Archive September 2009

All of the articles archived for the month that you have specified are displayed below.

Changes

This past week I have been faced with a lot of it…change, that is. The seasons are changing. I see evidence of it daily, with the nights arriving earlier and earlier and the coolness in the morning air. I even changed my hair, getting rid of my blonde streaks and adjusting to a darker color again. I have noticed the leaves changing on the tree outside my home office, and the grape leaves are changing color on the vines. I even changed some of the clothes in my closet, getting rid of some summer things and unpacking and washing some of my fall things. I have also been looking at my office and thinking of all the changes I anticipate making to it this fall and winter.

Read all of Changes

A blogging Smorgasbord

I was born to be a gypsy, a vagabond, a wanderer. There is something about the road. It just seems to call out to me. It is not the destination that calls, but the journey itself. It is the back roads, the people I will meet, the things that I will see…the experience. So when a fellow blogger, a girl named Timi, invited me to drive over to the west side of our fair state to participate in a “meet the blogger” night in Snohomish, of course I said yes. In true Rene’ fashion, I set out without a clue of what to expect. I love the thrill of the unexpected! I knew none of the women who would be there, yet I was confident, based on Timi’s “zany” personality, that I would somehow fit in.

Read all of A blogging Smorgasbord

An Ode to Community.

While meeting with a group of women from my church recently, I learned that one of the Farmgirls in our community needed some help. Emily had recently undergone surgery to provide a kidney to her ailing little girl, and she needed to have a chicken coop built and some garden work done before the winter hit. That did not sound like a huge request to me. After all, I thought, surely there are enough of us in our little farming community who could spare some supplies, tools and a few man/woman hours. I decided then- and- there that this was something that we could, and should, do.

Read all of An Ode to Community.

Happy trails to you.

I have been hearing Roy Rogers sing that snappy little tune for days now. If I knew how to whistle, I would be whistling it while I work. I have always been a Roy Rogers and Dale Evans fan, though I probably could not come up with any brilliant reasons why. Maybe it was their unassuming way of being humble in the midst of their success, or their fun and flirty style when talking to each other while on camera. I could never image one without the other.

Read all of Happy trails to you.

The common thread

Quilts have been on my mind a lot lately. I adore them, and I just don’t think that a person can have too many of them. I am really partial to the ones that have been made with scrap materials and old, cut up, tattered clothing. Not that I don’t like the ones that are gussied up with new fabric—I do. I am just more partial to the other.

Read all of The common thread

Hung out to dry

I am not sure what it is about certain tasks that make me fight them with every fiber in my being. Maybe it is the repetition of some that make them seem so mundane. Or perhaps it is that some tasks never seem to really be finished, like washing dishes. (You know, just as the last dish is washed, someone has the audacity to bring in another glass.)

Read all of Hung out to dry

My fair lady

One of the things that I love about this time of the year is the county fair. What’s not to love, with their fair food, carnival rides, music in the park, and evening rodeos? I especially love walking through the barns. I love seeing the kids’ animals and reminiscing about being their age, sitting with my friends and conquering (or so we thought) all the world’s problems.

Read all of My fair lady

Libbie Zenger in fields of iris

Libbie Zenger,
Our Current Rural Farmgirl,
is a small town Farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah with her husband and two darling (“if I do say so myself...”) 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 new little kittens. She lives on a 140-year-old farm, in a farmhouse built by her great-great-grandfather, and tries to channel her grandmothers, HD Thoreau and Auntie Mame (and not necessarily in that order!).

“When I found MaryJanesFarm, I found a new sort of sisterhood — one in which hard work, ‘heart’ work and handwork are truly valued, appreciated and shared... not to mention all the great times that farmgirls have!”

Column contents copyright © 2010 Libbie Zenger. All rights reserved.

Little Farmer Girl

Farmgirl
is a condition
of the heart.

Portrait of René Groom

René Groom
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010
René 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.