Overrun now.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Wings arranged for one of the local guys to disc the land so that we can [we hope] reseed it. it was supposed to happen a few weeks ago, then last week, then the weekend, and finally he showed up this morning. You know we've had some sort-of regular precipitation here lately.

Welp.

Now you see what a 1,200-year-drought does to the soil, even with the rain and snow.

He still has to do the back field, but he's going to have to bring in his digger to deal with all the rodent runs first. Thanks to a mix of climate change and colonizers running all the prairie dogs out of their own habitats everywhere else in the county, we're overrun now, and it's damaging the land.

I don't know how much progress we're going to make on the land. We can't get help, and I can't do the heavy stuff anymore, and Wings certainly can't do it all alone. And then, speaking of overrun, there's the money. We have to send the Tax Man a big chunk tomorrow (and that will only be a down payment, with several payments yet to come), plus another big chunk for quarterly taxes for '22. The last three months of last year gave us the best sales year we have ever had. I've never seen anything like it, even at the height of our business when we had a brick-and-mortar gallery. But it also means our worst tax year ever now. And most folks don't understand just how fast every dollar goes when you don't have credit cards. We have to pay cash, in full, for every single thing, including medical costs. WE have to pay cash this week to pay our taxes.

I need help to fix to keep everything going.

We've made a couple of sales and the bank has indicated we may have access to our funds by mid-week anyway, but it's still going to be A LOT. I'm not going to feel confident until I've made at least a couple more good sales in the next couple of days. Add to that the fact that my Patreon is down by almost $100 this month, probably because folks are having to use that money to pay their own taxes, and it's a lot tighter than I expected it to be, enough so that I'm contemplating canceling my appointment at the end of the month to start ketamine therapy for pain (it's hellishly expensive, and we have to pay cash, up front and in full). My pain levels are completely out of control right now, and they're crippling me in very literal terms, but I'm not sure we can afford this after all. After the tax nonsense is done, then we can worry about how we're going to save the land (and ourselves). Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder and the Thermacell lanterns; the flies are already out, so the mosquitoes won't be far behind);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before the latter half of summer, and the tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's perhaps even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous 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.