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“
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
”
~ Mark Twain
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.’”
Column contents © Deb Bosworth. All rights reserved.
Being a farmgirl is not
about where you live,
but how you live.
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.
Column contents © Rebekah Teal. All rights reserved.
“
Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in awhile to climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods, to wash your spirit clean.
”
~ John Muir
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.”
Column contents © Cathi Belcher. All rights reserved.
“
Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
”
~ Anthony J. D’Angelo
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.
Column contents © Dori Troutman. All rights reserved.
Shery Jespersen
Previous Ranch Farmgirl,
Oct 2009 – Nov 2013Wyoming cattle rancher and outpost writer (rider), shares the “view from her saddle.” Shery is a leather and lace cowgirl-farmgirl who’s been horse-crazy all of her life. Her other interests include “junktiques,” arts and crafts, glamping, collecting antique china, and cultivating mirth.
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.”
Column contents © Mary Murray. All rights reserved.
Farmgirl
is a condition
of the heart.
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!
Column contents © Alexandra Wilson. All rights reserved.
Libbie Zenger
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
June 2010 – Jan 2012Libbie’s a small town farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah on a 140-year-old farm with her husband and two darling little farmboys—as well as 30 ewes; 60 new little lambs; a handful of rams; a lovely milk cow, Evelynn; an old horse, Doc; two dogs; a bunch o’ chickens; and two kitties.
René Groom
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010René lives in Washington state’s wine country. She grew up in the dry-land wheat fields of E. Washington, where learning to drive the family truck and tractors, and “snipe hunting,” were rites of passage. She has dirt under her nails and in her veins. In true farmgirl fashion, there is no place on Earth she would rather be than on the farm.
Farmgirl spirit can take root anywhere—dirt or no dirt.
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”.
Column contents © Nicole Christensen. All rights reserved.
Paula Spencer
Previous Suburban Farmgirl,
October 2009 – October 2010Paula is a mom of four and a journalist who’s partial to writing about common sense and women’s interests. She’s lived in five great farm states (Michigan, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, and now North Carolina), though never on a farm. She’s nevertheless inordinately fond of heirloom tomatoes, fine stitching, early mornings, and making pies. And sock monkeys.
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Barn Charm is my vote! My dream is to continue to take photographs and be inspired by the nature and the countryside that’s all around me! I started quilting in 2012 and I want to get better and better at it so I can make sweet surprises for those I love! God Bless and Good Luck in 2013! Carol, Farm Sister #3886
Thanks Carol! Good for you… Keep at it! Blessings on your dreams!
Deb x0
I absolutely love reading your blog and seeing all of your photograph!.
I love beaches, but live in Kansas.
Writing out notes and plans is the only way that I can get anything done.
Now for my vote- I love your ideas, but just for continuity sake, and maybe a visitor draw, I like Beach Farmgirl’s Dream.
But, that’s just me. I always like to tie things together in a package.
Let me know what you think.
Happy Holidays!!
Linda
Hi Linda! Well, that’s a neat idea… Thanks for weighing in…:) Blessings on your dreams! xo Deb
Splendid ideas! I appreciate inspiration from you "younger girls". It helps me focus in on the fact that I can do that which I dream at any age.
And I have to say I love ‘Poulet Chalet~ Come home to roost’ – such a kitchy name. Good Luck!
Molly
Hi Molly! Thanks so much for chiming in! Blessings on your dreams big and small!
xo Deb
Best wishes for the success of your new venture adventure 🙂 I like all three booth names and their subtitles … hmmmm, maybe Barn Charm as fave. You’ll have a lot of fun with it … you already are. Looking forward to seeing the unveiling.
My farmgirl dream of the moment is putting the finishing touches on our porch-dining-family room. It has been a year and a half project and I’m sooo looking forward to putting a fork in it and saying it is done! Then, onto the inside of the house to create a cottage bedroom and re-paint the kitchen to give it a much needed make-over. Winter is perfect because it is the season of being idoors for me.
Happy Holly HolYdays to you & yours on the right coast 🙂
Well, thank you my dear! Now, to begin dreaming up things to go in it…and I’ll need to start hunting again! Yahoo! Thank goodness for online shopping too… I hear ya on the putting a fork in long awaited finished projects.. I’m guilty of getting swept away in starting new ones before old ones are done… I just finished painting the livingroom last night at 10:00 pm! DONE!!! I can hardly wait to see your porch…It’s going to be so Sherytique! 🙂 Happy Hollydaze to you and Lynn and blessings on your dreams! xo Deb
Hi Deb,
As always, you are inspiring~ to follow our dreams. It is exciting to see you follow yours!
My vote, even though I like all your ideas especially the barn charm cuz I love barns, is for Burlap and Bling. I think that one encompasses your creativity and perhaps a wider ‘audience’. Whatever you decide, blessings for a successful venture!
Hi Laura,
Thank you so much… and thanks for voting and your feedback too! Blessings on your big dreams too!
xo Deb
Hi Deb, I’m torn between Burlap and Bling and Barn Charm. Both are catchy and would make a foot stop and turn for a second look. I must confess the whole time I was reading your dream I was saying "Me too, Me too, I want to help." It sounds like so much fun to find and redo and recreate on such a large scale. I do it in bits and pieces; little by little. My dream is on a much smaller scale to hunt out and redo furniture and sew to my hearts content.
I’m visiting family in Bethel Ak, and a very big storm is howling outside so as usual your blog came at the right time. More true confessions, my husband has turned out to be the best candy maker of the family. Who knew hunter, fishermen could do that. LOL! Open your shop so I can visit when we come back to MA to visit our daughter. Keep on writing and have a very merry Christmas.
Hi Merrilyn! Our booth will probably be small to start… 8 x 10 at the most but a good space to test out the market without having to lay out high dough for a lease,power, insurance, etc. When you open your shop filled with refreshed furniture and your homemade sewing items you can call it Bits and Pieces ~~~ ( Love it )
As always, thanks so much for your note and for sharing your dreams and inspirations! Thanks for your vote too! Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Stay warm! Love Deb xo
Hi Deb,
Dreams I had to sit back and think about that for a minute and what I’ve realized is I am living my dream. I own my own business…doing what I love, I live in one of the most beautiful states in the country. I’m 40 years married to the most wonderful guy…well I could go on, but you get the idea. This is not to say there are not some more dreams tucked up there, but for now, this is the right time for things to stay status quo…just like you know it is time to move your dream to the forefront. My vote for a name would be Barn Charm…it just rolls right off the tongue, making it an easy name to remember…which, of course, you always want for a business name.
Looking forward to seeing your dream board, I am sure it will be inspiring…I know it has gotten me thinking already.
Have a peaceful holiday.
Hi Judy! Nothing tops feeling contented and happy with the status quo. Maine is beautiful. We’ve been as far north as Bar Harbor and loved it! Blessed you are! Thank you for your lovely note and for voting!
It’s neck and neck for Barn Charm and Burlap and Bling on my facebook page right now! LOL! Blessings for a happy and healthy holiday season! xo Deb