Best of 2018

Happy New Year everyone! We are definitely ready for 2019. 2018 was such a mixed bag for us, although, in the end, we wouldn’t trade the year and experiences for anything!! Here’s our “best of” list for 2018. Biggest Risk Leaving our role as property caretakers and environmental educators at Fenton Ranch in New Mexico…

Currently: June

Currently living/working in: Wait, has all of June really passed? Holy cannoli, we truly have been running at warp speed while trying to juggle fiery balls mixed in with sharp knives. Okay, quite the exaggeration, but I’m known for that. Anyway, a million things have been going on in June. I will spare you all the…

Saying Goodbye to Fenton Ranch

2 years. It’s the longest we’ve spent in one place since we embarked on our life less ordinary in 2011. So basically an eternity. New Mexico–the 15th state we’ve collectively lived in–unexpectedly stole our hearts. To get even more poetic and cheesy, we were mesmerized by the spell cast by the land of enchantment. Justin…

Currently: May

Currently living/working in: Enjoying our last few weeks at Fenton Ranch in New Mexico before we close this chapter of our life and hit the road to work for Leave No Trace in June (Fenton Ranch wrap-up post forthcoming!) Current mood: A tad overwhelmed (mainly me) by all the details involved with the transition, but in…

Currently: April

Currently living/working in: Nearly done with our 5-week spring teaching session at Fenton Ranch. The teaching schedule is so busy, but it goes so fast! Current mood: Pumped for our summer 2018! A few currently posts ago, I lamented that our summer was looking pretty boring. Boy was I wrong. Currently amazed by and proud…

Currently: March

Currently living/working in: We are enjoying the quiet of Fenton Ranch for just a few more days until the school children return for their environmental education program! The spring session only lasts 5 weeks, with kindergarteners coming up to the ranch for just the day, 1st graders for 1 night and 3rd graders for 2…

Exploring Southern New Mexico

New Mexico is a darn big state. Even though we’ve been living here on and off for 2 years (holy cow!), we’ve hardly explored half of it. Little by little, we are trying to see more. Because our nomadic half-time RV, half-time hiker friends, BJ & Clara (Shadow & Country Mouse), put down temporary roots…

Currently: February

Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking Fenton Ranch in New Mexico … nothing much to report on that end. It’s been a quiet winter compared with last year! Current confession: February was a short month, and that’s my excuse for posting “Currently” so late. Current mood: Oy vey, it’s been quite a month. Actually, quite…

Currently: January

Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking Fenton Ranch in New Mexico! I believe our Jan. 21 snowstorm was retribution for getting off easy with the mild winter we’ve had (and continue to have). Their 3-inch prediction turned into 15 inches! It was beautiful and necessary, but did I mention our snowblower decided to break that…

Exploring New Mexico: Guadalupe Mesa

Native Americans have inhabited New Mexico for more than 2,500 years and thankfully, the state has preserved so much of their living culture with a number of national monuments. But, there are also 100s of ancestral sites dotting the land as virtually untouched and unknown treasures. Thanks to local knowledge, we explored Guadalupe Mesa last…

Revolving Door of Visitors

For 7 days straight, we’ve hosted 3 different sets of back-to-back visitors! Hosting people is one of my favorite things to do, but being nomadic has made it a little more challenging for most people to plan trips. Now that we’ve been “settled” in New Mexico for nearly 2 years, more and more peeps are…

Currently: December

GOODBYE 2017 AND HAPPY 2018 EVERYONE!!! I feel like this Currently post is a little long-winded, so consider yourselves warned … Currently living/working in:  Caretaking Fenton Ranch in northern New Mexico. I have to say, while we love epic snowstorms, not having an ounce of snowfall around these parts has made our caretaking job much…

More Visitors at Fenton!

I can’t say this enough. I LOVE hosting people! So given the fact we’ve stayed in one place for more than a few months, Fenton Ranch keeps on proving to be a perfect place for doing that. Justin’s sister (Jamie) and her wife (Rachel) were our latest visitors! Their stay was filled with lots of hiking,…

Currently: November

Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking the school’s property, Fenton Ranch, in the Jemez Mountains. More than property caretaking, though, we have spent most of the month chin deep in product specs, tester quotes and creative adjectives to describe “lightweight” to meet our magazine deadlines for our gear testing submissions. Current mood: Mentally exhausted with a…

Thanksgiving at Fenton Ranch

We successfully hosted our first Thanksgiving at Fenton Ranch! J’s mom, sister, husband and 2 kids drove from Denver for the celebration. We haven’t hosted a Thanksgiving–much less any holiday–since 2010, so it was a real treat to have the ability to host once again. ***Warning, picture-heavy post!*** J’s mom came a few days in…

Mrs. Gibbles

I know I owe y’all a blog post, so I am going to take this opportunity to do a quick, picture-heavy post about Mrs. Gibbles, our cat. Everyone loves cats, right??? It’s been a year since Mrs. Gibbles, the mystery cat, showed up at Fenton Ranch, starving and—unbeknownst to us at the time—nursing some newborn…

Currently: October

Currently living/working in: We finished teaching the kids at Fenton Ranch Oct. 12, so from now through March, we wear the main hat of property caretakers. This entails greeting weekend guests (faculty/staff of the school who can reserve the main house as a benefit), doing maintenance projects and general upkeep, along with a few bigger projects.…