Far too close for comfort.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

More jackassery this morning from the billionaire colonizer contingent. It's 90 fucking degrees in a twelve-hundred-year drought, the land is a goddamned tinderbox, we have a good brisk breeze blowing, and these fuckwits decide to set shit on fire. It's always the same spot, and the plume was growing fast. It appears that someone with some sense took over and doused it really, really fast, but that's far too close for comfort, and after last year's three megafires being started due to officials NOT checking to make sure burns were really OUT, there's no betting on it being actually extinguished. We'll have one eye on that spot all day now.

We got a couple of dozen tiny drops yesterday evening; nothing more. The rain forecast for today is basically nonexistent now. Everything's burning up, and there's no respite. Meanwhile, I have to make it rain in the other sense, too, if we're going to make it to and through the first of the month in one piece; so far it's not looking promising.

I'm still hoping to have those two new works today for the Accessories category (single barrettes). I also posted Wings's newest trio on Saturday, linked below, but I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. It's a medical necessity, not cosmetic, but try convincing this evil system of that. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb; I'm mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year, and my Patreon subscriptions, our only even slightly "guaranteed" income each month, are down by more than $300 worth, which we can't afford. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including last week's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, 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.