House coming together slowly; a lot on tap for next week. New info on Ice, too.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Well, I've wasted entirely too much trying, without success, to find the series of Ice photos I wanted to post of the big ham for tonight. I think it was in the fall of 2015. He saw me with the camera, and started turning and swaying and flipping his mane: "Take my photo! Take my photo! Be sure you get my good side. Now my other good side. Here's my profile shot. How's that? You want more? 'Cause I can do more . . . ." This went on for several minutes, and I just stood at the fence and shot frame after frame like any other fashion photog would do.

But there are only so many hours left in this day, so this one of him in 2014, when we were just beginning to get him out of the woods, and when he was clearly posing, will have to do. Yes, you'll have to suffer through at least one more night of this, possibly two, because in our way, he will be on his journey for another day or so yet.

We learned a bit more about what happened today. His chem panel came back, and oddly, it showed no real implication of either liver or kidneys. Both were basically within normal limits, and yet the sclera of his eyes was completely jaundiced. That means, most likely, one of two things: a tumor inside; or he was hemolyzing his own blood. Or, perhaps most likely, both. After all, we learned on Saturday, along with everything else, that he had cancer; I think our mistake was in thinking it began on the outside and was working his way up. I now think it began somewhere else inside, spread, and then worked its way outside and down as the aggressive squamous-cell tumor that was visible. That would also explain why everything else hit so fast, particularly if the tumor had begun bleeding; equine digestive tracts are hypersensitive at the best of times, and are decidedly not set up to accommodate blood. If he began to bleed out internally a few weeks ago, the accumulated effect could have included triggering the primary colic that is listed as his COD.

And I am now so very, very glad that he had just a few hours over one full day that was bad, that we took away the pain before it got truly horrific.

And Esiban has no mass, no swelling, nothing whatsoever on her jaw and throat now. NO. THING. I can't imagine it was the phenobarbital, which at that level should by all rights have killed her and Smoky too; I'm thinking it must have been the Banamine in his system. Either way, she is fully healthy again. And yes, despite it all, we are doing what he would've wanted, and are not letting them go hungry.

On other fronts, the main crew is off for the week now. They finished up the doorknob assemblies, and did a lot more trim work:

Photo copyright Aji, 2017;
all rights reserved.

That's the utility room, so you can see what it looks like next to the plaster. The trim work has not yet been put on, obviously; that will come next week. This is a close-up of color comparisons (although the plaster is a warmer earthy adobe shade than it appears here): 

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

And I, fractured toes notwithstanding, have to get that stairwell wall primed and sponged and painted this weekend. Give me strength (and some coordination, too, please, and some extra energy while you're at it). Then next week they can get to work on laying the flooring upstairs and working on the stairs themselves, while the other guys lay tile downstairs.
And as I said last night, 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.

As I also said, thank you again, from both of us, to everyone for your support over the last few days. I miss my boy in ways I never even anticipated; the empty space here is huge now, just like the hole in my heart. And yes, I still talk to him every day. I figure the hawk that I thought was here as his guardian but was instead to be his guide can fly high enough to deliver the messages.

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.