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Well, I guess it had to happen. It Is COLD in Wyoming. The warm looking sunlight of late afternoon is NOT warm unless you’re inside. But, there is plenty to be grateful for as I get ready for Thanksgiving. I have a dandy little space heater. C’mon in and take a look at what I’m going to use it for.
Images can help tell a story. Pictures can add meaning and impart a deeper understanding. What we see with our eyes and read with our eyes join together and, in my opinion, turn an otherwise good read into a great read. Imagery stirs emotions, pricks our memory and takes us back to places we’ve been or transports us to places we will never see for ourselves. Words are busy, pictures are quiet. Together, they’re a great team.
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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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.
September is when summer isn’t quite over and autumn hasn’t yet taken hold. We’re betwixt the two.
Until they leave later this month, Redwing Blackbirds have a place in my early fall routine. They crowd an open feeder to gobble up sunflower seeds just as soon as it is light in the mornings. My fellow farmgirl friend, Michele, makes a wood & screen feeder and she gave one to me; she said it would likely attract birds that do not normally come to a feeder.
So many things to cover this week! It feels like harvest time all the way around. Nature produced a bounty to prepare us for the coming winter. Let’s see if we can make a place in the ‘pantry’ for alllllll that I have to share with you in this installment.
Sunflowers, sweet corn, goldenrod, crook neck squash, the juicy flesh of ripe peaches, and many other harvest-time goodies … they all suggest that yellow is August’s favorite color. The saffron beauty of sunflowers attracts bees and artists alike.
August is when things come together. It is harvest time … a month of hot days and cooler nights … when corn can be heard growing and when fruit on the ground, on the vine and in trees ripens. Gardens fill canning jars for the pantry and for the county & state fair. Amidst all the other things that make August a very full month, this is Fair time. I’ve got a lot of ground to cover and “fair time” is the first stop on our scenic tour of August.
When you’ve got a jumbled mix of things and you toss them in the same pot, you’ve got a “hochepot” – the french word for hodge-podge. A little of everything went into this article, resulting in a heaping helping of hochepot “pie”. Also included is the edible recipe!
Cattle pant in the leafy shade of trees. Horses perspire at work and later stand in the pond fighting flies with the wet brush of their tails. July … steamy afternoons, sticky necks, salty sweat. July … picnics, straw hats, iced tea and sugar snap peas.
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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