I’ve been twisting and shouting too much if you ask me.
I’m quite conflicted about the whole affair. You know, should he stay or should he go? Da-da-daaaa-da-da. We talked about this a few posts ago, remember? My barn snake. Some of you said–keep him! Others said–get rid of him! I was full-on conflicted about this snake. Until Saturday evening. Well, let me back up for a minute.
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‘Summertime’ is a matter of going from one thing to the next in an effort to squeeze all of summer’s bounty into the short span of time we’re given to enjoy the hundreds of things we want to do and need to do. No wonder we’re bone tired at days end … but what a fine kind of weary it is. C’mon in and take a look at my to-do list … and please leave a list of what’all you’ve been busy trying to keep up with.
The above photo was taken when we were moving cattle. Echinacea is in full bloom and it was everywhere!
Whew! If you aren’t currently experiencing a heatwave, you’ve no doubt heard of the dangerous one we’re dealing with here on the East Coast. Waking up to a scorching, humid day, we decided to hit the coast and go North. When it’s too toasty to do much, it’s always a few degrees cooler near the ocean. Come take a farmgirl road trip with me to beautiful Newport, Rhode Island, one of my family’s favorite relaxing places!
I love farms and farming. Even when it is cold and rainy, or extremely hot and mosquito-ey, I am reminded of some words MaryJane shared with me once: It is so much better to be stuck working outside during less-than-desirable weather than to be stuck working inside on a beautiful day.
Sometimes I REALLY have to remind myself of this great insight, but I usually come around, even in the thickest of mosquitos.
Visiting farms around my community, state, country and world is one of my favorite things to do. I have dreams of one day visiting South America, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Australia, India, Africa (the whole world, really) and trekking from farm to farm, getting to see the different farming methods. It would be especially fun to see how similar or diferent the ubiquitous potato is planted, grown and stored the world over…
Anyhow, I’ve been back in Alaska for two weeks now after my visit to North Dakota and Minnesota, and I’ve been reflecting on farm visits.
Evan, My future brothers-in-law and I on the hills outside of their family’s cropland (former pastureland in their dairying days!)
What do you do when you feel that way? Afraid, lonely, unhappy? How do you make things better? Hey-if you feel any of those things right now, don’t read this post.
Go to see this video instead. Put it on full screen and then watch.
http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_nature_beauty_gratitude.html
And after you watch it, come back here and we’ll visit for a while. And then let’s follow Anne Frank’s advice and go outside. Let’s get up from this computer and head to the door, if only for a few minutes.
Dear sisters,
When is the last time you threw caution to the wind, stepped out of your comfort zone, and let your dreams set sail towards horizons unseen? It’s scary isn’t it? Every time I get the BIG IDEA to try something new I get a case of the butterflies weeks before, imagine that no one will like what I have done ( or even worse ) judge me unmercifully for trying. To make matters worse I’m plagued with self-doubt. My emotions ebb and flow between being terrified and over flowing with anticipation. I don’t like feeling that way ( or maybe I do ?) I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a stirrer upper. I like my seas a little rough sometimes but, I like to be the one making the waves! Last November in a weak moment over tea ( obviously spiked with MaryJane juice ) with friends I announced that I was going to have my first ‘ open garden tour ‘ this summer. The statement just flew out of my mouth like I’d done it a dozen times before. Pif! What did I have to lose? Having just come off of the biggest flower high ever, (compliments of my FIRST SEASON with annual cut flowerbeds) I was in a state of gardeners gushiness. I guess you could say the combination of mourning my beloved blooms and feeling excited about NEW growing possibilities for the coming year got the better of me. What’s a farmgirl to do?
Gather your courage and go for it that’s what!
Don’t think for a minute I would leave YOU out of THIS FARMGIRL adventure!
If you can bare it, come on it for all the dirt AND some ice cold citrus water!
The first couple of weeks in July predictably brings the first heat wave to northern Wyoming. The sunny, hot weather is ‘just right’ for curing hay quickly. So, for the next week or so I’ll be bumping along on the prairie, cutting native hay. Climb on up and hop in the cab for a real ‘hay ride’. Not to worry, its conditioned!
Hey Farmgirls! A few weeks ago (well, maybe more like two months ago…) I teased you all by saying that I would share some fun news with you in my next post. Welllllll, a few posts have gone by without any news of this news. However, I’m ready, now.
Are you ready?
Drum Roll, please!
Evan and I are moving into the round. That is, we are moving into our very own…
Living in the suburbs, I love our summers. We’ve got four seasons in New England, each with it’s charm, but my favorite month of the year is July. School ends the last week of June, and July’s the time when we have the least on our schedule. It’s back to school at the end of August, so this month is when life is simplest, and American small town livin’ is at its best.
” Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom”~ Albert Einstein
Dear sisters,
Happy July! The month that begins with sparks and fire! As we celebrate Independence Day and honor our Veterans ( past, present and future) I feel so grateful to those who in their service make my freedom to create and share possible every day. I LOVE America and I’m proud to be one of her daughters! Each year, Plymouth, Ma. ( America’s Hometown and mine) gleams with patriotism at the annual 4th of July Parade and later, a show of fireworks over the harbor. Our beach community will have it’s annual parade on the beach where the residents show their true PATRIOTIC colors as they get decked out in RED, WHITE AND BLUE! I’m betting you’re getting yourselves ready to celebrate with family and friends too! I love July for all the ways she glitters and glows! Come on in for more JULY SPARKLERS!
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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