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**Welcome Wagon:  New member from Oregon  |
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Laura K
Farmgirl at Heart
6 Posts
Laura
Portland
Oregon
USA
6 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 6:04:45 PM
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| Hello out there. My name is Laura and I am new to MaryJanesFarm and the Farmgirl Connection. Yet, I feel I have just come home after many years of searching. I grew up part of a big litter of kids on a large farm in Wisconsin and left home after high school. I loved farm life and wasn't quite ready for adult independence when I moved away. I spent years feeling like that 5 week old kitten, not fully ready to be weaned from my mother's warm home, but life and circumstances look me further and further away. My mother passed away shortly after I left home, and my father died recently. Our actual farm was sold at auction and the "city person" who bought our house gutted it, cut down all the trees (too hard to mow around) and covered the farm house with green vinyl siding. So not only is our family gone, it feels that any actual sense of home is forever lost for even visiting that place. My heart was aching. A friend gave me a copy of MaryJanes magazine, and I was completely taken. I HAD to go there and soak it in. My husband, daughter and I went last week, and being at that farm was a magical, yet very real experience. Everything MaryJane has done there is clearly the product of years and years of physical labor, trial and error and a whole lot of love and determination. But taking any piece of what she does there (home cooking, gardening, raising animals, working with your hands, collecting antiques, being connected, etc.) are things that each of us can do to create our sense of home. Being a farmgirl really is a state of mind. And it reinforced for me that home is not a place, and all the things I've been doing in the many years since leaving the nest (cooking, collecting, handwork, being in nature, gardening,environmentalism, laughing with girlfriends, and now being a new mother (8 month old) were all things I needed to do to get back that feeling of home. Sorry to be longwinded here. I am just so very excited to have found you. Love and joy to you all.-Laura |
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therusticcottage
True Blue Farmgirl
4439 Posts
Kay
Vancouver
WA
USA
4439 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 6:33:58 PM
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Hi Laura -- Welcome!!! We're almost neighbors. I live about 20 miles north of Portland in La Center, WA. We've started a Farmgirl Chapter here and would love to have you join us if you don't mind the drive once a month.
I'm so sorry about what happened to your family farm and the death of your father. Both of my parents are gone now and it sure leaves an empty feeling.
I'm so glad that you've found us. You'll meet the nicest bunch of people here! Everyone is so friendly and helpful. Can't wait to get to know you better.
Kay - Living in Beautiful Washington State
North Clark County Farmgirls and
Sisterhood of the Traveling Art |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 9:07:36 PM
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Welcome Laura!! I am so glad you found us too!! I sure hope you are able to meet with Kay's group..she is great!
How fun that you got to go see MJ's farm...a dream alot of us have!! You will fit right in here..you sound great!!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
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mollymae
True Blue Farmgirl
694 Posts
Molly
Visalia
California
USA
694 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 10:28:42 PM
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Laura, welcome to the group! You sound so passionate about this lifestyle, I can "feel" it in your post! You have definitely come to the right place...I'm really looking forward to getting to know you better! By the way, where in Wisconsin were you raised?
Cead Mile Failte,
Molly
"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. If I can ease one life the Aching or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain" ~Emily Dickinson
**When life throws scraps your way ~ Make a Quilt!**
Sisterhood of the Traveling Art |
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PhillyfarmGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
59 Posts
Yael
Philadelphia
PA
USA
59 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 04:32:16 AM
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Welcome, welcome Laura!
This is precisely why I am here, because of dear souls like you! I am so sorry to hear of your losses. I too left home at a very young age because of circumstance beyond my control and searched for so long to make a home and 'find myself'. Finally, in the past years I feel like I have come to myself and feel so connected to hearth and home. I am so blessed to hear that you have done so also at such a young age and that your little one will grow up being nutured this way. Isn't amazing how one little thing can change our lives...like a magazine. But it isn't really just the magazine is it? It is the love, the conviction, and the deep sincerity of the soul that is conveys that speaks to us. You are in the right place, I look forward to getting to know you!
Blessings!
~It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion;
It is easy in solitude to live after our own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.~
~Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 5:12:57 PM
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Welcome Laura! You'll love this site and the warmth from eveyone here.
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
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Laura K
Farmgirl at Heart
6 Posts
Laura
Portland
Oregon
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 9:11:33 PM
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| Many thanks to you all for such a warm welcome. Seems like a lot of good-hearted folks are connecting everyday here...one more thing to thank MaryJane for! To Molly, I grew up in SW Wisconsin, near Spring Green and Richland Center. A beautiful area in the "driftless" region...regarding having a child, yes, there is nothing like it to make your heart sing...and I am not so young, now in my 40's with this little one. She seems all that much more of a blessing, and also motivates one to create the best home ever. |
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The Farmers Daughter
Farmgirl in Training
46 Posts
Sherry
LeRoy
Kansas
USA
46 Posts |
Posted - Jul 16 2005 : 07:49:08 AM
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Oh Laura, I can't tell you how much your note touched me. While I was raised on a working farm and now live on a non-working one, I know where your heart strings are pulling. Let me tell you hon that you can live on a farm right in the middle of town.~~Surround yourself with old things, plant lots of flowers and herbs outside and live the simple life. Think "country" in everything you do and you too will "live on a farm"!
Sher, The Farmer's Daughter |
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**Welcome Wagon: New member from Oregon |
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New member from Oregon
