Long shadows.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Some days are just hard.

There's been a lot of that lately. Today's a bit different; it's a marker for two deaths, one human, one canine. Long shadows there. And for people who don't understand how the loss of a dog can engender such grief, well, I don't know what to tell you, because ours are family, too. Coyote was also just . . . very special.

Today was also our last shot at getting someone out to deal with the septic system for the weekend, and fortunately, one of the local guys [not our regular one, but he and Wings know each other] was willing to add us into his already overloaded schedule.

So we have running water and working plumbing, and no worries about waking up to another filthy flood in the morning. But we'll have to repeat the whole thing all over again just over a week from now. That's $200+ cash out the door at least three times a month, maybe more, until Chris can dig, and that probably won't be before April, maybe even May. And if it's a worst-case scenario, we'll need to have him dig a whole new leach field.

At tax season.

We don't have that kind of scratch.

Six days into the new calendar year, and I'm already so far behind I'm completely buried by all the things I have to get done, never mind the financial hole. And there's still the little problem of needing to make at least one sale a week, although fortunately we managed that for this week courtesy of that emergency commission. Because once again, my Patreon was short ~$250, so it's back to the same damn crunch as December, and January, like April and July, is one of our worst months even in a good year, with a bunch of one-off expenses.

As I said earlier, the two new cuffs are done, and they're posted here and here (the second is gone already, a gift for someone dear to us who did us a huge favor yesterday). Those who like turquoise in the greens, these will be for you. There will be more new works to come, never mind Wings saying that he was taking time of from creating new work from sheer fatigue; that resolution lasted all of two days. And also as always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities now are Wings's Flex-Tape, and especially the vacuum, because mine has died a complete and ignominious death, and if I don't vacuum every single day, the dog hair takes over completely); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site [EIGHT NEW PIECES before Christmas [one sold], plus two new ones a couple of nights before that]. After such a grim 2023, we really need to get this year started off on a better footing, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.