A marker.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

This day is a marker for us in the best way, and a pair of flickers decided to join us for it. The snow decided to join us, too — only intermittent flurries, but on a day when the forecast has continued to insist throughout that there is no chance of anything? We'll take it.

Beyond that, though, it's been all work, all the time. That's what it's like here anyway, but especially this time of year, and we lost two weeks in terms of Wings's work in the studio. Today, at long last, he was finally able to get the new regulator working, so he'll be trying to make up for lost time, but . . . two weeks out of our busiest season of the year? It's catastrophic.

Of course, it's been a catastrophic year, sales-wise and otherwise, and it seems utterly intent on going out entirely on-brand. Yesterday's unanticipated $!30 expense for the ATV battery is going to become something about five times that, because not only was the old battery bad, but apparently the starter is, too. it will have to be hauled down to the local place (and it can't be started, so getting that sucker up onto the trailer is gonna be a nightmare in and of itself), and we just don't have the money for it now. I still have to cover prepayment of next year's taxes, to the tune of a good four figures, before the end of the year, and I have no idea how I'm going to do that, given how slow sales have been all year (and losing several hundred dollars' worth of pledges on my Patreon this year has only worsened that). Now, if Twitter collapses? So does our best source of sales and subscriptions, by far, and I don't know how we survive that.

I will be doing nothing but pushing sales for at least the next five weeks. But I need to make this happen sooner rather than later, because the tax burden won't wait, and there's too much else that needs doing, even as my illness leaves me with less function by the day now. It's everything, from pain to balance to ability to walk properly to ability to use my hands properly, and the damage is increasing even as I'm running out of time to do it all. And Twitter's incipient destruction is going to deprive us of our biggest sales audience, and that means I'm going to be putting in twelve-hour days after the holidays trying to set up alternatives that won't have the effectiveness or the reach, and I am so depressed by it all by now that there aren't words. Which means I need help to get everything covered. We. Need. Sales.

All the links are here; please, share them, too (and there's a new wishlist priority, the automatic composter, which will do wonders for saving on waste and allow Wings to compost the land and trees regularly even through the winter; my physical function is impaired enough now that things can only get done if I have the help of equipment like this):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are, first and foremost, the automatic composter and the wheelbarrow, then the other ladder);
• 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.