Fall! The crisp air, foliage, pumpkins, and Halloween! Grab some cider and turn down the lights…if you dare! Let’s do some farmgirl decorating and spin a spooky yarn or two. Did ya know Connecticut is chock-full of places supposedly haunted?
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Debbie Bosworth
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.’”
Rebekah Teal
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.
Cathi Belcher
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
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.
Mary Murray
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.”
Alexandra Wilson
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!
Nicole Christensen
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”.
When I worked as a graveyard security officer during the summer break at the University of Nevada Reno, there was a male residence hall supposedly inhabited by a ghost. Lincoln Hall was built in 1895-6 and named after Abraham Lincoln. In the top dorm room, a young man hanged himself. I never saw the ghost but I felt his presence every time I inspected the building.
Adrienne, how spooky! In Houston, there was a cool restaurant for many years called the Red Lion. It was very old, and was decorated in Victorian style. A man hung himself there, once, too. Many said they felt his presence there late at night. Sadly, it burned down.
I bet it was spooky being the graveyard security officer there in Nevada, but also very cool! Happy Halloween! -Nicole
Dearest Nicole,
I am so grateful for your family that the big trees that fell missed your house and all of you. My prayers were answered.
I love the picture of you in Raggedy Ann and the picture brings back such good memories. You looked so sweet looking out of that mask face.
This is so interesting about the graveyard, and Fairfield Hills, and I remember eating at Carousel Gargens a few years ago, with you and feeling coldness under the table! Also, I think we were told that Suzy, Mark Twain’s daughter died while the rest of the family was in Europe. Her room gave me an eerie feeling! Also, the only picture on my camera that did not show up was the one a stranger took of you and I in front of that old house in Woodbury that was supposedly haunted. With love, Mother
Mom, I forgot about that photo! Weird, wasn’t it? Love you, Nicole
Oct 31 2012
Nicole,
Thanks you for the wonderful rememberance of ‘box costumes, fall pictures and Mark Twain’s home!!!
And the spooky stories.
I like to deck the house and front porch in whimsy too- not fond of all the blood and gore either.
Like yourself, I enjoy vintage cards and have some rather old paper embossed cut outs of Halloween figures including cats, pumpkins, witches ,etc…
We have a selection of carved fun and scarey faced pumpkins, ‘cobwebs’ and corn stalks to make it a bit spooky.
Just up near the eves on the front porch I string up a green pine garland and clothes pin the cutouts to it, festooning with colored ribbons. It’s very festive.
I hope your weather will be nice so you get all the trick or treaters you want…. it will be cool and wet where I am in the Northwest, but I hope to see at least a few cute costumes at least.
Have a very Happy Halloween and All Saints day tomorrow
JaneAnn, how festive your house sounds! I can just imagine little trick-or-treaters coming to your door! I love your idea of the garland with clothespins and cutouts! Thank you so much for sharing and commenting. We survived the hurricane and are very lucky, and making the best of what we can for Halloween. Thanks for reading and writing in! -Nicole
I LOVE all your posts, but this one has to be my favorite! Halloween is my favorite holiday.. While visiting The Birdcage Theatre in Tombstone AZ I spelled cigar smoke, at Kennesaw Mountain GA my brother and I felt a definite cold spot on the hiking trail (at midnight!), while a fog bank rolled in, when we left the trail the fog bank rolled right back out. I have had encounters at Gettysburg as well. There is a lot out there that we mere mortals don’t know about. (And maybe that’s a good thing). This is your farm girl "sister" in Indiana, the one with the colored water in the window. My prayers are with you regarding Sandy, take care.
Hi Patricia! Great to hear from you! Love your comment, you gave me goose bumps!
Thank you for your well wishes; we survived a very close call, with huge trees that could have flattened where we were all staying. Very lucky. My prayers are with all of those who now have lost everything, including loved ones.
Hope you have a wonderful Halloween in Indiana! Big farmgirl hugs to you! -Nicole
My parents bought an historic home in North Haven CT in 1955. It had been built as the Rising Sun Tavern about 1738. It had both a ghost and a witch. The ghost is of a slave who was in the bar room when a drunk Patriot said he’d shoot any Tory on sight. The slave said he was a Tory and he was shot. The witch was the wife of one of the inn keepers who wore a red wig. This information came from a book called "Old Inns In Connecticut" and was published in 1922. It was a great house to grow up in.
Nothing scary happened to us then, but I really am concerned that slavery existed all throughout the Colonies, and that people believed in witchcraft still, one hundred years after the hysteria in Salem. History itself is scary.
I hope you weathered the storm well.
Kristy, how interesting! There are so many historical, spooky tales in Connecticut. My back yard backs up to woods, and I often imagine Ichabod Crane riding through them, ha ha.
Love the comment, "History itself is scary", so true!
Thank you for sharing, and for your wishes. We have indeed weathered the storm, and nothing I’ve been through was as scary as that! -Nicole
Nicole. When I was a kid in the early 1940s We used to dress up and go to one house in the neighborhood after early trick or treating. That home had a party for kids so they wouldn’t be out when the scary big kids were out. We watched movies put out by the telephone company, now boring how a telephone works, etc. But because it happened every year it became a tradition. The other tradition was asking for money for poor children around the world with our little cardboard banks we put together at school.
Bonnie, that sounds lovely! I’m sure you know how much I adore tradition. Last year we had Storm Alfred, so Halloween was cancelled. A few weeks later, I hosted a Halloween Party for my daughter and her friends. They dressed up, danced to the Monster Mash, and went on a spooky scavenger hunt with poems I made up on the clues. It was fun. Then we watched "It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" on DVD. Made me realize how much kids have changed when one girl didn’t know what Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty were talking on (corded dial telephone), another did not know what kind of car the kids piled into at the end (station wagon), and one thought it wasn’t "politically correct" when Woodstock ate turkey with Snoopy since Woodstock himself is a bird!
Farmgirl hugs,
Nicole
I remember your raggedy ann costume…it hid the she devil underneath..ha..halloween isnt what it used to be…your blog brought back fun memories of yesteryear…thanks for trying to bring back the old fun of this wicked holiday…the old fun is fading away for the kids of the future….
Here in Connecticut, it is still a pretty fun, innocent holiday. I read today online that Connecticut is the best state for trick or treat. Even though Halloween was cancelled a second time this year, the town of Southbury offered trick or treating for the kids in the Kmart plaza. I could not believe how nice it was. Panera gave away cookies, and stores gave away candy, coloring books, and other treats. It was fun to see both adults and kids dressed up. –Nicole
Nicole,
I really enjoyed your post. I was psyched to dine at the restaurant, and bummed that it was closed. The decorations were great. I loved the photographs. You out did yourself. This was my favorite.
Thanks so much, Valerie! Yes, we were disappointed to learn the restaurant was gone. The house was so neat and the food was great. -Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
Hi Nicole!
While living on the dairy farm upstate in Central NY there was a resident ghost, more like a ‘caretaker’ felt & seen many times walking the farm & around the barns. Most every evening while I was there, you could hear door open & footsteps heading to upstairs. (We were all snug in bed!!)I also felt cold breezes while canning in the kitchen on a hot summer day…so many other incidences…uneasy feelings but yet felt ‘protected’…
Kim, Very cool story! Thank you for sharing! I think if I was a ghost, what better place to haunt than a farm?
When I first moved to Connecticut, I was working in our store that we had. It was a hot summer day, too, and I was the only person there with one other employee. All of a sudden, the heavy glass door blew open, and the coldest burst of air came flying through the showroom, then stopped. Funny thing was there was no breeze. We both felt eery about it. It looked like someone had opened the door and walked through. I never forgot that incident. Farmgirl hugs, Nicole