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”.
I have always loved funny signs & I think this one of yours is about the best ever! One that I loved growing up here by the ocean, was in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA. For the longest time it said "Surfboard Upholstery shop" – Well, it really was two shops a surfboard shop and an upholstery shop but the sign was unclear and amusing…So, I always looked out at the surf for chintz padded boards hanging ten! Another sign I loved in Valley Center, Ca says "Fresh Eggs Shoe Repair". Gosh, I didn’t know eggs had feet! let alone needed their shoes repaired…
Funny Bloggie Rene’…
On the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, there is a Mennonite Community, and they sell some of their farm products. As you drive down the road, you will see handmade signs with the names of items on them, like: "Honey" "Muffins and Bread" "Saddles and Belts" and various crops.
I had a girlfriend, Lisa, who loved to go there to shop, and I remember standing with her in a Lady’s kitchen, while our goods were being wrapped, and her daughters, with 18th Century dresses and bonnets, were sitting around a table, making a quilt.
I noticed one of the young girls poke another and whisper something and they giggled. The Mom stopped and said: "There’ll be none of that. I apologize for my daughter making fun of your dungarees young Lady." Lisa was stunned when she realized that these girls thought she looked odd.
Ahhh… *Signs* of the times ‘eh…
GodSpeed to Y’all…!
Gary
in Tampa
There were a couple of signs in our "neighborhood" that I really wish I had snapped a photo of. One said "turn hear". And the other, a sign for the church where my husband was associate pastor for a time…..EVE Worship 6 pm. I think that may have been part of the issues with the church 😉 LOL!
Your posts are always a day brightener, thank you!
Blessings,
Catherine…..who really doesn’t wish that some people came equipped with their own sign…it would make life so much simpler! 🙂
Catherine~ Your "eve worship" cracks me up~
Every year, we have a "discussion" on where signs should be place. I have a completely different idea of where signs should be place but he’s gracious enough to drive around and pound stakes and staple signs to fence posts, so I have to keep a tight lip!! The sign that drew the most comments and chuckles from fellow gardeners far and wide, was the "Dirt Cheap Plant Sale".
There is the cutest sign on the side of the road in Oregon, Ohio. Has a chicken painted on it and says "Cackleberries for sale" Eggs, get it?
It is so cute I am going to embroider it on a tea towel.
What memories this brings back! I grew up in East Texas and every Sunday we took the ‘long’ 30 minute ride to Grandma’s house for dinner. There was a building on a corner where we turned and I thought for about 12 years that it said ‘wedding shop’. I couldn’t understand why someone would want to get married in such a old, dirty looking place.
Finally one day the light bulb came on and I realized it actually read…’welding shop’! I still cannot pass that corner without smiling.
In Washington state we came across a roadside stand that had a sign with an eagle on it, he didn’t look so good, underneath it said Ill Eagle Fireworks….Illegal fireworks, get it? I’m still kicking myself for not taking a picture!
I spent part of my childhood in Arkansas and one of the back road turns to get to my home was right across from a cemetary. The unusual part of this "intersection" was that the road right next to the cemetary just ended…It, of course, had a sign stating "Dead End" located not ten feet away from the nearest headstone.
hahah.. now that is County planning 🙂
I love not only signs, but sayings as well.
My favorite sign that I saw on a Church said "I wish I was half the man my dog thinks I am."
My favorite saying, (sorry, I have no idea who wrote it) says:
"I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not so sure that what you heard is what I meant."
A number of years ago a real estate sign showed for sale "2 bdrm, 1 bath orange tree"! I’ve got a picture of it somewhere too! Orange trees down here in Florida don’t get real tall, so that’s gotta be a mighty small home!
I took my first personal loans when I was 20 and that helped me very much. However, I need the commercial loan as well.