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Some days you get be a cowgirl. Other days you get to be the cook. I love to do as many things outside as I can, but I don’t mind being under a roof either. There is a place for everything in a balanced life. Balance is an art and it is also a very do-able thing even though Life sometimes challenges our ability to make it so. Oft times the ‘view from my saddle’ is a treat – rather than being what I do most of the time. Cowgirling isn’t an every day affair.
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”.
Beautiful! Can almost smell the sage…
I love your post for several reasons, the pictures are out of this world with beauty, and the way your decorate just gives my heart a thrill. I made your little candle lamps with tin bowls and hurricane globes placed inside you had displayed around Christmas, now a centerpiece on my kitchen table.
But, a couple other reasons, is that each time I read it, it reminds me so of the John Denver "Song of Wyoming", and also his many songs about the cowboy’s life.
The father I barely knew, spent his last years on his ranch in Wyoming, and so when I read your post, it connects my heartstrings to him, even though he has been gone for 34 yrs, when I see your pictures, it somehow helps me see
him once again.
Thanks so much for making my day brighter and my heart lighter!
Hugs from Noel, Mo. ……Diana
I always love ALL your pictures you post!
Dear Shery – I am always delighted and astonished by your prose and gorgeous photos. I have the delight of sitting on my screened porch right now and oh, how I wish I could capture the scene as you do. I enjoy your musings and blessings very much!
Once again another super read and visual delight. Thanks for the fun afternoon, sitting here with the beautiful breeze, looking out onto my flower gardens, none as pretty as yours though. God Bless
Love your post…especially the pictures. While this time of year is busy with all the bounty of the garden, I savor every moment! Winter will be here soon enough.
All of it is a blessing.
Shery … As always I love your post and your pictures. I don’t think there is such thing as "too many" sky pictures; I love them all! Is there any chance of getting your sweet beet relish recipe? It sounds delish! Enjoy the remaining summer days … Carol
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Carol, Actually it is my momma’s recipe and I would be happy to post it :o) Thank you all for the friendship and kind words. Shery
Dear Shery, I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoy your pictures and the topics you write about..I have never lived in the west…I have only dreamed about it since I was a little girl. Being raised in Ohio, my Grandfather and Grandmother had a small farm where we spent most of our weekends. I have been in love with horses ever since I can remember. Your pictures sometimes make me cry, they are so beautiful and full of life. Wyoming is such a gorgeous state. In 1975 we took a trip to Yellowstone. It truly was the trip of a lifetime. I wish I could return! Please continue to post your lovely stories and pictures. Thank You
Wow! Your plantings are doing superbly! Do you fertilize on a regular basis? What do you use?
What a wonderful summer…
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Jan, I don’t use plant food…just good homemade cow & horse poop :o) In the spring, I top dress my garden a new layer of aged manure and then turn it over. Thank you, Shery
Thank you for sharing with us your Saddle sights. I live in BC, Canada on Vancouver Island in an area called Yellowpoint. My husband and I moved here eight years ago for our retirement. Not much retiring is happening but we are doing what we love to do; me gardening and developing a very small scale kitchen/market garden and my husband fly fishing. We love the country living but some days we do wonder what we were thinking taking on a very small property which needed much work and a fixer upper helper house in need of much in the way of renovations. But, we plug along, doing what we can when we can and when we can afford to. Your entries are most interesting and give me incentive to keep on going with our projects here at ‘Naturewood’ our given name for our little plot of land. Thank you. Marian
First time i have posted. i live in kentucky having moved here from the mountains of new hampshire. my horses- arabians and rocky mtns. keep me busy as well as gardening and "junking" – still searching for my little teardrop or small trailer to cowgirl up. i love your pictures, your horse is lovely- a quarterhorse ? your plants are lovely as are their containers. what fun- will be looking forward to your blogs from now on- thank-you !
First time i have posted. i live in kentucky having moved here from the mountains of new hampshire. my horses- arabians and rocky mtns. keep me busy as well as gardening and "junking" – still searching for my little teardrop or small trailer to cowgirl up. i love your pictures, your horse is lovely- a quarterhorse ? your plants are lovely as are their containers. what fun- will be looking forward to your blogs from now on- thank-you !
How jealous I am! I work on an online auction website that sells tac and other farm equipment. Some of my best days are those that I get to drive a herd of cattle. Currently, my work consists of posting pictures of cattle that are for sale…Not the same.