I’m itchin’ to hit the trail and go camping. But, when I look out my window, all I see is snow drifts. So, for now, day-dreaming about it will have to do. Are you itchin’ too? If so, saddle up your horse, lace up your hiking boots, hitch up your camper, load your bikes on the SUV and lets go on a virtual camp-out. I’m so outta here!
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Our farmgirl chapter met at my house recently. A Valentine’s Day theme for our craft project and gift goodies was the game plan. Come on in and sit a spell.
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Janice K. says: I would like to know how you manage your hectic lifestyle and still have time to produce the MOST WONDERFUL blogs! You are my absolute favorite. I envy your closeness with your farmgirl chapter and you’ve made a decision for me. Join, or create a farmgirl chapter!
Lovely pictures and sentiment, Shery.
Jan
Oh Shery! You’ve done it again! Everything looks and sounds so pretty and yummy! I truly believe color has the power to heal our emotions. Why else would the CREATOR have made so many beautiful and awe inspiring colors? I agree… home making is a choice and for some a real calling, but I’m grateful to have the choice to be a homemaker and or a working mom outside the home too. Your term " Pink Collar" is adorable and fitting for so many working women today. And Mary Jane is the perfect example…You can love pink and still be all ( well, almost all ) business too!
Oh I just love your blogs!!!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Beach Blessings,
Deb
There you go having a good time without me again. Love to see what you and your farm girls friends are doing at your gatherings. Afraid there is only about two foods I do not like and cherries are one of them. I do make hubs a cherry pie once in a while though because we have cherry trees on our property. We could substitute a different flavor of cake mix though and still try your recipe right? I painted one wall in my work room pink. I like pink but cannot wear it. It is just not one of my colors. I think I could drive a pink car though!
Bonnie says: Shery,
I have to agree with Janice – you are my favorite! You have an artistic eye and nature – one can certainly tell. It’s always a joy to see your fun times with your farmgirl sisters. And sharing some of your favorite music is an added benefit. I am still playing "In The Bleak Midwinter" from Utube! Thanks a bunch for all your wonderful words and pics.
Kathy says: You and your friends have such a wonderful time together. You’re all so creative. I always look forward to your blog. I especially love that you share photos and instructions for us on how to do the crafts, recipes, etc. I would definitely want to join your lovely group if I lived near you. Keep up the good work and have fun.
Kathy Lee
bonnie ellis says: I would just love to be at your meetings and hang out. You make us just drool over the fun you have. Your blog is the greatest. We have 60" of snow here and it has been below zero. I’ve got lots of those "klondike" clothes here. Pink is my favorite color. I have lots of it to share. Happy Valentine’s Day girls…I’m with you in spirit. Bonnie E
Reba says: This was a Valentine gift in itself…your fun blog! Thanks again for the beautiful words that go so well with your beautiful pictures.
When I worked in the ’70’s at Dwight D Eisenhower Army Medical Center, I remember one of the patient rooms was held special and reserved as the "Pink Room" and it belonged only to "Miss Mamie" Eisenhower when she came to GA. I loved the name and the thought of it then, especially when it was the years of gold, green, and "burnt" orange. My, my how the years have…oh well…they have been good!
I enjoy pink now even more than ever because of a beautiful daughter (30 years old now) that has always LOVED pink!!! And she still does!! So I make "spa" towels, kitchen towels, and even a "lipstick" towel that has pink somewhere on them. We both love it. (Red and green are my most favorite colors though.)
Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
Rusty McHale says: Shery,
I always look forward to your blogs. They are so inspiring and like you, I too love antiques, flowers and all things home/handmade. Keep up the good work and have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Ours all always special since it is also our anniversary (#3).
Thanks again-
Rusty
Oh Shery,
Happy Valentines to you & your sweetheart.
Oh, and how sweet of you to let your 4-legged purrbaby join in the fun with you & your ‘sage hens’ friends.
>^..^<
Brenda says: You make me wish I could be in your group. I love your blogs. Everything you and your friends from the food to the gifts to the crafts make me to want to try them all and I am going to try. Thank you so much for the invite to a little of the fun you and your group had. And please keep sharing.
Jan says: Thanks for sharing your Valentine Tea with us, looks like a lot of fun.Sure wish I could have been there too. Your kitty is very pretty, looks like she was having fun too. I love pink and red, two of my favorite colors. Happy Valentines Day to you and yours.
I love that you shared your gathering with your fellow farm girls. Thank you! Florence
Lisa Price says: I wish that I could have been there. I love your blogs. have a happy valentines day.
Debbie Strong says: Love your blog – all pink and filled with super ideas. I baked some Valentine cookies today, but used strawberry cake mix, with strawberry frosting, and red sprinkles. Thanks for the inspiration, as always. Happy Valentine’s Day, my friend.
Oh how I love your blog !! And you hit me between the eyes with all things pink…As I LOVE PINK !! Great pictures and info I’d never heard about pink !! Farmgirl Hugs…Kristy
Denise says: Thanks for the great blog. I actually made the cookies for valentines day and brought them to work. Pink, so cute.
Ooh, I just loved this post and your blog. I never thought of making cookies from cake mix before. I might have to try that.
Joanna
Laynee says: Pink, need you say more! Absolutley perfect 🙂
susan waggoner says: How did you form the heart shape cookies?
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Hi Susan, a heart cookie cutter :o) shery
Elke says: You need to be a part of a contest for one of the
best blogs on the web. I am going to recommend this website!
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”.
O.k! I’m ready to go! I’m always a fan of good old fashioned daydreaming… what else can you do when you’re looking at snow covered ground? We have been too! I grew up in the Great Basin of Northern Nevada and our family ( my dad mostly) loved to camp. So, that’s what we did for family vacations. As an adult I camped with my husband and our "pack" at the time before we all had kids and traded in our back packs and camp stoves for pack and plays and car seats.
Somehow we never made it back into the mountains camping… Our son has camped with the Boy Scouts and has learned some important skills. Hubs and I have camped all over the Sierra Mountains, Zion National Park and we spent one magical snowy night at the Grand Canyon in a tent. We loved it! I’m aching to spread my wings out west and Jackson Hole has been calling my name. Now that the kids are teens we would love to take them, go on some hikes, fish, and ride horses…right now, it’s a day dream but ya just never know! As always, you have a way of taking a farmgirl for a fun trail ride where ever you go and the scenery is always fabulous!
Thanks for the beauty and mini-adventure!
Beach Blessings,
Deb
Yep…been having that same craving Shery…wish I could be closer to you. We do it on foot, no horses (dang – always a dream of mine). Someday would love to meet you in person, or on the trail! We seem to have so much in common, but isn’t that the farmgirl way. And, the postcards and pictures and whatever all that beautiful stuff is on this blog absolutely has me yearning and wishing I could plaster my walls in all of it. Loved it so much. P.J. Robertson, Wild at Heart Farmgirl, Atascadero, California
Hey Shery,
Have you checked out what the FARMGIRLS ON THE LOOSE are doing this summer? "Kick Off" is in Baggs, WY on JUNE 28-29 . . . camping, horseback riding, hayride, all kinds of fun stuff on the WOMEN OF THE WILD WEST ROAD TRIP TOUR.
Ya’ outta come join us. Check it out at http://www.farmgirlsontheloose.blogspot.com
‘Twould be great to have you there!
CJ
Shery,
Although I am in Michigan, I think we share a brain. All I’ve been thinking about lately is our first camping trip of the season, as I look out at the snow. We will probably be staying close to home this year and there are plenty of beautiful spots here in my home state. I think I’ll go make a mix tape to take and play by the fire and you can bet "Four strong winds" will be on it.
I’m with you! I am so looking forward to Spring!! My husband and I are talking about our first camping trip this year. We are in Ohio and I’m looking out at snow right now but it wont be long and we will be getting out the tent and rest of our camping gear. Your pictures have made me long for it even more. Dreaming of a campfire, there’s nothing better.
Peace and Blessings to you.
I had a pet skunk named ‘Sweetie Pie’ when I was growing up and she was darling, much nicer than any other pet I’d had. I had just put a new picture profile on facebook of Pepe’s girlfriend (also Disney)as one of my monikers. She used to like to get under my Mother’s bed and push up on the springs on her back. If scared she would ‘display’ like she was going to spray. She loved catching bugs and followed us everywhere.
LOVE THIS POST! All the picture montages and the day dreamin’ goin’ on is enough to get a girl into trouble! I loved every minute of this post! I’ve always wanted to ride horses on an adventure and not just a trail ride – nose to butt – style. You have inspired me to start planning some camping for our family this summer and fall. Thanks for your day dreamin’!
Oh Shery,
so true on so many levels…
One of my dearest gal-pals stayed over night with us the other nite & we chewed the fat about our many upcoming Glamping trips, trailers and dutch oven recipes….and how we are sooo ready to camp,,,hmmm, could it be from this latest round of snow & snow drifts that have us ‘itchin to get hitchin…? lol!
Funny how when camping, I can get up at 5:30am, put on a pot of java, and sit out by the rivers edge to watch mother nature come to life,,,yet at home I will grouss about wishing I could have an extra hours sleep…funny isn’t it.
Come on Spring & Wagons HO!
>^..^<
AMEN!!
I can’t imagine letting a summer go by without horse-camping! I am also watching the snowdrifts here in northern MN and wondering when they’ll melt. So far my favorite is Teddy Roosevelt National Park, but this year I am going on to MT also. We have great camping and riding here, too, so why do I feel such a wanderlust?
Hi Shery!
Nice to meetcha, I’m a Wyoming cowgirl too! Just found your blog, it’s a lot of fun, I look forward to reading regularly! I’m itching for warmer weather so I can ride my little mare Flossie again, it’s been months! I’m also tired of breaking the ice on the critters water tanks every morning…come on spring!
Have a great weekend, and
happytrails!
Carlene
http://www.carlenefederer.blogspot.com
Hey Shery,
We do have some awesome outdoor opportunities around us! We are so lucky to be able to fall off our porches and into some of the most beautiful places in the country! I really enjoyed the pictures on this post, I cant wait to climb into my kayak in my bikini this summer!!!!!!
We camped off and on for three seasons while I was growing up. Depending on the weather sometimes as early as April and as late as October.
As I read the lines of Papa writing home from Yellowstone in 1908, I was thinking of what the Black Hills would look like in the early 1900’s and the trails available. Imagine my surprise when I read further of how close you live, and that you ride there. We were fortunate to visit off and on for 3 years while our son and his family was stationed at Ellsworth AFB outside of Rapid. We loved going there, so thank you for sharing the postcards from there, the photos of your rides, and geocaching rescue friends.
We have had over 6 inches of snow in the last 15 hours, and it was real pretty coming down, snow globe like. At Christmas this would be great, but that was 2 months ago…so ready for spring, the smell of dirt, and planting my vegetable garden, walking at the beach, the smell of a gentle rain.
I am listening to Neil Young as I type this and enjoying it so much too. We love to camp in our family. We had a 2nd hand old pop-up camper when our children were growing up and a tent for the extra kids we would pack along with us. But that old camper finally bit the dust and it was replaced with a newer tent. That tent finally tore up with a bad wind that came through a couple of summers ago when we sat it up in the back of our 10 acres where we have our fire pit for the littlest of grand children to lay down until we were done for the evening. Hubs and I have not replaced that tent because I just am not into sleeping on the ground even with a blow up mattress under me anymore. And I crave one of the old vintage campers and even have hubs keeping an eye out for one also. Great post!
Shery: You naughty girl…cabin fever is about 20 ft. of snow here in Minnesota and you’ve get me itchin to go up north. It’s hard to wait when you can’t get real warm weather until June. Ugh. But you’re right campin’s in my blood. Hope we’ll both be in the woods this summer. By the way, your blog is fantastic! Love the pictures. Thanks. Bonnie
This is my first day as an official farmgirl…..I am Kate from Fort Collins, Co……long time ago from Saratoga,WY and even longer ago So. California.
We are searching all over our area for a house with acreage to build our dream; growing our own food and being together outdoors. No more homeowners’ association telling me I can’t have chickens or hang my sheets out to dry in the fresh air.
Yipppee.
Kate
Shery…I fished Emerald too! Love the Big Horns, course, I’m thinkin’ I’m biased having lived there for a while. Great job, as ever…you rock, as my granddaughter would say! Buck up, Spring IS coming.
This is the first time I’ve been on your site. Keep up the good work!
I have been dreaming of camping out with the horses these days. My sisters and I are already planning the first trip out. We don’t have to go any farther then we can ride from the house for great camping. We want to haul out this year though. I can’t wait!!
LOVE YOUR SITE. YOU HAVE SO INSPIRED ME TO THINK ABOUT CAMPING OPPORTUNITIES THIS SUMMER.
MY HUSBAND AND I RECENTLY WENT TO THE ADIRONDACKS BACK IN OCTOBER. THIS WAS A LIFE LONG DREAM OF MINE, SO WE WENT ON AMTRACK FROM KANSAS. TOOK IN NIAGARA FALLS ON THE WAY AND EVEN SPENT A COUPLE OF DAYS TOURING THE BIG APPLE.
WE WENT HIKING IN THE ADIRONDACKS. FANTASTIC!!!! WONDERFUL, AND FULFILLED ONE OF MY DREAMS. DON’T MISS IT, IT IS SO WORTH THE TRIP. I THINK I WOULD GO IN THE FALL WHEN THE LEAVES ARE DOING AN AMAZING DISPLAY OF COLOR. I HEAR THAT SUMMERTIME YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THE BLACK FLIES.
WELL, BLESS YOU!
Shery, this is the 6th time I have come back here to re-read your, "Ho Ho A Camping We Will Go"…I love it.
Also, I REALLY enjoyed your comments on "Planting Sugar" with Rebekah…Are you sure it was his NAME that appealed to you, or was it because he loved horses?…just thinking (grin).
Oh Shery,
I just re-read your musings "rough & ready mountain goat girl" and quite frankly, (how did I miss it the 1st time?) I nearly spewed coffee through my nostrils! lol!
Like Mary R. I too often go back & re-read your posts and am amazed how much I miss the first time…
Thanx for the ‘visual’, mountain goat girl! lol!
As much as I luv Glamping in my lil vintage trailer, it’s always nice to get home to a real ‘potty & shower’…and not trying to get dressed in a space the size of a closet…but I always look forward to my camping trips with my gal pals and all the activities & mischief that we get into.
If Spokane were not so far(& gas prices so high) I would be knocking on your door saying, Take me with you on your horse packing trip….& do ya have a spare memory foam pad! lol!
Happy Trails & Wagons HO!