When old friends return.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Bitter cold is when old friends return. The snow, yes, and someone else, too (or rather, a whole herd of them).

All those lines in the snow, track marks that look like runners?  That's from the elk. They showed up in the early morning hours, fed and drank water and rested, and left as silently as they came. They will likely be back tonight, because the official forecast is for an actual temp of -17, and since they always lowball, it's more likely to get down somewhere into the -20s. The wind chill will be a good 10 degrees colder yet than that.

We got just shy of a foot or so over about 25 hours of constant snowfall. It got down around 10 below overnight, and even now it's only 25, with a wind chill of 19. Tomorrow we'll be lucky to make double digits before noon.

Meanwhile, all the worries continue apace. Wings has spent the day on heavy labor, shifting snow, because we can't find anyone to hire to do it. The propane delivery also arrived today, and while it's better than I hoped, it's still another $500 cash right out the door this morning. We both have medical appointments next week, and tomorrow I have to pick up a scrip that, thanks to having had to transfer all of ours to a pharmacy that won't put us so badly at risk of COVID, will be FIVE TIMES THE COST I'd been paying. I'm so tired of this death care system.

Then there are all the newish concerns now with my worsening lupus, and they're adding to my already considerable stress. This is our most expensive month of the year (followed very closely by July, and that's not even counting April, which is tax month, in this). And there are still bills yet to pay to get us out of this month in one piece, never mind the rest of the year, so I have GOT to make some sales this week. I need help. I can't do this alone; hell, I can barely walk most of the time right now. But there are ten new pieces since two weekends ago: the new trio in his gemstone-bead series Sunday, here; Saturday night's all new vintage-style cuff, here; a new hook bracelet the other day, with a fabulous flame-red Rosarita heart, here; you can see the previous new gemstone beadwork set, the next in his Elementals series, here; and the really phenomenal big works from two Saturdays ago are here. Those other two new pieces I mentioned last Monday night are both up here and here. More hearts are in the works for Valentine's Day including another hook bracelet and a pair of earrings. And we urgently need to sell them all. Please share, and buy if you can.

Links are here, and there's new work up, with more to come this week:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder and the Bissell vac);
• 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.