Our game cam caught a glimpse of the wild pigs in the fog by the duck pond. We haven’t seen them in person yet, but Stephen said he saw evidence of their digging a few days ago so we know they are making their way around the ranch again.

January is coming to an end, and I am longing for the lightness of spring. I feel the heaviness of this winter in my bones. We ran out of propane in our tank yesterday. Stephen had been checking it regularly, but the gauge was incorrect. No cooking on our gas stove, no heating for our radiant heated floors, no hot water for bathing. We went into town last night for dinner and ran into our contractor at the hardware store. He was buying us a small propane tank to get us through the next few weeks until we can get our large tank refueled. He’s a really thoughtful, kind man. He was going to drive back up to our ranch last night to set it up, but we told him not to bother–the morning would be fine. We’re not sure when the fuel truck will be up here to refill our tank. Our dirt road is in really poor condition with all the rain. We’ve had gravel dumped on the muddiest spots, but without 4WD or AWD, there’s the risk of getting stuck in the mud or slipping off the road.

I attempted to begin the 2016 Reading Challenge with the book Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry which was published in 1960 (a book published before I was born). I got halfway through and gave up. There were humorous sections in the book, but I had to force myself to read it. These days I’ll take anything easy. So one day I’ll perhaps try another Wendell Berry novel, just not that one.

The book I just finished and loved was called Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. I googled the author after I finished reading the book and found out that it was made into a movie with Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and will be released in the US this year. I just started reading Windfalls by the same author.

Last weekend I hosted an herbal gathering for the twenty women in my herbal class that ended last November. Only three ladies from my class showed up, two of whom helped me plan for the event. There were some who let me know ahead of time they wouldn’t be able to make it, and others who said they would come but never showed up. I was disappointed for days. I had been so nervous prior to last Saturday wanting the day to be perfect and needlessly so.

Before this blog post turns into what is going wrong this month, I’ll just share a few more things that are making me happy this month. We lit a fire in our wood stove last night and this morning. It is usually so warm with the radiant heating that we don’t need the wood stove. It was a pleasant gift this morning to feel the warmth from the fire.

Am I weird to be craving collard greens and swiss chard? It is even weirder to write that eating collard greens and rainbow swiss chard is making me happy?

That’s enough for now.