Dear Sisters,
Do you ever get a hitch in yur creative git a long? It’s rare that it happens to me, but I’ve got a slight case of it right now. Hey, it happens to the best of us! I’ve got a list of fun fall things to make and projects to do but I just can’t seem to get at em… It’s as though something’s blocking my way. I always call this sort of lull ” the calm before the creative storm”. Don’t panic sisters! I think I know the CAUSE AND the CURE to my SLOOOW FALL conundrum. Can you relate?
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”.
Thank-you for your lovely descriptions and the beautiful photos. Your hens are so lovely. Thank-you for taking such good care of them. 🙂
Oh yes, Deb, I can relate, even had some weepies this week seeing all the garden turning brown, yes shades of brown but still brown. I get spoiled with all the beautiful colors of Spring and Summer. I have been busy too, picked rose hips until I thought, jeepers the birds need some, also picked the Hawthorn berries. Now I don’t do anything with either except to dry them and use them for sitting around in containers and I also cut all the rose buds, these I string on thin wire, shape like a heart and give to friends. So all is done except for the cutting of the holly hocks, bushes, grasses and all the other perennials, so I have plenty to do but right now we are having a nice rain – so it is later to be done. Love all your pic’s wish I was a better photographer. God Bless
Love this and your sharing on this. I have found that when I start to get too much going and get too much clutter OR am spending too much time on something that is not in alignment with what I really want to do I begin to declutter. I call it nesting– it is that piddling around, cleaning off shelves, putting new candles out, etc. This week I spent morning putting all my dried beans in Ball jars from their previous plastic bags, tupperware like containers, original whatevers, etc. OHHHH I felt so good when that was done. AND that simple thing freed me up to go sew. So happy walking beaches, cleaning out mail, etc. We just have to be in touch with what our insides are telling us to do. It is usually right on! Thanks for a great blog Deb!
I live in a little town in the North Georgia Mtns. Every Fall just before the Apple Festival, the whole town is decorated with Scare Crows. Some are just so funny!! I LOVE Fall. My fave season!
i always love your posts. This one was especially endearing. The pics of the girls, the toad, the scarecrow, and your words regarding fall warmed my heart. Thank you for the pics and the post. Happy Fall!
Oh how I enjoyed the fall tour! I especially loved the photo of the shed and run with leafy frosting. Much colder here than in your corner of the world. Nice to see autumn taking its sweet time elsewhere. Your photos were visual therapy 4 me ;o)