Time to lay it all out.

Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved.

That was yesterday's take: basic construction on nine new masks, all in need of ear loops and topstitching today. My masks have suddenly become popular, and there aren't enough hours in the day for me to keep up with it. but I managed that yesterday along with descaling a big percentage of the shower stall (which has to be done thanks to how the plumbers screwed us over on this house, and the fact that with the pandemic, we can't get the new plumber out to hook things back up properly).

Lots of cottonwood pollen free-floating today, so that combined with yesterday's physical labor and three nights in a row of virtually no sleep have combined to produce indescribable levels of all-over body pain today. The stress isn't helping, either, so it's time to lay it all out.

I'm not sure folks realize this, but the whole economy here? ALL of it? It tourism. There is none. There's also no economy. There will not be one probably until AT LEAST mid-2021, maybe longer. It's bad here. And the pandemic, combined with years of drought, is making things worse on more immediate fronts.

Wings's clan brother and one or two other guys are going to see what they can do about the water for now, but it's not a solution, and it may not even be workable in the first place. [Short version: they can't get up to the weir gates in any reasonable way, nor bring it all the way down here in any reasonable way, because of the 8-foot solid earth berms that had to be put in place to keep trespassing outsiders, a BIG potential transmission vector here, from trying to invade tribal lands.] Also? there's no rain in the forecast INTO JUNE.

After three years of no crops due to drought, and now the pandemic, we HAVE to be able to go back to growing our own food and medicine this year. It's not optional. And to do that, we're going to have to drill a well in the north field. And no, I don't know how we're going to pay for it, but I have to bring in enough sales somehow.

That's just the BIG one. Over the next few weeks, I have to pay our first two round of quarterly taxes, about $3,300. One or two big sales would take care of that one. But that's not optional, either, and I need to get this off my plate so I can focus my worry on things less immediately dangerous to our well-being.

We'll have to pay the guys for their help with regard to the water, even if it doesn't work. We've had to hire River back, because I cannot do the work anymore and there's too much of it for Wings to do alone. He's struggling to make rent; worse, his truck now has a cracked head. All of that's going to cost a lot, and he doesn't have it. We can front him some advances intermittently, but we can't pay for the whole shot right now, which leaves him potentially without transportation to come to work. And I can't transfer my ancient Hyundai to him until he can get the paperwork done, and the MVD offices are all closed at least until June. 

Oh!  And the horse vet. Who, as of this edit, has just been out, and the horses like him, and he's very good, and they don't need their teeth floated for another year yet, so it's less than we thought: $225 for everything, including meds. But still. $225.

It falls on my shoulders to figure out how to make all this work.  And I can't conjure the cash out of thin air. So please, share our links; send me testimonials to post on the site; and if you've had your eye on something, for yourself, for Father's Day/graduation/wedding/other gifts, now would be a really, REALLY good time.

The links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

Note: For now, please don't buy anything off the Amazon wishlist; to do so would be crossing a picket line, and some of their workers have struck this morning to fight for safer working conditions because their lives are being put at even greater risk during this pandemic. If you find one of the items elsewhere, wonderful (there's even a wishlist function where you can note that it's been purchased somewhere else).

Other than that, please share everything. Thanks.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.