Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sarah Hall!!!

Sarah Hall has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Horse Dreams Merit Badge!

“I live in an area where horses are not hard to find. My husband and I took a bike ride a few miles from our house and looked at the fields of beautiful horses. I really liked the American Painted Horses and swooned over all of the miniature horses!

I scheduled an hour-long ride near Rocky Mountain National Park and brought a friend along with me.

This truly turned out great! My first and only experience with a horse prior to this was at summer camp when I was a child. The horse stepped on my foot, crushing it, and I had many months of recovery with added complications due to my type I diabetes. I was traumatized by the experience but have always still admired horses (from afar). When I saw this badge, I knew that it was time for me to try to get over my fear of being too close to them (I do know that what happened to me as a kid was due to my inexperience and not the horse, but I was fearful none the less).

I was very nervous being near the horse and getting on it, but once I was in the saddle, my fear went away. The horse I rode was gentle and the ride was amazing (AND she was an American Paint Horse by chance). I really had the time of my life and would love the opportunity to go again! (I am in the white shirt with the huge smile on my face!)”

Brian gave me certificates to sign for Sisterhood membership renewals recently and I was moved to tears when I realized we have Sisters who’ve been with us seven years. S-e-v-e-n years.

Noelle Miller #111, Vicki Meeds #120, Rene Groom #185, Mary Setzer #378, and Samantha Douglas #449, we would love to send you a set of our MaryJane’s Home organic bed sheets as a token of our deepest appreciation (not to mention our intense need to want to pamper you).

Please email Brian your bed size and color preference (white, blue, green, yellow) and they’re on their way, brianogle@maryjanesfarm.org.

Coming up on year seven in one more year are 27!!!!!!!! Sisters! I love you!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,205 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—7,043 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Outpost/Glamping Merit Badge, I steeled myself for an overnight with my favorite triplets. Midge’s kiddos are somewhere between the ages of 6 and 12, respectively. Hey, I’m a single gal: I’m not great with guessing children’s ages! I just know they are old enough to buckle their own seat belts, but not old enough to get a learner’s permit.

Anyway …

Midge needed an overnight sitter, so Yours Truly volunteered. Well, volunteer is a strong word … more like my deer-in-the-headlights look must have masqueraded as a pick-me look. I’d better work on that. But all kidding aside, I was psyched, amped up, phat, chillaxed, you know, to be the cool auntie for a night, plus it was the perfect opportunity to earn another badge! Which one, you might ask?

The ever-popular Glamping one.

Oh. Yes. Indeedy.

Though I’d heard of glamping, collected a Pinterest wall of glamping ideas, have friends who have done it, and daydreamed of all it entailed, I still hadn’t left my house.

My comfy, comfy house.

With that comfy, comfy bathroom.

Yes, I’m a wimp. A pathetic excuse for a farmgirl. I’ve said it.

But no more! I was going glamping. Even if it was just in the backyard.

Close to that comfy, comfy bathroom.

Don’t fret, chickadees, I don’t plan to cheat.

Unless completely necessary.

Continue reading →

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sarah Hall!

Sarah Hall (mrssarahhall, #5223) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Birds Merit Badge!

“I spent a day researching birds native to my area and selected several I would like to see. I made a wish list that I hope I can attach here with photos of the birds I would like to see and some of the information I learned about them through my research.

I really enjoyed learning about the birds. I didn’t realize that a lot of birds look different while they are mating. I particularly enjoyed reading about the sage grouse mating rituals, called strutting. I bet this is where the term “Strutting one’s stuff” came from! Owls are my favorite animal and it was challenging for me to not make an entire wish list of owls, of course I had to include one!”

Continue reading →

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Lisa Seaman!

Lisa Seaman (Red Dog, #5107) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Aprons Merit Badge!

I love the design of the apron, and bonus points for using my Glamping fabric!

Continue reading →

Chicken Feather Earrings!!!! They’re the latest fashion statement. And now I have a pair, compliments of Sandi O’Connor, Travelin’ Sister #3956, made by her daughter, Emily Kate, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Check out her Etsy shop, homegrowntrades. My pair came with a list of the “lovingly collected, never plucked” feathers from her flock of 26 chickens (my gift perfectly complete with the hens’ names who helped make the earrings—Olive, Grettle, Chloe, and Lady).

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,205 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—7,043 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Outpost/Knotty Farmgirl Merit Badge, I had an ulterior motive. You see, if you give a farmgirl a tree, then she’s gonna take notice of the branches, and if she takes notice of the branches, she’s gonna get the urge to swing, feel the breeze on her face, kick her bare feet up into the air, and lean back to let her hair tickle the grass below.

It’s true.

After all …

How do you like to go up in a swing, 
Up in the air so blue? 
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing 
Ever a child can do! 

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside— 

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down! 

Robert Lewis Stevenson (I like to affectionately call him Bobby) and I have a lot in common.

Anyway, before I could get my swing on and kick up my farmgirl boots, I had to learn a few things. Like, you know, safety precautions. Like, how to tie knots. Not just shoelaces, scarves, and curly-ribbon-bedecked packages, but real knots. This was going to involve

a) another Internet tutorial

or

b) a bored sailor

Being fresh out of sailors, I taught myself with a tutorial and several lengths of twine. I practiced and practiced until my practicer was sore! Not sore so much as tied up in knots. HA! Being extremely adept at friendship-bracelet-making back in the day, I think I picked it up quite quickly. But was my skill good enough to test my weight with a tree branch and a cedar board?

We shall see.

I gathered my supplies for my swing:

• the tree
• one cedar board
• 60-grit sandpaper
• 75 feet of braided nylon rope
• scissors
• matches
• ruler and pencil
• drill with a 3/4” boring bit
• hammer and 4 fence staples (or bent nails)

I sanded and drilled and measured and marked. I threaded and tied (here is where my knot-making expertise came to fruition). I secured and tossed and shimmied (the rope, sillies, not me)! I pulled and cut.

And then?

Well, then of course, I swang. Swung? Swinged? I did some swinging. And it was every bit as lovely as I remembered it to be. I leaned and pumped and admired the view over my neighbor’s garage. I kicked and felt the grass tickle my feet. I tipped over backwards for that indescribable head rush. I even did a fancy dismount (a triple axel with a half twist) and stuck the landing.

It was as good as I knew it would be.

Except I don’t remember my tushie hurting so much afterward.

Next up? Weatherproof pillow.