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”.
Another great story Rene’, I love how your writings put pictures in my head , you don’t need photos. I have always loved music that does the same. (also a big Michael McDonald fan from way back). We were finally able last fall to build a 50 by 30 foot barn. It has become the favorite spot for all our family and friends get togethers this summer. Even when it rains it’s fun to be in. We hosted a family reunion this summer and many wrote thank you notes saying how our place was a little piece of heaven.We cooked out, and I agree food just tastes better outdoors.Keep those great stories coming. Love to all, Suzy (Texas)
Dog days of summer. Ah how those memories flood back. Summers were the greatest especially since there was no school and the swimming pools were open. Friends and I would ride our bicycles hundreds of miles in the summer just for fun. Any wooded area was open game for exploring, playing hide and seek, playing war, or just hanging out telling scary stories. Oh, yes and I can’t forget the couple months spent on my Uncle’s farm each year helping with hay baling, stealing eggs from those broody old hens, chopping chuckle burrs out of the corn by walking the rows or getting to visit the auction barn where livestock were bought and sold.
The absolute best part of summer was those days when Grandpa would take me Carp fishing. Sitting on the bank with him was the best. Like you, Rene’, sitting under the shade tree enjoying the warmth of the day, dreaming about all the wonderful things of life, waiting in anticipation of the tinkling bell indicating that a fish was on the line just made life so enjoyable. I don’t know that we ever caught that many fish, but just being in nature, listening to the moving water sounds, chirping birds, and rustling tree leaves meant to me everything in my world was as it should be. There’s just nothing like a good day spent in nature to calm the spirit.
I have experienced many endings of one season of life and beginnings of another. I have found that each can be filled with joy and memory building events. I enjoy each day for what it is as there will never be another like it.
Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. ~ Ashley Smith
Ah Summer! Here in the ‘Great White North’ summer is like a beacon that draws us all into the outdoors just as soon as the snowbanks thaw,and keeps us out there well after the first frost.I agree, food is so much better when it is picked fresh and eaten outdoors.There is nothing that elevates the lowly hot dog like cooking it outside over an open fire, and if the onions are from the garden and the relish is home-made from last years’ garden, so much the better!
I know I intend to enjoy every sparkling moment of summer,I know you will too.
Elaine
Canada
Good Bloggie Rene…!
Y’all have many warm Memories of Summer breezes with laughter and Joy in the air together, and that’s what makes those Memories so Special… "Togather".
My Family had a section of the yard, between the Garden and the field, where we set up a Croquet Court, with lights for night play too, and we had sooo much fun togather and with Friends. The Teams of two, Red Team, Blue, Black, Yellow, Green, and White… the lawn chairs… the grill… the picnic table and benches… kids playing badmitton and horseshoes… and meee turning the crank (until it got hard and required a grown man) on the Ice Cream churn, with my trusty sidekick Trix, who was eager to lap up/gobble up "extras".
There was something in the air… Laughter (the "music" of Joy), and like Y’all, not a care in the world.
Thanks for yet another walk down Memory Lane Rene’, and…
GodSpeed to Y’all…!
Gary
in Tampa
Summer is my favorite season also. I love to bbq, do that more than cooking in the house in the summer time. And sitting outside and reading and listening to all the chatter of the birds.
Summers at the Jersey shore….nothing like it…we now live less than a mile from the beach and able to ride our bikes to the beach. Swimming in a beautiful salt water pool. love it!
No chlorine!!!