Currently living/working in: We are back to caretaking Fenton Ranch in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico and teaching kids (5th, 4th & 2nd graders) environmental education! The fall session of teaching will run through mid-October, while the caretaking role will be all winter.
Current mood: Really excited to be settled down again for a bit and to get to teach these private school kiddos again. This is our 4th “semester” of teaching! There is just something we love about this job and this place that makes us want to keep returning. We’re meeting more and more wonderful people in this tiny community (I’m talking 25 houses, mostly seasonal) and it just keeps affirming our decision to stay on as long as we can.
Why yes those are goats. Our friend/neighbor Jeff has 2 goats and we went hiking with them.
Currently excited about: Football season! Justin is the true fan and fantasy football expert, but there is just something I love about Sunday football watching. Now, with that being said, we still need to jimmy our old-school antenna to see if we can get NBC, ABC, FOX & CBS in order to watch at home. Last year, we were able to get FOX and a static-filled NBC is you sat on the east side of the cabin. So wishful thinking I know. If no stations come in, we will be relying on our neighbor friends for their cable and the pub that is 30 miles away with a crack through the single 13-inch TV screen.
Currently not excited about: Mrs. Gibbles’ gifts. Just to recap, there’s this cat that adopted us here at Fenton last fall. We fell in love with her and took care of her all winter. We left her to fend for herself with other Fenton Ranch staff this summer while we traversed the country in a van. We reunited two weeks ago and she is ecstatic. We know this because she has brought us not 1, not 2, but TWENTY-FIVE mice, birds & chipmunks as welcome back gifts.
She looks innocent, but is far from it.
Currently worried about: Logistics for making a few upcoming doctor appointments. We created these inconveniences by living 2 hours from the closest city … but that is the tradeoff we choose for the life we have.
Currently thankful for: Pretty unique bear sighting! The day we returned to Fenton Ranch, a bear decided to visit our yard (YIKES!!). He actually broke our gate open to get to some birdseed I had out to fill the feeders (OOPS!), putting him just inches from our front door (DOUBLE YIKES!!) before we scared him off (PHEW!!). We are all for respecting wildlife and their space, so I understand this could have been an unsafe situation, but it was darn cool.
Currently proud of: Updates to our website. Stay tuned …
Currently regretting: Damn storage unit confusion. We moved one box to another and forgot to bring it to New Mexico, where we wanted it.
Currently amazed by: We were in New Mexico for the solar eclipse. J thought it was “meh,” but I was pretty amazed by the event even if we weren’t in the path of totality. And the fact that it fell on my birthday! How memorable.
Current confession: I have been avoiding talking about updates on my book. Maybe I’ll talk about it next month.
Current guilty pleasure: We have a few weddings coming up this year and are planning travel around them! We just finished planning out a fall trip to South Carolina.
Currently reading: 80% done with The Yellow Envelope by Kim Dinan. I was really excited for this book because it’s a memoir about world travels and I sort of “know” the author through cyber connections. However, I’ve been a little disappointed. I LOVE Kim’s blog, but I don’t know, the book isn’t quite doing it for me. It is a quick and easy read, and maybe I’ll love it by the end.
Currently watching on Netflix: Back to the Netflix DVD plan, so we get to watch 2 movies/week. We are still on the search for a TV series that is completely over and available via Netflix. We are currently watching “Freaks and Geeks” (it’s awesome). Future contenders are “Longmire” & “Bloodline.” Taking suggestions!
Yeah, I was waiting for a new post! Gross cat gifts, scary bear visit! Still not looking forward to camping again. 🙁
I just turned in my 15-page Italian article. We’ll see if it gets published in the local Medio Volturno history society’s journal. The difficult thing is nobody here in America can help me to revise it!
We’ve got a day off to catch up on blogs. Better dead mice than live ones. Great job Mrs Gibbles. Enjoy your fall and winter
I’m currently taking a deep dive back into Charmed on Netflix. I can’t believe it will be 20 years old next year! #we’reold 😉
LOL at Mrs. Gibbles. That’s hilarious! That means you have to stay for-ev-er. You can’t disappoint Mrs. Gibbles!
I need to email you back.
Funny that you guys are sort of settled and I have no idea where I’m going to be living in six weeks. I’m not good at that anymore. Glad you are reunited with the cat! A book update would be good! Don’t give up!