Do you think that giving someone a genuine compliment or holding the door for the next guy can change your life? What about listening quietly and peacefully to an important story someone has to tell? Or maybe it's just giving a big smile to the person who's directing traffic during road construction... These situations all have something in common - a kind response. Kindness. It's a way of looking at life that requires changes that are so little yet the rewards, for everyone involved, are so big...
I'd like you to meet a friend - two friends, actually. When I first moved into this town, coming up on twelve years ago (my, how time flies!), I met Margaret. And just recently, I met Kate. I love these two gals individually, but I had no idea how they'd get along with each other - you know how it can be when friends of friends meet. They're very different - Margaret is ninety years old; Kate is eight. Margaret is one tough old farmgirl; Kate has only been working on the land for about 4-5 years. Well, it turns out that these two are fast friends - not only that, but when they're together, they're a force to be reckoned with. Margaret is my farmgirl mentor, friend and "auntie." Kate is my horse. C'mon over and say, "Hello!"...
Alexandra Wilson, Our New Rural Farmgirl, 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!
Libbie Zenger Previous Rural Farmgirl, June 2010 – Jan 2012 Libbie’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 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.
