I know that many who are reading this diary already are aware of Aji and Wings plight of homelessness these past six plus years. If you are new to this series of diaries on their dire situation, please, I hope you will read the last diaries that have been written over this past year.
Desperate Need - Help for Aji and Wings
With a Little Help from my Friends
It's a Beautiful Morning to Practice Kindness
Kos Kataligue - SALE on WIngs Silverwork
Please Rec and Tip This, not Mine. Diary for One of Ours
Aji Still Needs a Home, Can We Give Some Hope
Aji and Wings Need Our Help Now!
Help Aji & Wings Build a Home
Community Fundraisers - Crowdfunding a Home for Aji & Wings, Stage 2
A Home for Wings and Aji
**********************************Please note!!************************************** Money contributed from this diary will be matched! A generous donor has allowed us to announce that if we reach a contribution goal of $500, that amount will be matched dollar for dollar. So this is an opportunity to double the amount you contribute! And it can mean that at a minimum if the goal is met, $1000 can help to keep the work going forward on the home.
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This was Aji and Wings home. A house that was modest and a house called home.
After fighting to keep it after missing just two payments that were late, this is what they were then left with. Their modular home was ripped from the foundation and taken away. On the left hand side of the photo, you will see a corner of a wooden deck — the only thing that Aji could fight to keep as Wings built it himself and it was not part of the original home.
Earlier this year, after the first stage of fundraising was reached and after an architect was hired and
a new modest home designed, and when winter was done and the ground could be worked, they were able to start anew. A home to be built without banks or loans. A home that could not be ripped out from under them again.
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Soon after, the progress became more visible and more tangible to those watching this from afar.
Winter is coming as it does every year. And while Aji and Wings live on a land where we from afar
will say — Gorgeous scenery! Beautiful land! Look at the mountain ranges!
It is this that they have been forced to live in for over five years… When winter temps can drop to way below zero.
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Any snow that falls means they have to clear it, for the horses, for themselves to get out.
There are no public services to help them dig out. With climate change, they have seen what used to be their extremes and unusual weather become more of the norm.
It’s easy for some to suggest — okay, so move to where there is better shelter. But that would mean leaving animals behind, their horses, the dogs, the chickens, and leaving the land of their people and ancestors. The land, no matter how harsh it can be in winter and summer, is the land of their blood.
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With the help of many of you, this is where their home building has reached so far:
And from this photo you can see where the windows will be by the frames. And you can see a good progression of the walls going up.
Walls. Adobe brick walls. Why adobe? Here’s a bit from Wiki as an explanation:
wikipedia: Adobe
In addition to being an inexpensive material with a small resource cost, adobe can serve as a significant heat reservoir due to the thermal properties inherent in the massive walls typical in adobe construction. In climates typified by hot days and cool nights, the high thermal mass of adobe mediates the high and low temperatures of the day, moderating the living space temperature. The massive walls require a large and relatively long input of heat from the sun (radiation) and from the surrounding air (convection) before they warm through to the interior. After the sun sets and the temperature drops, the warm wall will then continue to transfer heat to the interior for several hours due to the time-lag effect. Thus, a well-planned adobe wall of the appropriate thickness is very effective at controlling inside temperature through the wide daily fluctuations typical of desert climates, a factor which has contributed to its longevity as a building material.
It is only 123 days until the start of Winter. That’s the official number. Aji has told me that it’s already just 45 degrees in the morning. In the arid plains, temps are always at an extreme, but it being only August, she’s noticed the cooler temps and the tree leaves starting to yellow already in preparation of their Autumn drop.
We’re working against the clock and there are many of us whose goal it is to get Aji and Wings into their home before Winter. What we are hoping for is that you will share — share this diary, share Aji and Wings story. Share through social media, Media! if you have those connections. Email lists, snail mail as you write to friends or family — get word out there how these good people need help and are so deserving of assistance to make theirs (and our) dream of being back in a home be a reality. I feel like Winter will be here far too soon this year.
HOW TO HELP
- The YouCaring fundraiser allows you to donate specifically to this cause. You can also share the fundraiser via social networks by using the “Grab Our Widget” button (and other social media buttons) on that page.
- Their Amazon wishlist mostly supports the health needs of their rescue animals and themselves, if that’s more your style.
- Purchases from Wings Silverworks will help them make a living the way they’d prefer, by selling Wings’ work as an exceptionally talented NDN silversmith and photographer.
- If you prefer, donate via PayPal at Aji’s blog, or at her Tumblr blog where she posts her own writing and photography.
- Kosmail belinda ridgewood if you absolutely need to donate by mailing a paper check.
- And Tweet, share on FaceBook, tip/rec/republish on Daily Kos, randomly email your friends about it, drop it into casual conversations. This seems minor, but it is not! When you share, please link to this YouCaring page, or embed the widget!
An additional reminder!! Wings is featuring every day this month a different piece in his gallery at a 20% reduced price. For any who have been blessed with one of Wings’ incredible pieces of silverwork or jewelry, please share any testimonials! Today’s sale (which ends 12 midnight MDT) are these _incredible_ beauties. Follow Aji’s twitter feed to see what is posted on sale for the day.
The tweet is an old one, but wanted to share a direct image of these. From Aji’s blog site:
For tomorrow, we're featuring another pair of earrings, one of Wings's most recent works: A Dream for the Sunrise, featuring garnet and onyx jewels and ajouré cutwork. They normally retail for $425, but in the service of our ongoing attempt to fund construction of our home, they'll be on sale for 20% off tomorrow. That means from midnight MDT to 11:59 PM MDT tomorrow, you can score these for just $340 (+ s/h/i). It's an incredible deal. Inquire via the site's Contact form.
This is not on sale, but it is a bracelet that is extraordinary. I can get lost staring at the matrix in the stone.
with love and peace. Thanks for reading and thanking all in advance for helping in whatever way that you can.
xoxo