Jade returns! So does winter. Extra crew hours; time is short. Sales/shares (including registries) very much needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Jade returns! (That's her in the foreground.) Actually, she never left, but she spent a long, lonely night away from her sisters. One of the Americaunas kept hopping up on the haybale at the corner of the chicken condo and talking, clearly trying to make a point last night, but I couldn't translate it. All night long, still no Lost 'Lorpy Girl. Anyway, this morning, I swore I kept hearing her from the front of the bales in the hay barn . . . but no chicken. So we had a ghost chicken, it seemed, and it kind of broke my heart. (Also Jade is one of my favorites.) At any rate, I still got Wings to start looking through the bales, and while I was standing below, I heard it again, clearly. And again. And then so did he.

And she was nowhere to be seen . . . and then I noticed, on the ground at the front of the ATV, the ATV cover. It's like a motorcycle cover, lots of elastic that produced the effect of the corners of a fitted sheet.  I grabbed it, opened it up, and there she was, all huddled in it, safe and warm and cooing at me. She had apparently somehow found her way into it late yesterday, and then couldn't find her way back out of it. But Jade is safe and sound, and all is well, both with our featherbutts and with our own souls. A huge weight rolled off me when I found her. 

But Jade isn't the only one who returned today, so to speak. So did winter, and it's freaking COLD. Lots of freezing rain that will, within the next couple of hours, turn to snow. Heaven only knows whether we'll get a little or a lot, but the potential is there for ground cover; it's been snowing on not only the peaks but also the slopes most of the day already. They probably will not be able to start of the wood until Thursday, and the plaster and trim have to wait for them to finish. Time is very, VERY short, and expenses are climbing again, with the crew needing extra workdays to try to push through as much as possible. 

We are, very literally, running out of time. There's still that "nowhere near done" part, combined with the now "two weeks" part and the "winter weather" part. Sales are going to be crucial to finishing this over the next few weeks, but we won't turn away donations, either. I need to raise about $4K over the next week-ish: We need funds for materials, and for increasing the crew's hours (and potentially adding a man, if it comes to that). But the registries remain particularly important, too. The most immediate needs are listed first, and the priorities are the first four or so items, particularly one and four. We do really need to get both my writing space and the guest room done ASAP, although with the exception of one console table, the downstairs will be about as finished off as it can get without the kitchen cabinetry, once the items from the list arrive. And as always, all of the registry items can be crowdfunded, so kicking in $10 or $20 on an item is extraordinarily useful; a few donations that size to a single item, and it's fulfilled and on its way. All of this, of course, means that we still need shares, daily. So here are all the links:

• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Lowe's cards (the physical version) via our Amazon wishlist;
• Lowe's e-cards (delivered via e-mail) here; and
• Home Depot cards via the company site. The e-version using my e-mail address is great; I take the tablet to the store with me, and they scan it off the screen.
• Our Amazon wishlist generally.
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's not complete; what's left on it now are doormats and a few other miscellaneous items, although there are more that need to be added.
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. Also not complete, but I've finally added a bunch of items to it, mostly now furniture items. But about Wayfair, and VERY IMPORTANT: They make it possible to crowdfund each item. So if you'd like to help, but the prices are too much for one person? You can kick in 20 bucks, or ten, or five, on any one item; many small donations can add up to one item. Even the backordered/out-of-stock items can be crowdfunded in advance. Right now, the most pressing items are the ones outlined above. I've just added the furnishings for the rest of the upstairs (i.e., the guest room and my writing/office space, which also includes the desk and chair further down the list, and the last three rugs on the list, two of which are back-ordered). The chaise and daybed are for the two upstairs rooms: the latter for the guest room, the former for my office, which is where I will be spending most of my time, and my AI issues require working on a laptop with my legs outstretched, so that's why it's a pricier piece; it'll probably be the primary means to my role in our living. There will also be more items that fall into the badly-needed category (lamps, particularly, right now), because the wiring and mold and lime and everything else in this toxic tin can has destroyed so much of what we used to have. I'm sickened by the amount of stuff we have to throw out (on top of the things that were simply ruined, such as the microwave fried by the wiring in that place).

Thank you all, once again, for everything you've done over the last 16 months to get us safe and keep me sane. We are both so thankful for each and every one of you who made it possible for us to sleep (and shower!) now, for the first time in seven years, in a safe and healthy (and warm!) place. I'm going to be mostly unavailable for very nearly anything for almost three weeks now, and it's all complicated by the cold weather and seven years of breathing toxic air. As I said the other night, I will miss everything under the sun, I will forget things, I will screw up things thought to be un-screw-up-able. That's just life with autoimmune disease anyway, and now it's severely exacerbated by all the rest of it. But we have a long way to go, and an absurd amount that needs to get done in three weeks, so please bear with me a while longer. Winter weather has been stalking the door for the better part of a week n ow, and it looks tonight might be the night it finally finds its way in, which is a reminder that we have to get this done, and fast.

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.