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”.
Help I want off the wheel. I think that is might happen sooner than I wanted but I am dealing with that and it is okay. Thanks Rene for your insight. I want to be like my cat Tom. "You want me to do what?" He has learned the word "No"
Thank Rene
K
I read the blog to Ellie and Miss Muppet….they concur.
Life is certainly on the go since Ellie arrived. Miss Muppet wonders from time to time if Ellie’s purpose was friendship or a weight watcher exercise program.
Love you
Mom
Boy have I been there-& tho I get off the wheel,I somehow find myself back on it! I’m doing my best to get off & stay off the darn thing,because I feel as tho I’ve wasted a few years here & there. Sleepwalking thru life is no way to live-and I think it’s a cue that we need to change how we’re living our lives. Take up a hobby,start hanging out with a different bunch,explore where you live for neat things to do.
Excellent Bloggie Rene’…!
I LOVE that photo of the Kitten and Bunnie…!
Animals have a quality we mostly lack: Presence… to give complete attention to the moment at hand. They have memories and wishes just like us, but they do not allow their mind to dwell there.
Real fear of a clear and present danger is healthy response, however most of our fears are neither clear nor present.
Corrie Ten Boom once said:
"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow;
it empties today of its strength."
How very True.
GodSpeed to Y’all…!
Gary
in Tampa
Gary~ I love that Corrie Ten Boom Quaote.. thanks for reminding me of it…..
By all means, we should all get off that main highway of life. After all it was engineered by total strangers and if you feel the need for a breath of fresh air get on that back road and take it all in.
Corrie Ten Boom was right on!
Mark Twain, at the end of his life admitted,"I’ve spent most of my life worrying about things that have never happened."
Boy I hear that.
I very much enjoyed your insights. Several years ago when I turned 50, if found myself in the midst of a not-uncommon time of reevaluation. "Going through the motions" would no longer be acceptable to me. I’ve gone back to school, am working on my degree at 61 and find that there is quite a marvelous life going on outside the wheel. I’m happy to be part of it and encourage other readers to take the leap and see what awaits them.
Thanks Peg, Sometime we just need to see that "the waters are fine" before jumping off…
I think it is ok to say get off the wheel…to be honest in life and have life be honest with you…but that is not always the way it is.
Seems often if I look about there are people who are just plain dishonest. One person I worked with told me they (the company we worked for) wanted the patients to stay in need as it is hard to find patients. Another company had me (and the other nurses) working outside our licences. I did as my conscience told me to do. All well and good…I lost both jobs…I have my self-respect..but I have no job!!! And I have bills to pay, chikens, cats, a dog and family to feed.
I think people learn to go through life with a blind bridle on (rat wheel) because if you do not you face the sort of things I have gone through…if you do not look perhaps you do not see…feel…and can keep a job…and pay the bills. It seems to be 6 of one 1/2 a dozen of the other…things are tough…and getting off the wheel makes them tougher…I keep praying…it seems the only thing to do. Peace be with you, Lisa