Hello to all my sweet Farmgirl friends!
I have been pondering this blog post for two weeks and thinking (like I usually do) of what I’d like to share with you. But this month… what I have to share is a little different than my normal.
What I’d like to share with you today is a little personal. But I wonder if maybe we can all relate… so I felt moved to talk about it. (And keep reading because there’s a surprise at the end of this post!). So here is where my thoughts have been….
Hooray! It is finally spring! The winter thaw is done, and the weather has surely but slowly continued to warm up! Before the “big spring cleanup” that happens after winter but before summer, it’s been a great time to visit some local attractions. From high tea to baby animals, signs of spring are arriving in New England!
The month of March started with snow and ice covering everything. On a day when it was finally a temperature where we could get outside a bit, we went for a walk on our favorite trail. The snow had melted a bit, but we still had a long way to go!
I know the world news everyday is hard to watch, but there’s heartwarming news, too. Have you heard of Punch, the little Japanese macaque monkey that caught the attention of animal lovers around the world, the last few months? Born in the Ichikawa Zoo in Japan, his mother abandoned him at birth. Zookeepers gave him a surrogate mom – an orange orangutan stuffie from Ikea. Punch captured the internet’s collective hearts as he clung to that stuffie for love, peace, and comfort. Little Punch carried that stuffie everywhere in the zoo enclosure, running to it when he was bullied by the other monkeys, sweetly sharing his food, cleaning its face, or sleeping on it. At the peak of his “fame”, I honestly could not feel my day was complete without a “Punch Report”. Millions of visitors flocked to the zoo in Japan, just to see the little “underdog” monkey and his stuffed lovey. If you haven’t heard the latest, little Punch is thriving! We love you, Punch!
I follow our local zoo, The Connecticut Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, on Facebook. I was thrilled to see that they also had a new baby monkey! Born on December 18, 2025, the sweet baby Spider monkey needed a name, and the Beardsleyzoo asked the public to vote. I was so excited that the name I voted for, Mirabel (which means “wonderful”), got the most votes! I could not wait to see the new little one!
We made plans to go on a Sunday that was chilly but not impossibly cold. Visiting local attractions during “off peak” seasons is a good way to support them, and a crisp, overcast day meant that there weren’t a lot of crowds, and the animals were much more active than on a super-hot summer day!
We saw so many wonderful exhibits, saving the best for last! Janet, Mirabel’s mother, came out of the door at the spider monkey exhibit, with her sweet little baby on her back. We stood in awe, watching them for a full thirty minutes! All babies are sweet, but there’s something extra-special about this fuzzy little one! Oh my heart!
By the end of March, the snow had gone completely, but while we have had a few days where the high actually got to the 80’s, this April we are still getting lows as far down as 28 degrees! For my chilly birthday weekend, our family headed to The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, something we have not done in ages!
That visit was fun, too, with so many exhibits of fish and other marine life, as well as a few mammals, too.
My daughter also surprised me by taking me to “high tea” at a tea room for my birthday. The woman-owned, beautiful Posh tea room opened in Monroe, CT about a year ago. I have been dying to go! It was worth the wait, and the spring menu was delicious! I really felt like Queen for the Day, and the table setting and menu made it feel as though spring was truly “official”!
While we are still a bit behind in warmth, the birds are back, my seeds are started indoors for summer planting, and evening isn’t as quiet anymore, when the warm breeze blows on a clear night, and we hear the peepers and insects waking up from a long winter’s nap.
It’s that weird, ‘in-between” season, where my laundry basket has both shorts and sweaters. We can only go up from here, weatherwise. Spring chores are on queue, but after such a long winter, it’s a welcome change!
Happy Spring, Farmgirl Readers! Remember to leave me a comment so that I know you dropped by!
Yep, lately I’m living a homesteader’s version of the unofficial USPS motto:
“Neither snow nor rain, hail nor sleet, tornado nor flooding stays a farmgirl from the swift completion of her appointed rounds.”
Oh yes, this month has been a doozy, but let me back up…
Continue reading
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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