Signs of life.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

The colors are fading now. We have yet to have a hard freeze, but it's still getting cold enough at night that the gold color is getting pale, and it looks like not much orange or bronze is in the cards this year.

Still, thanks to precipitation on the peaks, if not down here, we have an extraordinary aspen line this year, color where there hasn't been any in at least five or six years. In a couple of spots, I've never seen it like this.

In a collapsing climate, where most of the indicators are of death, we'll take signs of life wherever we can find them. 

Now, if my body would just cooperate . . . but it won't. I torqued my right hand/wrist twice in the last two days. The first was on Thursday, when Miika was sedated; when a half-ton animal is showing signs of falling over on you, you don't think; it's instinct to put up your other hand, too, to push her back. Stupid, but effective for that purpose. The second was yesterday evening, trying to wrangle Sunny with no help. I think he's over 80 pounds now, and he's strong. So . . . a setback. Then again, my knees and feet are as uncooperative as always, so . . . . 

Which is par for the course this year. This year has been so slow that we're way behind on everything, including prepaying next year's taxes [that's a zero; a big fat zero]. The rapid progression of my autoimmune disease this year isn't helping, especially not these last couple of weeks. With my dominant-hand dislocations, and those in my knees and feet, it's meant that I can't DO anything, for weeks now. It's also meant that Wings has had to take over all the stuff I would normally do, and so he hasn't been able to get much studio time. And I'm so much farther behind on everything, even more than I usually am: pushing sales, paperwork, housework, you name it.

We have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next three+ months. A LOT. And it's clear that, even if my dominant hand and wrist weren't functionally unuseable, I cannot maintain the pace or workload I have in years past. Half the time I can hardly walk, because my hips, knees, and feet are the same situation. That means that we need help with shares, and with testimonials, too. If you have some of Wings's work and are willing to have a testimonial published on the site, send it to me via the Contact form (we will list you however you wish, by name, name and initial, initials only, some other way that doesn't identify you; you can see an example n our newest, here). All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavailable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both [or Amazon cards, and I can order them myself]); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and there wll be much, much more in the weeks to come. The way this year has gone, things will still be grim for a good while and the holidays will be here before you know it, 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.