We’ve all heard how important it is to eat a diet high in roughage. Likewise, “roughaging” (spending time outdoors) is essential to our mental health. Even if it’s a settee on the porch, we need it, gotta have it. I aim to be the reason you pulled your bedding out the back door last night.
Our Bed & Breakfast was featured on Yahoo News today as one of the Top 5 Places to Unplug!!!! Gadgets stay in the suitcase. However, the organic food you eat here and the outdoor bathing takes you far, far, far away from all the constant twittering and yammering. Come glamp with us!!!!
With a wink and a grin, old timers love telling kids about the long, arduous paths they walked to school waaay back when. You know the stories. They often involve deep snow, threadbare shoes, and steep hills (both to and from the schoolhouse).
But I bet you haven’t heard one that boasts a hurricane.
Patty Schultz says: This is America at it’s best in the face of adversity!! Even kindergarteners know to “walk straight ahead”. Terrific article!!
A recent study backs up my belief in the value of good neighbors. It turns out, talking “over the fence” benefits the environment, too.
In southwestern China, the Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP) helps farmers in the Wolong Nature Reserve reduce soil erosion by paying them to convert sloping cropland to forest or grassland. Scientists from Michigan State University found that the farmers most likely to re-enroll their land in the conservation program after their initial sign-up, were those who got out and hashed it over with their neighbors. In fact, the more times they interacted, the more land was enrolled.
Farmer of the Hani minority near his village of Puduo, Yunnan, China. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Takeaway
After doting on my big, sweet, injured Great Pyrenees dog for several months, I’m swiftly gaining a whoooole new perspective on pet ownership. Thank heavens, Periwinkle’s broken leg has healed nicely (it took forever because she’s old), and I do adore pampering her … but did I mention how BIG she is??
Riley Tucker says: My Golden, Maggie, is mostly inside, but goes out for her business and to help me with the barn, horse and yard chores. She rarely goes out of site.
Janet Roberts says: I enjoy the thought of pet freedom. My toy poodle, Nigel, loves the outdoors. On our screened in porch he has a nice fat pillow to enjoy the sun and the many wildlife that pass him by. Most of all he loves the chicken, he thinks he is a herd Poodle.
Together Nigel and I love our outdoor freedom.
Here are a few pics to bring you here for a visit. Saddle up!
8 o’clock sharp last Sunday, Kim and I saddled up, leaving the farm compound behind. (Shiny rooftops in the background.)
Time is ticking slo-o-o-o-wly. Stomach grumbling. Meow.
Our little furry friend Rascal was getting a bit anxious Saturday night in Ace’s apartment. Rolling around, playing with her blue, furry mouse, scratching her post. It just wasn’t as fun as her work week here at the farm as the design studio mascot.
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Judy Jones-McCown says: ~~whew~~ Rascal was a very lucky kitty….could have been squashed kitty. We have a “Rascal” too. A (he)kitty,very orange and stripy. He gets to go out on the back patio on his leash with “mom&Dad”, when they go out to read the paper or enjoy a cool glass of tea or lemonade. Sometimes they even walk him thru the grass to see what (cool) bugs lurk there, for chasing…don’t ya know! He’s quite a spoiled boy…and knows it too. After all, that’s what kitty cats are for! *meow*
Loved this USFS (United States Forest Service) street sign I walked past on a recent visit to San Francisco. Clear Channel: boy on top tubing/boy on bottom watching fireflies. Clear Message.
It’s no secret that I’m crazy about chickens. Been there, established that. But did you know that I also carry a torch for their free-flying cousins? Yep, birds of any feather tickle my fancy. Chickadees, woodpeckers, sparrows, even raptors and ravens inspire a kind of wide-eyed wonder in my heart, and I suppose that qualifies me as a birdwatcher. Throw in my trusty old pair of binoculars, and I might even be a bona fide “birder” (FYI: bird was first used as a verb in 1918).
I love to bird-watch. My father used to bird-watch and he’d point out birds to me when I was a girl. Became second nature…While I was in Ireland in 2005 I learned the British term for this activity when I was noticing the birds of Ireland and someone asked me if I “was a twitcher”? Cute!
caroline says: my husband spent the last 2yrs. Turning our yard into a bird haven. We have 8bird houses and 13various feeders. He also puts food out on the ground for those birds that enjoy feeding on the ground. We have peanut butter feeders for our gang of woodpeckers too. As I am totally disabled this has become my paradise. I am able to help him with some of the feeding. We are keeping a list of all the birds that come to our yard, it has been wonderful. We take pictures of all our bird friends and I am making scrapbook pages. An added bonus is that is that the deer come to eat too! We seem to have a wildlife sanctuary in our own little corner of the world! It just goes to show that you don’t need acres of land to provide a place for the birds and animals to be taken care of and to be safe close to populated areas.
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When it comes to my chickens, I’m a mother hen who doesn’t mess around. My girls have the run of the place, and I don’t take kindly to predatory folk prowling around, plundering nests, and ruffling feathers.
But every “Head Hencho” knows there are as many ways of tending a flock as there are chicken poops under a roost. You have your movable pens, laser deterrents, traps, and high-voltage hot wire. Plenty of armed and able farmgirls shoot to kill without batting an eyelash.
And then there’s another approach, one you might not want to try at home.
martha cook says: Bobcat!! The year we first moved back to my husband’s family farm area – with two sister cats and their new litters of kittens, we moved into another being’s terrain. From time to time during the first summer of moving in, building a deck, planting trees, garden, some lawn, I noticed that the cats were frightened, and later, that some kittens disappeared, but it was a cold night in January, 1993, when I realized that something was watching me thru the living room window as I held our new baby. The fearless creature was either a lynx or a bobcat, and was merely two feet from the back of my head, thru the glass. We put “the run” on it, but it appeared again, so we got a permit to shoot it, and did try to trap it. Bobcats are too smart for our trap, at least, but we did trap one skunk and one of the neighbor’s cats! Releasing the skunk took a LONG piece of rebar and a bit of stealth. By June, we had lost several cats and kittens, and feared we were providing a ready lunch for this bobcat. On a fine afternoon in July, we finally saw him creep around a shrub, in broad daylight, trying to sneak up on our newest group of kittens. My husband shot him, and by pre-agreement, turned him over to the Fish & Game Commission. One good thing from all this: knowing we had a predator on hand convinced me to NEVER take our baby out to the lawn, and then turn my back to go back in for a phone or blanket, etc. Now the “baby” is eighteen, so he goes with me to the compost pile or to turn off the garden water, if it is getting dark. A good reminder for all mothers who move to the country – all manner of animal predators can be watching for a small child as well as for your cat. (Martha Cook, Idaho)
You’ve seen ‘em—the “gone fishin’” bumper stickers:
><x> hooked for life;
><x> good things come to those who bait;
><x> salmon—the other pink meat;
><x> hook ‘em and cook ‘em;
><x> be back dark thirty;
><x> my other wife is the fishin’ life. (I made this last one up myself.)
Wherever fish are bountiful and bitin’, bumper-sticker philosophers keep themselves busy reeling us in.
MaryJane I remember the first time I caught a catfish; I was by myself at a pond while visiting friends. I couldn’t get the hook out of the fishes mouth. Then I nearly fell over when that catfish started squawking at me! Swear on my grannies grave; that fish was talking! So I put him in the pail with water and carried him back to the house, conversing with him all the way.
Heather Tawney says: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this blog! I grew up where Mama went to church and Dad and me went out fishing on Sunday mornings…I have been blessed with a outdoorsman husband and two beautiful children to pass the true country grit lifestyle onto…this blog speaks to me in so many ways; THANK YOU
Barbara Bolton says: Beautiful!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits 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 and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
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