A touch of autumn fire.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

Yesterday was terrible, and by last night we were both utterly and inexplicably wiped out, as though something vampiric had drained us of every last drop of energy. [Probably the endless parade of colonizers invading our space unmasked and unvaxxed, in flagrant violation of state and local health orders and proud of the harm they're doing to the Indigenous people whose lands they covet.] And despite that, I still couldn't fall asleep until somewhere around 4 AM (and I was back up a little after 7, because there's just too much to do). But there were two beautiful gifts last night: that, above, little flames luminous in the light, a touch of autumn fire to match the other one in the sky.

At the moment, Wings is chainsawing dead stands of red willow and hauling them off to the back forty (okay, back ten, but you get the idea). It's hot, hard, dirty work, and it's absolutely necessary to save the rest of them. Without drilling that well? There's nothing else we can do, except arduous Band-Aids like this.

Before we get to the usual, there are two young Indigenous families who have one shot at having homes of their own. The first is the one I mentioned yesterday, with a very limited window of 30 days in which to buy their rental home, which is on their home tribal lands. We shuffled some things and I put off a couple of things and we donated. You should donate, too, here. Time is of the essence, and they're up over $23.6K as of this moment, which is great, but they've got along way to go. As I understand it, the list cost of the house is $45K, but then there are closing costs and also the repairs without which, unless completed, there will be no closing, of course. The estimate for all of it is $60K, which means there is still more than 40% to go. But it's doable! So help them do it.

The second one is Native mama of little ones who fled IPV and has spent more than a year now in the endless daily struggle to fund one more week of motel rooms so that they have a roof over their heads and relative safety compared to the streets. She's had a chance, allegedly, at apartment applications . . . except not, because no apartment complex will even consider the app of a person who's been unhoused for any length of time, never mind more than a year. An eviction, even if it's not your fault? NOPE. No one will rent to you, even if you could afford it. She's got a PayPal pool up now, trying to raise $20K for one of two things: either a year's worth of rent in advance, so that maybe she can get herself and her babies safely housed and start to rebuild a rental history, or a down payment on a small house, which will probably be a serious fixer-upper, at which point we'll all have to try to help her crowdfund the rest. That PayPal pool is here. It's brand new, with only $320 in it so far; we all need to change that. Unfortunately, unless I make a big sale this weekend, we're tapped out until at least the second, at which point I can kick in a little from us, hopefully. 

Meanwhile, there's all the rest, taxes and eye appointments and dog and horse vets and farrier and winterizing and and and . . . .

Which means that I have to make sales in a pandemic-ridden climate where almost no one's buying, because folks are afraid of how much worse all of this might get. We were blessed  by a donation from one pair of friends and two sales by two others earlier this week, and now I'm not worried about making it out of September in one piece. But I still have to make sales to get us through October and the rest of the year, I have to bring in something somehow, and I can't do it alone. I especially can't do it alone when it comes to bringing in enough to remedy the disaster depicted in those photos in Monday's post. Oh, and I added those damn ladders to our Amazon wishlist, since Wings insists on cosplaying the Lorax these days, and I'd like him to keep life and limb (his, anyway) intact.

As promised, Wings has 2 new pairs of earrings and another new cuff, plus a belt buckle that is . . . newish; reconceived, shall we say. I'll be posting those this afternoon. With any luck, there'll also be the next two of the gemstone bead sets for fall hopefully also this weekend. I've also already posted 4 new pairs of silverwork earrings here (one of those is now sold), the first of those pairs of silver-and-stone earrings and one complete group (necklace/earrings/coil) of gemstone bead jewelry here, a second three-piece gemstone bead collection here, and five new pieces that I posted last Monday: three Warrior Woman pins, two absolutely incredible new cuffs. If I could sell them, or any combination of any of his other newish pieces, it would get us out of this month. If I could sell one of the big ones, like one of the belts, maybe I could get us on the drill list. But I've got way too much to do and too few hours and other resources to do it. 

But there's all that new work, and I'd be grateful to everyone who shares all of it, and of course, if you're in the market, keep us in mind for purchases. Thanks to a dear friend, it looks like I'll be able to pay our quarterly taxes later this week and our other bills, but there is still my eye appointment to schedule (that'll set us back about $1K before it's done), and I really do need to build up some reserves to get us just a tiny bit ahead of the eight-ball of expenses.

Anyway, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are the ladders, because see above, and coffee coffee coffee, and Miika's LaminaSaver supplement);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to cover all this staggering outlay somehow and get us through what's left of the year. And right now? I have no way to do it.  But there's lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.