Thursday, May 19, 2022

 Doctor visit over.  I filled out a bunch of paperwork for new patient and they got me in shortly after that.  The doc was cool, I'll give him that.  We were joking about all kinds of things non-medical related.  He stood there in front of a laptop and was inputting all kinds of info as he was asking me questions. I was quite candid about everything. 

He left and then came the part about blood. The doc had informed them I needed to lay down - that was the caveat, I'm either laying down or I'm not giving blood.  So what does the nurse do? Takes me into the "lab" and upon entrance, saw no bed.  The doc was standing right there - "are you going to be able to lay him down for that?".  Oh, the nurse replied, I forgot. 

I wouldn't have let her forget, lol, I simply and flatly would have refused.  We got back into the room I came out of and she informed me her husband passes out giving blood, lol.  I was amused that there is someone worse off than me in giving even just a couple of small tubes full of blood.  Some of us just can't handle it, what can I say.  She poked my arm which I barely felt, "Oh there's the worst of it" No ma'am, that is not the worst of it. She laughed lol I just laid there waiting for the feeling to come over me.

You're looking pretty white.  I didn't feel that bad tho.  I was in there about 25 minutes after the blood draw and then I left.  Lab results will be next week, I think. 

Back to the property, this dude had it going. The entire new trail to the right that didn't exist when i was there this morning was all but done. It was 10:30 am and the contractor doing the dirt work had already left with their dozer and dump truck, but left the excavator.  They are done with the dirt work and are - were - waiting for the underground utility locator to come and mark the underground utilities.

The new pathways were already done for the first run.  This was 10:30 am and I was amazed how much that machine could do in a short period of time. It is a big mulching machine, much bigger than they typical bobcat you might envision.  He earned his money, I'll say that.  It would have cost much more than what he charged me for several other companies I had contacted.  

The day is sort of a blur. I was at the property 5 times today.  One on of the visits, a very large grader was grading the driveway. I instantly guessed this was the gas company's contractor, the rv park contractor wasn't doing it, I was sure of that. I stopped the guy and asked him. Yes, we contract out to Sabine.  Oh, okay, are you going to have gravel dumped? Uhh, nooo, these oil and gas companies are cheapskates they won't be bringing gravel in here.

Uhh, yeah, that's not so clear-cut in my view of it, but I thanked him for the info and he continued on with several passes of it.  It looks good as far as being smooth, but there is hardly any gravel left at all now.  Just kind of plowed it under or to the side, what little was remaining.  It was that visit, which as the third one there, that I noticed that they had come back - the underground utility locator - and flagged where the pipeline is.  Yeah, that was a no brainer, the pipe comes out of the ground into some array of pipes and valves. You can plainly see what direction it is going in in both directions.

Not close to the dirt operation, they can finish that whenever they want to. I suspect they will want to get it done and get paid.  This guy finishes a phase of the operation and he wants paid - rightfully so.  I guess I'll leave a blank check here, if they finish tomorrow and he wants his money, he can either come to the house and get it or wait until Monday, cause' I'm headed to West Virginia tomorrow.  He knows I'm a truck driver and I'm in and out of town frequently.  

They never came back, tho I informed the contractor that the lines are flagged. He can't legally dig into the ground without having that done first, he didn't indicate when they are coming back.  

It is now on me, regardless of that, to mark the sites.  By the time I was in any position to do that, it was after 2 pm and it was brutally hot out there and I had already been hiking around the back of the property for a couple of hours worth.  Just no, it'll have to wait til' my next day off.  

The mulching dude had taken off around noon I guess it was to go do a CDL pre-trip test, which I found out later he had failed. I didn't give him any advice on that, I only was trying to help him with the driving part.  Anyway, I marked more areas I wanted cleared out.  I am up to 4 campgrounds out there now and that's enough.  I mean, the trees and brush and junk are cleared out. Other stuff will need to be done to make them a good tent camping site, but the hard part is over with.  

I'm going to need a bridge of some sort over the creek in the rear.  There's no other way about it.  I can't expect people to climb over a giant, felled tree as I have been doing lol.  I've found a very large number of websites with premade bridges for sale, replete with rails on each side for protection from falling off.  I need to keep the liability for people getting hurt as little as possible. Those bridges aren't that expensive starting at $100 and going up from there, many of them in the $200 range.  I just need to go out and measure the length of bridge I will need to cross the creek, really paid no attention at all to that today. I was in awe of how fast this guy has made all of these trails all over the place.  

I'm going to have him come back and do one more day's worth in a couple of areas that have no trails and have no access because of the thick undergrowth.  I want a maze of trails that can keep people busy walking for a while back in there if they so desire.  I'm going to have to get a drone service out to get some video and pics of it from the air so I can both make a map of it for hikers and have it online on the website when I get that far with this for people to see what kind of activities they can do if they come to my park. 

I've already determined to put in a sitting area - nothing huge, just maybe a large bench or something - with a cover and a curtain to keep mosquitoes out.  Maybe a few wooden benches along the trail in various places for a quiet sitting area.  These are not high dollar items but will enhance the overall allure of all of it.  

Anyway, the trails are finished.  The man is paid and I am quite happy with the results.  

Anyway, I'm really tired, this has been a long day and I'm facing 3 long days of driving ahead of me.  The heat really took it out of me.  I ended up having to go back a final time this evening and checking out the finished work and then paying the dude.  A flurry of work in just a few days time and lot of progress.  I'm pretty happy about that.  


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