If only.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

The clouds last night and this morning insist that a change in the weather is imminent.

If only.

Instead, it's deadly dry and arid, with no chance of anything for the rest of the month, if the long-range forecast is to be believed. Beautiful bookends to the day notwithstanding, aridification of literal and metaphorical sorts is killing everything now.

Right now, it's time that's drying up on me as fast and as thoroughly as the dust-bowl land outside the window. We shelled out the $500 on Saturday on the rest of the firewood (for now; there's at least six months of winter ahead), plus another ~$400 an hour and a half ago for the rest of the hay (and all of this has been diverted from my eye fund), and the farrier and vet on Friday, and Wings still needs supplies and I can't even get to that. I'm beyond frustrated at this particular moment, and my pain levels are off the charts, and I cannot do a damn thing about any of it. I've got to get outstanding sales tied up, I've got to find a way to squeeze in a supply run for his work in the next few days, and I've got to get a thousand and one things done around here, plus I still have to keep making sales too. Instead, all I get is interruptions. and derailments from all of the above.

Yes, this is our busiest time of year, but that's the nature of what we do; from October 1st through year's end, it's 16-hour+ days, seven days a week. No breaks. And because of the shipping mess, we're in crunch time already. For those folks having us hold items, we need to get this wrapped up now because of said shipping mess. Also, there's new work here, eight pieces in total, including one big item that needs to find its home.

Yes, it always comes back to needing to make more sales. A lot more, because we have two years' worth of a shattered pandemic economy to make up for, by which I mean we need to gain more ground ourselves financially to be able to be sure of making it through the winter. And again, if you're planning on commissioning gifts for the holidays, DO IT NOW. [And that includes just ordinary orders for the holidays, too.] Yes, I mean NOW. We're dealing with the same supply-chain issues as everyone else, and at some point soon, Wings is going to have to get silver and stones to produce holiday inventory, and I'm hearing that the price is already spiking on the metals. More to the point of what customers care about, we also can't guarantee shipping times this year, because see above. But I've posted a ton of Wings's new work lately, and there will be more in the days and weeks to come. If I could sell one of the big works, like one of the belts, maybe I could get us on the drill list for the well that is the only thing that's going to keep this land alive. But I've got way too much to do and too few hours and other resources to do it. 

Anyway, I have GOT to continue to make sales, so links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the ladders, because see above, and coffee coffee coffee, which we're finding it harder and harder to get locally);
• 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.