Some gross pictures of melanomas

Making this post to direct someone else to. I believe I have the days after surgery correct, but I might be off. Post surgical care was hot packing the area twice a day. Fortunately, pony loved having a warm washcloth tucked up under her tail.

Before

Directly after

Three days later

8 days. The "Tan Goo" as I called it is a surface infection.

15 Days

Just short of a month

The glass I made in Corning

Ornament, frame and flower.

Banana proves she is the awesomest horse ever. Seriously. Every other horse is inferior compared to her.

Let me tell you why. (And I think that even though you will all still think your own horses are better, you'll agree I've got a pretty freaking awesome equine in my life.)

Today, while walking down the road, as we do, I could hear a car coming faster than one should be traveling. When it got into view it was not one, but two cars. One was driving down the middle of the road, the other, behind it, was swerving from side to side, wanting to pass. Yes, it wanted to pass a car that was already traveling much faster than our 35 mph gravel road speed limit. Banana and I pulled to the opposite side and stopped in the ditch as there was no driveway available. We waited for the idiots to go by. The car in the lead pulled over to his proper side of the road to pass the horse. The other car, of course, decided this was the moment to pass...

Imagine, a car speeding, a car passing it going even faster and a horse so close to the passing car she could have kicked it.

But she didn't kick it. She didn't flick an ear. She just stood there as I flipped off the driver.

If Banana were not so awesome this would have gone much differently and I would be in a world of hurt. A neighbor saw the whole thing and yelled down to see if I was okay. And I was, because my horse is FABULOUS.

Some weeks ago, before Banana hurt herself, J and I were walking down the road on our horses. Now, sometimes I ride for an hour and don't see a car. This day we saw around 30, all with New Mexico or Arizona plates. All we could figure is that it was shift change at the mine, but that mine has been there for years and we've never run into traffic like that. What I'm thinking now is that perhaps their planned expansion happened and when they hired more people they were from NM and AZ. Our road is the most direct path to the mine for them.

Well, I guess while Banana was laid up this traffic has gotten more and more idiotic, to the point that the neighbor that likes to campaign against things has taken this up as his new cause. He already doesn't like the mine, so going after its employees will be great fun for him. I just want to be able to ride down the road without being run off it. Fortunately, even if someone does something idiotic next to us again I can trust my horse to keep her head. That makes her worth more money than anyone could ever pay me.

Home

And I'm back in my nice, dry Colorado. Except it isn't dry. It's humid. I must have brought it back with me, but as we had a nice, hard rain yesterday evening I cannot complain. The pasture was starting to get pretty brown.

Banana's leg healed up while I was gone, but it's no longer perfect:

Yes, her toes are incredibly long, she should have had them done over a month ago but the wound wouldn't allow it. Bulge on back of leg above fetlock is callus and scar tissue from the slow healing of the wound. The bulge on front, sort of a 1/3 up the cannon) is from the pressure sore she got from the bandage when her leg swelled underneath when the tendon sheath got infected. I got to ride her down the road yesterday after I got back. The vet was all, "Can you just take her out when she's been laid up for 7 weeks?" Why yes, yes I can. She was very forward, and looky, but perfectly well behaved for her 1.5 mi walk. She felt sound, which was a relief, and this morning her leg almost looked better than it had last night. I think I'm imagining that though.

If all continues well, in a week I can do a little trotting and then onwards.

Connecticut Part 4: Going back to CT

This waterfall was somewhere between Lockport and Buffalo and should have been in the last post

So now we are at the day of my dear friends wedding. I'll spare you the details, other than that I am beyond happy for her that she's finally found someone. The reception was on Grand Island where I got this cool shot:

Bridges to Buffalo

After that we splurged and got a hotel room in Canada with a view of the falls. However, due to fog it wasn't much of a view. Much better the next morning, but it was still grey and not pretty out.

We did the View Behind the Falls, where you go down in an elevator and there's tunnels behind the Canadian Falls. You can hear/feel the water pounding when you're down there and it was seriously cool.

Wearing my totally sexy poncho

I bought maple candy and viewed the falls from the top and then we were on our way home. But we got distracted and hit a couple more waterfalls

Pitt's Falls

Chittenango Falls

One of the awesome parts of this trip is I'm significantly down in elevation from home, so I feel like I'm extremely fit. That last fall I had to walk down to the bottom of from the top and I ran my way back up. Seriously. I can't run five feet at home elevation (7000')

Connecticut Part 3: More New York

Keeping on with our water theme, we started this day with a trip to Lockport to the Erie Canal (you know, the one where you sing about the low bridge, everybody down, low bridge cause we're coming to a town.) And, shockingly, there were locks in Lockport

Lock empty

Lock almost full

Doors opening so the boat isn't trapped in there forever

In Lockport there's a church with Tiffany windows. They were gorgeous

I really think these angels look like hippies

Then we went to the Great Behre Swamp (we like swamps.)

And then another church, Our Lady of Victory Basilica (my mom's religious, I am not.) But regardless, this place was seriously impressive.

I love this ceiling (or vaulting, if I'm using my college education.)

And then we went to the Erie-Buffalo Botanical Garden

Best topiary ever

Connecticut Part 2: Road Trip to Buffalo

One of my oldest, and definitely one of my most dearest, friends got married in Buffalo last weekend. So, mom and I took our yearly road trip to Buffalo.

We left CT, realized an hour later mom forgot her passport, which would make it quite difficult to get to Canada, so we turned around. When we finally did get to New York we went to Secret Caverns, which is next to the less rustic Howe Caverns. We went to Howe when I was a kid, so we went to the other one. Other than the waterfall it was sort of a lame cave (and I've been to many.)

After that, to Elmira, where I bought a new Kindle as mine died the true death the night before we left. Not unexpected, its been acting odd for several months. The next day we went to the Corning Glass Museum and made glass!

That's a flower. I also made a fused glass frame and an ornament. The glass museum is cool, but we only spent a bit of time there then drove on to the first of many waterfalls

Chequaga Falls in Montour Falls

Then, to Watkins Glen. I have somewhat of a memory of Watkins Glen from when I was a kid and wanted to see it again. If you ever visit, you want to either park at the top parking lot, or take the shuttle up, so you can walk down the glen, not up. We were smart, but my mom actually remembers all of her trips there :D

Be glad I didn't post more pictures, it's seriously cool.

We stayed in the middle of nowhere that night and then went to Letchworth Falls State Park. We went so early we almost had the entire park to ourselves. It has three large waterfalls.

Lower Falls

Upper Falls

Middle Falls

And then we went to Canada, to visit the Welland Canal, part of the St Lawrence Seaway. The way boats get from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario as there's a big waterfall in the river connecting the two. There's a significant height difference between the two lakes so there's locks.

That is a seriously big ass boat

We finished out the day by spending sometime on the shore of Lake Ontario where this momma squirrel hung out

And then we accidentally drove past the church we went to on that same childhood vacation

So, sort of funny story about this church, or as it's formally known, Our Lady of Fatima Shrine. I remember the statue on top. Mom remembers that it was round, my older brother remembers the ceiling (it has the continents on it.) My little brother remembers nothing.

Connecticut Fun, Probably Part 1

I'm in Connecticut visiting my parents, which means I got to visit the cows. Once upon a time I actually preferred cows to horses. They are always happy to see you due to their curiosity when sometimes horses aren't quite as enthusiastic.

They're chopping hay into silage right now, so I hung out in the truck with my dad as he drove loads from the field back to the farm. My cousin's wife brought us Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. Civilization has reached our little rural corner and it felt so odd to have coffee in the truck.

Of course, I couldn't be at the farm without actually visiting the cows. I finally met my three current cows, descendants of my original two cows born in 1987 and 1989. I'm selling them to my dad, years after I probably should have, but I enjoyed still having a connection. But now, due to my bitch aunt who seems incapable of naming my cows what I want them named, I'm going to get rid of them. I used to name every cow on that farm (with my deceased aunt) and current in-law aunt can't even name them what I want? I get so rage filled over this I've decided I need to let them go.

LB2 Stands for Lightbulb 2. Her name should be Lamp or something. I had a line of cows all with light related names. Started with Lumiere, then there was Lightbulb, Lantern, Lumen...

Leader? Seriously? I would never name one of my cows this.

Leggo, which should be spelled Lego

Anyway, okay, I'm going to try to calm down the rage here...

Milk cows on the hill

Heifer standing in the manger

Not my cow, but she was being photogenic

The above calf should be a purebred Jersey, but they're not quite sure. It sure doesn't look like one. Sometimes when a cow won't get bred they'll do a "hail mary" and just inseminate the cow with whatever spare semen is sitting around in my cousin's truck. This calf was part of a pair of twins and the other didn't survive, they often lose both, so it's pretty cool she's still around. And, she's pretty damn cool looking.

There was also a one day old calf

It wouldn't be a farm without a rusted out truck. Though this one has lichen too!

Argh. The leg.

So, when last I posted about Naners' leg it was looking better. Then it wasn't better. That thing refused to heal. It was finally healed enough to stop wrapping it, but it was leaking something clear. That's when we realized she'd nicked her tendon sheath when she cut/punctured it. Argh. So, I had to start wrapping it again. The swelling had never quite gone down, but one day it was a bit bigger and hot. And her bandage had given her pressure sores. Vet feared the tendon sheath was getting infected. This was two days before I was leaving to go visit my parents, the day my vet was leaving to go on her annual solo pack trip in the mountains.

So, vet gave her an antibiotic shot and since the bandage was giving her issues, and the wound itself was finally looking good, we left the wrap off.

Two days later, the morning I left:

Phenomenally better looking, no longer hot. I left not worried. The vet who is sort of roughly partnered with my vet was over at the house yesterday to give her the second shot and hubby reports that he said the leg looks great. I'm relieved. Normal vet will check on her tomorrow and the rest of the time I'm gone ( since she lives next door) so I don't need to worry anymore. I'm very sad about those pressure sores though. They're going to grow back in white and her beautiful legs will have blemishes!