I have been wondering too Marilyn...can you post some update pictures....

What is your DH experiencing with the oil catastrophe???

I don't post alot but I always enjoy reading your posts and have wondered how you are doing and how the house is coming along.

I am chiming in also. I don't get a chance to post often...but I read almost daily. How are you MarilynC?

The house is coming along. We got a roof on it...and it turned out all for the best. I wanted a standing seam, and the guy who ran off with the money had said it was way more expensive than R panels...so was going to go with that. Anyway, the standing seam was $3500 less than what he quoted for the R panels, mainly because he was over charging us so much for them.

My friend who wanted us to use the guy...who ran off with the money...gave us back the $8,000 we had given him, and since he is her husband's best friend, made him sign a note to her for the money, plus interest.

I've been meaning to take some pictures of the house, but I haven't cleaned up all the mess left over...but, I will kind of kick it out of the way and take some pictures this evening. We are almost ready to paint it...haven't decided on the colors though. Then, back to work on the inside.

My husband isn't shrimping any more, although he still has a shrimp boat and licenses. He works on a tow boat. Right now he is in Louisiana, working in a bayou, south of New Orleans. Everyone is pretty upset about the oil spill. I don't think it will affect his work too much. He also has a job any time he wants to take it back here in Houston, pushing a big barge that refuels ships in the harbor. He said it is stressful, and right now, the job in Louisiana is
more laid back and he is going to stay with it for a few weeks.

It is devastating, the damage that will result from the oil spill. In a worse case scenario, it may be decades before
the bays, Gulf and marshes recover. Too, there is no telling where the oil is going to end up.

Friends of ours who are in the oyster business lost most of their reefs during Hurricane Ike, so they have been counting on their reefs in Louisiana. This could very easily wipe them out.

As for the creatures I have, I still rehab possums. I had as many as 72 a month or so ago, and that just completely wore me out. I ended up sending half of them back to the wildlife center. I have 25 right now, but they are all big and eating on their own and a few are ready to be released.

I had an emergency with Piggy Sue, my feral hog, a week or so ago. The raccoons popped the top off of a can of dog food, and she found it, tried to eat it and got it hung on her lower jaw. Both of her tusks got hung up in holes in the can, and she couldn't sling it off. She wouldn't hold still for me to cut it off either, and to make matters worse, she ran off into the woods and I couldn't find her all day.

That evening she came back, and using some snips, a lot of patience, and putting myself in somewhat of a dangerous position because she was in a lot of pain, and hot and tired, I finally got it off of her. I was about to give up.
I didn't know what to do. I had no help...my husband was gone and everyone else is afraid of her.

Piggy Lee, the other feral hog here, has gotten quite a bit tamer. I can scratch her now. I am going to ask a large animal vet if he will spay her. I am so afraid I will end up with a litter of pigs. I read an article that said wild hogs are so prolific that if a sow has 6 piglets, 8 will survive! ;))

I think that's about it on the updates. I will post some pics soon.

And how is the old man you have taken care of? Seems to me he was on his last legs, so maybe he passed and I didn't see the post.

Marilyn, thanks for the update. I, as well as many others have wondered about you and the whole situation.

Reading your words I was really getting depressed, and then that last bit about how prolific wild pigs are gave me a real lol moment.

Glad you got that money back. Keep on keeping on. Tough times can only get better.

And one more thing. . . bless your heart!

Sue

Sue, don't be depressed for me. It is awful about the Gulf and the damage that will be done, but I'm doing fine. I have a good life. I am glad my husband changed jobs a couple of years ago, and got his tow boat license. It will be a life saver for us.

Sjerin, Ken, the old guy I took care of for 7 years, died on April 10. He had fallen about 3 weeks previously, and I had to stay with him almost all the time. Spent about a week sleeping on a mattress on his floor. He got better, but he wouldn't do anything to help himself...as in try to drink more fluids...and not smoke so much.

Anyway, he died peacefully in his sleep. He went very quickly...and I was talking to him just a moment before he died, and he answered me. I asked him if he wanted something to drink, and he said yes. I went to the kitchen to get some Gatorade for him, and came back to the bedroom, and thought he had fallen asleep. He took two short breaths, and he was gone. Just that fast. I am so thankful for that. He was one of my closest friends for 26 years. His family never came to see him. They didn't even come to the house after he died. Once they took the body away, and I left, they came, but I was there for 3 hours and they all lived nearby...you would have thought they would have come to the house when they were called, but they didn't.

Thanks, Marilyn for the info. Keeping you and your DH in my thoughts as your home progresses, your animal refuge, and your husbands work.

So nice to hear from you Marilyn and about your possumss. I think you posted a pic of the house a while back. Even tho your friend needed the attention that he did it was nice that he just kind of "walked out of the room" when he left. I'm sure there is some kind of hell for those who didn't bother at all with him.
Keep us posted,

Good to hear from you Marilyn, keep up the good work and hang in there. Will be looking forward to some pics!

Marilyn, the world needs more people like you.

I'm so happy to see your posts, Marilyn! I had wondered if you and your husband were okay. I look forward to seeing new photos of the progress on the house. Piggy Sue is so lucky to have you as her caretaker! Your animal reports always make me smile. Bettye/AZ

Oh, my. You are SUCH a good person to have done what you did with your friend; yes, it's extremely hard to understand how family can abandon one of their own, for seemingly purely selfish reasons. I visited my mom's friend for some years and it broke my heart and hers that her kids had little to nothing to do with her. She just decided to quit eating and drinking at some point, and I'm sure she just couldn't stand the sadness of her life. I can't get over how much of yourself you gave to your friend, even though you have plenty on your plate. And this, beside all the animal care you do. I hope you are enjoying the house restoration, and look forward to your beautiful pictures. Thanks for telling me about your friend. There's a place in Heaven for you, for sure!

He had money...and he gave most of it to me. I was spposed to get his ashes, but when they found out about the money, they wouldn't give me his ashes. Well, that's okay. I know what he would say. "It's just an old body. It doesn't matter."

I told him that would happen...so, at least I wasn't surprised. He didn't want to go to a nursing home, and we made this agreement seven years ago. I promised him I would take care of him until he died. I am glad he didn't have to die, hooked up to tubes or forgotten in the back room, of a nursing home.

They were talking bad about me...saying I only did it for the money, but let me tell you...I couldn't go or do anything without taking care of him, and it was a 40 mile round trip over there that I made every day at least once, and sometimes as often as four times a day. They were too important and too busy to be bothered with his care...so leave it to me...my time isn't valuable like theirs. I guess they thought I should have done this for free. It isn't that I wouldn't have. I couldn't afford the cost of driving over there and back every day...and the hours it took to take care of him. He did nothing. He didn't even flush the toilet. I took care of him, his house, his yard, his truck, his taxes, brought him a hot meal every day, and kept the fridge well stocked for him. I brought him books, magazines and movies and sat and talked to him. I treated him as kindly as I would want to be treated.

The last 4 years of his life, he never stepped foot out of his house. I kept him alive....when they wanted him to die...simply by being there and making sure he was never around anyone who was sick. He had emphysema so badly, he couldn't walk to the kitchen without difficulty. He was a very intelligent man, well read but extremely difficult because he wouldn't do anything he was supposed to do...like not smoke, eat right, etc.

I'm not a saint. I got paid for taking care of him, but if anyone doesn't think that is a burden to take on, and one that went on for years...think again. I have no regrets though because I was very kind to him, and he died knowing I was there, and in his own house and that is what meant the most to him.

The week I spent sleeping on his floor, I had to bring all three of my dogs...so I was up at daylight, walking the dogs, and all around him, live his family. They had to have seen that or my truck in the driveway all night. You know they had to have realized something was wrong...but not one of them called or came by. Probably afraid I would ask them to help do something.

Are you kidding me??? Anything you were paid was not enough for what you did; I know your friend deeply appreciated all. So those vulture-kids of his were sitting around waiting for him to die so they could claim his money? Really, there are very few people on this Earth who would put in the time and effort that you did for so long for a non-family member. That was waaaay above and beyond, and I'm glad he had something to give you. My mom's friend gave me a few pictures and an Irish sweater over time and I always felt a little bit funny about it, knowing it might make her kids mad. But it made Helen happy to be able to give me something, so that made me happy.

You must have quite a bit more time on your hands than before your friend's death, hopefully time that can be spent on your new house which sounds like a very fun project. (I love older houses!) Be careful with your piggies! You're a heck of a lot braver than I am in taking on the tin can. Do you get to talk to your husband every night so he knows you are ok on your own? I think you live quite a ways from neighbors, if I remember correctly. I'm glad your dh's job is not at risk--guess you and he are some of the lucky ones. I fervently hope BP is bled dry in paying compensation and clean-up costs, enough to scare the other companies into doing the right thing, for once.

My husband calls me several times a day. In the past two months, he has been home less than a week.

BP had a refinery explosion here about 5 years ago. That is what made my best friend and her husband millionaires. They were working for BP and were in the area hardest hit when it blew up. I believe 11 people were killed. (Can't remember for sure.) BP will have a lot of answering to do. In the Texas City explosion they settled because they didn't want some of the facts to come out about how they cut corners and didn't follow up on safety precautions.

I do have more time now, but I am so used to having to go check on Ken every day that I still have a nagging feeling that I need to go see about him. Too, it takes a lot more time to take care of the animals here when my husband is gone because he helps me a lot when he is home.