Impossible to choose.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

Some days, it's impossible to choose between sunrise and moonset. This was sunrise this morning; I'll use a moonset photo elsewhere.

We needed some beauty to send us out into the day today, because it was . . . a lot. Up early, trying to get as much as possible done before we had to leave for Santa Fe. Part of it was delivering an order to one of our dearest friends, and we got to see her and several other folks as well as their gorgeous new place. But on the way down, there were three separate sections of highway construction (this is not including that here in Taos nor that in Santa Fe itself), all of which we had to encounter in the falling dark on the way back. On the way down, there was another disturbing problem: The river is at its lowest ever in memory, sandbars now stretching most of the width of it at several points, and there was not a single bird anywhere along the Gorge. I don't just mean no ducks and snow geese in the water and no eagles perching alongside the banks; I mean not one single bird flying overhead. No sparrows. No finches. No magpies. No crows or ravens. This? Has never, ever happened.

There is something very, very wrong. We all know what it is, and yet colonialism will continue to damage it instead of letting it heal.

Then, just as we hit Ranchos on the way home, we got stopped in yet another traffic jam for a good while. Terrible accident, the kind you don't want to see when they finally wave you past. It's bitterly cold now and fully dark, and we're just relieved to be home at long last.

Monday will be one more day of constant running, barely enough time to breathe, but then I'm hoping we settle back into something a little more routine. Yes, this is our busiest time of year, but that's the nature of what we do; from October 1st through year's end, it's 16-hour+ days, seven days a week. No breaks. And because of the shipping mess, we're in crunch time already. For those folks having us hold items, we need to get this wrapped up now because of said shipping mess. Wings has new pieces in the works, too, although at the moment he's tied up with more immediate orders; I expect that some of the new items will be available next week or the week after.

Yes, it always comes back to needing to make more sales. A lot more, because we have two years' worth of a shattered pandemic economy to make up for, by which I mean we need to gain more ground ourselves financially to be able to be sure of making it through the winter. And again, if you're planning on commissioning gifts for the holidays, DO IT NOW. [And that includes just ordinary orders for the holidays, too.] Yes, I mean NOW. We're dealing with the same supply-chain issues as everyone else, and at some point soon, Wings is going to have to get silver and stones to produce holiday inventory, and I'm hearing that the price is already spiking on the metals. More to the point of what customers care about, we also can't guarantee shipping times this year, because see above. But I've posted a ton of Wings's new work lately, and there will be more in the days and weeks to come. If I could sell one of the big works, like one of the belts, maybe I could get us on the drill list for the well that is the only thing that's going to keep this land alive. But I've got way too much to do and too few hours and other resources to do it. 

Anyway, I have GOT to continue to make sales, so links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the ladders, because see above, and coffee coffee coffee, which we're finding it harder and harder to get locally);
• 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 cover all this staggering outlay somehow and get us through what's left of the year. And right now? I have no way to do it.  But there's lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of 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.