Escher. Snow. New crew member; new cash expenses, too. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Escher house, Pueblo version.

This was supposed to be an easier week. Unfortunately, it's not. The materials expenses far outstripped what we had expected, and there's more to come between now and week's end (and not things that we can order from Lowe's; this is all cash on the barrelhead). The power company wanted all of the past due in the space of about a week, which wiped out the sales we made last week (in the cold months, electric alone runs us about $400/mo. in this tin can; partly because of the extraordinary measures required to keep the plumbing from freezing). Oh, and did I mention the 3-4 inches of snow on the ground when I got up this morning? It all melted with astonishing rapidity, but the winds today have been absolutely brutal, at least out where we are.

And then there's labor.

Our new crew member showed up an hour early this morning, when I wasn't even dressed properly yet. He's Clarence, Sr. (yes, Clarence the mason's father), and he's got decades' worth of expertise. Our crew shake-up issues lasted less than one day. Between him and Tony, they got all the remaining lath work done for Junior to finish the scratch this weekend (some minor but really tightly-placed stuff around the vigas, etc.) before he starts the second coat. But there's payroll, and the plaster pigments, and this weekend's work. So we need shares:

• Wings's PayPal account, for donations to the house fund. [We've raised another $115, putting us at $7,860 thus far on this $30K stage. $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.

I had reason to think we'd be in better shape by today, but circumstances have left me scrambling, and we need to push sales, so please share the links. And as I said last night, much love and gratitude to everyone — and if you can, please support LauraLee's fundraiser, because she and her girls and their dog have just over a day to get housing lined up, and the people foreclosing treated her the same way those repossessing ours treated us.

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.