Too warm.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

The recent rains have begun bringing back the catmint, especially in combination with weather like today's. There's been not a single, solitary cloud in the sky since before dawn; a high that was supposed to hit 69 exceeded 75 (today, natch, when we all had to be standing out in it), and clearly, there's been no hard freeze here yet.

Probably not before next week, either.

It's too warm, actually, and as I said, we had to be out in it. Wings ran into our old farrier in town last week [not the one who had been working with Miika, the one before that], and he agreed to see what he could do, given that we haven't been able to reach Miika's specialist for eight or nine months now. I have to be out there to be Wings's ears, so to speak, and also to help with the horse, although I couldn't hold her lead today because of the damage to my right hand. ::Sigh:: but after so long without the farrier work, the sedation his her harder than usual, and I had to spend the whole hour and ten minutes holding her head up with my left hand/arm/shoulder, and now they're in agony. [You know what happens when a horse lowers their head sufficiently, right? They lie down. When 1,000 pounds of animal is sedated, you ain't gettin' her back up.] My knees and feet are in agony too, from being on them all that time, and I'm going to be an absolute mess tomorrow.

Unfortunately, even sedated, her PTSD [from before she came to us] is SO ingrained that she still fought him. He only really got to work on one hoof, but it was the worst one, and so it was worth it. She's already walking better. We're just hoping he'll be willing to keep doing it, but we ain't none of us getting any younger, and that's a toss-up right now. If he can't, I don't know what we're going to do. She needs the work.

Also, today means that I'm even further behind on everything today. No chasing sales when you're stuck out in a horse pen in the unexpectedly hot sun, holding a half-ton animal's heavy head up so se can't lie down. 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. Wings finally laid down the law with regard to the mess that is my right hand: no use of it, period. He keeps applying topical stuff, I'm using traditional medicine on it, and I have it in a brace, and after the last several days of almost zero use, I can finally straighten my fingers again [mostly], although not my thumb, and today my thumb a little, too. I can type a little. I can feed myself properly. That's about it. It's still in the brace, and the wrist is still wrecked. I can't do anything that flexes it (IOW, I can't really do anything at all). Still. Just having the swelling mostly out of my fingers is a big plus right now. Knees and feet are another matter entirely, and not in a good way. Nothing I can do about them, though.

But it's meant that I can't DO anything. It's also meant that he's taken over all the stuff I would normally do, and so he hasn't been able to get any studio time until Sunday, and that wasn't much. 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.