I need to get away from my doom and gloom for a while!

[Robin4]

@Sarah related to me a very funny story about possums, and knickers! Possums are those things most of you think of as cute little furry creatures. 

Here is a possum in case any of you are in doubt...this one is trying to get to my evening meal!

I told this story before a couple of years ago but most of you here now, were not here a couple of years ago!

Bullsh*t, there is nothing cute about possums! They stink, they cr*p and piddle everywhere, and for some reason have this hellbent desire to live with humans.

We bought this property in 2009 and it was derelict. The roof had fallen in in spots and nobody had lived here for more than a decade....A sort of Taj Mahal for possums, a comfortable space entirely unmolested by humans!

As I was renovating the main house I decided the 50's style kitchen cupboards were too good to simply throw away and I moved them up to what was to become my man cave and workshop at the rear of the property. For those who may not know, this is a 'man cave'...or at least it's my man cave!

It's a mess but, it's a shed, it isn't supposed to be tidy, it's supposed to be male liveable! If you look at that screen closely I think I am on the forum!

I had this running battle trying to keep the possums out of my workshop and man cave. I bought a possum trap and as fast as I caught a possum and relocated it, another one would move in. 

One day I was searching for a particular tool that I knew was in one of those kitchen cupboards that I had re-used in the workshop. I started at one end, opened the door and searched through the contents, went onto the next, did the same thing, and to the third.....I came to the fourth cupboard door opened it, and there was a possum staring at me! There ensued this 'Mexican stand-off' situation with the possum staring at me and me staring at the possum. I had nothing to grab it with so after about 10 seconds, I shrugged my shoulders, shut the door and moved on to the next cupboard!

Cheers......Rob

[Clara116]

@Robin4 good idea to focus away from all the $$$$ crazy for a while..............wow - he is all fuzzy - actually kinda cute Robin, I wouldn't wanna harm him or mess with him. Over here our O'Possums look horrid, sickly with no or minimal hair they just look nasty and I think most folks would agree. So is he your man cave mate? hahaha And the big question did you name him?? looks like a Barry or Louis to me.

I totally love your cave - esp. the barn door, the chest, and all your very cool things that make it your place, wine (and a lot of it - guess you don't wanna run out?) piano, and that fab horse head.....all very cool. 

greetings from afar, Clara

[Clara116]

@Robin4 oh NO I just spotted a lava lamp................has this room changed since these pics? nice collage of your people too -

[Robin4]

@Clara116

Nah. just looked around the corner of the computer and it's still there (The lava lamp). I have my family collage on the wall. That chest was the centrepiece of a traumatic event. I am 74 now but when I was a kid my sister and I were playing hide and seek and I climbed into that chest.....and went to sleep! The whole town was out looking for me including the police and the fire brigade. With a river running through the property they thought I may have drowned!

I have a lot of wine....around 400 bottles at any given time, everything in this space means something to me.....

This was my great, great gandfather. He was the inaugural paliamentarian for the seat of Light.

And this was the roll top desk he brought out from Ireland in 1843!

Everything in this space is precious to me. Women don't come here, they get an invite here....and this is what this space was like when I brought the place......

So, it has come a long way in less than a decade.

Thanks Clara, I needed to get my head away from certain things for a while....and you have helped.

Cheers possum..........Rob

[Clara116]

@Robin4 I just knew there was an amazing story to that chest!  An amazing transformation and so much hard work - isn't it wonderful to have things with meaning surrounding you or reminding you of life and times and people we carry in our hearts. And it is really a treasure to have family that hold a place in history.  On that note I can relate as my family were some of the first settlers in Pensacola are in the books with adventure and story. At age 9 my  great grand father told me about when he was the county commissioner and had to go to  Ft. Pickens at the beach and about Geronimo and that he was a gentle indian man- that was as he was held prisoner and sick with pnuemonia before he was sent to Texas where I am pretty sure he then died. 

In the cottage I rent out - I have some things that don't look like treasures but to me they are all part of my history - the wooden desk was my dads for many years with its metal legs has that retro look, works great and a mirror he built just simple things but packed with beauty for me because our Dad made them and he died at age 63. Strange how aging certainly changes many more things than just perspectives.....physically certainly would shoot to the top of the list. I will join you in the 70's ranks as I approach the big 70 in january 2019.....

I have changed my volunteer work Robin,  the meals on wheels organization didn't pan out and so I've began a real challenge - Reading Pal with little ones - there are so many under privileged children esp. here in Pensacola and as we both know the key to the world starts with READING - I can not imagine how different ones life would be without that ability to read and expand and understand all about the world and life. The method is interesting for this effort - they don't really use phonics or the methods we all had early on - they now approach it with exploration and increasing language, vocab and awareness. It will be fun and I hope I might help atleast one child to have a better life. 

How about all this for diversion for you Robin!  I just took alittle journey myself. Cheers

[Robin4]

@Clara116

Good on you, sorry the Meals on Wheels did not work out, but maybe for the best. My eldest Grandaughter is on the spectrum and people who read to her are like gold. She is the elder one of these two...

The younger one is the devil incarnate. You do a great job Clara, that is something to be envied.

I like creating...... this table in the mancave came from bits left around except for the glass. I filled it with the  styrene balls from an old 'bean bag' 

And that's a disk of my Piano music I brought out about 10 years ago....didn't make me a millionaire but it did ok. At least I didn't have a 1,000 drink coasters left over...

Ok, I am ready to fight Airbnb again for some sort of justice....thanks for letting me get away for a while Clara!

Cheers......Rob

[Clara116]

@Robin4 what wonderfully interesting photos - those babies are too precious. your words are too kind to me, thanks. 

You certainly have some creative bones and mind there. And I am sure your life has been filled with tons of fabulous stories and events, people and memories.

About the fight and challenge of payout - I hope something good has transpired or is in the mix to happen quickly.

I contacted the one person with ABB in San Fransisco and she has written me back 2 times - first to say she will make sure and alert those in the powers and then as follow up to say they are aware of the struggle and working on resolving it. I do hope that tomorrow we look back at this and exhale easily.

Keep us posted and stay as cool as you can ---- that number 400 (bottles)  is probably dropping as we speak. Cheers, Clara

[Sarah977]

My neighbor was cleaning out her shed and reorganizing it. Suddenly I heard her scream and went running over to make sure she was alright. She had worked her way into the back of the shed, only to find a giant possum had taken up residence there. There were mountains of possum poop all over everything- she had to take half her stuff to the dump. They're only cute to someone who's never had to deal with them. I know they're marsupials, but to me they're just like a giant rat.

BTW @Robin4 you say your space is messy, but I think it's incredibly clean and tidy for a man cave. Of course, one can't see cobwebs and dust in a photo 🙂

[Cathie19]

Well @Robin4 and @Sarah977, possums come and go here in my yard but only up in the tree tops. Like the bats, they are quite territorial, and I won’t leave food out for them or mess with them! Once when we were camping down at the Daly River, south of Darwin, we had a nice spot next to a small tree. Nothing to worry about...

Well here I am with Garry inside the tent on my left, and the tree outside on the right of me.

After a bit of a read it’s time for sleeping after a busy fishing day. (In the boat avoiding the crocs of course)

How lovely! Under a beautiful Dry Season night full of stars.... 🌙✨✨✨✨

Garry rolls onto his back and starts rhythmically snoring away. I’m too alert now to relax.... my brain honing in on the beat of the snore... Then as almost a mating call, a possum in the tree to my right starts a nasally rumbling, a low  growling snore on the off beat..... Non stop.......

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh 😩😭

Not my best nights sleep!

Possums? Yeah, lovely.... over there....... way over there....... in the next town....

😩😩😩😩🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😱😱😱🙌🏼

[Helen427]

Hello Dear Possums, ahh Dame Edna...

@Robin0, @Cathie0@Sarah@Clara and @everyone_else , possums are classified as an invasive pest/ species in New Zealand and we have a PredatorfreeNZ program where they are spending a phenomenal sums of public funds to eradicate them.

The realty is there's really not that many of them in what are now urban areas that once were laden with fruit trees growing as they stupidly have been allowing them to be cut down.

I believe in part because if one cuts down or removes the contributing source it supposedly stops the issue at stake...some need to be put on a stake...

When we grew up out in the countryside they were often seen as roadkill on the roads and used to be trapped for there fur which makes great clothing including gloves, jerseys / sweaters and socks.

I'm at a loss why there's a fixation with using substances like 1080 to eradicate what some deem to be pests as we are all part of the food chain & predators in some way or another.

[Helen427]

@Robin0 Do you have the link to the other thread on this?

Thanks in advance

[Robin4]

@Helen427

Sorry Helen, other link to what!

Give me a bit more info and I will try to help!

Isn't that strange, in New Zealand they are invasive pests.....in Australia the Bushy Tail possum is protected!

It's only the ringtail (like one in my lead photo) which is regarded as ....feral. However you are still not supposed to kill them, you are supposed to relocate them, which is complete lunacy for two reasons.

1/...If you relocate them to another environment they become someone elses problem!

2/....Being territorial if you relocate them to another environmet they will probably die anyway!

Public servants come up with some odd rules and regulations!

Chers......Rob

[Helen427]

@Robin0

The link to where you had told the story a few years ago...sorry I'm only in Cell phone today not computer so it would be appreciated if you could include link to earlier topic for us newer to CC folk.

Don't start us on public servants, it in fact goes back to "academics" & there often so flawed research papers.

The rats, stoats, cats, rabbits , thar deer are all on there hitlist - actually pretty much any introduced species including cows..

It's a shame they seem to have forgotten what many of went to primary school and learnt about the ecological systems.

The would benefit reading early reports and history of The Acclimatization Society in New Zealand and why we have the species we do.

Boozos!!

[Robin4]

@Helen427

This was one of the links Helen....

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Another-Possum-story/m-p/230846#M55878

There have been about 4, I will try and find the links for you.

Cheers......Rob

[Sandra126]

Also, @Robin4, they will return. You have to drive very far indeed for them not to find their way back. Someone I know put a dab of paint on his captured possum because he could not see any reduction in possums no matter how many he caught (illegal to relocate as far as I know but he does it anyway) and it was caught again some time after, complete with dab of paint. Obviously he made it home again...