Well, I got several calls from the facebook ad, a few of them - sound - promising.  So far, none of it has converted into long term tenants.  One dude is around 2:00 pm tomorrow afternoon, he says he will be heading over here. Another something similar. And the couple that says they are moving in on the 1st.  I've been through all of this before - people saying they are going to come and they don't.  It's something I'm already accustomed to from trying to rent out rooms.  

I got an unusual call, tho.  I'm not boosting tent camping right now.  Just not something I want to mess with while I'm expending my energies trying to get the RV portion done.  It isn't going to make a significant amount of money - tho I am of the "any added extra income is a good thing" mindset.  Still, there is some work and money to be spent back there and I'm just not in the position to spend - about 2 grand - right now.  

But, these people asked about a tent camping site?  I think I have it listed somewhere, yes it's on my own website.  Again, not promoting it. I thought about it for a few seconds, well I do have one site that will work that doesn't have access issues.  It was a few hours later - I was getting the boys, doing homework with them - and I met up with them out there, boys in tow. Mom and dad at work, homework done, we waited for their arrival with them playing on their favorite dirt pile.  

They asked how much? I just threw out $10. Ok!  A bit later and before we met there, I changed it to "I'll give it to you for free if you will give me a Google review".  Google reviews are worth their weight in gold when you have none at all.  Sure! they replied.  Ok!

Well.  It turns out they are homeless. They have a pickup truck - an older one probably early 2,000's, in good running condition and had a lot of camping equipment in the back. It was all neat and tidy, a good sign. The lady then said something about VA doctor visits and that hubby is a vet.  Well now you have my attention. Vets really aren't being treated that well in this nation and a lot of them end up in poverty and even more end up committing suicide.  There are some great organizations that are helping them, but overall, the stats of how they end up living when coming back off a war zone or just out of service shows a lot of them just don't do that well.

I didn't say they could stay as long as they want.  I don't want to start a homeless encampment. They aren't completely broke, thankfully.  She asked if they could stay a couple of days?   Sure! I just laid out to please keep the site clean and tidy and keep the fire in the middle of - such and such - area so as not to start a forest fire.  I was going to get them a fire ring from the front, but they had their own with them. I invited them to help themselves to fresh water, a bit of firewood and certainly could pump up their air mattress using one of the electrical outlets in the park.  

They even had their own, portable toilet. It became obvious they are just going from place to place, camping out wherever they can find to do so.  Camping sites are at the rear of the park.  This camping site is not along the trails. They are out of site, next to the gas well operation but in the woods.  I did ask them to stay off the well pad. I forgot one of my chainsaws near their site where I have a few items stored.  I don't necessarily believe they are thieves, but I don't necessarily trust people, either.  It's a brand new saw that hasn't been used, it's one of the $50 20 inch saws I got from Walmart.  Well I have their names, phone number and license plate number.  

There isn't much of anything else.  I wish I could get some more of those "just traveling through town, it's the end of the day, we need a place to stay" type of things but nothing.  The website designer wanted some money for the work he's done.  I'm kind of at the end of that. He's doing background work but said we are pretty much where we need to be for now.  Meaning after I pay him the current amount, I shouldn't have to pay him much of anything.  He's gotten my website showing fairly high up the rankings, he's done his job but his prices aren't cheap per hour and for now, I'd like to take a break from that.  Mostly because I am barely taking anything in and the word is out - all over the place. It's people are going to come, or they aren't.  But more work on the website at this point isn't going to help anything.  

 The FB ad has gotten a few calls.  The first one was someone calling for someone else. They were asking about the price and if they could move in today? Sure, just a few questions for you - they couldn't really answer them since they aren't the person wanting to move in.

The second was a man that asked about the price as well and wondering if I had 2 spots. I sure do!  But it became obvious they are broke and can't afford to stay - anywhere.  After asking the monthly rent, he asked about the nightly rate "because we have some...things...we have to take care of".  That sort of set off some alarm bells and flags in my mind.

I didn't turn him down, but I'm not going down on my nightly rate, it's as low as it goes pretty much anywhere.  I offered a weekly rate as well, but he didn't seem interested in that.  He did want 50 amp outlets. He didn't directly ask if I would go lower, he was certainly hinting at it.

As I said, I am not going down any lower in my rates. They are the lowest rates in the region, competing only with some trailer trash parks - I think one of them is a bit lower.  I do not have a trailer trash park and I have no intentions on operating one.  People are let known right off the bat that I do not allow outdoor storage of any kind. You can outdoor table, a grill, a smoker perhaps, some chairs, but storage of items in boxes or just junk laying everywhere will not be tolerated.  

I'm not pretty firm about that, I'm quite firm.  Anyway, I'm not sure I want people that can't afford a basic rate in the park.  I didn't turn them down, but they don't really sound like good prospects. I doubt I will be hearing from them again, people that broke are probably desperate and I feel for them, I've been there and done that. They would be good to just find some place to boondock until they can afford to stay somewhere with electricity, water and sewer hookups. 

 I doubt I will be hearing from the other person either.  My ads sell the park, I'm just on the phone to sort of reaffirm a nice place at a cheaper price.  

Oh, btw, Meta/Facebook reversed their decision after I requested a review. I dunno what made them reverse it excepting the fact that their stated discriminatory practices did not exist anywhere in the ad.  Even if I were a racist puke, I wouldn't have that in an such trying to promote my business since I not only know Facebook wouldn't accept it, I would also likely be "canceled".  Fortunately, I am not racist and don't care what anyone's skin color is, God created all of us and He is no respecter of persons.  

Whatever the case, I've been busy uploading pics of the park and the trail and all of that good stuff all over the place. I had lots of ads up that have no pics at all.  I think there's more, just have to find them and update them.  With no reviews besides that Facebook review, at the very minimum I need lots of pics of the place to let people understand by being able to view it how the park looks and what to expect.  

After all of this stuff I've been doing, I still haven't had any overnighters calling in the last several days and maybe 4 people calling about long term, only one of which I think might actually show up on the 1st.  They have "loved" some of my posts on my Facebook business account.  It would be really nice to have 2 payments coming in at the beginning of the month. It would pay for almost everything I have dumped on the business checking account thus far.  The mortgage payment, the shed payment and now the Verizon payment for wifi.  I want to put the water bill on there and will be setting up power company payments soon.  I want all of that stuff separated from personal finances. It's all business stuff and I want it showing to any taxing entities that may do an audit or request what I'm paying for on there. I'll need about 4 long term lots being used to pay for everything and taxes. 

I also need to pay the property taxes soon - around $1,700 worth, most of it for the business property.  25 acres was taxed at over $1,500. An almost $500 increase from the previous year, and yes, it was valued long before the RV park improvements were made. So who knows what they will want finding out it is a business?  I'll likely have to have an appraisal done on my own, this county and school district are rather greedy and quite generous in their handouts and building brand new schools and such.  I'm still aghast at the covered football stadium they built. What on earth does a high school need with that and to top it off, it's hardly ever used.  

I don't recall any covered stadiums in AZ and it's much hotter there than here.  

Anyway, at least I didn't waste the day even tho my leg is saying no thanks to anything. Well, me knee, to be specific.  It's especially painful getting up off a chair - as what I'm about to do to go get the kids.  Taylor is busy with work and usually asks me to go get them on Thursdays. 

With that, I bid you ado.  

 One thing if for certain, at least to me: if I want more people to seriously consider the overnight stuff - which equals more money - I'll have to get more amenities in there.  If I want long term, I just have to wait for as long as it takes to get 14 spots filled up with them. I just want people in there at this point. I really have no idea what else I can do now with limited finances.  

Laundry - can't get it off my mind, yet there is nothing I can do about it at this point beyond just putting up some sort of cheap looking arrangement.  That would probably work with long term, short term people would likely not appreciate it that much. 

I'm talking about a pad, just big enough to put a washer and dryer on it, some sort of covering that isn't enclosed and the utilities necessary to make it function.  It would still cost a couple thousand dollars including the cost of the machines.  

Hilarious.  My ad was taken down by "Meta" because it was discriminatory! They say it should be placed in a "special ads" section. Okkkk, but how was it discriminatory? No mention of race, religion, sexual orientation - nothing. I don't care who you are as long as you aren't Charles Manson and you do have enough money to be able to pay the lot rent up front.  You can never talk to anyone from Facebook about it, either.  I take that back. There is a facebook forum where reps from Facebook will answer questions, but a chat session? Or even calling them? Good luck!

As it stands, a trans couple may be moving in at the end of the month! That's about as "un" discriminatory as you can get! LOL!

I'm just sitting here musing how I can get this park to start working for me.  The word is out and people are informing me they are telling others about it.  I have invested a lot of time into ads and setting up on various websites all over the place.  It is allegedly the time of year people begin booking parks for their travels.  Short of money and building a bath house, laundry room, pool and pond, there isn't much else I can do. And I certainly wouldn't want to get a 200k or more loan right now not knowing if it would actually pay off.  It would be another mortgage payment, basically and if it didn't work, I'd have to be working full time just to be able to afford the payments.

Well, I will have to go back to work anyway, I certainly can't live off of one couple staying at the park - tho they at least said they are going no where and also indicated they are getting the word out.  They also said another family member may be interested in moving into the park.  Cool.  

Well, off to Walmart. Just a thing I have to do, I need keto stuff and as much as I abhor going into walmart, they have the biggest selection of Keto goods in town.

 Come to learn that TripAdvisor won't show my phone number or any contact details without paying  a whopping $45 per month.  I know RV park owners that swear by it - but others also swear by the free ones I have listed it with . My park shows on TripAdvisor, there is just no way to contact me from their site.  I could see a minimal charge to find out if it does anything - at the very least an intro freebie for a week or a month?  

But no thanks. I am loaded up with enough payments right now, I just can't afford more of this stuff.  If someone really wanted to find out about my park through TripAdvisor, they can just google the name, it will come right up! I decided to try and slip in the URL in the description - I suspect they won't approve it.  

I'm also waiting on CampSpot to contact me with whatever they are wanting to know - or charge.  Well that didn't take long, they charge 10% per booking and a 2.5% credit card processing fee.  I'll do it, I already did do it, it's just awaiting them to finalize it.  

_______________

Thursday - morning

I'm awakened all night long with the pain shooting up my leg when I subconsciously/sleep turn.  I'm abandoning my efforts to get up early until this passes. The pain is beginning to subside a bit, but when tweaked in the wrong contortions?  Yeah, no fun. Not going to get much of anything done over there, either. That's all physical labor type of work and I am not going to do any of that and potentially drag out even longer the time it takes for this thing to heal. 

I've been spending the days going through endless websites listing the park wherever I can, fixing or adding things (especially pics) to sites I have already signed up with and wondering how I can get more traffic to my business.  

I'm day 3 back on Keto - down 8 pounds.  This is usually what happens, lose 10 pounds or so and then plateau there for a while.  It can't be that much fat loss in just a few days, but it's nice to see the needle going down on the scale instead of up. I'm determined to get down below 200 before any cheat days. That's going to take a while- probably a few months anyway. Mostly just eating salads and chicken to start with a few fats thrown in.  The urine stick showed "trace" ketosis last night, it's just something to show you where you're at. 

Lots of people on the Keto sites say those sticks are useless and you "must" use a blood analyzer to determine exact ketosis. I'm like, what?  This isn't a life threatening illness, or diabetes or something, I don't need to go that far with it. It's more of a motivational tool - you see the stick getting darker and darker purple, you know you're on the right track.  

I have a Keto cookbook - an actual paperback book lol - that has some amazing looking dishes in it that I want to make. I doubt anyone here will eat the stuff, but if I make a lot, I can have leftovers for days for lunches and even separate dinner than everyone else.  It's just the way it has to be with everyone else eating whatever they want whenever they want to, I have to get off of that train.  If I don't, I won't lose this fat and this will all be a waste of time.

Well, anyway, just deleted the old Facebook ad and put up a new one with a lot more pics.  As many pics as is allowed per ad, in fact.  It will reach across a 100 mile radius or even more with all the different groups I put it in going from Shreveport to almost Tyler, north and south as well.  I will keep posting these facebook ads indefinitely. Only one out of 20 groups denies the ad, the rest don't care.  Most of the facebook selling sites around here really don't care what you are putting up as long as it isn't spam/scams.  

Enough.  Just going to keep looking around for ways to reach more people.  

G'day