This spring, I’m stuck like glue to my Farm.
And I’m okay with that.
Don’t ask me to go on an overnight hiking trip. Don’t invite me to make a presentation at a conference. Don’t even ask me out to lunch right now.
Because I’m stuck like glue to this Farm. There is so much going on, I can’t slip away even for a little while.
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”.
Oh my! I want some chicks! So sweet, love those fuzzy little butts. I have one Black Jersey Giant. She love me and I love her. Her name is Esther. Did I ever tell you, my chickens are named after our, hubs and mine, grand mothers that are living with the Lord. Esther was my rather tall black haired grandmother. We have thousands of tadpoles. Our grands always come and catch a couple to take home and watch them grow legs. Do you get sung to all night by the frogs. My favorite part of spring evenings. Ducks, yeah! I love them. We have a pair of mallards that drop into our pond every morning, I think they eat the tadpoles. Then they go off somewhere else for the rest of the day. The first year I got so excited I went out and bought my hubs binoculars for his birthday so I could get a better look. I’m in heaven for you! I bet you don’t even think about those snakes anymore.
Rebekah,
Awesome article about your new babies!
I know you’ll have fun raising and watching them grow – we sure did!
Blessings to you,
Mike Bryan
(From FB)
Hey Rebekah! I’d be stuck like glue to yur farm too if I was you! Reading all the directions, takes half the fun out of something new doesn’t it? You are a good farm momma… enjoy all your critters… Oh, I spotted my first toad while out raking the other day…a sure sign of all things spring…!
love and hugs,
Deb ( your bloggin’s sis from the beach )
You have got to be one of the most blessed ladies I know. Just makes me happy reading your blog. I love your little baby chicks.
So exciting! I’ll have fun following you along on this Farmgirl adventure. (I have absolutely no chicken wisdom to share… I only read lots of books and dream…) :-))
Love! I laughed out loud about the brain size. I’m going to remember that, since I tend to overthink everything. Did you find your Harvey Ussery book?
We have a little ornamental pond/waterfall in our front yard where a very vocal frog lives. We’ve been watching for tadpoles but so far haven’t seen any.
You precious lady! i wish my mama was here. She would love your post.
Happy Farmin’.
Love reading your blog. I raise about 200 chicks a month. Broilers. But for you and all your readers to know, you shouldn’t use paper as a bedding. It can cause leg problems for them. Put down some shavings, straw or even hay or dirt in a pinch. :)Enjoy the chickies.
Sounds like lots of fun. I got baby chickens last year and we have so many eggs that we didn’t need to get any baby chicks this year but I miss it because it is so much fun to raise them. It really is pretty easy, don’t worry so much! Just have fun.
I love your farm life adventures Rebekah.I can’t wait to read it every month as I feel like I’m living my dream life through your descriptive words and pictures — thank you so much for sharing your family life with all of us!
How exciting! I see a children’s book percolating in your brain complete with instructions on how to handle those chicks.
Love those babies!!!
Oh what a wonderful post to wake up too – we are getting snow with 3"s on the ground so Spring is a bit different for us – which makes your story even the more precious. CHICKS – awwwww love all the other babies on the farm but CHICKS are the ones that you can hold and pet all their lives – great assortment and it sounds like you have provided a very healthy start for them. Peep Peep God Bless
I would never want to leave that beautiful farm. Chicks, frogs, open space…..what a beautiful place to live. You are a blessed lady!
I love my chooks too! Have fun and enjoy. Just wait till you get your first egg-you will feel like a proud mama for sure. From experience, the one they send for "free" is usually a rooster! I fell in love with my free buff orpington rooster last year but after receiving a nasty voice mail from a neighbor telling me to "have a chicken dinner"! I gave him away.Wow. Have fun and enjoy
Oh my goodness. I’m loving all these new chicken articles I’ve been reading lately. Yours was so exciting! I so wish to have a little farm…it’s been out of my reach but I hope I can one day. I can understand why you would be glued. I could sit and look at the birds outdoors for hours. Imagine if there were ducks and chicks and other animals that needed cared for. Yeah! *smart to buy that second bulb too, just in case!*
love the update. enjoy they will grow fast.
My dear, you are an inspiration to all us farm girls. Your joy brings back so many emotions and feelings for my farm life then and today. Blessings to you and your new family. I eagerly await more news of the chicks. :)))
Awwwww, your peeps are darling. The pompom head is a Polish. She’ll one day have a hat fancy enough to go to the Derby. Baby chicks are so much fun. The more you handle them, the tamer they will be. Yea, it all takes tame, but these are simple pleasures in life that make you smile from soul to marrow.
I had kinda talked myself out of chicks this year, but you’re pushing my TEMPTATION button hard :o)
Your farm is gettin’ pretty darn downhomey!! Chickens in the house. Yeee-up!!
Call Ducks are tiny. They can also fly. OhMyGosh…you have Wood ducks. They are so pretty. If you make a still-water puddle-pond, it will attract water fowl. They much prefer that to moving water.