Change of Plans (Patreon)

Earlier this year we were planning on releasing our kids album followed by our brand new set we’ve already begun recording saved in our notes as “Evolution of a Soul”. We were pumped to have our new well installed and to have a thriving garden and farm. But those plans have evolved since as we tumbled and crashed into and through the summer. Our new well is finally installed now though too late to plant any crops of interest to anyone with tastebuds. We turned to tending our infant orchard and distillery crops. Mint, Sage, Sunflowers and more. We have been rolling through the new albums track by track, verse to chorus. Painfully some days and always slowly. We’ve been preparing to apply to graduate from the USDA first time farmers program as we are ready to fly out into the world full fledged farmers. Although we’ve been declared a disaster area:due to drought for the second year in a row our perennial crops are not affected as of yet and our permaculture methods seem to be working well. We have been blessed with daily rainstorms and a second hit of water from the ditchline. Everything is a huge muddy mess but the garden is thriving despite the late arrival of our water supply.

We had a sharp full stop in July when Elijah our rescued goat came home very sick and starting to experience paralysis in his hind legs. The vet was unable to diagnose or help us in anyway and recommended butchering. I promptly informed him that as I’ve told him before, this is a Farm Animal Sanctuary. We made a promise to carry them throughout their lives and assist them into the next next as peacefully as possible. We had more than a few conversations about the methods in which we would transfer him to be euthanized, the wood supply we would use for cremation and expenses…as always. Not any different than any other rescue that we’ve watched come and go. But let me tell you, Elijah hits different. We picked him up at one day old. He healed our broken hearts in many ways. He is wholly our child. We’ve fed him through many nights as a baby and watched him grow into the beautiful nonhuman person he is today. It felt hopeless and he was obviously in pain. I began my end of life treatment routine: heavy antibiotics, B12, Molasses, Aspirin, Good Food..even human food. Spaghetti, soup, oatmeal. Anything they will consume. And water… dying is thirsty work. We waited for the dip where his symptoms got rapidly worse and the time to come. But he didn’t get worse, he actually got better from there. We stopped giving him antibiotics the day he fought us so hard we squirted it all over ourselves instead of under his skin. He may live with the damage of whatever that bacteria was for the rest of his life. For now, he is well. Eating, Drinking and Walking. He escaped his confinement and came back worse off. So fuck! That sucks! We realize that this will be a permanent status for him and preparations for winter are already on their way. We can prepare to make him as comfortable as possible as he ages differently from his twin brother Shaman. The illness has added 5 years onto his existing 5 and he looks and acts like a senior goat but appears to be in high and mischievous spirits. We’ve started prep work on a new mini barn just for him that will share heat exchange with the chickens. To put it into one sentence, “This summer has been heavy and dirty on our souls”

Earlier in the year we had also received permission to release my late Uncle Richard’s only recorded album! He did it on his old keyboard recording system, burned and labeled this CD himself. This was years before he passed away. Recently his youngest son and sister also joined him in heaven. This album is priceless to us and we are profoundly grateful that my Aunt Cindy (Richard’s Love) has given us permission to master, duplicate and distribute it for him. She lovingly handed over what is the only copy of this CD for us to duplicate. The technology obviously wasn’t around when he was still with us and I’ve thought many times how much I wished I could have sang with him. He was an amazing pianist and musician. So we added Uncle Richard’s Album into the lineup and have also began recording our additional tracks and mixing everything together. All this amidst the chaos of life which we could not do without.

Fast forward to August. Aunt Cindy recently experienced a stroke and will be moving through rehabilitation as she recovers. She is doing okay and on a healing path. We feel called to change plans and rotate our album lineup all the way around to release Uncle Richard’s Album first asap! Huge thanks to our Patron and Richard’s brother Leonard Velasquez who will be sponsoring the production of this album. We appreciate everyone who has been here subscribing and helping us produce music and entertainment. We could not do any of this without you all and we are looking forward to that day we get to mail out our new albums to you all very first! Thank you for being here and sticking through it with us! We love you!