Safely.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Every year we lose a certain amount of hay to mold and other problems. Pre-twelve-hundred-year drought, when we grew our own (when it was still only a five-hundred-year drought), it wasn't much of a problem; our losses were next to nothing, and we had the best grass and alfalfa in the county. Everyone wanted it, but we fed it to our own horses. Now, though? Now that we have to buy it from other people, it's never what's advertised, even though the price of a bale has much more than doubled in the interim; it's always adulterated with inedible crap, never mind the mold that develops, and very often, what's portrayed as all-grass has a lot of alfalfa mixed in. Miika can't have alfalfa, or adulterants, either; they'll worsen her founder, and potentially kill her. So what do you do when the hay's bad?

That up there.

The elk were here again last night, and this time, they brought their babies. And I do mean babies; tiny ones, still wobbling on spindly legs. They are losing habitat to drought, climate collapse, and colonizer overdevelopment with increasing rapidity now. But they've known our land as a refuge for well over a decade, and on the coldest nights, the snowiest nights, they come. They fed, and then they slept, all of them, in two parallel lines, for a couple of hours; they began drifting away in twos and threes, back upcountry, as the sky began to lighten.

It's criminal that colonialism is killing off indigenous (and Indigenous) herds. Wings is determined that this one will not be lost to starvation, lack of water, poaching, or highway accidents (ask me about how the colonizers drive to and from the Ski Valley on these ice-slick S-curves at our north boundary). And what Miika can't digest is just fine for ruminants, so once again, nothing goes to waste.  It's now supposed to hit -7 tonight, actual temperature, which means that it will be more like -15, because they always, always pitch it too low. They will probably be back tonight to feed. Safely.

Now, I can only hope that I can have the rest of the week mostly uninterrupted to get some work done, because at least part of next week is already going to be a mess. Wings arranged for a propane delivery and they estimated next week; the guy was supposed to call before he arrived so that we could put the dogs in the dog run; we keep the gate shut so that they don't get out on the highway. So of course, he shows up this morning, no phone call until he left because the gate was shut, and Wings had to call to find out why they couldn't handle even that. They said he would turn around, but they neglected to mention that he was apparently idling down the highway, because I had to run up in the 12-degree wind chill and the snow and he was back before I hit the drive. And, of course, I ran myself into an asthma attack, entirely predictably. And the propane fill was another $500 cash out the door, so there's that, but at least the tank is full.

Oh, and I may not be able to post on the NDN Silver site tomorrow, if our host's server migration tonight doesn't go well, so there's that.

Despite the cold, we've had a few sales, and I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.