It's *something*.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Just in case you wanted to see what our drastic snow accumulations look like.  Look, I'm glad we got even this.  Maybe three or four different periods of light flurries today. It's something.

But it's nowhere near what it should be, and nowhere near what we need.

Everything's being posted out of order tonight because the NDN Silver post is coming late [very late]. I've been running since 7:20 this morning, and now I have to do all of my regular work, with my heaviest writing day, tonight. I had a bunch of bureaucratic stuff to get done this morning, and I only got . . .what, maybe 1/4 of it accomplished. The friend who organizes the local outreach campaign to unhoused folks came by just after noon to pick up tents and sleeping bags and stoves and canned fuel for distribution.  We've still got some of each item, but she's out in the streets every single day, so she needs the majority of it to hand out. She is frankly amazing, and I have no idea how she does it. I'm hobbling tonight after a day of errands, and we even cut those short.

I didn't even get a chance to get shots of the new bolo, so that will be for tomorrow. The dino-bone one is also in the works, along with the wild horse hearts [earrings], so I might have work-in-progress shots of those tomorrow, too. We'll see how everything goes. Today was an ungodly-expensive day, though, and I have still have to pay a bunch of other stuff this week. I figured it out, and the minimum I need to bring in in sales this week is a grand. 

A week after New Years? LOL. Gallows humor; things are beyond grim.

I don't even know how we make it through this month. As I said, I have four figures' worth of expense to cover this week, much more than the $1K I'm still trying to sell. If I don't manage it? We'll be wiped out completely before the 10th day of the month, and there are things that still won't be paid. If the sales logjam doesn't break soon, I don't know what we do. And none of that four figures includes the two hellishly expensive repairs [well pressure pump and roof] that need to be made sooner rather than later, nor the fact that I still need to replace my laptop, plus all the usual medical, plus the fact that taxes will due before we know it, and last year's sales were so terrible that I couldn't prepay anything. This is all just all the shit that comes due every January, and goes up very single year [truck insurance, various business and Web renewals, other annual and biannual crap that has to get covered].  January, April, and July are hell months. 

We need sales, and we need them now. Or a miracle. Or both.

And yes, I know we're lucky. The housing crisis worsens daily here. On that note, go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order, but once again there's a new order of priorities, not yet entirely reflected in the list itself. This is from the organizer herself [I've italicized the three that I'm told are the most urgent at this moment]:

• The bulk backpacks - at least six 12 packs
• Pepper spray
• Bulk packs of work socks
• Whistles
• Money/document belts (look like tan fanny packs, worn under the clothing  to hide and keep documents safe and protected.
• Bulk dog leashes
• XXL dog harnesses
• Chapstick
• Packs of wipes

The outreach program is giving gear out as fast as they get them, and being mostly housebound now, it's hard for me to get out to pick up any before they're gone. That's why I put some of those essentials on our own wishlist, with a note that they're for the outreach effort; soon, I'll adjust those priorities accordingly, too.  Right now, they really, REALLY need pepper spray for the safety kits, and backpacks. I know a lot of people get weirded out by the idea of pepper spray, but if you're alone on the streets, assault of every type is always a possibility that's with you every single moment, and here, we also have wild animals that venture into town [a mountain lion spent a good share of the summer walking the streets downtown, and those of the nearby residential areas] This is a non-lethal way of stopping an attack in time to get away.

For us? SALES. PLEASE. THERE'S SO MUCH NEW WORK ON THE SITE. There's also a new bolo and a new pair of earrings coming, maybe tomorrow. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make a ridiculous amount of sales to cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof AND now the well pressure pump, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! PLEASE. [Yeah, I know; I don't know why I bother, either. As I said, hope is a stupid, stubborn, fucked-up thing sometimes, even if it's also very thin and half-broken.] Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Amazon cards are probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one far worse than the last, we really begin 2025 on a better footing before taxes take every cent, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.