Chicks and dogs and horses and wild birds. Also pigment samples and plasterwork. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Fourteen new and hungry mouths to feed.

Actually, they pay for themselves many times over in the amount of food they give us, and we're down to only seven chickens now, at least one of which is old enough to be no longer really laying. And the eggs are chickens provide feed a lot more than just us: We give them away by the dozen to people who need help with food, and to those for whom genuinely fresh eggs are out of reach for whatever reason.

That's not all we do, of course. The neighboring dogs know we won't allow them to go hungry, and the female puppy (who I suspect is already pregnant) now shows up daily. A few weeks ago, she was apparently attacked by another dog while penned up, and aside from bites to her nose and right leg, her left foot was nearly shredded, badly swollen and infected, and we were afraid she might lose it (or her life). We keep vet antibiotics on hand for the animals, and we managed to get some into her along with healthy food and water, and while she will have a great deal of damage and scarring, and possibly a permanent limp, she now can run on it again. She's very afraid; we finally figured out that a woman has abused her, because for probably the first time ever, she's been more wary of me than of Wings. Tuesday was our breakthrough, though: She finally came up to me and put her snout in my hand. The next day, I came out of the house after talking to the crew to find her waiting patiently for me; I crouched down, and she walked straight up to me and kissed me under the chin. 

Then, of course, there's the horse down the road, the one whose owner is a disabled vet; he and his wife love the horse, but it's tough to make ends meet, so Wings has been taking it hay since last fall. And then there's this:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

She apparently managed to lay her eggs in the hole earlier this week. She and Daddy have been trading off on egg-sitting duty, it seems, for several days now. They were flying off when the crew arrived, but not now; with us, they mostly stay more or less put now. Flickers are spirit birds, so there's no question of depriving her of room at the inn, so to speak.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

In the meantime, work continues and expenses mount. We met with the woman who creates the plaster pigments, and she kindly allowed us to borrow some of her color samples to compare against our walls. I meant to take photos, but this entire day has been more running flat out with no time to spare, and I forgot until now, so you get another view of the utility room they finished on Wednesday. We need to choose a pigment fast, because they'll be ready to begin that coat probably by Tuesday at the latest.

So we need link shares:

• Wings's PayPal account, for donations to the house fund. [As I said last night, my best estimate on what's been raised so far on this $30K stage is $7,500, leaving a balance yet to raise of $22,500. $7K+ of that is going to have to be reserved for the septic, and labor's eating us alive on the daily, so that's going to mean a lot of juggling.] If that link doesn't work, it's tied to his e-mail address: wingsoftaos [at] newmex [dot] com. Also, that link? It's a direct one now, rather than via the "Donate" button, so it should work better.
• His Web site, for sales (always preferable, and the base upon which the whole project hinges anyway, along with paying our day-to-day living expenses) — and just by the way, he's got some really incredible new works up now.
• Our Amazon wishlist, which contains Lowe's cards that will allow us to purchase some materials more cheaply than here in town, and also allow us to divert the extra funds to labor costs.

It's all cut and paste; I'm wiped out and really not feeling very well after yesterday's trip. However, if you have a moment, please go check out the diary Avilyn so kindly posted on our behalf while we were out dealing with appointments and errands all day; please T&R and share, and maybe take a look at the examples of Wings's work she's included, because it's all available. And for now, much love and gratitude to everyone.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.