I started watching YouTube videos this morning about electricity setup and spent far more time doing so than I anticipated.  However, it's a good thing I did.  The underground line needs to be laid first before installing anything inside the shed or even mounting the panel. Well, the panel is mounted but it can come back off easily.  By the time I was done watching those videos - and admittedly needing to watch a few more for more enlightenment on subject matter that I am grossly uninformed or knowledgeable about - the boys/dad were back from their excursion around town. 

We ended up going to the property, but I had no intention of working today. My leg was aching - it comes and goes. When it comes, I'm done.  This is from the injury several weeks ago. It may take months for it to heal completely to the point it doesn't hurt anymore.  I built a fire, the oldest boy wanted to work for money. Great, start pulling those weeds.  He got a few weeds pulled and then wanted to play with my old phone.  I still have the Iphone 8 - it works perfectly well, just that it's battery doesn't last terribly long even with a full charge and doesn't have some of the features of the Iphone 13 I now have.

But I saw no reason to sell the thing, it works on wifi. I can even send text messages on it from an email address set up on it, which I have.  I can run it off my 13 with tethering.  Or hook up to local wifi.  

Anyway, he wanted $5 for the work he was doing and I laughed at him. Yeah, sure thing you pull a weed, come over, sit down, play on the phone, go pull another weed, lather, rinse repeat.  I might give you a quarter for the work you are doing at the pace you are keeping.  There is no sense, in my mind, to give kids a false sense of what life in the real world will be like.  You have to prepare them if you want them capable of being able to function in a society that is sometimes brutal and cutthroat. That sent him to working.  The other boy kept trying to distract him, so I called him off. Nope, you can go play in the dirt, the weeds, whatever, but you are going to leave your brother alone while he's working.

Anyway, several things happened during the 3 hours we were out there.  A person had called earlier asking about a spot and if they could come see it? Sure, I don't have to be there, you can drive through and see if it's anything you want to get yourselves involved with.  Shortly after I got there, I had the "bright" idea to go to an old post I had put in a local facebook gossip group and try contacting someone else about bush hogging these damned weeds down. They are unsightly and rather irritating.  I got into a conversation with a particular person online and then it ended.   

After that, a 4 door, 8 foot bed dually - big pickup - came slowly driving into the park.  They drove around and passed by us on the RV park driveway. I waved at them, they just kept going. I suspected it was the people that were coming to look at the place.  I never heard back from them - so write them off. I don't stress over people not wanting to stay, that's their choice and if they don't want to be there, I certainly don't want unhappy guests/tenants there either.  Just a recipe for disaster.  

Then a car came cruising in - very slowly.  Thy went all the way down the driveway. ??? All the way to the gas operation.  No idea. They came back and introduced themselves. I'm Amy the person you were talking to. I'm horrible with names, mostly with people I have only known for a short period of time. Oh, are you the ones that called earlier? No, we are the people that were going to bush hog. OHHH!!

I said, well, I just want the front portion done.  How much will you charge for that?  I braced myself - people around these parts are notorious for extremely high pricing. He said "I can do it for $100".

Wait, what? I thought but didn't say.  A hundred dollars?  I've given up on the bulldozer for now, it's just too much money, the driveway needs gravel before I rent a bulldozer.  Yes, let's do that! We had final words and they started driving off before - wait! How much to do that back part too?  The back part has far more weeds and they had viewed it.  He said $350 and I said do it. He knew enough to say it is too wet to do it now.  Yes, I thought, it is but I wanted to see if he knew that.  Why? Because the last jackass I had out there too my money and didn't do the job.  That was many months ago.  

After that, I made sure the fire died down to smoldering embers - it doesn't have to be put out, it's in a 3 block high ring, it's not going to spread anywhere - and we came home after. We had been out there long enough. One boy wanted to stay, the other wanted to go home, I sided with the latter, it was time to eat.  

After that a call came in. We talked a while back, she says on the phone, I was asking about a lot.  Ok? I don't remember people that disappear, I have no need to.  If they don't want it, they don't want it.  She went on and on about a local competitor they ended up at.  It's a married couple and the man was too busy with work to deal with it, he had left finding a place in her hands.  She said at the time she thought my place was "too far out of town". What?!! Lmao, I'm a mile away from city limits. It ain't a big city, I can tell y'all that for a fact.  

After a lot of explanations - apparently she thought I would remember the phone call we had - which I don't , again, these are not things I need to concern myself with or keep in my memory banks when they don't show up and they find another place ....and I've talked to a lot of people - it turns out they were calling me from my park.  I had just left there, lol.  They were checking it out and checking their cell phone reception.  ATT, Verizon and now T-Mobile have decent connection there. 

I could hear the husband in the background. He was mad that they hadn't moved to my park in the first place! Lol. They are moving in tomorrow.  We will be getting out of church, Lord willing of course, about the time they are setting up.  

I'm sitting with the older boy and something about God came out of his mouth. It opened up a discussion about Jesus. If you want to hear about the most important part of the day? This was it. Money and tenants are irrelevant compared to souls and the Kingdom of Heaven.  Random things come out of kids' mouths.  It can be pretty entertaining - or it can be fairly serious stuff.  It covers the gamut of earthly things and you will get explanations from a child you would never think of. Sometimes it's rather enlightening.  Sometimes it's silly. Strange.  Scary...etc. 

It all came down to going to be with God after we die.  Yes, but there is only one way to get there. I refuse to say "in my opinion" for I believe it's the truth that cannot be denied whether anyone wants to believe it or not.  However. I did not convey the message to him like that.  You just present the truth, they have to be free to accept or reject it. God is a God of free will. You can come to Him - or you can ignore him and do your own thing.  Presenting the truth to a child has to be in a child's understanding of things. It is kept pretty simple and easy to understand.  

At one time in my Christian life, I was one of those "cram it down your throat" people.  It's easy to get into that mode once you come to the understand that there is a God and that the only God is the God of the Bible.  I have found that there are different ways to get the message across to different people and you have to be in tune with the blessed Holy Spirit to understand what to say to who.  You wouldn't get harsh with a child about God, you might get harsh with a person so lost in drugs or demon possessed that they only way to get through to them is "in-your-face".  I've done all of it and then some - I have stories, lol.

It was a simple, heart-felt message. I remember now, it started with asking about why Christ was killed?  I explained about God, a bit about the Old Testament and our need for a Savior.  We have all sinned, all of us, and we have to ask God to forgive us and invite Christ into our hearts. If you ever think you want to do that, just let me know and we can pray.  As i said, I am not forcing or trying to manipulate anything about God or Christ down his throat, it's totally up to him. 

Ok, well I want to do that.  Ok, well let me know when.  I want to do that right now!  It's been a long time since I've led anyone to the Lord. But I did and we prayed together, leading him in a prayer and he received the Lord.  He understood that we have all done "bad things", things that are not pleasing to God.  I am not going to sugarcoat the Word of Truth. Just like facing life and all of it's realities when he grows older, if he's going to believe in God, he needs to know who God really is.  A wonderful, caring, loving God, yes!  But also a holy, just and righteous God!  

I have to say I broke down in tears. Haven't felt that way in a long time.  Haven't led anyone to the Lord in a long time.  

We prayed tonight when he went to bed.  I asked him to pray. "Well I don't know what to say?" Well just ask God to bless our sleep.  And that he did. God doesn't require some scripted, professional, prayer that comes from a book instead of the heart.  He listens to us, we can talk to him in reverence, yes, but real.  Down to earth. 

Well.  A eureka moment came to me today.  I truly believe I will get more people in for overnight stays if I get laundry and a shower in there.  But after giving it an exorbitant amount of thought, I also came to the conclusion that if I had a minimalist kitchen and a toilet in there, I could really get some HipCampers in there. When I say kitchen, I'm talking an electric oven with range top, a sink, a small counter to work on and a cupboard with pots, pans and cooking utensils.  I absolutely must have a toilet in there to get HipCampers to come.

What led to this? I was thinking.  If I'm running all of this stuff to the shed and I'm spending all of this money, why can't I just run a couple of 20 amp lines out to the side of the shed, have a regular plug in and get some of those people coming in here?  This would cost less than $100 to install and I think it would attract some of the different kinds of traveling customers that don't want to pay much to stay anywhere.  

I could go on, and I probably will tomorrow. My thoughts have expanded this park without spending tens of thousands of dollars doing it.  Rest assured, I have bene racking my brains and reading inordinate amount of material trying to figure out a way to do it.  Get myself out of trucking permanently without having to expand the park right away.  

Enough, It's 11:00 pm and I want to go to church tomorrow. Rested if possible.  

 Make sure that doesn't happen again. 

I arrived at the park yesterday with my laptop.  They wanted to pay credit card.  It totally escaped me that they could have just paid online.  I'm new to this, folks, I haven't done this that many times.  Got the laptop out, got the card processing app up and - it wanted the user name and password.  Drew a complete blank.  It is saved on my desktop, I don't need to enter it every time I bring it up.  I said I could just go home and they can give me the card number over the phone, they decided to just pay with a check.  

I'm not sure why these other people are coming in March, but the curiosity of the situation is that I never received an email from the software telling me I have a reservation that needs attention.  It sent me one the last 2 times? I'll have to go back into that system and figure out if I did something to stop the emails.  

I also updated HipCamp with more pictures, I only had 3 on there. Hipcamp also asked if I could like a professional photographer to come and take pics in exchange for free night/s stay.  Ok?  I signed up for it.  It's just a thing where they put up requests into some system somewhere and if there happens to be a photographer in the area that wants to do it? They show up.  

It also dawned on me that I could easily set up a couple of electric-only sites on the other side of the shed.  It's flat, level ground and I'm only talking 20 amp, regular circuit, no 50 or 30 amp stuff.  Why? Because there is a market for it.  Reduced prices as well.  It would basically be a place to park a small rig overnight at the same price a truckstop that has pay parking would charge a trucker.

I'll have a water spigot by the shed as well.  They just won't be able to dump sewer, tho in reality, since I'm running a line over there, I could install a sewer dump.  They charge anywhere from $10 to $25 to dump a tank full of sewage. It's mostly frowned on in the industry, parks would rather they just spend the money to stay a night.  

Anyway, this would be a version of boondocking but with electricity and I would have to do nothing more than install a couple of outdoor electrical outlets.  I'll have plenty of juice at the shed to handle it.  This is what came in last night. A pickup with a bumper pull, small trailer.  We're talking less than $100 to install.  I could, actually, put in sewer and water, I may end up having enough pipe left over, not sure.  I also could get a small kitchen going in the shed - an electric oven, a sink and a small counter.  Put some pots, pans and cooking utensils in there - cheap stuff - and add that onto the site as well.

I'm getting ideas as I go along here. If I could put up a used oven cheap, it would cost a few hundred dollars to install a simple but usable setup.  The shower - I have found it's just as important as laundry if not more so.  People are asking if I have a shower? No, unfortunately, but we can change that.  

I'm just not sure how I would be able to install it.  The shed is elevated off the ground, but it's not enough to crawl under it.  To install a toilet or a shower, you have to bring the sewer pipe up from underneath.  I've seen the fittings at the store for both a shower drain and the toilet, it's 4 inch you just attach the sewer pipe to it.  I'll have to spend even more time looking at YouTube videos I guess. 

I want to utilize this rather large expenditure of money just to put in a laundry setup as much as possible.  If I can add stuff to it that doesn't cost a lot, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to do so.  

I think it would be a hit for HipCampers, that's a bit different crowd right there.  I don't care who comes in there, I just want to maximize the potential for more customers. If you look at the bathrooms that many HipCamp locations offer? They're mostly outhouses.  That's right, a hole dug into the ground and a toilet seat mounted onto a wood structure.  I could actually put a working toilet in my shed, nothing like an outhouse.  Lol. 

A toilet is like $100. The fittings for it - well i need to find out how to install sewer line P trap or how that works.  I don't smell sewage coming up out of the shower stall in my room, I assume there is something you have to install in the line before the drain like a p trap under the sink to stop bugs and smell from coming up into the room.  

Let me put it this way. After spending thousands of dollars doing the shed for nothing but a laundromat? We're going to spend another grand on a shower stall, a toilet and a kitchen. Nothing fancy.  If I ever get there, fancy can come later.  That shed is 12X16.  The machines will be at one end, the bathroom can be at the other and the little kitchen can be in the middle and I think that will gobble up the space in there.  But, if there happens to be some space left over, a couple of chairs to finish it out. The kitchen only needs the oven, no other electrical appliances except maybe a toaster. I'm not supplying food, lol, a refrigerator is unnecessary.  

So what am I doing today? I'm going back up to Lowe's to try and figure out what to put into the electrical box for fittings and conduit, I don't need much.  Enough to go into the ground where the wire will come out and enough going from the breaker box to the inside of the shed.  Once I get the machines setup done, I will install an electrical outlet and try to get a toilet in there.  

Well that didn't take long to figure out. We all know toilets have their own trap, I just didn't know if another one was needed under the flooring? Nope.  The shower? They have a special, narrow trap that attaches to the drain line under the floor.  Of course sinks have a p trap in the closet underneath them.  

Sounds easy? Lol, likely not.  Everything I have done so far has been a pain in the rear. I could only hope that something else might go easier! Well, enough. I'm going to watch more videos and figure some things out and then head up to Lowe's.