HI FRIENDS! Happy Sunday. I’m working on finding my rhythm sharing here on Mary.today and keeping up with Instagram and our newsletter and texting too!

I’m loving being able to connect with you all on text… and YES it’s really me answering every text 🙂 It’s been an easy way to get to know you better and hear what you’re loving, what kind of recipes you want to see more of and to share all the updates! If you have a question, just text me! 530-296-3408

So here’s my Sunday Update for the week… there’s a lot going on around these parts lately! 🙂

And it is hard to believe exactly 1 year ago today I was in NYC to appear on the TODAY Show for International Women’s Day and got to meet and have lunch with my buddy Al Roker! We’ve kept in touch since then and have something fun planned coming up too…. you’ll be the first to hear about it!

What a year of change for us all. What were you doing a year ago, right before the world shut down?

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This weekend we had a sunny and warm Friday afternoon – that quickly blew in some weather and Saturday morning we woke up to 3-4 inches of SNOW! It was gorgeous, I love the majesty of a snow covering and dusting in the trees – and we are so thankful for the precipitation to water our pastures especially this late in the year… here’s a little 30 second recap 🙂

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UPDATE : FIVE MARYS MEATS & M5 FARM CLUB

We’ve never been more proud of the quality in meats we are sharing with our customers. Our marbling and flavor and cut sizes are as close to the perfection we strive for as they’ve ever been. We have grown our program this year to meet the demand and have never harvested more meats either… we are sharing over 15,000 pounds of our ranch raised meats with you every single month!

Our FARM CLUB MEMBER boxes ship the first full week of each month (March 8-9 this month) so we hold back most popular and more rare, but frequently requested cuts for our members. This means our inventory is not always updated on the website for regular orders towards the end of the month – and we don’t have a Weekly Special to share this week either!

If you’d like to join the M5 FARM CLUB – it’s the best way to ensure you get the cuts you love (we always try our best to fulfill at least a majority of your requests!) and that you always have a steady supply of Five Marys meats! There are zero commitments and you can login to your account to change your box size, cuts, requests or cancel/skip every month. We have a limited number of memberships, but right now we have a few spots available if you’d like to join!

If not, don’t worry – we’ll be restocked and have another great Weekly Special for you the following week! We’ll share in our Friends & Family newsletter and via text (530-296-3408) first, so make sure you get those if you don’t want to miss out.

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BITSY AND THE PUPPIES

Yes you heard that right… sweet Bitsy, our 3 year old Great Pyrenees LGD (livestock guardian dog) is expecting a litter of puppies!

Bitsy has a very handsome suitor…. our Shop Manager’s Bernese Mountain dog, Bentley! They are going to be some ADORABLE puppies. Bentley has very strong breeding lines and is a smaller size Bernese, just like Bitsy is a smaller frame Great Pyr.

I think Bitsy and Bentley need “B” names for all these puppies right? Give us your name suggestions in the comments please!

She’s due around March 18 and the girls are VERY excited! We haven’t taken her to a vet for ultrasound but she’s doing great so we might just keep the litter size a surprise. We don’t have homes for the puppies yet and aren’t starting a list – but when we do you’ll be the first to know!

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M5 ENTREPRENEURS x RURAL REVIVAL MASTERMIND WORKSHOP!

I’ve teamed up with my good friend Danna of Rural Revival – to host a Mastermind Small Business WORKSHOP in Pawhuska, Oklahoma May 11-14, 2021. Yes the home of Ladd & Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman!

This workshop is designed for anyone building a business, especially in the agriculture arena, to learn valuable skills, be inspired, improve your entrepreneur skill set and take your business to the next level. Many of the attendees are focused in agricultural businesses, but it’s open to anyone running a small business who wants to take it to the next level in their branding, design, marketing, web presence, ecommerce and finding profit through successful social media strategies.

This brand jumpstart and meeting of the minds weekend is going to be one for the books! We have some surprised up our sleeves in Pawhuska too 🙂

We have a fantastic line-up of guest speakers and coaches, a special ranch welcome dinner, and a Friday “work day” to ask questions and apply what you’ve learned to your business with an actionable plan to take home.

We still have spaces available to jump in!

REGISTER HERE. I hope you can join us! 🖤

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M5 RANCH SCHOOL

This is the LAST week for special $199 Lifetime Membership price before it goes back to the $249 family membership price!

You can GIFT a MEMBERSHIP HERE to any family, organization, teacher or classroom or register your own family here. It’s really made for ALL AGES – from pre-school age to lifelong learners!

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BOOTS & BANGLES : The Small Business Sisters PODCAST RELEASED!

My sister and I were so excited to release the first three episodes of our podcast called BOOTS & BANGLES : The Small Business Sisters!

Here are the first three episodes, where we talk about….

Episode 1 : Growing Up in Silicon Valley ~ Mary & Ann talk about growing up in the heart of Silicon Valley surrounded by tech, wealth and opportunity… and both moving out of the area to start retail/product based businesses.

Episode 2 : Covering Your Tail : Mary & Ann talk about all the possible pit-falls in small business and how to avoid them, from insurance, record keeping, entities, employees, workers comp and so much more. PODCAST SPONSOR : G5 AGENCY Life’s too short to suffer headaches about insurance. Enjoy what you love, and leave the rest to us.

Episode 3 : Not All Good Ideas ~ Mary and Ann discuss how in small business, not all ideas are good ideas. They give tips on concrete things to consider when trying to decide if you should run with your idea or go back to the drawing board.

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MUDROOM UPDATE

The mudroom was living up to it’s name… it had gotten pretty rough from bummer lambs, bottle calves, dogs, kittens, baby chicks and who knows what else! My favorite way to clean a room like this is to pull everything out, scrub, paint, clean and reimagine how it can be more useful!

It’s far from perfect… we cleaned the old concrete floor as best we could and slapped some RED (because why not!? Instagramers had very strong opinions on my red floor! 🤣) oil-based floor paint on it and added more coat hanging space since the girls are getting bigger and their tiny toddler coats that fit under the windows don’t fit so much anymore.

I washed the hand-me-down rugs my mom gave me that faded a bit from front porch sun and rebuilt a boot rack on the other wall with Tess. It’s the crooked—est boot rack you’ve ever seen after a few struggles to do it right but you know what… I’m the 80% is good enough person and Tess was so proud we just rolled with it.

Hoping to keep those farm babies in the new baby barn and keeping this mud room and space for boots, backpacks, jackets….. and dogs. 😂

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FIVE MARYS CUSTOM MEAT PLANT

We officially started digging! The plans are all approved, permits issued, contractors and engineers ready to go… and the ground finally dried out enough to start working!

We’ve been working on this project for FIVE years – it’s one of the biggest undertakings we’ve done to date and we are just so excited (and a little nervous!) to get started on the build.

Here’s a photo from 2019 when Brian and I went to Kansas to Walton’s School of Meat to learn more about the equipment and process we will need to do this right from the start! I’m working on a blog post to share the whole journey, why we decided to move locations (THREE TIMES) and the decisions along the way.

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I think that about wraps it up for this week! Thanks for reading and for being a part of our days here at Five Marys. We are so thankful to have YOU in our community to share all the fun and daily happenings around here!

-Mary & Brian