Addler is ok, is the good news. The unpleasantries of shoving even more pills down dog throats hits home as Addler needs 2 antibiotics, twice a day and a pain pill every 12 hours until they are gone.  He wasn't a particularly hungry dog this evening and he has a cone on his head.  He isn't allowed to go running around all over the place outside, so his outside ventures are to be just enough to get a drink and potty.  We are in for a tough week and I won't be here for all of it.  We already are shoving 2 pills down the shepherd's throat once a day before meal time, every day for the rest of her life. 

I hate to have to leave that cone on his head all night long, but he licks his butt - all night long.  Just can't have that, it can open up the wound and then back to the vet and another big bill and no thanks.  He isn't enjoying life right now, I can't do anything to change that.  

The vet sent the mass she took out off to have it tested.  She said it was connected internally and she had to take out a lot more than she had expected, including the anal glands on one side.  She knows what she's doing, I can't imagine having to do surgery on any animal or human in that particular region of the body.  I do hope this is the end of it, whatever it is and that we don't have any further action needed to be taken.  

One can hope.  

I did not hear back from the contractor, he stated he would get me a quote by the end of the day, I figured he wouldn't end up being able to do that. In fact, he doesn't even do that particular quote, he says his lead foreman would have to come and work up a quote on that.  If it's less than 10 grand I'd be shocked.  I'm not saying I want a bill that high, but yea, I can see it going way up there.  Which is why I am considering changing the parameters of my pre-determined route of doing this setup to save money.  The pre-existing driveway is looking better and better all the time.  

A fresh, light coating of iron ore on the existing driveway, fix a problem spot and it's done.  Now all I have left is another driveway to be built and I'm going to have to give notice that that truck simply cannot park there anymore. I  am not going to fix all of that only to have him come and destroy it.  That would piss me off.  The next time the truck is parked there, I'm simply going to put a sign on the window.  "this property is being converted into a business and as such, this driveway is going to be used for such purposes.  We cannot have this truck parking here (this is private property) and continuing to tear up the front of the driveway and taking up space.  We are sorry for the inconvenience, but we can no long allow you to park here.  May I suggest the storage place at the corner of 80 and 390? It is only $50 per month and a truck could easily fit in there." Or - they can build their own driveway and spend the money, that's on them. They are renters, so I doubt they would want to do that. 

Some day - well down the road, I would want to approach the owner of the house and make him an offer to buy. Tear the house down, get rid of all of that junk and either replace it with cabins or just have nothing there.  It is something of an eyesore. There are natural ways to block the view of it - but growing plants takes many years to get big enough to do anything.  A 6 foot fence would also help to block the view - and that may be something in the works down the road a piece when I get a better financial foothold.  A 6 or even 8 foot tall fence might actually be a better route.  Cheaper and blocks out the view and sets the perimeter. This is my land, thank you, not trying to be an ass, but I am taking possession of it.  I really don't know what kind of potential trouble I am going to run into with these people, they are not friendly.  I've tried waving at them dozens of times, only once did a person wave back and she doesn't even live there.  

There is plenty of unused land on the east side, 3 different tracts.  It's all the same owner who also owns the house.  I could see someday making an offer for the portions that have towering pines.  

Anyway, I'm only musing about that because I am going to have to deal with it and after I get this entry done, I am going to write out and print a letter to the truck owner. I don't know how long they've lived there, but no one has ever done anything with my land besides the gas well so i guess they just figured they could do whatever they wanted.  The truck is a total eyesore besides tearing up the driveway.  Yes, I'm a trucker but yes, this truck is ugly.  Dollar General plastered all down the sides and the back of it and an old, ugly looking tractor pulling the thing.  

One thing I would like to do is avoid court battles and even sheriff's deputies having to get involved.  If I were parking on someone else's land, I would have asked the owner beforehand if I could park there.  I guess that's just me, but having a tow truck come out and tow a truck away? The owner is going to pay 1 to 2 grand for that service and they are probably not going to be too happy about it.  I will always go back on the fact that that house has plenty of land to build a driveway on the other side of it if they so desired.  They just put in a huge garden over there, like a mini farm type of thing.  

This is ugliness I just don't want to deal with, but I have no choice.  I was going to do this over a week ago and simply spaced it out what with the vacation that was coming up and getting a bit excited about the land being cleared and the timber being burned.  But yes, it's time to take the initial steps and attempt to at least work this out without any kind of confrontation. Just a polite, please find another place to park your truck, give a suggestion of a place that is about 3 miles away - and cheap monthly rate - and thank you very much. Here is my phone number, call with any questions.  It all came back into my mind once I saw where the truck had been parked and after this last rain, he had put a large number of deep ruts into the driveway starting at the street and coming back probably 100 feet worth.  It is obvious he was doing backing maneuvers to get the truck in there.  

Look, I don't take my truck home, I have no choice but to park it at the yard in Longview, 30 miles away.  

Ohhh and the lock on the gate.  I dunno who did it, but the lock was cut off and discarded on the side of the driveway.  There is nothing back there worth stealing so it was either the contractor or the county fire department - both of which have the gate code for I gave it to them.  But, a worker might have tried to get back there and didn't know the code and just decided to cut the thing off.  I dunno, but I suspect I will be hearing from the gas company about it.  Of course, the main gas company never replied to my email about their employee speeding down the driveway......

Anyway, enough of this.  I am going to bed early along with the rest of the house that apparently is already in bed.  Like, it's only 8:30, lol

g'nite

Ukraine is basically being destroyed. It's heart breaking to watch, the people of Ukraine have giant balls and are standing up valiantly to the evil oppressors, I hope they can win.  There is always hope. Things can happen that tip the scales in favor of the underdog.  I'm no Biden fan, but the people bashing him for not doing - what else? - I'm a bit unsure about.  If we send in troops, we have WW3.  If Ukraine had been a NATO ally, this Russian bullying would never have started, IMO.  I also do agree that the world stage looks at our current President as weak. That's all I have to say about this war that Putin started, completely unprovoked and totally unnecessary.  And invoking some special powers statement to raise the level of nuclear readiness?  This dude isn't that dumb to start a nuclear war, is he? 

    

Whatever the case, the first large check has been issued.  Part 1 of land clearing is done.  Part 2 is dozer work.  I am waiting on a quote on that, I just met with the contractor at the property.  He's trying to save some money for start up costs and I can't help but think about his suggestions.  Using the existing driveway for the beginning would save probably 10 grand right off the bat.  I hesitated to use it because it's the gas company road.  Yet, there is very little traffic on it.  Just one pickup truck per day and occasionally a few other companies going in there. I'm going to think about it.

He also suggested dozer work on just the portion of the property that needs to be done for the first 14 pads.  I mean, getting those trees down, the size of this rather huge expanse of property is much more than I really expected.  I knew it was a quarter mile long, but now being able to actually see all of it.....

So his proposals are to use the existing driveway - which cuts out half the amount of new driveway I need to build and simply just get the dozer work done on the portion of property that needs to be done for the lots.  There's probably a 20 grand savings there, maybe more.  Maybe much more, probably nothing less than that.  Instead of 1,400 feet of dozer work, we get around 450 of it done.  These are decisions I will make based on my money supply.  

I can say after cutting a 12 thousand dollar check? I'm going to rethink this a bit.  It's going to disappear quickly if I go the route I intended on going.  The dozer work wasn't anything I had thought I would need to pay extra for. I don't blame the contractor, it's ignorance on my part.  The contractor gave me the lowest bid on land clearing of all of them, easily, hands down. I could -and may - get a second quote on the dozer work, but based on all of the quotes I've received for everything else? It's highly unlikely this guy is going to be beaten in price. His knowledge through experience of building parks is also worth a mint in itself.

He said he doesn't have a bobcat for clearing trails but he has a contractor he uses whenever he needs work like that done, of which he texted me the man's phone number and then cautioned me: a lot of these mulching companies around here don't do it right. They will run over a small tree, mulch part of it and left the rest laying there. That isn't the way mulching is supposed to be done.  I agree. There should be nothing but a pile of - mulch - laying there, not a tree trunk.  I'm not going to get a bunch of quotes on that, it shouldn't cost more than a couple thousand dollars with an experienced operator to clear through a trail that isn't any wider than the machinery being used to make the trails.  At most a days worth.  But, I will probably have a driveway mulched in to tent camping sites.  So that will up the price. 

But I think for now, I'm going to wait and get these pads done.  Meaning the driveways, the pads, the utilities.  Or mostly done anyway, and then get my building and get started on that.  I just want one building if I can get away with it that has a bathroom, a shower room and a small laundry facility, get that all in one building and hopefully have a little space left over for a small office where I can put all the wifi hardware.  I am planning on all transactions being done on the internet.  

My focus in attracting clients is going to be on amenities. Dog park, walking trails, hopefully a fishing pond right off the bat and still wanting that pool.  The pool would need a loan and it isn't on the top of the priority list, but it's on there.  Things for people to do.  I'm not sure how any of this is going to turn out, I'm feeling my way through this. I'd really rather have the entire plot of dozer work done right off the bat.  

I would really love to put in some cabins as well. Those are money makers beyond RV spots - of course they cost a lot more money.  I see them at lost of the parks that wanted to find other ways to increase revenues and it's a no brainer for those that have either the working capital to build them outright or get the loans needed.  

There's lots of things swirling around in my head about this venture, right  now? I'm waiting on a quote to do the blade work.  One thing I won't change my mind on, at least for these first 14 spots, is the 40 feet weed aspect.  That is non-negotiable in my mind, it's one of the biggest complaints you will see: ROOM.  Smaller lots can come in the future, a bit less wide, maybe 35 or even 30 feet and less length since many rigs are not that long and don't need that much space.  

So there it is, for a Monday. Addler is at the animal hospital, I would assume by now the operation is done and over with and he will be recovering.  They figured they wouldn't call me to come get him until he is fully awake. Good, because I don't really want to have to try and lift him into that SUV. Right now? No news is good news, meaning there weren't any complications for if there were, I would have heard about it by now.  He hasn't passed away, it's all good. He was very friendly this morning with everyone, that was a good sign at least.  Hopefully get him back into not having a painful growth on his butt and feeling whatever pain or discomfort that must have been giving him.

And finally, my credit dump 79 points again.  Credit scores are complicated, at least the way they determine it. In this case, my thought was that your overall credit use being less than 30% is good, less than 10% is optimal.  Over 30% and yes, your score will take a dive. What they do NOT tell you is that you can't have individual cards over that 30% threshold, either.  So, if you have a low limit credit card and you basically use it for anything, good luck with that.  

It took me a minute to figure this out today.  Look at Credit Karma and then click on "see what changed" and then go through everything. 3 of them said "balance decreased by", 1 of them said account paid off/closed and then the culprit:  I paid something for $599 on it plus I had around $500 on it already and it showed "using 49%" on it.  That's it.  This stuff sometimes eludes me, they don't actually tell you a lot of specifics.  You have to figure it out.  So, I paid that down to less than 30% of card use and that should change my score back up the 79% I lost.  

We'll see, but I'm pretty sure that's what caused the nose dive.  You go from excellent to fair range in one, fell swoop.  Ridiculous.  Not like I've missed any payments on anything in over 3 years. Over all credit usage is well below 20%.  I can't have this stuff, not if I'm going to get a pool loan or personal loan if I need one to finish off the setup. Which is why I am probably going to take this guy's advice and just use the existing driveway.  I've got loan offers for personal loans, one of which is particularly appealing - but only if I need it.  

Well I'm going to end this one.  I did get a $533 credit from Bank of America for using my points towards the vacation.  Which is good, lol, that wasn't a cheap vacation.  San Antonio Riverwalk area is a tourist trap with tourist trap pricing. Next vacation I'd like to simply rent a cabin by a lake and have a bit more natural outing and much less expensive.  

G'day.