 |
| Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. |
Planting season.
That young Ponderosa pine and a beautiful cedar went where that one section of fence by the propane tank got blown down by that monster dust devil last month. It was time for it to go: Wings put it up in the first place as a wind break for the RV, because that's where the pilot was, and it was constantly getting blown out. When it was windy? Impossible to relight. But the old posts that held it in place had rotted through, probably an artifact of everything else related to that thing; the earth where it sat is only beginning to recover a bit. Even though only the tires were sitting on the ground (well, on blocks), it was as though the very presence of that thing poisoned the trees and soil. They're coming back now.
Anyway, one of Wings's friends who deals, among other things (all legal things; I'm talking about trees and plants and herbs of the decidedly non-psycho-affective variety) in trees needed some help. [Among other things, I gather he got screwed on a deal he made with a business to provide trees. And he does all the heavy labor himself, from harvesting and digging up and preserving root balls and planting and whatever, so if someone doesn't keep up their end of it? That's a hit, especially now.] So they worked out a deal and a trade, and we have some new trees. They planted these close to where that section of fence used to be, and they already will serve as a bit of wind break for the propane tank's enclosure, the bird feeder, the red willows' fence, and that corner of the house. We'll have birds nesting in them soon, probably. And this is one of the many reasons we love being home.
Then there's . . . everything else. We had four errands to run today, and the number of people who STILL refuse to mask up or glove up, or to maintain any semblance of social distancing in public . . . . We are not willing to get sick for their bullshit, but wow, does it make for some difficulties trying to maintain proper social distance ourselves when we can't avoid going out (and we couldn't; post office, scrip pick-up, hardware store, and dropping off docs at the tax preparer's all had to get done). With luck, though, we'll be in for the rest of the week, except maybe a post-office check at the end of the week.
Still, even here at home there are . . . issues. Several days ago (over a week now?), my laptop blew an A/C port, which means 1) I can no longer cool it while running it, and 2) if I need to plug any kind of USB thing into it, I have to take it to battery power. In the process, it borked both my sleep mode AND my e-mail, so if you've sent me a message and haven't heard from me, that's why; I can get incoming, but can't send outgoing. I tried to fix that the other day, got it to work briefly, but now? Who knows? It seems to be hosed all over again. Tonight will be spent trying to get it to work again. It's all complicated by the fact that, without that extra port, I have to stop using the laptop after short periods of time to let it cool, which is really disruptive to any kind of real work.
On top of all of that, my camera is on its last legs, there's no such thing as a bread machine anywhere (the one I really want, and cheaper, too, is this one, but out of stock until mid-June everywhere, apparently) and barely any paper towels to be had. We can't get the scrip for Miika unless and until the vet can come out and see her in person, and that may not even be on the 4th. The mower repair Thursday was just shy of $500, cash on the barrelhead. We still have to pay Ivan to till and disc and plant the fields. And we still don't know what our taxes are going to be (and no, we have NOT gotten any stimulus check, natch).
Anyway, the upshot is that we need to make sales. I think the fields are getting disced next week for planting; that's going to cost. So are the horses' vaxes and spring check-ups, which is tentatively scheduled for May 4th. Farrier's coming out again next month to do the work on Miika that she wouldn't let him do the other day, because the weather had her laminitis flaring and she was in too much pain to put full weight on that hoof to let him do her hind feet (she has to be done in stages, and yes, there will be masking and social distancing via the end of a lead). At some point, the dogs have to go in for their vaxes and so forth. And we both have doctor's appointments, which will be telemedicine via my laptop, assuming it holds, the first week of May. That's a hell of a lot of expense, over and above all the usual monthly expenses, monsoonal patterns of another sort, and I need to cover it somehow, hence the next graf:
Two weeks ago I featured, on Wings's site, some of his most valuable (and highest-priced) works (concha belts, necklace, earrings, etc.). If we could sell them all, we could sock 90% of it into savings and be assured of making it through the rest of the year and into the next, barring disaster. I don't actually have any real hope of doing that, but if you're one of the folks who's been looking at these works and thinking that someday you might want to invest the money in one or more? Now would be the time; it would help ensure our survival through this pandemic and likely to the first of next year, and help us to be able to help other folks in our community here who are going to need it badly. So please, this week especially, share all of our links, because while we're all in isolation? Income is already at virtually nothing, and we can survive the isolation, but not the inability to feed the maw of all the bills. The links are here:
Note: For now, please don't buy anything off the Amazon wishlist; to do so would be crossing a picket line, and some of their workers have struck this morning to fight for safer working conditions because their lives are being put at even greater risk during this pandemic. If you find one of the items elsewhere, wonderful (there's even a wishlist function where you can note that it's been purchased somewhere else).
Other than that, please share everything. Thanks.
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
No comments :
Post a Comment