I’m off to our library today. My daughter’s key chain collection was featured in the glass showcases for October. Our library’s a treasured place, and for a small town, it’s a great meeting place full of books, activities, and museum-worthy treasures in cases illustrating the town’s history. Our townspeople are very proud of it. Stepping inside, I’m reminded of how reading has shaped who I am and where I’ve been.
Fiery colors begin their yearly conquest of the hills, propelled by the autumn winds. Fall is the Artist
Howdy farmgirl sisters! Who’s in the mood for some leaf peepin’? It doesn’t get any better than in our neck of the woods! Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts receive thousands of visitors every year from around the world just to get a good, long gawk at the leaves. We do our fair share of it too so come along on our virtual leaf peeping tour New England style with a surprise stop along the way! Plus I’ll share my top ten favorite farmgirl Fall things. Leave a comment and tell us yours too!
It is that time of year. Orange and black. Skeletons. Candy corns. Witches. Goblins. And ghosts. Or “haints” as the some old-timer southerners call them.
You scared of ghosts? No me. “I ain’t scared of no haints.” Ain’t. Haint.
But you know what has always kinda scared me? I mean besides snakes. Ouija Boards. It seems like at every slumber party I went to as a kid, somebody brought out an Ouija Board. And I just never knew for sure. Was somebody moving it? Or was it a SPIRIT? Creepy. Did you have one as a kid? Leave a comment and let us know what you think about the Ouija.
Fall color on the grassy ‘high plains’ is more subtle, but just as lovely as the tree’d up hill country nearby. On the ranch, we’ve been doing a lot of ‘fall-work’. Socially, my farmgirl pals and I have been having a rollicking good time and savoring every autumn moment. Come on in and see for yourself …
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We lost a member of the household today – the pet fish. Dealing with the loss of a pet is a rite of passage for a parent, unfortunately. It’s when your heart tugs at you, but you realize, “Yikes! I’m the adult here… I have to keep it together.” What do you do when your child’s heart is breaking?
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There’s something about the long Indian Summer days of October that makes me want to get out on the open road and see all I can see before Old Man Winter arrives. Do you like to take a drive? I love a good road trip and sightseeing! Even with gas prices what they are today ($3.50 and higher in these parts) I can still justify taking a ride! It’s in my blood!
If you feel the same way, buckle up and come with me! The Fall color we’re known for world over in New England isn’t here just yet, but I’ve got a heap’un help’un of Fall Fodder to show you, sure to satisfy every Fall lovin’ farmgirl at heart. We’ll begin with a stop at a local nursury, (just because I LOVE how they gussy up for the season here in New England ) then we’ll go Pumpkin’ pickin’ at Billingsgate Organic Certified Farm Stand where we’ll visit with proprieters Lynn and Peter Reading.
Nancy Sinatra’s 60’s mega-hit made it clear that her boots were made for walking. Those groovy Go-Go boots had an agenda in the song. Her boyfriend was doing her wrong … so goes the story. If you don’t know the rest of the story … take a fresh listen to “These Boots” via the YouTube link below … and then read on about the life & times of my favorite footwear.
Have you ever entered a baking contest? I hadn’t, until recently. Grab some coffee (and maybe a slice of pie…you’ll crave it soon, for sure), and I’ll tell you about my recent pie-baking adventure.
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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”.
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