Stockpiling against a hard winter.

Photo copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved.

The last of the firewood. Yes, that whole trailer. It wouldn't be enough to get through the cold season here, which lasts, basically, ten months out of the year (in terms of it being chilly enough to need a fire in the morning or at night, I mean). But we've been stockpiling against a hard winter all year long. There's a cutting ban in effect now, right at the very start of the firewood season (owl habitat issue), and people are scrambling. Fortunately for us, Wings never waits until the last minute for anything like this, and we already had stacks of several different kinds. We ordered this from one of his friends several weeks ago, but the guy had a death in the family and wasn't able to deliver it until yesterday.

It's a good thing, too. That was before the wind kicked up yesterday; it began howling about the time they finished un loading it. It's blowing again now, albeit not nearly as ferociously, and after a low of 14 overnight, freezing literally everything (but not our pipes!), the wind chill today is bitterly cold. Our highs are supposed to start getting back up into the sixties tomorrow and continue for several days, but it all depends on these winds. 

Of course, the wind (especially combined with the sudden drop in temperature) has us both battling pain right now. For Wings, it's mostly his knees. For me, it's everything; there is literally no part of my body that is pain-free, and this is the kind of phenomenon that no medicine can touch. Add to that the fact that we had to run a bunch of early errands this morning, and I'm even more behind than usual, so I have to get moving on other stuff now. 

I also paid out $1,600 in quarterly taxes two nights ago, and we need to make that up to cover repairs and medical. Absolutely everything is geared around making sales right now. Wings dropped six new works yesterday, so please share them far and wide (and buy! the holidays are around the corner!). But once again, I have to get them shot, uploaded, edited, and posted, descriptions written and posts sent viral, and I also have to get a whole bunch of other things done besides. Like now. So again today, ALL the rest is yesterday's cut-and-paste, but it's all still all too terribly relevant, and it all still matters.

My Patreon, albeit $400 short, is going in its entirety to quarterly taxes today. It's not enough; I have to pull a few hundred from other commitments to make it. Between August and September, our income has been reduced by more than $650 thanks to some Patreon subscribers' cards being declined (apparently mostly an issue of expiration, but folks aren't checking their subscriptions, I guess). That has put me in a huge bind right now, because that income? It usually pays medical stuff, utilities, groceries, gas, and this month, it would have gone to a high electric bill and a $300+ annual propane tank rental, but this month, it goes on taxes, and even putting my entire Patreon earnings for September toward it, it's still $400 short. So folks, please, PLEASE check your cards that are on file with Patreon, even if you think yours was paid, because it may not have been.

And I still have to get to weatherizing the wood (we have to do it ourselves because we can't afford to pay to have it done, health issues or no) before the snow hits. The too much to do mostly involves chasing sales, and as I said above, every single thing I do has to be geared around that goal right now. This should be the start of our busiest season, and it's dead, dead, dead, and I don't know how we make it trough the winter if things don't look up very, very soon. The rest is mostly [but not entirely] cut-and-paste, but no less accurate or urgent for that. 

As always, I'll bump Ona's post (the new one) back to the top in a moment. This is urgent, and the GFM is not raising funds at anything near the pace of what's needed to keep him on track for recovery. We need y'all to keep sharing while the family tries to get transport issues sorted out and keep his recovery going simultaneously. [The transport stuff will require a lot of logistical finessing on a lot of fronts, not the least of which is the medical one, so it's a long process. I may also have a small fundraising announcement tomorrow; we'll see, but please be on the lookout for that, as well.]

With regard to the stuff referenced near the top: For those wondering about my own health issues, see here; with regard to the work being done, some of the details are here. We still have to get the plumber in to finish up, and I regard that as a bigger priority right now in practical terms, so whatever we take in sales-wise will have to go to that. Right now, we can't do even that, much less the weatherization stuff, and it's a big, big problem.

Anyway. Back to the grind; so I need help to get all this done. Folks can help in several ways, and we really need the help now:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi  here . 

On the wishlist, now the cold is here at night, the flies are getting chased out by the cold, so the top priority is the candles, to deal with the residual mildew odor in the utility room, which I hope the plumber will be here to finish next week now (the utility room work, not the mildew, and yeah, I know I said that last week and the week before and the week before that, too, but there's no money for it). Our electric bill for the summer has been sky-high, in relative terms, because of the need to keep the fan running to push it out the window. And the costs on all of this are killing us right now.

And as I said, sales are ideal, of course; one or two of Wings's bigger pieces would cover the whole shot for this round of work. Patreon subscriptions are good, too. Either way, it's a trade for value. But I'm already feeling panicked at what we thought would be our schedule being so suddenly and thoroughly upended, and we'll take it however it comes at this point. 

Please share everything, because I'm suddenly back behind the eight-ball on a whole additional front, and yeah, I'm scared about covering everything and surviving, too. Thanks.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.