Time crunch now.

Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved.

You're looking at parts and pieces of three separate items there. There are parts and pieces of a lot more scattered across the workbench outside the range of the shot.  The piece that consists partly of those small silver squares might be done later today; might be tomorrow.  He's feeling the time crunch now, because he's had so little studio time for months.

That's been largely because we've been entirely without help with labor all year. I can't do the kinds of heavy things I used to do; nearly dying will do that, especially when they can't fix what's wrong. And it's been literally impossible to find anyone all year willing to do this kind of labor. We pay well, far better than anyone else is paying, because should be able to make a decent wage, but increasingly, people don't know how to do this kind of work, or more, to the point, don't want to do it no matter how well it pays. 

That's going to change on Monday; River and his brother are both back, and both in need of work, so Wings will have help again. But we need to bring in enough sales to keep them employed. I also need to be able to make sure we can get out of this year and into 2021 safely, and make sure some other folks make it, too, if we can.

I am still in full-blown shingles-vax reaction and way, way behind now (if you want to know what it feels like, think mono and flu simultaneously, with all the autoimmune joint and nerve pain besides). I have so much work yet to do, so the rest is cut-and-paste, but the only thing that really matters is that we're running out of time to make enough holiday sales to get us (and others) through the next spring, so please share the links. Wings's phenomenal new masterwork went up Wednesday; you can find the post here. It is truly amazing, and it's looking for its home.

We were very blessed a few weeks ago to be able to cover November's expenses and get hay for the horses and firewood for the winter. But it's December now, and my Patreon payout yesterday was down by some $400+ (now it's down only $300+). I'm pretty sure a couple of them are folks whose credit cards expired and they just need to update their accounts, so if that's you, please check your subscriptions; this is a BIG hit for us. But most of them, I suspect, are folks who simply can't swing it this month, because four years of a Nazi gutting everything and now a raging pandemic have destroyed people's safety nets. If that's you, don't worry about it. Unsubscribe immediately if you need to; things are hard enough without folks worrying about something like this, too. 

Of course, what that means is that I have to make up the difference with sales. As grateful as we are for our current blessings, we also know that real winter hasn't even arrived yet, and it will be a long one. Cases continue to spike state-wide and locally both, and deaths locally, too. Ski season opened Wednesday and they're allowing tourists in, unquarantined, as of today, which means that our local numbers are going to be deadly indeed. Meanwhile, the economy is wrecked already, the number of people who need help climbs by the day, and after refusing to do the minimum by locking down (she couldn't even last two weeks this time without weakening her own rules, and now people locally are paying for it), the governor has announced she'll soon be shifting to so-called "crisis standards" for hospitals, which means that if you're disabled or otherwise less likely to survive COVID-19, doctors can abandon your treatment entirely, let you die, and focus on those they think will make it. Which means, by very definition, wealthy and white, and Indigenous peoples will be left to die disproportionately, even though we already know that such appearances are NO predictor of who survives and who doesn't, and that this "underlying conditions" crap she's let her people flog for the last 10+ months is just another Trumpian lie. Our communities are dying, and it's about to get a lot worse, and we have to be able to help where we can.

This is all by way of saying that, blessings or no, I have still got to make consistent sales somehow, through the end of the year and beyond. In more ordinary years (long since gone now), our holiday sales alone carried us through the winter, the late winter/spring closure, and on toward summer. Those days are gone, and the closure is already here (and if not permanent, it's the next thing to it). We will still need to sell Wings's work regularly to make it. So please share the links, and if/when you're in the market for gorgeous, authentic, Spirit-infused Indigenous wearable art, Wings will have something perfect for you. There will be a brand-new masterwork coming today (featured tomorrow). The links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

Oh, and there are some additions to the wishlist: The towels folks took off it last month are the absolute best I've ever used in my life, so I put a few more sets on there; it will mean I don't have to keep running these two through the laundry all the time. Also, there's a hideously expensive chiropractic gun on there, but even at that price, it's only a couple of appointments and it's already paid for itself. It's for both of us, but mostly for Wings, and this is the model that was recommended to him. 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.