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”.
Way cool……congratulations!
Rebekah, I am sooooo very excited for you and your family and ya’lls new farm. Yea! I know you can’t wait to get going on doing some small gardening first then grow on to bigger things. God has blessed you well with this place and I know your family will make some great memories there. Once again, YEA! Thank You Lord for blessing Rebekah with her heart’s desire. AMEN
Oh Girl I am so very happy for you!!! I cried through the whole story! I understand all the things you are saying because that was exactly how I started on my farm. I know your Mule will warm up to you if you visit and brush and hug and kiss it everyday. My donkey Eeyore was the same way when he came here. We paid $25 for him just so he could have a happy home. He is now my best friend of all my bigger babies. Then there is Bess and Peppa, Bess is my only chick that hatched last year from the incubator and she is very vocal and follows me everywhere and Peppa is my newly found love as I am bottle feeding her and she is the littlest Nigerian Goat just born a week and a half ago. I love the farm and I know you will too. I am so vey happy for you and your family! May God Bless you as much as he has blessed me.
Oh such a beautiful dream come true! Blessings to you and your family as you begin this wonderful new adventure. My husband says I want a small patch of land so I can roam — that is so true. A postage size yard is fine and I am thankful for it, but some property to roam and discover latent skills and new skills is a dream that may or may not come true. But dreams are free — so I will dream as much as I want in my free time. I think as I age the desire to farm is stronger than ever. I’m so excited for you and all you’re going to learn and relay to us!
Congrats, Farmer Rebekah. You are in for some kinda ride! Some kinda fun, too. Best wishes.
I’m so happy for you! Blessing on you, your family and your new to you farm.
Oh! Girl, I am so excited and happy for you!!!! Loved every word you typed…I actually could hear your voice as I read it speaking. (hum, wonder how close I am)..lol What a wonderful adventure that you are sharing with this Okie and other farmgirls everywhere. I thank you for that. My fingertips could just feel your wallpaper..well, that’s just not something a person says every day, now is it??? Ha! Love your mule! Those Belted Galloways have always tickled my fancy also…dreaming… Raynita
Yay Rebekah! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures! So glad for you!
Congratulations! That’s wonderful news and I hope your new adventure does become a "happily ever after" for many years to come.
OH…I am SO jealous…You have no idea…what a great great blessing. I am so thrilled for you and your family… As I read your post, I was just so…Oh I want to do this…so excited that you are living your dream. Blessings to you!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! new farm family — the farm is so lucky to have you all and thanks for you’re going to savor every single second – again congrats.
Congratulations, a whole new life waiting for you to enter.
oh my gracious!!! this is so amazing! I’m so jealous/excited for you! best of luck & i can’t wait to hear all about your adventure 🙂
Is it really true?!!!!! You and your family bought a farm with barns and outbuildings and house?????? A dream come true. Have I missed your blog about this blessed event?? I am sooooooo Happy for you!!!!!! Now, you are on your way girl. Lots of adventures in your new farm. Best Regards
I am a nervous wreck reading your post! So many things to do and so much to absorb! Better take that singing down to the mule. I think she needs some "down-home company". Won’t you be surprised if she brahs?
OOOpppsss, I meant until the donkey brays (sorry about the spelling).
SO happy for you to finally have your farm! Love the pictures so far too!
Congratulations! I’m so pleased your dream is coming true. Sending you blessings and happy thoughts on all the fun to come with your new home.
Yeah!!! Farmer Becca!!!! So happy for you. A mule was one of the things I listed off to hubs when we move here. I said one would be perfect to haul the grands around on. I have a friend that used to have one for years but she had to board hers and one day she decided that the mule was more the persons that she was boarding with than hers and she sent her to an old mule farm where she would have old mule buddies. But she said this mule was very tame. I never met the mule myself. I wanted to tell you I am now farmgirl number 4048!
Yay! Congratulations! You are about to have the time of your life, so buckle up and get your checkbook out. You’ll need it!
Sooooo happy for you as you begin this amazing journey! Congratulations!! 🙂
Congratulations!! I moved to a farm when I was nine & loved
it all the way through high school. Lots of wonderful memories. Now my husband and I have 5 acres and a log home
we’ve retired to. There’s a work shop, garage, garden and a rescue cat. Next month the greenhouse and chicken coop go up. We’re busy deciding on what kind of brown egg layers we’ll buy. Oh, such fun…happy farming!!!
Dear Farmer Teal, My heartiest congratulations on Phase I of your farm dream come true.
Also, ‘broke’ is not a bad word. It is an old-timey word, a down-home country word and a compliment to any horse (or mule) the word refers to. ‘Well broke’ is an ELITE term. Very few horses actually deserve the title because very few actually are WELL broke. They may be rideable and so on, but well broke is for those animals who have EARNED a Masters or PHD in their given field (pun intended when referring to the art of plowing :o)
Words and phrases can have very different meanings. Example: ‘She bought the farm’ could mean dead. OR, in your case, it means she really did BUY THE FARM. So, there ya go. Don’t be a’feared to use ‘broke’. You’re gonna get ‘broke to alllllllllll kinds of things in those new boots of yours. Maybe even broke to plow ;o)
I’m so very happy for you. Looking forward to many progress reports. I bet your husband is thrilled too!
Farmer Teal,
I am so happy for you and your family! How exciting and maybe a tad bit overwhelming. I look forward to your future posts about your farm life. Bless you for giving those dogs a home and I am sure Blondie will blossom having you as her caretaker.
How exciting! I cracked up at this post because I can relate. Now that I’m on our own farm too, all these terms and words come flooding into my mind to use and I don’t know if it’s even the right term or know the true meaning of some of them. It’s weird, but it’s like your brain just goes there!! It helps that I heard a lot of this from my dad and other farmers growing up, but now I’ve been reading so many farming books it must be absorbing and reinforcing! Lol! I feel like I need to walk around wih a farm dictionary so I make sure I’m using the words correctly! Have fun spewing more farm talk to whoever’s listening!
Farmgirl Hugs!!!
How exciting for you. I’m anxious to hear and read every single post about your new adventure. Where’s that THIRD dog?
Cindy Bee
Yipppppeeeeee! or should I say Yeeeee Haaawww! What a wonderful dream come true!! How fun is that!! Can’t wait to see how "Farmer Teal" gussies up the old farmstead! God bless you darlin’! (I guess He already has!)
Aunt Ruthie (aka RuthAnn)
Sugar Pie Farmhouse
Congradulations, while I’m not a farmer I do live in rural Maine and love the country. My husband and I move here 30 + years ago, from the city and never looked back. One question though, will you still be the city Farmgirl?
What great news! Congrats! Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures!
Wow, I am so happy for you! Just like in the song from The Wizard of Oz [since we are in the singing mode], dreams really do come true! God bless you in your new adventure!
Love the dandelions in the field!!