Yes, this means it's spring.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

The first egg of the year, and even though you can't really tell in the photo, it's turquoise. And yes, this means it's spring, never mind the snow visibly falling on the peaks and creeping closer to us by the moment.

This is a first; I think the earliest we've ever had an egg before is mid- to latter half of March, and it's usually a brown one; the Americaunas don't typically start laying until after the reds and silver and 'lorps have begun. One more set of oddities for this very odd year, but as I said elsewhere, the fact that the first egg was laid in February, and it's turquoise? Must mean some kind of good luck to come, right?

Which we can use now. The last two days have been absolutely brutal, with bitterly cold gale-force winds here even earlier than the egg. We both feel absolutely battered by it physically, and Miika's relapsed because of it (which is normal here in spring with laminitic horses, which is one of the reasons I hate the season with the white-hot heat of a thousand suns). As if that weren't enough to deal with now, our chest freezer failed yesterday. Completely. It's dead, which means we have to replace it; it's been too much of a money-saver not to do that. Fortunately, we had already eaten or given away a lot of the meat that was in it, and I was also able to save most of what was left. Some stuff had to be thrown out, but not a lot. But it's also going to be more than $300 that wasn't in the budget for now.

Other folks have rent due on Monday, and while we're spared that at least, all the other bills start all over again. It is bad here, even though the colonial population insists on acting as though nothing's changed (and acting with attendant recklessness, too). The last couple of years have required us to dig deep and ante up to help others at a level we've never done before. This year? Has already buried that.

The amount of mutual aid we'd shared by this time last year is nothing compared with what we've had to shell out just in the last couple of weeks alone. It's been . . . A LOT. But as I said about that being why we do what we do, especially now in these days of pandemic, it's become abundantly clear that too often, there IS NO tomorrow, and the only chance you might have to help someone stay alive is TODAY. Things are bad locally; no economy, nothing. No vaccines for most folks dependent on the state system, either. We have lost SO much to 2020 (and already in 2021), so very, very many people, and the gifts and the talents and the knowledge and the wisdom they carried too often lost with them. People have needed so much more help than we could give them, but we did as much as we could, even when it put us in a bind, and we will need to do much more of that this year. We have shelled out close to 2 grand over the last 2 weeks of January, including $600 three weeks ago to fill the propane tank, which I was not expecting; close to a grand two weekends ago for the firewood; and my Patreon remains $300 short again for the second month running. We had to help a family with heat two Sundays ago, and Wings's clan brother a few days after with car rental for a week or two. There've been more since, and I have no doubt there will be more to come, and I have to make some sales to cover it all.

We have spent so much time on the kind of work that is utterly unrelated to income that I have got to be able to devote time to replacing all the outlay, and time is in short supply now. We've laid out between $1,100 and $1,200 cash in mutual aid in less than a week (actually it's up to 2 grand now) , and I have GOT to make it up somehow. My Patreon, which is all monthly our income these days, is wiped out and then some, I still have three monthly bills yet to pay, and 2 sales in eight weeks is not going to cut it. Yes, I can juggle for now, but I've got to find it again somewhere. Part of my work involves me reorganizing the Web site and then promoting the hell out of everything again. That's on top of all the other work I need to do around here, and I have been mostly useless, largely due to the recent flurry of episodes with my health. For every episode, it takes me multiple days to recover, all while hoping that another one doesn't set me back even further. That's not good. Too many people need help, and the government remains determined to see us die. There's work to do. I've got to make it up somewhere. So:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (copper/metal/glass cleaners on it are needed most);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to make it this staggering outlay somehow. There's even new work, here and here and now here, among other new pieces from 2 weeks ago, too, so please watch for them and share the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.