Damn near indescribable.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

That was what I had to do yesterday evening. I feel like absolute trash literally all the time; that's one of the hallmarks of major autoimmune disease. it's worsened by the constant lack of sleep lately, but the vaccine and booster did some long-term damage in that regard, too. But by yesterday afternoon, it was feeling suspiciously like something else, and I would have been right smack in the middle of the period when it would have showed (I've only been two places in the last couple of weeks, the pharmacy and the dentist's office, and both of them were so badly managed that I could have easily been exposed). Thankfully, it was negative. Which means that it's a combination of lupus and other AI problems plus allergies; we've had open aspen catkins spreading pollen for a month or more here already (they shouldn't open until mid-March, so mid-December is a full quarter of a year early). Still. The sense of relief is damn near indescribable. 

It's been a hell of a week, and it's already been a day today. I've spent most of it on the phone, but at least I've managed [hopefully] to pull our scrips from Smith's and transfer them to Walgreen's. Neither of us will never set foot in that infectious shithole again. I've also managed to postpone my eye appointment, but unfortunately, that pushes it out to early March. I don't think I'm having any eye problems, though, and that's the main reason for trying to get this scheduled. Still, thanks to a population that absolutely refuses to do the bare minimum in a deadly pandemic, it will be six months of trying to get this done and ensure that I preserve my eyesight, so no, I'm not particularly thrilled by it all.

And now, of course, I have to be focused on trying to make sales again. Between the horse vet and farrier yesterday and the cost of the two additional giant hay bales we got over the weekend (because Johnny had managed to find some good-quality hay at a decent price, and because it's becoming clearer by the day that we will likely have no planting season again this year), we're out more than $600 cash combined. If you want to help keep a couple of formerly badly abused and neglected rescue horses safe and healthy, the PayPal link is here.

Because this month has already set us back by a lot. The storage place has raised our rates; I still have other one-off bills yet to pay for January. This is our most expensive month of the year anyway (followed very closely by July, and that's not even counting April, which is tax month, in this). So while we had a far better holiday sales season than I could ever have hoped, we still have to keep the cycle going. This is our livelihood, after all, and there's a lot of expense ahead, medical and otherwise (and this has to be the year the drill the well because there's no other option at this point; "first thing," indeed). It's a twelve-hundred-year drought, and it's killing everything.

So, as always, it comes back to that: 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 the rest of the year. 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 the belt, 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. Which means that I'll be stepping back significantly in terms of my online presence, because there's just too much else to do, and I am no longer well enough to maintain the kind of pace I once did.

So, since we have to continue to make sales, links are here, and there's new work up today, with more to come this week:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the ladders);
• 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 twelve whole months of a new year, plus put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring. And 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, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.