I graded the heck out of that driveway with that bobcat today.  I mean, I sliced and diced it until the side that is giving problems was well cut down and hopefully deep enough to drain down the hill.  I sat there and thought, I'm doing all this, but it's still going to get  muddy. 

So I called the rock place and had them deliver 15 tons of SB2 gravel. I couldn't justify having that machine and not using it to spread gravel.  However...the driver was awesome.  I told him I just want a couple of inches and he said fine, once the gravel started dumping he took off! He got 200 feet before the bed was empty!  

I can't say I'm pleased about these decisions to spend money, but it had to be done.  I'm actually going to steal some gravel from the far end tomorrow morning and put it over where the backfilling was done on lot 14.  I don't know what to say, the costs have just overwhelmed me. I wonder if I would have even gotten into this thing if I had known the endless things that need to be done before I can call it complete?  

I'm looking at another grand - at least - to finish out the shed with everything I want to do with it.  

But, it is happening.  I have another 6 day rental for one of the short term lots.  And the people that wanted lot 14 that I had decided to use for short term? Forget it.  They can have lot 14 and I will have another pull through site available. Pull through sites are immensely popular with the traveling bunch.  I just wish I had another 14 or even 20 lots.  I'm sure I could fill them up and I'm sure I could live off of that.  Yet, I'm also sure I could make it if the short terms will fill up at least 80%. 

These people are actually using the campground software. It sat idle for so long I had wondered if I had wasted my money and time with it.  

I am driven - I've said this recently but I'll say it again - driven to get this shed fixed up and done.  I have to have these amenities. It's no longer, at least in my mind, might need them, I have to have them. It's an industry-wide standard to have laundry and showers. A kitchen isn't, but that's for a different venue. That isn't RV'ers. These giant 5th wheel RV's have full fledged kitchens in them including an oven.  I mean, I've been in a few now that I've opened the park. Full sized refrigerators, ovens, even an island counter!  They're huge with those slideouts.  

I'm admittedly a bit scatterbrained right now. My mind is all over the place.  I couldn't do a trucking job right now even if I wanted to. I'm glad I can survive at least a couple more months if I really need to. I'm at least another month worth of work here.  The shed will take longer than I expected, I can already tell that.  You start talking about insulation, drywall, electrical wiring and outlets, water, sewer, shower, toilet, kitchen - it's going to take a while folks.  The laundromat will be opened - I hope to have it that way anyway - before everything else is down.  People are wanting it that are staying there.  Great, give me 70 loads per month of wash/dry and I'll have the payments made on it.  

Oh. Well yes, I backfilled almost everything - as much as I could anyway. I would have had to go buy more pipe and I just didn't have time for that. With the price it is to rent one of those machines, you get busy with it.  You don't fool around going to stores, you sit on that machine and use it.  The backfilling took much longer than I expected.  The ditch was deep, it took many, many passes over the various portions of it to get it compacted and leveled. 

I finished the backfilling - in  near 3 hours I think. Maybe less. Then I started leveling out the Hipcamp lot and opening up more room. I'd like 5 spots, please. Got into that and said, wait, that driveway.  I was cutting the side of that driveway and hauling out a lot of dirt/mud. It needed to be removed, not just displaced. I got so involved with that that I just said, screw this, call the dude, have him bring over some gravel.  

Back to the HipCamp lot and I can do a couple more hours worth tomorrow morning before I have to take it back.  You only get 8 hours of use on a machine in any 24 hour period.  Which is why it didn't bother me that Taylor was texting and calling me - I didn't hear any of it, that machine is noisy.  But I did, finally, happen to feel the vibration of my phone after a text message and pulled it out.  She was on her way home, but no way she was making it in time.  Jaxon will be taken back to school if no-one is there to pick him up.  I say it didn't bother me, I mean it didn't bother me to quit and go get the kids. I am always there for her - at least while I'm not driving trucks - if she needs me. Home is 10 minutes away. 

So I got the boys and here I am.  I did end up doing some shoveling today, just to get the dirt underneat some lines going to the shed that I didn't finish yesterday. 

I'm going to be up early again tomorrow morning. This time, the machine is sitting there. Not: this time, it's raining. You know what? From what I could see? It didn't rain over there this morning at all.  If it did it was negligible.

I'm going to sit and think what I want to get done tomorrow morning with that machine. You can get alot done in 3 hours.  

I have no idea if the people that paid in advance showed up for lot 14 today.  ?? I was there all day long and they never showed or called.  I imagine going over there now at almost 6:00 pm and finding them there.  I dunno, but if they are ok with it, I am too. It's a freshly finished construction site. A lot of grass was torn up - expected.  

Anyway, with the way the short terms are going, I'm pretty much sold on keeping at least 3 of them. After I get the folks on one of the pull throughs moved and have 2 pull throughs and one back-in for short term, I think it will get even better.  

Whatever the case, I haven't eaten much today, either. Not by design.  But I'm very hungry right now and I am pretty much decided to eat out. We have nothing thawed from the freezers and there isn't anything to cook in the refrigerator. A nice salmon meal sounds delicious!

 Good ole' Mama Nature.  She knew I had to go rent a machine to backfill the trench.

So what does she done did do?  Rains on everything, of course.  I woke up early today expecting to get up and get out of here.  The next thing I know, I'm hearing the pitter-patter of water falling on my window AC unit. I have no idea what it looks like over there. I'm just sitting here pondering my next move.  

Well, as it stands, I have someone coming in for an overnight stay tomorrow for lot 11. If worse comes to worse, I will give today's visitors lot 11 and tomorrow's visitors. 

I may have little choice.  I will be going over there in a bit, the rain has stopped and I'm giving time for any accumulated water in the trench to sink into the clay.  If it's mostly gone, I will get that machine anyway and get with it.  

Well that's a little bit ridiculous. $335 for 4 hours of the bobcat or $385 for 24 hours?  I just called over there to make sure they have something available. For $50 more? I'm getting the thing for 24 hours.  And I"m waiting a couple of hours to get it. Actually, I'm going to the property first to see if this is even going to be doable today.  The rain has stopped but there are oftentimes vast differences between the amount of rain we get at the house and the amount the property gets.  It's weird.  

I really can't afford this machine.  I have little choice. It would take me a couple of days to backfill that manually and I am already worn out from 2 days of working in that trench.  In fact, I was pretty irritable yesterday after I got home and wasn't feeling all that great.  I feel much better this morning, thankfully.

It's a lot of dirt to do by hand. Too much for me and guaranteed hiring people to help me do it will be almost fruitless.  People want the money, they don't want to work. Covid really messed this nation up in that regard and I wonder if anything will ever return to pre-Covid mentality?  Probably not Not with the media blaring "news" of - well I'm not going into it here. I'm not biased - well I guess I'll take that back.

I am biblically biased, if that makes sense, towards certain things going on in our society that the media and elites are attempting to normalize.  They have weaponized certain terms, phrases and words so that if you speak out against them from a moral standpoint, they label you, come after you, cancel you and dispose of you.  It's an Orwellian world of a relative few people dictating to the rest of society how we should think and act.  If someone gets into my face about that stuff, they are going to get a dose back at them. 

But I mostly find internet arguing useless and many of the people that start the trouble are just trolling, trying to get a reaction.  I did that for years in that political debate group. Thankful to be done with all of that. I am in a small group of people where I occasionally post something that is going on, post my opinion and see what happens.  Not that often, rest assured and definitely not consuming the time it used to. I have a business to create, run, get automated and then quite likely, go back to trucking.  

I have money coming in but my personal funds are starting to run out.  Speaking of money coming in, the second recurring monthly lot payment is due from a person and I haven't heard from him. He will be hearing from me shortly: Do I have your permission to run  your credit card?  Some people have given permission in advance, but when it comes to something like that? I want approval.  No one will be able to say I took money without their permission.  

Well that was quick: Yes sir go ahead. Indeed I will, lol.  And done. Next payments - several of them due on the 1st. Even with a $500 electric bill, I will start pulling ahead on the business account quite a bit now.  I'm thinking I need a load of gravel over there today - nothing I can afford but nothing I can afford not to do.  I will try to get the riverrock from the back, first, but if that doesn't work, I have little choice. It's just muddy water on a 40 - 50 foot swath of driveway that just is ugly and gets people's vehicles dirty.  

Still 3 more days until that pull through motorcoach gets out of there.  It's the only one available for short term right now and I'm sort of regretting that. I think I could get more overnight business with 2 of them available and get rid of one of the back in short terms.  The next pull through out of there - which is probably going to be that rail worker - I'm going to go ahead and keep that one open as well as lot 5 pull through and see what happens. Maybe nothing, but there are several upcoming reservations for lot 5 so far.  I may not get as much interest in long term now that I've raised the price back up to $475 a month.  It's just that electric bills are going to eat my finances alive without doing something to mitigate it.  Meters are around $300 a piece.

Yes, that's just the meter.  So near 4 grand to outfit the entire park with them - out of the question.  

Well, it's getting near 8:00 am and the rain stopped about 45 minutes ago. I'm going to go over and see what the damage is. 

I pray the Lord's blessing that I can still get that trench backfilled today!

G'day