Good lord, this week and next.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

A little ranger/concha wristband currently in the works. He'll likely finish it up this week. He's got so much more in the pipeline, but there are just never enough hours in the day, and especially not lately, because good lord, this week and next.

We began the day by burying Daphne the chicken. Then we learned that one of Wings's most valued mentors walked on a month ago (and this is the first we've heard of it); he was the one who helped Wings get sober ~ 35-40 years ago. He will not be counted by the state, but he's another casualty, all the same, and it's unforgiveable. It's also unforgiveable that good people like this are gone while evil still walks free and keeps raking in profits.

Then a little while ago, Wings came back to interrupt my work yet again to ask me to get a chicken out of one of the sets of shelves where he keeps his tools. I guess he's afraid of scaring them, because he usually gets me to pick them up. Anyway, there's Jade, standing up facing the back corner of the shelf, so I pick her up and bring her out . . . and a few moments later, a speckled brown egg drops onto the ground at my feet. It didn't break; everything's fine. But I wondered why she would suddenly try to lay in there, so I went into the coop to retrieve any other eggs that might be there . . . and found a young bullsnake wrapping his head and upper body around the one egg in there. I've got shots of him trying to get his jaws around it now, too. Apparently he was hungry, because they normally leave the eggs alone, which leads me to think he may have vacuumed up all the mice already. It's plague and hantavirus season, so that's a good thing. Wings got him out with a rake and then tossed the egg down to him as a reward.

The rest has all been just all nonsense all the time.

As I said, I went to the doctor yesterday, for another $200 cash out the door in one go. As I also said, thanks to the lupus meds, I've been effectively OD'ing on insulin for a full year now, which is the reason my blood glucose is through the floor even as I've put on 25 pounds in that one year. The new protocol is MAH (major autohemotherapy), which we're going to try in a couple of weeks. If I'm eligible (we'll determine that then, with an on-site lab test), they will draw some of my blood, mix it with ozone, and transfuse it back into me. It helps with oxygenation, with helps with the muscle/joint/connective tissue problems for some people, and it also helps suppress or kill outright certain infectious agents. Given that much of my problem is lifelong post-viral syndromes, anything that suppresses opportunistic infection is probably good. Of course, it may not do a damn thing, but it might, and I need something to work, so we're trying it. It'll likely take at least three treatments before I really have any idea whether it's going to help or not, which means over $200 per. And I've rescheduled my pain therapy for the first week in September, which is another $560. And I also still have to worry constantly about how to meet all the tax installments (another one due now on this year's taxes; quarterly for next year due in September) and other medical bills still to come, plus farrier/horse vet next week. So, yeah, I need to make some consistent sales this week and the next few weeks. Badly.

Meanwhile, as you can see, Wings is still cranking out new inventory when he can, but he's suddenly having to be much more mindful of what he creates, given the crisis-level spike in silver prices. As I said earlier, we just learned that both silver suppliers in this state have more than tripled their silver prices (for some types of silver, much more), which has left me pretty badly shaken. And it's across the board; even small things, like findings and earring wires and backs, have gone way, way up. He's got enough for now to do what he needs to do, but nothing's going to change anytime soon, given that the justifications for it will be "supply-chain issues," "fuel prices," "war in Ukraine," and "inflation"; these prices are here for the foreseeable future. It's going to put a lot of Native smiths and jewelers completely out of business, and to make sure that Wings does not become one of them, I have GOT to make some sales. That's especially true with the holidays coming; these silver spikes are going to make this fall a crisis point for a lot of jewelers. Unfortunately, I'm being hobbled by everything else, not least of which is this flare that is making the progression in my illness much worse: numbness, contractures, crippling pain, another side effect that has forced me to discontinue my lupus meds entirely (dangerously low BG, and now I'm getting the muscle-contracture effects of doing without it). I'm going to need help to do this. All the links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority is first and foremost, the other ladder; also sheets);
• 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 late next year at the earliest, and this year's tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's 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.