Tinderbox.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

More smoke haze, this to the south yesterday. Which is a exactly the opposite way of the wind direction from the known fire at Cook's Peak yesterday, and Wings said he saw a plume at Truchas Peak, so there as obviously another ignition somewhere, albeit an unreported one.

The Cook's Peak blaze went from 0 to over 2,200 acres in the space of half a day (and that was overnight, in the cool, quiet hours), so it's now apparently completely uncontained and evacs are mandatory in some areas. Today's winds are once again blowing from south-southwest to north-northeast, so it's carrying it away from us, but there's a lot of habitat that's going to get eaten up by this thing. Still no word on ignition source, either. Then again, they've never admitted to the plane crash that started one on the ridgeline a couple of years ago, because around here, connected colonizers get protected, so here we are. 

And these jackasses want to expand the airport (a potential source of wildfire all on its own now) and desecrate another mountain at the Ski Valley, and both will probably happen, because that's what they do here. "Billionaire environmentalist," my fat ass; he's as deadly a colonizer as they come.

Meanwhile, the winds are howling; the humidity is sixteen percent; and the land is a tinderbox. One spark, and it all goes up. In the meantime, we get to deal with the stress and strain of the.se winds on our bodies, which for me means pain levels jacked beyond their already unbearable levels.

I said yesterday that this is going to be another rough week, but I had no idea. Good thing Wings actually looked at the calendar this morning, because I had the wrong day and date in my head for my eye appointment, and it would really have sucked to make a trip to Santa Fe for nothing right now. But this is what happens when there's too much to do and too little time and too few resources, particularly my own physical ones. I am overwhelmed by everything I need to get caught up, and everything I still need to do to keep pace with this year's tax burden, never mind our medical expenses or what the land needs. Two separate four-figure checks paid out on Wednesday. Meanwhile, my Patreon is down by nearly $100 this month, and sales have been . . . few and far between, to put it mildly. I'll be shelling out another four figures on my eyes this week, and I cannot put that one off any longer. I'm still debating whether to keep my pain therapy appointment, which will be $500 out of pocket, up front, every single time. And without plastic, we have to pay cash in full for everything.

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 and the Thermacell lanterns; the flies are already out, so the mosquitoes won't be far behind);
• 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.