Right this minute.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

The elk are here. At our south boundary, in broad daylight, right this minute. I just took that photo [and several others]. It's a small subset of the herd, with at least one grizzled old one and one baby. And nobody better bother 'em. Wings is already muttering about it.

I had been feeling overwhelmed by everything I need to do today, and then Wings called down to tell me the elk were here. It's amazing; the moment they appear, my spirit suddenly feels at peace. Nothing else seems to matter, as long as they find sanctuary here.

Of course, a lot else matters in this stupid world. Most immediately for us, it's income v. expenses. Second week of the shortest month, and it's been a hell of a year already. We're hemorrhaging money. Wings had to buy silver Wednesday, and the cost has skyrocketed. Thursday, it was another $700 out the door for septic service [that's killing us right now] and refilling our propane tank. Fortunately, the latter is something we only do once a year at most, sometimes once every couple of years. But it was in the red zone, which means it's time, and the cost has gone up drastically since the last time we had it done.

Just like everything else.

We have relatives with traditional responsibilities coming up, and that's very, very expensive, so we've had to help them out. An elder came to us on Tuesday for help. And the taxes have to come before the leachfield. On top of that, my laptop is dying, and I don't have the kind of money I need to replace it [the image work I do means that it has to have a certain level of power]. It's been on the decline for three or four months, but I thought I had more time; last week , it became clear that it's going to be a very big problem sooner rather than later. If I can't replace it, I can't work; if I can't work, there's no income. 

Oh, and at some point, I'm going to need a power wheelchair. I have been feeling like death warmed over all week, and it's all autoimmune, but knowing that doesn't change it, doesn't make the slightest bit more functional. The pain and fatigue are absolute hell, and it's keeping me from doing the work I need to be doing. Because I have GOT to bring in more income to cover all these outlays and shortfalls somehow.

My Patreon down $250 again; that's both January's payout and now February's. That's a huge hit for us, but it's even worse right now, since we're already paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can]. All this nonsense comes in one of our two most costly months of the year as it is, and in the same quarter as taxes, and no amount of tearing my hair out is going to make all this reconcile, but here we are. Amid the constant, unremitting physical pain and the ugly new developments and complete and utter lack of an immune system in a place where no one mitigates the pandemic in the slightest, leaving me almost entirely housebound.

Which is why the only way out of this is SALES.

Wings has more earrings just completed yesterday, as well as four new Warrior Woman pins, and a truly extraordinary pendant [necklace] in the works that I'm not even going to describe here yet. The earrings and pins will be up later today on the site, although I've posted the images on social media already. I got the Wings's previously most recent pairs of earrings and the ring up last week: those that remain in inventory are here, here, here, here, and here. These are all more moderately priced than most of his work [as are the newest ones, 2 pairs at $225 each and 2 pairs at $175 each], and the silverwork and stones are absolutely incredible, so go look. If you order today in time for me to ship Priority on Monday morning, they might still make it in time for Valentine's Day [but USPS never guarantees delivery anymore, and so we of course can't]. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities now are the liquid soaps and the descalers that I can't get here; 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, about a dozen all told over the last three weeks or so, cuffs and earrings and pins and necklaces and more earrings [and soon, all the items I mentioned above]. 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.