Well first it was the small fish in the tank having their fins eaten off by bigger fish. But tonight, I noticed the bigger fish also had their fins disappearing.
Gotta be fin rot. Fortunately I have fish antibiotics in the refrigerator - I've been keeping a bottle around for years now after I found out you could just order fish antibiotics online without a prescription, fine for dogs and works quite well. So I dumped 3 of those capsules in there a few minutes ago, will do it again 24 hours from now and probably the next several days and see if that starts to fix them.
I've got way too many fish in that tank, that's the main culprit. I was going to go outside and put up the pond tomorrow. Day off, ya know and need to get it done.
Nope, it's going to rain tomorrow. I mean, we have been getting way too much rain. It's nice when it rains, but it's not so nice when it rains too much. Can't get anything done.
We celebrated mother's day with Taylor tonight, kid-free lol. The boys went to Maria's house for the night. I've been gone for most of the last 5 days, the 6 year old wasn't too happy about that. The part about going over there that is, he started getting cranky. I just told him I'd be home tomorrow we can hang out a bit then. Not like we can do much anyway if it's going to rain all day long. Otherwise, I'd go over to the property and do so more checking on things that have come to mind that I want to look at.
Mostly, just to get the dogs out and get them on a good, long walk/run.
I can't say I mind just staying home, finally, on a Sunday. I have plenty of stuff I need to get done in my room if I feel so inclined to get to doing stuff.
On another note, these people are trying to confuse me. You see all these posts from RV'ers in various groups and they make statements that seem - weird. Apparently some or many - who knows - of these people expect newly built parks to be pristine oasis of their demanding. You built a park and didn't put in bath houses? Shame on you! Why would anyone want to come to YOUR park, I saw in a thread and the person had no answer. I can answer that, easily, on a few fronts but I won't bother to go into that again here.
After months of reading all of this stuff, I finally had come to the conclusion that I will do what I want and can do and if someone doesn't like it, I can't help them, they can move on down the road to the next place. It's just that, if/when I close on this land, I'm going to have to make some serious decisions about the setup of the park and how many trees Im going to have to cut down. I hate the idea, but there's going to have to be a lot of trees felled and there is no way around that. I just made a promise to myself that the back 6 or more acres would be left untouched. Of if a portion of it was going to be developed, that would be a place for me to live, not for people to pull their trailers or coaches into.
Time may change that thought, but it's pretty well set in my mind that a portion - hopefully a large portion - of that property is going to retain it's trees as is. I think the walking trails through it is a great idea - as long as people aren't disrespectful to the land and throw trash everywhere or do whatever irreverent people do when they are out in the wilderness and don't give a damn about God's majestic creation. It's pretty sickening to walk through a thick, deep forest and find beer bottles and cans laying all over the place.
What I do find encouraging is that there are a lot of people that love the idea of the park I'm building - that they mostly only find that at state parks. It's the "camping" part of it, that's the original thought behind RV'ing - but that has morphed into this idea of having a home on wheels. And they have some beautiful RV's out there. They are exactly like a house inside just a much smaller version of it. They're building them bigger and bigger. In my view, if you can afford a 85k pickup and a 100k trailer you can also afford $75 per night park to that giant thing. And yes, there are parks that charge that much. But those are the resort parks that have huge amenities. I don't even know if I want to accommodate such huge things, there are plenty of smaller rigs around that require less space. Less price per night, but less amount of trees to take down as well.
The RV concept and living in them full time is exploding right now. That's not the reason I am getting into this business, or trying to anyway, but it doesn't hurt that so many people are hitting the open road, selling their houses and even carting around families with them.
A thought that crossed my mind about propane is simply to approach the local wholesalers and see if it would be worth it to one of them to send out a truck once a week or more to fill propane tanks in the RV's. I take no cut off of it, it's all profit for them, customers get a service that they need and they are happier. Make people happy, that's the goal. Make people want to come back again, another goal. Make people want to give you good reviews, a highly important goal. Give great customer service, smile, listen, take their money, thank you very much, have a great day!
Lol. The stuff I've been doing for large companies for decades perhaps I can do for myself. Oh and then there was a discussion about whether you should try to clear the land yourself, paying for rentals or just pay a company to do it for you. The argument is that the company can get it done quickly and likely cost less in the long run over renting a machine. And then, if you insist on doing it yourself, what machine should you use? This stuff is seemingly endless.
The thought of Pandora's Box entered my mind. Or cause and effect. You do this, ten other things that you have to deal with arise. And then, ten more things from each of those ten things. There isn't anything that I have looked at where I started at point A and ended up at point - H, R, Z - going through endless possibilities, rabbit trails and potential consequences from one action taken and then several more problems potentially arise.
It's become far more complicated than it really should need to be. It's land. Clear it. Put in the pads, Add the utilities. Get an office building delivered, set it up. Put the gravel down for the driveways and pads. Get a service for debit and credit cards. Do whatever you have to do and get it going. Even insurance. If you have a kid playground, you pay more. If you have your own propane service, you pay more. I haven't even acquired the land yet and I'm looking at all of this stuff, scratching my head, and wondering what to do first?
I know what to do first. Clear the land. Get the water line to the property. Get the power company out there and give me a quote on getting power there. Call ATT, what's it going to cost to have line/s run and service started for multiple users? What's the best setup and how much is the monthly rate? Does the power company have any statistics on how much power an average RV park uses? Call septic system installers and get quotes. You know, the basic stuff here. If you take in a grand in one day, you can likely expect half or more of it to go to expenses. It doesn't negate profit, it's just how it is, you have gross profit and net profit. You have profit margins.
I can tell ya one thing: I'm going to get quotes on the water, septic and electric, pad installation, gravel and everything else, add it all up and see what it's going to cost before I do much of anything. Except clearing the land. It's just impossible to understand how to set the park up without being able to see it clearly from the ground.
I didn't even want to get into this thinking tonight but several posts popped up on my feed and I "had" to check them out. Then start thinking. Then come to the conclusion that - I don't know what I want to do about that - yet . Admit to myself that I don't know everything about this, tho I have freely admitted this several times before - I had to admit that again - and admit that it would be good to get some help formulating a plan versus just sitting here attempting to find out everything by endless searching.
But, maybe endless searching isn't such a bad thing. I learn - pros and cons. I get opinions of all different sorts. I read experts views. This method costs less but that method, tho costing more, costs less in the long run. For example, I read a very long thread in an RV forum not on Facebook that was discussing electrical hookups to each pad. There were 4 different methods that were brought up and these people got into this highly technical discussion about it - they completely lost me at some point and I just kept reading in bewilderment. Well, I had a basic idea of what they were talking about when I ended up going off that thread and looking up info on these methods. Doesn't mean I completely understood all of it, but it was interesting reading and in the end? I still had no clue what method is actually the best.
Until I read that thread, I had no idea that there were different ways to set up your electrical system. There's a lot of math involved in calculating voltage and amps, nothing I even want to get into. I'd rather just pay someone who is an expert in the field to design it for me tell me what goes where and what parts/wiring I need to buy for all of it, including lengths and quantities. Let me rephrase that, I'd rather do all of this myself with some laborers and save a ton of money. But I also don't want to get in over my head on any particular thing, make some massive, costly mistake and have to start all over again, costing twice the money it would have cost if I had just paid someone to do it for me.
Changing gears, it saddens me my middle brother's behavior towards our mother. She loves him, there is no question about that. He - has not spoken to her in over 2 years now. She has brought it up and it obviously weighs heavily on her mind. It's the same pattern as with my dad. He hadn't spoken to him in at least 15 years before he passed away. My dad spent years trying to talk to him through various platforms. Mail, phone calls, text, emails and even going to his doorstep on one occasion. To no avail. I is hard to believe he is doing this with his own mother, an elegant, graceful, peaceful, lovely and beautiful person. My brother believed things about her - and me - that were simply not true.
I don't care if he doesn't want anything to do with me, I've gotten over him years ago. But to deny your own mother is, IMO, unforgiveable and unconscionable if you allow it to continue on to their or your grave. He has a reputation, he used to tell us in an arrogant, condescending manner, he cannot deal with family matters. He's the king of his world and our putrid, foul, toxic family cannot be a part of it since - of course - we don't bow to him, he's a family member, not our God.
I don't feel hatred for him, I feel sorry for him. He has created a bubble around him and some day it will come crashing down on top of him. Mother is 85 years old. She is in good health for her age, she takes care of herself. But she won't be around forever, none of us will. Eternity. I always think about the other side of the grave, where you go to meet your Maker. I have enough of my own issues to worry too much about other people besides telling them about the Maker, who He is and how much He loves you. And the important aspect of Christ, repentance and forgiveness.
But I can't be responsible for other people's lives or the choices they make. I think he is making a very bad choice in rejecting his own mother. I don't know what has happened to him in his adult life that has caused him to come to reject both of his parents, but, he has done it.
I tried looking up his info through a large number of google searches with info I know about him. He moved near me years ago into a house about a mile away. I see old info about his career dating back over a decade, I see nothing current. I don't know what happened to this man during his lifetime that caused him to hate his parents. I grew up with the same parents. They had their issues like everyone. But they showed us love, took care of us and did the best they could, the same as we all do with our children. We might not agree with everything they did or the way they saw things, but they didn't do anything to deserve our lifelong contempt and hatred.
I would really have a hard time with this if mom dies and he hasn't tried to reconcile. Not just for mom's sake - going down to her grave with an unforgiving son - but also dealing with her affairs and the inheritance. He has always been the one that wanted everything. If I got something from her, he wanted it and said he should have had it, notwithstanding the fact she had given him something of sentimental of monetary value as well. It would be quite contentious, for I would look at him with disgust and disdaining for the way he treated his own mother, whose womb he came out of. He would want his share of the inheritance regardless of the fact that he's had nothing to do with her.
That's her choice, I would certainly honor that, but I wouldn't respect him, at all and I would make it quite known of my contempt.
Okay, it's getting late and this thought process is draining and I want to stop it. It isn't anything worth dwelling on, I usually don't but mom brings it up here and there. I sent her flowers on Monday for Mother's Day. I know, it was early but I didn't want to forget and then remember on Sunday - tomorrow - that I need to send her something. That's like, gee, you remembered me, but a bit too late type of thing. I'll call her as well plus wish happy day on my facebook page. I know my oldest brother will do the same and probably invite her to dinner or something. At least my oldest brother - who also wrote off my dad, has definitely not written off mother. He was in shock that middle brother did what he did and he couldn't comprehend it, as far as I know. I don't have any communication beyond happy birthdays and merry christmases, with him, he has never wanted anything to do with family from early childhood, but at least he still loves mom and helps her out whenever she needs the help.
With that, I'm going to bed.
