Doorknobs, lights, flooring, and small miracles that break my heart and lift it at the same time.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

What I said last night about Ice eating out of the side of the double trough? That's him doing it up there. If you look closely, you'll see the slanted end on the right, which is where the horses are supposed to eat. He always did have a problem with being confined.

At any rate, no new greetings via Miskwaki today. The other horses are grieving. Shade has been calling to him off and on all day, just as she did when we buried her mother in February, and it's breaking both our hearts. Miskwaki seems already to have internalized that his bro is not coming back from the south field, and he has been standing off by himself, head down, for much of the day. We did, however, receive notice of what seems to be a miracle of some sort, by way of Esiban and Smoky, the two starving neighbor dogs. I said last night that Wings spared me as much as he could, and I won't draw anyone a picture; that was because we had to wait a day for Johnny, and tarps and blocks and all other precautions notwithstanding, starving creatures will do what they do. For dogs, it's often fatal because of the phenobarbital. These two should not be with us now, and yet not only are they back begging every day, but that softball-sized mass on Esiban's neck? Suddenly, miraculously gone. Four days of antibiotics did almost nothing, and overnight ::poof::. Which I take as a sign that, however upset we were about it all, Ice wants us to continue to make sure they don't starve.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

For me, it's been a day of tears and small progress, and I'll take it. I've gotten substantially farther on the tile-sorting process, and Wings and River finally (finally!) pitched in shortly before today's storm hit, and they have a newfound appreciation for the progress I'd made already, given the amount of work involved (and the toll on my hands from taping cases). They got a lot of cleanup work done upstairs, preparatory to the crew starting the flooring next week. And Tony and Reynaldo got more of trim for the doors stained and sealed, and got some of the doorknobs installed. Who knew doorknobs could look so beautiful?

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

The last of the light fixtures came today, too. That closed-looking box in the foreground will go over the kitchen sink; the open one to the left is the wall fixture for the stairwell. These had their delivery dates estimated for September, then extended to October 2nd. They showed up today, so that's one thing that's complete, as far as materials (the install will probably come toward the end of the month).

Still no chance of fixing the septic system, because the ground is simply too soft; everything's mud. That may have to wait until around the first of September, if the current pattern holds. In the meantime, it appears that Floyd and Gary got held up by weather on their job from last week (it's an outdoor install), and so it looks like they'll be starting the downstairs tile next week. Which is fine, because I'm so far behind on the sorting.

There's a lot of labor left, and costs for things like lumber that have to be incurred here. But about all that's left to buy for the inside are cabinets, appliances, and water heater (the big things; there will still be small things like the oddly-sized doors that Tony's building, the shelving, the closet bars, all that sort of thing). At this point, outside of sales, the absolute best way to help is with the Home Depot and Lowe's cards. I suspect that most of what's left will be coming from Home Depot, although that's not a given; either way, they can all be put to very good (and very necessary) use. So here are all of those links:

• Wings's site, for sales;
• Lowe's cards (the physical version) via our Amazon wishlist;
• Lowe's e-cards (delivered via e-mail) here; and
• Home Depot cards via the company site. The e-version using my e-mail address is great; I take the tablet to the store with me, and they scan it off the screen.

Thank you again, from both of us, to everyone for your support over the last few days. There is a huge void here right now; every time I go outside, I expect to see my beautiful boy staring at me, hoping for either camera or carrot. But I talk to him in the sunflowers, and I see him in the stars, and I hear him on the wind, and I guess for now, that will have to be enough.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.