Nothing to show for it.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

That is what the north fence of the horses' pen looks like. 

Those are tumbleweeds.

That V in the ProPanels? The wind did that.

Why, yes, you are right: You don't see any snow to speak of. Virtually none on the peaks, either. All that fury, all that destruction, and nothing to show for it except, well, the destruction. We got lucky. We lost a birdhouse, all our power and water for two days, a fridge full of food, and $500 spent on water and a hauling tank for the horses, since it looked like we might not get water back for the week (or even until Monday). The wind chills yesterday were single digits, lower at night, and two feet of water can freeze mostly solid. It's unsafe for the horses, but without power? No working heating element for the troughs. No water coming out of the standpipe, either. We didn't have a choice, and we're just damn lucky that we had made enough sales in November to be able to drop the $400 on the hauling tank and the extra on the water, because we were completely out by yesterday afternoon.  [My laptop and my cell phone were both completely dead by yesterday evening, too. I was completely cut off from everything; the only saving grace was that Wings was able to recharge his phone in the truck with a car charger.]

Yeah, I need to make up for all that expense somewhere, but we didn't lose our roof. No walls. No animals. Everybody's safe. Our house is SOLID, because those were straight-shear horizontal winds blasting us head-on at more than seventy miles an hour for a solid hour or more. Lightning balls sending tracers over our east field, too. Never seen anything like it.

But it's been a hell of a bad week. After two days without, I finally got a shower tonight and was able to wash my hair. Can't do much about the spike in lupus and other pain, though. Tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday are already a mess, and I could not remotely afford to lose two full days right now, but here we are. I'll be up for a couple more hours yet, at least, doing dishes and laundry and other work because I won't be around most of tomorrow to do anything. And this is absolutely the last year ever that we let doctors stampede us into appointment after appointment to get them on the end of the year schedule. We don't have that kind of time.

Speaking of health issues, our doctor's practice is a certified community health center. They are currently in the middle of their year-end appeal, and since they are a qualifying non-profit, donations are tax-deductible. They treat a large cross-section of grossly-underserved local populations, and they need help now. Since this is the doctor who saved both our lives, we'll be giving again this year, no matter what. You should, too, and tell 'em we sent you. You can do that here.

But the work just keeps piling up. So do the expenses. I'm currently waiting for delivery of the other beads and cabs that Wings needs for his next set, and for several other things in the pipeline. There was yesterday's small fortune to the doctor. And all of that means that I need to bring in enough to cover all that outlay, because none of this comes cheap.

Yeah, it always comes back to that: 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 have about one more week for shipping, and then no guarantees on delivery in time. 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);
• 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.