Talk about stormy weather.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

That was the second storm that rolled through here last night. The first one didn't give us as much warning, and it was a banger, the rain every bit as loud as the thunder, bucketing down in torrents and pucntaauted by hail. It also included lightning that ignited a wildfire on the thoroughly-soaked slopes just north of here. Talk about stormy weather.

The second storm, the one visible up there, took a lot longer to build, and it hovered overhead for a good long while before dropping any rain. But then it rained for hours. And it's good, because less than a foot down? That earth is rock-hard and bone-dry. You don't have a generastion's worth of 500-year-drought intensifying into a half-decade (thus far) of 1,200-year-drought and then have a few weeks of rains magically take care of it all. The drought is still with us, and will be for a very long time.

On top of all the other problems facing this part of the world now.

There's a lot coming down the pike in the next few weeks for us, on a lot of fronts. There's the current tax bill, the regular installment payment for '21 taxes, due more or less now; there's the quarterly '22 payment due by mid-September. There's the vet and farrier bill coming up tomorrow for Miika, and that will be $350+. There's all the outlay last week on the last of the jmonthly bills and on medical stuff, and four figures' worth of medical stuff between now and the first week of September just for me, plus the cost of injections for Wings's sholder next week. It all has to be paid in full at the time. In cash.

And I hope very soon I'll have the fundraiser info to promote for Wings's son, because he needs all the help we can give him with this.

But I need help to bring in sales to cover it all. Going off the lupus meds has immediately and drastically worsened my connective tissue problems, and now it's not the meds keeping me awake, but the pain. It's hard to function, especially since the effects won't be clear of my system before the end of the year, probably, and that means I'm still dealing with intermittently dangerously low blood glucose levels, too. But I have to chase sales, and I can't do this alone.

Meanwhile, as you can see, Wings is still cranking out new inventory when he can, but he's suddenly having to be much more mindful of what he creates, given the crisis-level spike in silver prices. As I said earlier, we just learned that both silver suppliers in this state have more than tripled their silver prices (for some types of silver, much more), which has left me pretty badly shaken. And it's across the board; even small things, like findings and earring wires and backs, have gone way, way up. He's got enough for now to do what he needs to do, but nothing's going to change anytime soon, given that the justifications for it will be "supply-chain issues," "fuel prices," "war in Ukraine," and "inflation"; these prices are here for the foreseeable future. It's going to put a lot of Native smiths and jewelers completely out of business, and to make sure that Wings does not become one of them, I have GOT to make some sales. That's especially true with the holidays coming; these silver spikes are going to make this fall a crisis point for a lot of jewelers. Unfortunately, I'm being hobbled by everything else. All the links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority is first and foremost, the other ladder; also sheets);
• 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 late next year at the earliest, and this year's tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's 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.