Piñon jay water cooler.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

It's the piñon jay water cooler, where everybody hangs out. We have the whole clan here, a hundred or more, and when they descend, everything gets vacuumed up in a matter of minutes. The starlings, pigeons, and house sparrows do the same. None of those are native, though; at least the jays belong to this place.

The red-tail pair also came to visit today, by which I mean they showed up and began circling overhead repeatedly, not looking for anything, just saying hello, because they know us, now our voices, know they're welcome here. Several generations in residence now, and every single one has signed onto their unspoken agreement that our chickens are to be left alone. One of them was on the hunt this evening, though, for wilder fare. Might have another baby red-tail here in a couple of months.

We both spent the day trying to get caught up on everything — a doomed effort, to be sure, when the to-do list is this long, but we both managed to cross off a couple of things.  After Thursday's trip, and compounded by the winds, I felt like absolute hell all day yesterday; I finally started to feel human again about midnight. You know, just in time for bed. I stayed up another hour or two and got the five new pairs of earrings all posted, at least, so you can see them on the site at the head of the appropriate gallery now. The necklace is not up yet, but maybe later tonight if I have time after dinner.

And of course, tomorrow we lose an hour, so there's that.

Because this week's been like every other for the last five months, and I'm still not caught up on housework, taxes, OR sales. Which is not good, because we still have to bring in sales weekly to break even. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priorities are the LaminaSaver, because apparently Miika's out of it again; and the rugs, to replace those destroyed 2 years ago by the leachfield collapse and ensuing septic disaster];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, and so far, it's been pretty grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.