Real winter.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Finally, real snow! 

I think we got about 18" overall. That would've been late morning to early afternoon; the dogs were having to play gazelle, because it was up to their stomachs. And they're not small dogs.

This was mid-afternoon, maybe 3-ish? The sun had been out for a while at that point, and while we didn't have much of a temperature warm-up, that was mostly due to the wind. When the sun's out, it starts melting it fast.

Still. We've got over a foot left in most places, and it's going to freeze hard tonight. The elk herd knew this, apparently, and they showed up just before dark. Two hours later, and they're still currently in the east field, digging through the snow for whatever's underneath. They might be here for the night; they like sleeping in that field, and they know Miika. They also know how to drink water out of her trough, which is likely one reason why they always return. Winter is thirsty work here.

Otherwise, though, today was one of those days, the kind where I get nothing done because it's all interruptions all the time. My condition has deteriorated enough that beginning today, I've doubled my chemo dose [split ~4 days apart], and it's been such a frigging irritating day that I can't tell whether that's making me feel worse, or whether things are just simply so bad right now that I wouldn't have made it through this day without it. On balance, I suspect it's the latter, which is good in the moment but doesn't bode well for me long-term.

And these days, with everything that goes with real winter here? It's a lot harder for us now than it was 10 years ago, never mind 20. But the exhaustion is real. And after this day, we're both beat, but snow or no snow, the workload now looks about the same for all of the rest of this month as it has through the whole holiday season. For us, aside from beating back the Nazis and Klan, that also means that we need to have a much better sales year, with fewer catastrophes outside our control, than the last two have presented us. And that means, just to break even, at least one sale per week [and we haven't made one yet in 2026, so we're already behind, and we need to rectify that tonight]. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priorities are the rugs, to replace those destroyed 2 years ago by the leachfield collapse and ensuing septic disaster; and the LaminaSaver, because apparently Miika's out of it again];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly [daily now, really] sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to begin this year on a better footing than the last two.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.