Over 100,000 acres, and the smoke plume is here.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

The fires are up over 100,000 acres, and the smoke plume is here. That's Pueblo Peak and the lower slope of Spoon Mountain as seen from our front door a few minutes ago — you know, those mountains you couldn't see on Friday evening because the particulate haze was so opaque? That up there is the smoke plume from the Cook's Peak Fire, which has moved far enough northward now for us to be able to see it.

The good news is that the winds are low today, and they can use aerial support.

The bad news is that there are allegedly thirty-on separate wildfires across the state, and NM doesn't have enough resources even for the [now two combined] Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon wildfire complex, never mind Cook's Peak and all the others. The complex is now the largest wildfire in recorded [NM] history, and they've managed to get 12% containment since the winds died down overnight. There's a small but decent chance of rain tomorrow, and a better one for Wednesday, and we've never needed it more. 

And I discovered this morning, along with the ability to stop and breathe for a moment, just how utterly exhausted I am from all of it, everything. It's not just the fear that the small blaze west of us cold turn into something, or that some jackass could throw a cigarette out the window racing along the highway. It's the inability to breathe in the smoke, the added full-body pain from the winds, the grief that is a physical thing at the loss of habitat.

And the knowledge that we are abandoned. Again, just as we have been with the pandemic. There has been not a word from the feds, and it's inexcuseable. The pandemic was that line in the sand, the one that whose crossing was unforgiveable, but this tears it completely. In. year when they have taken more from us than ever, and these politicians think they can extort our votes and money.

We sent off two four-figure checks to the tax man last week, one of them gigantic. Then Thursday we had to go to Santa Fe for my eye appointment, eight months overdue by now. I had prepared myself for a four-figure bill, which it was . . . but it was DOUBLE what I had anticipated. Two rounds of exams, one of them classed as "medical," plus contacts (with which my eyesight is MUCH better than with glasses) and glasses needed as back-up. And I have another $500 going out the door on Monday, because Wings insists that I keep my pain therapy intake appointment, and that will be three grand just on medical stuff in a matter of days. Meanwhile, my Patreon is down by nearly $100 this month, and sales have been . . . few and far between, to put it mildly. And without plastic, we have to pay cash in full for everything, so all that is money that's completely gone in two big chunks. and I have GOT to bring in some sales to replace it.

But I'm increasingly disabled, and I can't work if I can't get the pain under control, or get back my ability to walk [mostly] unhindered. So I need to find a way to do this, and I'll need help to get it all done. Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder, the Thermacell lanterns [the flies are already out, so the mosquitoes won't be far behind], and the liquid soaps, which prevent our hands from cracking and bleeding given that we're forced to wash them fifty times a day;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before the latter half of summer, and the tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's perhaps even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.