The Full Story: How I Got Here

This is the complete, unabridged account of everything that's happened. It's a lot, and some of it is painful to write, but I want you to understand the full picture of what I'm facing.

The Septic System Crisis

Let me start with the immediate crisis. The Jackson County Health Department has issued a legal requirement for me to replace my entire septic system. The cost? $20,000. The reason? A broken outlet pipe that sits two feet inside my neighbor's property line.

Now, you might be wondering how I'm responsible for fixing something on someone else's property. That's exactly what I thought too. Here's what happened:

My house was built in 1953. Back then, this was all one parcel of land. The septic system was installed with the leech field extending onto what was then part of the same property. Fast forward several decades - long before I ever bought this house - and the previous owner decided to split the land into two separate parcels. He built a rental house on the parcel where the leech field is located.

According to the health department, there are no records showing they were ever involved in approving that property split. That means the owner was never required to relocate the septic system entirely onto what is now my property. It was an oversight, a gap in the records, something that should have been caught decades ago.

But here we are in 2024, and that pipe has broken. Somehow, I'm the one being held responsible for fixing it. The health department doesn't care that I didn't create this situation. They don't care that the leech field is on property I don't own. They just want it fixed, and they want me to pay for it.

The December 5th Deadline

The health department isn't just asking nicely. They've gone to court. There's a legal case with a court-ordered deadline of December 5th. If the septic system isn't replaced by that date, I will be fined $500 per day. Think about that for a second - $500 every single day until it's fixed.

But it gets worse. I will also be forced to vacate the house until the repair is complete. That means me, my 19-year-old son, and my 18-year-old daughter will be homeless. We'll have nowhere to go and no money to get anywhere.

Why My Daughter Can't Be Homeless Again

I just got my daughter back home two months ago. She had been living in a different city, trying to make it on her own. What I didn't know - what she kept from me because she didn't want me to worry - was that she had ended up homeless.

When I finally found out, I dropped everything and drove there immediately. I will never forget the moment I saw her. The condition she was in broke my heart in ways I can't fully describe. She looked exhausted, defeated. She smelled like she hadn't had access to a proper shower in who knows how long. My little girl was living on the streets, and I hadn't even known.

I brought her home that day. Over the past couple of months, I've watched her slowly come back to herself. She's eating regular meals. She's sleeping in a real bed. She's safe. She's starting to look like my daughter again instead of someone just trying to survive another day.

If we lose this house, she goes right back to that situation. We all do. I cannot let that happen to her. I will not let that happen to her. She's been through enough.

The Dream That Became a Nightmare

You're probably wondering how I ended up in a financial situation where I can't afford a $20,000 repair. The answer is a dream I chased for 30 years, a dream that I believed in so much that I gave up everything to pursue it.

Leaving Amtrak

I was an Amtrak conductor. If you know anything about railroad jobs, you know that's about as stable as employment gets. Good pay, solid benefits, a pension. I was set for life. I could have worked there until retirement and never worried about money.

But I had this dream. For 30 years, I'd dreamed of opening my own automotive performance shop. I'm a car guy. Always have been. I love the work, the craftsmanship, the satisfaction of taking something that's broken and making it run better than it ever did before. I wanted to build something that wasn't just a job but a legacy - something I could hand down to my children.

So in 2019, my best friend and I took the leap. We opened an automotive performance shop together. I left Amtrak. I walked away from that security because I believed in this business. I believed it would work.

The Fight to Keep It Open

For a while, it seemed like it might work. We had customers. We were doing good work. But then everything started falling apart.

The economy made things difficult. The labor shortage made them worse. The cost of doing business - rent, utilities, parts, insurance - kept climbing. We fought to stay afloat. My son worked with me. His friend joined us. The three of us were working six days a week, sometimes seven, with a four-hour round trip commute to the shop.

We did that for a year and a half. A year and a half of barely seeing our families, of working ourselves to exhaustion, of hoping that the next month would be the one where we finally turned the corner. But that month never came.

In January of this year, we had to close the shop. My 30-year dream lasted less than five years. We couldn't keep it open. The numbers just didn't work.

The Aftermath

Closing the business left me with ruined credit and a lot of debt. No income. No savings to speak of. I had to sell almost everything we owned just to survive. Furniture, tools, anything with any value. Gone.

Since the day the shop closed, I've been applying for jobs. Every single day. Every job I'm qualified for and plenty that I'm not. Anything to get income flowing again.

I've had exactly one interview. Republic Services called me in for a garbage truck driver position. The interview went well enough that they asked me back for a ride-along, which I did. Then I had a second interview scheduled. The manager told me he was trying to get approval to hire me as a second driver.

That was three weeks ago. I haven't heard anything since. I know they hired someone, but I'm still waiting to hear if they got approval for that second position. Every day I check my phone hoping for that call.

The YouTube Channel Termination

While I was job hunting and trying to figure out how to support my family, I was also working on my YouTube channel, Auto News Network. I'd spent three years building that channel. Three years of research, scripting, recording, editing, uploading. Three years of work finally paid off earlier this year when the channel was monetized.

I had earned about $1,000. It wasn't a fortune, but it was something. More importantly, it was a stream of income that could grow. I was building something again.

Then YouTube's AI system terminated my channel. Not because I did anything wrong. Not because of copyright strikes or community guideline violations. Just... terminated. Along with millions of other channels, according to the complaints flooding X and other social media platforms.

They terminated it right before they were supposed to pay me that $1,000 I'd earned. I never received the money. I'm fighting to get the channel reinstated, but I have no idea if I'll succeed. YouTube's appeal process is notoriously opaque and slow.

The Custody Battle

If all of this wasn't enough, there's one more thing I'm dealing with. In August 2024, while I was working at the shop trying desperately to keep it alive, my wife took my three youngest children and left.

She didn't just leave. She's concealed their location. She refuses to let me see them or even talk to them. I have three children out there somewhere, and I don't know where they are. I don't know if they're okay. I don't know if they're being taken care of properly.

My only legal recourse was to file for divorce and custody. That case is ongoing. It's a monumental task under the best circumstances, but I'm doing it with no money for an attorney. I'm representing myself pro se, which means I'm my own lawyer.

If you've never tried to navigate the legal system on your own, let me tell you - it's overwhelming. The paperwork alone is staggering. The legal language is deliberately complex. The court procedures have rules upon rules that you're just expected to know somehow.

I've been working tirelessly on this case. Filing motions, attending hearings, trying to do everything a trained attorney would do, except I'm learning it all on the fly while also trying to find work and avoid losing my house.

I haven't seen my three youngest kids in over a year. An entire year of their lives has passed without me. That's time I'll never get back.

Why I'm Asking for Help (And Why It's So Hard)

I'm the person who helps other people. That's who I've always been. When friends need a hand moving, I'm there. When someone's car breaks down, I'm the one they call. When people are struggling, I'm the one offering to pitch in however I can.

Asking for help myself feels wrong. It feels like failure. It feels like admitting I can't handle my own problems, that I'm not strong enough, not capable enough, not resourceful enough.

But I've tried everything else. I've applied to hundreds of jobs. I've sold everything of value I own. I'm building software and directories that will eventually generate income, but that takes time I don't have. The December 5th deadline is not flexible. The health department is not sympathetic. The court doesn't care about my circumstances.

I need a miracle, and I need it fast.

What I'm Asking For (And What I'm Not)

I am not asking you for money. Please understand that clearly. If you feel moved to donate to something, choose a worthy charity. There are people in worse situations than mine who could use your financial support.

What I'm asking costs you literally nothing:

Use my Amazon affiliate link when you shop on Amazon. You're already shopping there. You're already buying things. Just click my link first. Anything you purchase within 24 hours of clicking earns me a small commission. Amazon pays me, not you. Your price doesn't change. Your checkout process doesn't change. Nothing about your shopping experience changes except that I get a small percentage.

You can also help by:

Following me on Facebook: I'm monetized for stars on Facebook, though not yet for content or ad revenue. If I can get enough followers, that monetization kicks in, which creates another small income stream.

Subscribing to my YouTube channel: I'm rebuilding at Amtrak Conductor Martin. Every subscriber helps me get back to monetization faster if I can get my terminated channel back or build this new one.

What Happens If This Works

The goal is $20,000 to fix the septic system. That's the number that saves my house and keeps my family from being homeless.

If somehow this generates more than that - and I know that's a big if - every dollar over $20,000 goes toward hiring an attorney for my custody case. Right now I'm representing myself because I have no choice. A real attorney could help me get my kids back. That's worth more to me than anything else.

Thank You for Reading

If you've made it this far, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to understand what I'm going through. Thank you for caring enough about a stranger's situation to read this whole story.

I know everyone has their own problems. I know times are tough for a lot of people. I'm not expecting miracles from everyone who reads this. But if even a fraction of the people who read this use my Amazon link when they shop, it could be enough. It could save my house. It could keep my daughter from being homeless again. It could give me the resources to fight for my other kids.

That's the miracle I'm hoping for.