Thursday, October 1, 2020

Flaming red sky.

Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved.

Yes, I know both the state and the local stenographers are saying that that flaming red sky is from controlled burns to the west in Carson and mostly from northwest out-of-state wildfires in CO and WY.

And just like with the lies over the pandemic reporting, this is why we can trust anything they say.

That smoke yesterday didn't come from the northwest. It came from the southeast, billowing straight out of Pueblo Canyon, driven here on a wind direct from the southeast. But truth doesn't matter to anyone; in a colonial society, it never has, y'all just thought it did because the lies weren't about you or your survival. We had a blood moon last night, too, also courtesy of the same smoke.

October first. The Day is just over a month away. I refuse to get caught up in the nonsense; we need to survive. And since this is my birthday month, I've decided I'm going to celebrate all month long (links are below if you want to help). Spirit knows there's been precious little to celebrate over the past year.

But the pandemic conditions and the drought are not going away. They're now officially forecasting a drought-ridden winter, so this will be the hardest kind of winter it's possible to have here. Give us three feet of snow and subzero temps any day over this. But nope; our water woes are only going to get worse. We have to be able to drill, and soon, but I don't have $15K lying around to make it happen.

It will also mean that we can expect sales to continue to be terrible. As I said, thanks to a friend, we got September completely covered. If my Patreon clears properly today  (yes, it's still down by ~$110 a month, but I mean the rest of it), then I'll pay the quarterly taxes tomorrow. If I could make a couple of large sales, I could feel fairly confident that I've got October covered, but not until then, because there are still all the regular bills, plus allowing for medical and other stuff that's bound to crop up. Which means that, no matter how sick I still feel from this vaccine, I've got to get on it. I'm still delaying the tow and the car repair because it's going to be many more hundreds of dollars than we can afford. Selling Wings's newest work would do it: It's the "Summer" entry in Wings's limited series of necklaces, The Four Seasons ("Winter" sold back in, well, winter; "Spring" is still available here; and "Fall" is, of course, yet to come). You can see it here, and it's incredible.

We're still going to need help to make sales through the rest of this awful year. I'm not asking for donations; there are too many people worse off than us, people who don't know where their next meal is coming from, who very shortly may not have (or already don't have) a roof over their heads. But this pandemic has killed tourism for Indigenous artists like Wings, and has killed everyone's sales. Businesses are closing left and right here, and we're blessed to be able to work out of our home, but still, sales are, in relative terms, down to nothing.

You can help by sharing our links. You can especially help if you're in the market for high-end, Spirit-infused Indigenous wearable art, for yourself or as a gift, by considering Wings's work for purchase. It's also  back-to-school season, even if remotely in some places, with all the events that that entails; birthdays come and go year-round; Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas especially will all be here before we know it. 

The links are here:

And making sure everything's covered? That part of it is all on me, no matter how sick I am, no matter how much pain I'm in, no matter how little sleep I get. And with this hanging over me, I'm getting precious little sleep now. We need to be able to continue to help folks, and we're going to keep on doing it. But to do that, and to keep our own heads above water, we need to bring in sales closer to normal rates. Items from the wishlist help, too; most important at the moment is the Lamina Saver for Miika. The farrier changed his appointment from yesterday to Thursday, so that's another expense, but this helps with prevention. But the big thing is bringing in sales, so please help us do that if you can. 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.


No comments :

Post a Comment