Eerie.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

So far, it's looking like this is all we'll get: a little distant snow shower; nothing here on the land where we need it. The winds are wild, though. It's absolutely miserable to be outside, but I'm going to have to be shortly.

The weekend was . . . eerie. Saturday, it was the clouds and wind, none of which produced so much as a single drop, and just the strange feel in the air overall. Yesterday? Yesterday began with Wings noticing, up in one of the junipers, a dead magpie stuck in the branches next to the nest. It was still immature, but apparently it and an equally young mate had moved into the giant nest that their clan abandoned just weeks ago (we had a very, very unseasonally early brood this year, which means we'll have at least one more and possibly two). Broken neck.

It took some doing to piece it together, but as nearly as we can tell, what happened over night the previous night was this: Some giant raptor (probably the great horned owl, or at least that's what I think it was, that I saw diving across the highway a few nights ago) took the opportunity to grab a meal from the top of the tree. At the same time, an elk (yes, they're still showing up randomly in small numbers, always out of sight of humans) ambled along and decided to rub its antlers against the tree, startling the owl into dropping the bird, and in turn startling the elk into leaving a neat and unusual large pile of elk shit directly underneath the tree. Meanwhile, the owl had broken the magpie's neck, so it lay there overnight, caught just outside the nest, and its poor mate was freaked out, scared and unable to understand the what and the why, but still in mourning. So Wings managed to get the poor thing out of the tree and we gave it a decent burial where nothing can get at it. I have no idea whether the mate will return to the nest, or whether there are any eggs in it; if it doesn't, the small birds will move in in the fall.

And as if that wasn't enough, apparently our house is haunted. I mean, t was haunted before they'd finished building it, but those were benign spirits, Wings's ancestors coming in occasionally to look at the view from upstairs, seeing their land from a vantage point they'd never been able to see it in life. [Yes, literally haunted. Even the builders heard footsteps and voices when no one was there. But they're friendly.] Now, it seems, we have a dog ghost? Or multiples? One of the tasks I had set myself for yesterday was scrubbing the stovetop; another was my periodic removal of the sofa cushions, vacuuming out the dog hair and flipping them, and just generally freshening it up. I began by vacuuming the top surfaces; then I removed the left cushion . . . and did a double-take. There, in the corner, under the cushion, was A WHOLE STASH of dog kibble. FRESH kibble. Not at all stale. And no, not a single sign of a mouse, and since those little fuckers shit everywhere, there would've been plenty of evidence. I also don't have any idea how a tiny field mouse, or even a ::makes sign of the evil eye:: deer mouse (because they carry plague and hantavirus) could even carry all of that in here. I mean, it was a giant dog bowl's worth. All neatly pushed into the corner. And no, there was no way for it to get dropped or otherwise accidentally put there. And no, there was no sign of mice (or anything) in or under the couch or on the floor underneath.

So I'm left with the prospect of gremlins . . . or dog ghosts. I think the latter is safer. Anyway, it's all cleaned up now, but I still can't figure out how the hell it got there in the first place. Which presumably is the point; just to fuck with our heads for sport, as spirits seem to take so much joy in doing.

Anyway, that was the weekend, which means I haven't gotten caught up on much else; I can't seem to make it happen around all the daily derailments from what I intend to be doing. It's not helped by my pain levels, which the wind launches into the stratosphere, nor by the fatigue that goes with that. But with the two big tax payments we've already sent in, I've got to start making up for it somehow, and that means bringing in sales.

Like right away. In the best of times, we need to average one sale a week (any amount; it eventually averages out) just to break even. We're nowhere near that right now, thanks to this colonial government.

In the meantime, all of our links are here; BIG emphasis on sales for now, for obvious reasons. Basically, we need to bring in roughly one sale a week to cover everything anyway; if I can bring in just a couple more sales before month's end ($700-$1,000 worth), we'll be okay until it starts all over again in May. Here are all the links:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (new priority, because this week I've been forced to eliminate another staple from my diet just to function rather minimally, and someone mentioned that perhaps our old non-stick pans, which are in fact long since well beyond their useful date, are making the matter worse, so there's a non-PFAS replacement set at the top that would help with cooking/cleanup/my hands/my illness; and yes, the Zero-Odor sprays are still useful right now, although these days it's dusty dogs, not wet ones); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.