Mia and I loved New York City! We could have spent the entire week in Central Park. At first, we thought it was a forest and couldn’t believe that new playgrounds kept popping up everywhere.
A forest surrounded by skyscrapers.
Hiking on all these nice paved trails is much easier than in our forests back home.
One of our aunties attended college in New York City. When we were babies, she gave us a book all about the city. It was part of a whole series of children’s books about different cities across the world. We LOVE our NYC book.
We took it with us so we could visit some of the places illustrated in our book.
Twice a year, manufacturers and retailers—people that buy, sell, and make linens (sheets, towels, bed sets, aprons, etc.) come from all over the world and meet in New York City. This means my daddy and sometimes my mommy and Nanny Jane get to travel from our wonderful and quiet little Moscow, Idaho, to the big and bustling city of Manhattan. This year, my spring break just so happened to be the same week that my dad was scheduled for his bi-annual trip, so we signed up to go, too!!
My mom, sister, and I had a blast in the big city!
Farmgirls on Park Avenue!
Dream more while you are awake:
It started out simple enough. Pack a lunch. Toss some PJs and a toothbrush into a duffle bag but leave my map home. I am home. How many times have I driven by this homestead since 1972 when I left Utah headed for a job in Idaho on a forest fire watch tower?
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day:
Driving south from my farm, 4 hours to McCall, I drive the main road that connects Northern Idaho to Southern Idaho where most Idahoans live—a two-lane highway with hardly any traffic. I’m not exaggerating. It’s Tuesday morning. The road is mine, all mine.
No one is in charge of your happiness but you:
Two hours south, I crest the top of a pass and see the town where my daughter was born in 1979. White Bird, Idaho. Population: 150
You already have all you need:
From the top, I can also see the abandoned ranch house I fixed up when I was 7 months pregnant with my daughter. I’d been living in a small 14-foot travel trailer, so I pulled it close to the back door of the house to serve as my cook shack because the kitchen in the house lacked a stove, BUT down the hallway in the house, I had a working toilet and a BATHTUB!!!!!, something I’d been living without for several years. I put a mattress on the floor of the “master” bedroom, found the perfect cardboard box for a nightstand, and I was home. Home. That summer I grew 80 tomato plants and 100 cucumber plants to sell to local women for canning. My reputation as a gardener grew along with the abundance in my root cellar. I put up hundreds of quarts of fruit from the trees planted around the homestead—all 500 jars processed on a wood cook stove. I was falling in love with Idaho.
The best is yet to come:
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
All proceeds (minus shipping and packing) will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo of the prop and its cost here along with a few details as to its condition. The first person to call the farm and talk with Brian, 208-882-6819, becomes the new owner of a little bit of herstory. Shipping will be either USPS or UPS, our choice. No returns.
