Birthday flowers! He brought them to me yesterday. My gift is on order (entirely practical; a pair of work stands for my laptop and tablet, to keep me able to sit up straight). The one he's making for me (because he pretty much always makes one for me) is also awaiting an order, a specialized mandrel that he will also be using for inventory, and is also practical. last year, he made me a set of seven silver bangles, each set with seven stones. This year, it's seven bangles, but square, and copper, to help my hands and wrists.
Also, speaking of birthday flowers, my glads had seemingly withered in the cold, but this morning, the scarlet ones have bloomed, and the lilac-colored ones are about to do likewise. On Sunday, a giant errant dragonfly circled around me; yesterday, a small golden butterfly. It's the last we'll likely see of all of them this year, because suddenly, as of this morning, they are predicting a decent chance of snow for Sunday evening into Monday. They all feel like very personal gifts now, and given how terrible this year has been, I'm going to be thankful accordingly.
Of course, there's still all the terrible. The fire is still raging over the ridgeline, apparently over 11,000 acres as of yesterday afternoon, and at zero percent containment yet today. I still need to find a way to cover Wings's aids (at 3 grand, not anytime soon). My laptop is still slowly dying, as is my camera, both of which are integral parts of our work. I was also reminded a couple of days ago that at some point, we need to buy hay for the horses for winter before 1) the price skyrockets even more than it already has, and 2) there's none left to buy at all. We used to have the best hay in the county; we could've sold it for top dollar, but we fed it to our own horses. The drought, though, which, as I said, has brought us less than no precipitation of any sort and is looking like it will bring us none for winter, either, has meant that nothing grows (which is why we need to drill the damn well). So somewhere, I need to come up with ~$1,550 to cover 100 bales of decent-quality hay for them. Yup. $15.50 a bale for just "decent"; not outstanding, not the stuff we used to be able to grow, just the kind that won't make them sick with mold and whatever other contaminants are in the cheap stuff. That's where this drought has put us now. Horse vet today with her meds; farrier on Thursday. And of course, I still need to figure out how to cover the ~$15K for drilling the well, so that maybe in future years, we won't be over this particular barrel. I have no idea how I'm going to do all this, but I do know that we need to make steady sales to survive.
Thanks to three such sales over the extended weekend last week, we're going to be fine for the rest of the month on regular bills. We mailed those a few days ago, including the monthly payment on my medical loan. No car tow and repair, though: Now we've discovered a place where the mice are getting in, yes, courtesy of the plumbers' fuckery, and since mice here carry hantavirus and plague, we have to get that fixed. We'll no longer be able to put anything aside for next month, in all likelihood, because while Wings has done the physical block-off and clean-up this morning, we have to get Nano out next week to resolve the plumbing issues; it can't wait any longer.] I still say that if you're planning on making donations to Indigenous folks on this day, please choose those who are unhoused, whose housing or food security is precarious, who have children who need things, who need to get medical care or prescriptions filled or a vehicle repaired. But if you're in the market to buy, please consider us, because two episodes of nearly dying were more than enough, but this year is already damn near killing me, and I have to get us through into next year safely somehow.
Winter is coming, though, and neither the drought nor the pandemic is going anywhere. Nor is all the fallout from it (see above), nor the big-ticket items I have to replace due to simple age and wear (also see above). We will need to continue to make consistent sales through the end of the year (because normally, it's our holiday-season sales that see us through the whole first half of the following year, although I doubt we'll make anything like that this year). So please share the links, and when you're in the market for gorgeous, authentic, Spirit-infused Indigenous wearable art, Wings will have something perfect for you. The links are here:
The best gift I could have today would be to make some steady sales, now, and in the days and weeks to come. Thanks.
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
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