I’ve mentioned in earlier posts how jazzed I am about our local flock of farmgirls. Now, northeast Wyoming has an official farmgirl sisterhood chapter and we’re calling ourselves the ”High Plains Sage Hens”.
Cindy 
RanchFarmgirl 
Rural Farmgirl 
Bonnie 
Kimberly D 
Rebekah 
Janice K. 
Jessie 
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Debbie Bosworth
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.’”
Rebekah Teal
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.
Cathi Belcher
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
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.
Mary Murray
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.”
Alexandra Wilson
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!
Nicole Christensen
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”.
This city girl is just "plain" jealous!
Shery…thank you for all the your kindness:) I look forward to our farmgirl nights, junk diving and antique trips in the near future.
Sounds like a fabulous evening…and the recipe for chocolate chip pumpkin bread is forthcoming, yes???
I so look forward to your posts. I read them over and over. I am a city girl wishing to be a country girl. I am country at heart. Keep up the good work.
Yeppers…on the recipes. Just waiting to hear back from Michele. Shery J
TJ, You simply must visit the Farmgirl Connection website which you can visit easily by clicking on the MJF header at the top of this page. Then, join the chat group and that will be a good bet for finding farmgirls in your neck of the woods. I’m sure there are plenty of them. We’re in a much more sparsely populated area, so I’m confident you can locate some farmgirl sisters if you keep diggin’! Thank you for the kind words. Shery J
What a fun group. Michele has a beautiful home. I feel like I was there with all your beautiful photos. So glad you gals had such a great time. I think I need to start a farm gals group where I live!
Oh Shery,
As always, I luv your photos…and the picture with the Geraniums….well, I am sooooo pining away for Spring & Summer as I just luv geraniums in my garden.
Where I use to live, they were perennials…but up here in the Pac/Inland NW they are annuals. I have 5 plants (that I dug out of my garden last fall)in a big plastic container in my family room…waiting to go outside & greet the sun…but for now…they give me joy bringing green into my home.
Farm girl hugz followed by ‘dirt manicures’ lol!
The photos, gorgeous!
I love your photos and the group’s name. How fitting and adorable!
Shery,
I love to read your blog. I am working hard to become a Ranch Farmgirl myself. Two years ago I bought my own piece of heaven in Wyoming…40 acres of potential for me to pour my heart and soul into. For now I’m stuck in Florida with a condo that won’t sell but your blog keeps me going and fuels my dreams. Thank you.
I love all the photos…I am looking forward reading future blogs….I am a country girl at heart,but still in the city….Thank you
Shery,
I so enjoyed your blog and the photos are absolutely gorgeous, just like it always is in the west! I am still in the city but I feel like a "part" even though I do not have a farm of my own yet. Mary Jane is right, "farmgirl is a condition of the heart." Thanks for sharing.
Reba
Hi Farmgirls, I contacted Michele and asked for the recipes I mentioned in this article. Here they are. Enjoy! ~Shery J
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
1 2/3 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 stick of butter melted
1 15 0z. canned pumpkin
6 0z chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
2 eggs
preheat oven 350 degrees. fold ingredients with a spatula (wet to dry). In a greased pan bake 25 min for small loafs, 55 min for large loafs, or 15 to 20 min for muffins or until springy to touch….Enjoy:)
Spiced Tea
2 cups Tang
2 packets of Koolade lemonade (unsweetened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup instant tea
1/2 tsp cinnamon plus a pinch
1/4 tsp ground cloves plus a pinch
combine and stir well
Add 2 to 4 tsp of mix to coffee cup of hot water and enjoy:)
I want to live in Wyoming and be in your chapter!!! please!!! I want to ride a horse rounding up cattle and pack iron and shoot at varmits!!! Seriously…I so enjoy your blog I finally decided to let you know. I too have a new chapter here in California…YES THERE ARE STILL FARMGIRLS IN CALIFORNIA…and they are blessing my life every time I turn around. You said it all so beautifully.
I enjoy reading the blog and look forward to hearing about all you ranch girls, I live on the east coast. I have an acre more or less and I say this is my farm acre. I love animals and gardening. I am going to try the recipes they sound good. Keep up the good work. Love you all Juanita
Oh My gosh, the bike is awesome… there are lots of goodies. I love it and it is so awesome that you brought it into your home!!!!
I live in the Powell/Cody Wyoming area, how far are y’all away from here?
Shery, what a wonderful peek into your life! Michele is indeed very talented. Thanks so much for sharing your terrific photos of her skills. It warms my heart to see something like a bicycle decorated and hung as art. What courage! Being a city dweller, very disconnected from like souls, I have raised many an eyebrow when visitors see a family pitchfork used as a kitchen curtain rod or a manure fork decorated with silk flowers as a wall display. lol