Currently: January

Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking of Fenton Ranch in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico … and January finally produced the winter we expected with FEET of snow! 

Home sweet home!

The icicles around the property are deadly!

Current mood: Content to be snowed in and cozy by the fire most of the month (except for almost every afternoon when we went out to move snow). 

Our view from our cabin.

Currently excited about: Visitors!! The end of the month produced 2 sets of back-to-back visitors braving the long haul to see us! More details about their visits to come. 

Currently not excited about: Some logistics involved for our summer plans … it will all be worth it in the end, but we have to throw a few curveballs to make it happen. 

Currently worried about: The future of health insurance and how it affects J in particular.  

Currently thankful for: Finding a forever home for the two kittens! I worked with a local program, Animal Amigos, and we quickly found new owners that would take the cats together earlier this month! We are hanging onto Mama Cat (Gibs/Gibby/Mrs.Gibbles) for at least a little while longer. We have some ideas about what to do with her come spring, but we shall see. I think she was depressed at first about losing her kittens, but now she is very affectionate with us and follows us everywhere! 

She does not like to be leashed, but she seems to keep herself out of harm's way.

Currently regretting: The LACK of wildlife we are seeing here in the Jemez Mountains. Our cabin window faces Santa Fe National Forest and a huge meadow. There are mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, elk and bear in the area and I fully expected to have some sightings! We’ve seen prints and scat a few times, but no live ones!

Currently amazed by: Our friends! Gosh I can’t say it enough. We have an amazing support system. I cannot believe how some have gone above and beyond to do special things for us. Also, thank you for all your comments, e-mails and texts from J’s blog posts about Crohn’s.

Currently proud of: I feel particularly bad ass this winter. J feels very, very bad about not being able to do as much as he usually can (who are we kidding, he would normally be doing the bulk while I stay inside). But, as we said, he is still not fully recovered, so I am doing 80% of the work around here. I tell him no worries! I will gladly hand over duties when I know he is back to normal. 

Trying to keep up with the mass of snow! 

Current confession:  I love cooking (we both do), but I really haven’t tried a new recipe since the summer of 2015! I tend to get into a cooking rut where I cycle through the same dozen recipes over and over again. J’s diet has changed a little bit and I knew I needed to track down a few new ones. I’m happy to say I found many keepers: Slow Cooker Massaman Curry, Shrimp Scampi, Pasta a la Carbonara and Butternut Squash Soup. (For the record, I will only make the Butternut Squash Soup one on very special occasions because, well, working with butternut squash is expensive and a lot of freakin work!)

Current guilty pleasure: Summer planning … we have some awesome things in store!!!

Currently reading: We are both on a reading roll! I finished 2 books this month and have started a 3rd. 

Tears in the Wind by Larry Semento — Not surprisingly, this is another Denali climbing book with a tragedy. A good friend knows the author and sent us a copy, knowing we would enjoy it. And we did! I will say it read like a journal, but it was still a very quick read. 

Minus 148 by Art Davidson — This is about the 1967 winter ascent of Denali. It is a harrowing tail and truly unbelievable what this team of 8 went through, so thus a compelling story. But I didn’t find the writing to be particularly good. The author babbled a little too much for my liking. 

Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly - I don’t love it so far, but it’s meant to be one of those deep, inspiration reads and it is short, so I am determined to get through it. 

No more kittens!

Currently watching on Netflix: We finally decided to upgrade to the 2 DVDs-out-a-time program … Our mailbox is 30 minutes away and we only go once a week, so we were growing too impatient with having only one DVD out at a time. And I suppose I should rephrase the “we upgraded” part to “my parents upgraded us.” Netflix was a Christmas gift to us in 2013 and we share the account with my dad. Since he is now Netflix-addicted, we decided it would become a Christmas gift that keeps giving year after year.