued or created. I can just go about with the daily rhythms of life and the demands of various responsibilities without daydreaming about what I could be doing or feeling down on myself for not accomplishing all of the things.
Although dinners have been a bit boring. Sorry, family.
Perhaps my last bits of inspiration were spent up making Halloween costumes. It was a warm Halloween up here! We had a spider, bee and honey pot (and Ninjago friend).
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.
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!
calls herself a knitter, jam-maker, and vintage enthusiast who "never met an antique sewing machine she didn't like." Born and raised in the great state of Texas, she now resides in suburban New England in picturesque Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York state.
Married for over twenty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields and has been a world-traveler, entrepreneur, and homemaker, but considers being a mom her greatest accomplishment of all. In addition to blogging, she also teaches knitting professionally and is a Certified Master Gardener. Loving all things creative and domestic, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “bloom where you are planted.”
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