Brownsville, Texas.
Got down here yesterday evening, pretty much knew there wouldn't be an empty. It was Sunday and the day before a major holiday. Having said that, it surprised me that a full contingent of office personnel showed up this morning and then a little later, the local drivers. Apparently this isn't one of their holidays where everyone disappears and comes back the next day - if you're lucky.
Regardless, the operator in Mexico is demanding that the driver who is waiting in the yard for an empty - which would be me - get the trailer back in time for loading tomorrow morning. That's all nice fine and dandy, until you get to the part about the trailer not showing up until 2-3 this afternoon. And likely, if he says that is the time it will arrive, it will be a couple hours later than that. So, for me to make it back tonight, I will have to drive until anywhere between midnight and 5 am depending on when the trailer arrives.
My dispatcher was, at least, on my side on this one. If I can make it, great, if I can't, too bad, so sad for them. Not a concession you typically get out of a dispatcher. It's usually more like, we need that trailer back by such and such time in the morning, can you get that done? They make it clear that they want you to drive all night long regardless of whether you are tired, falling asleep, fighting to stay awake - you know how it is when it gets late, you're normally in bed sleeping and you're attempting to, in this case, make your employer happy.
If I can stay awake, I will do it is all I can say and all I did say back to her. Definitely made no promises. Sometimes I can do it, sometimes I have to stop for an hour or longer and get some shuteye and then continue on, but many times? I just can't do it and I don't feel bad about it, at all.
So, it's Memorial Day, Monday and I can only hope and pray that the contractor will get to my property this week, get the hole dug, push the "bad" dirt in and get ready to start phase 3. He said he would give me a quote on this next part. Well, the lot is level and cleared where the lots are going to go, the only real thing that would need to be done is dump the gravel and create the driveway and the pads. I continue to forget to ask him what is done first - install utilities and then the lots or put the gravel down and then install utilities? I dunno, I just don't think it such a great idea to put down expensive gravel and then end up tearing some of it back up to dig trenches.
The drone video dude wants $350 to take pics and video, process it and send it to me. That seems pretty steep to me for maybe 20 minutes of videoing and then editing. I'm not pulling the trigger on that one just yet.
Tomorrow, if I make it back tonight and I actually can get motivated to do anything beyond just resting after driving late, I will take the 4 wheeler back to the shop. Beyond that, I doubt I will do much of anything, late drives take it out of me and it's usually all I can do to just get home and go to bed. But, I really want that 4 wheeler running. Well it runs, but the brakes are stuck on.
Definitely bracing myself for a gravel quote. Just depends on how much the gravel costs per ton and how deep they say it should be. If it's 4 inches I'm good, if it's 6 that's going to get expensive. And, if I have to do the existing driveway - they aren't even responding to me about that one, I'm going to start getting pushy here pretty quick about it - That will add another 3 grand worth of materials plus installation. I figure 2 inches would be needed to redo the existing driveway, it doesn't need 4 inches worth since it's already established.
Add that up and I have 60k to finish all of the gravel, site building and utility installation. Lol.
That doesn't include the 6 to 9k for the dirt work they have almost completed. I don't know how much they are going to charge me for that, yet. I suspect half a day to dig out the giant hole and push the bad dirt back into it. They have skilled earth-moving equipment operators, it might not even take that long.
A tractor with a backhoe is around $275 per month for 80 months at zero percent interest. John Deere brand. I dunno if I qualify for it, was just looking. Don't need that yet and I found someone to do bush hogging for $55 per hour, the cheapest I have found yet. Take probably a couple of hours at most to run through the trails and keep the front maintained. Just doesn't seem prudent to be buying all kinds of equipment right now.
Build the bridge, finish the trails, get a doggy park built after they get the sites built, get a small portable building, install the wifi, do the legal paperwork, insurance and whatever else I'm forgetting - taxes - and get this thing rolling and then, after a while, see what I've got. The doggy park will be as big as I can get it in the "affordability range". Prefer at least medium sized.
It would be really nice if they could get an empty here soon versus many hours from now. I'm not looking forward to all night driving garbage.
