It's basically bad news when it comes to people in the park right now. None of these temporary workers were going to stay forever, but a few of them made it sound like they were staying longer than what they actually are.  For example, lot 3 texted me today - he was supposedly sticking around for a year. He's been there for about 3 months. He's leaving Sunday. That was totally unexpected.

Lot 4, 7 and 12 are currently empty.  A few overnight gigs coming up, but nothing to compensate for this kind of loss. Lot 2 will be leaving in about 3 weeks. Lot 5 I'm not really sure about. I need 2 long term immediately, basically.  Well, at least 1 with more needed soon.  

I can't fret about these things, I just have to hope some people show up out of nowhere, say they are staying for awhile, do you have anything? That's pretty much how it happens. I'm probably going to run a boosted Facebook ad. I have ads up, free ones, but I need ads up targeting people looking for long term. 

To that end, I'm going to join a bunch of Facebook groups over in Shreveport - right now actually - be back in a few, lmao. There we go, numerous join requests.  And a huge Dallas group was in the midst of the Shreveport stuff, so I put in a join request there as well. I get lots of visitors from Dallas, I can add that short term is also available on my next ad. I"m going to create a new ad versus keep using the old ones. They don't seem to be effective, I need fresh material with at least a few newer pics. 

It seems to me I should also be joining groups in Carthage, Longview and Tyler.  People move around in this region a lot. 

I did get more than half the park finished today, but I overheated badly. I should have taken more water and sugar free Gatorade with me, I will remember tomorrow morning to go finish that stuff. I ended up soaking wet in sweat - head to toes - I was not feeling well at all. It was hot in the sense of direct sunlight and high humidity.  I felt so bad I just came home and sat down in my cold bedroom office chair and sat there.  I was contemplating going back this afternoon to finish up, but that was a no go.  Hydration!  I had water, didn't bring near enough.

There.  Brand new ad.  Posted all over the place, including an attempt to post in the Dallas group.  Facebook boost added. Now to wait for them to approve or reject it. I have no idea why some of the ads Facebook says is ok and others Facebook says no.  They don't tell you. It's why I don't delete the ads that they accept.   I'm just sitting here thinking to go to bed early and try to get up early. Depending on sleep quality. Get the rest of the mowing done while the temps are still lower.  

I also just realized that most of the pics I have are from winter and not showing all the beautiful greenery in the trees.  I will take a bunch of fresh pics tomorrow and update all of my ads.  I'll be able to get shots with freshly mowed grass.  

Enough.  Ad created, workout completed. I haven't done curls with curl bar in ages.  Gag I'm so out of shape!

 "Your park is the best one in this entire area".  

I hear this a lot, regardless of a couple of people making demands that are beyond anything reasonable.  They are actually talking to me again, they are nosy and want to know everything.  The husband of the grumpies went over there immediately last night, apparently, as soon as they came in.  I didn't hear anything negative had been said to them about me, but I find it suspect that they are addressing new tenants before they even have the rig set up and getting comfy in their new surroundings.  

Maybe it's just because of what the grumps have been doing with me.  I am referring to the new people coming in.  I spent an hour visiting with them - they had me in their trailer and showed me around. They told me they went to all of the parks in the area and mine was "by far" the best.  I will take any compliments I can get.  I'm afraid that title may be lost at some point to that new park that hasn't opened and has been sitting there, idle, for some time now.  

I think the problem with that park is that they want way too much money for it.  And keeping that many sites full, if an investor is looking to profit off of it, is going to be difficult with the competition keeping prices lower than they should be.  I'm considering reaching out to all of the parks in the area, big, small, dumps or whatever they've got and discussing having some sort of board or committee - an association if you will - to get together and discuss all of us raising our rates all at the same time.  

Parks going any direction that is out of our city area are getting at least $10 more per night.  Or, for long term, they are charging separately for electricity.  So, you could bring your monthly lot rent rate down but charge separate for electricity and end up way ahead.  If you don't have meters, such as I, increase the rates $50 per month.  

I was a bit - stupid - to let my contractor who built my park and also built the competing park know how much I am charging per month for rent. He asked and I just blurted it out without thinking.  If they open up and start charging the same rates as all of us, how is that going to pan out?  I probably spend too much time thinking about this. They are 12 miles from downtown, they aren't close to anything.  Their only hope, IMO, is to either cut throat their rates or turn it into a resort. 

Oh well, the contractor gave me a lot of free work, it's probably why I didn't think twice to let him know.  

Anyway, these new people are a 3-some plus 2 dogs. They're in their early 30's, I'm guessing and a 4 year old boy.  They bought property nearby, but that was a fiasco in itself. The lady that owns the property wouldn't sell it to the farmer that owns hundreds of acres that literally surrounds it.  After the deal was done, the farmer asked if they would be interested in a different 6 acre parcel of land and could he have that one?  Turns out the other parcel is much nicer than the one they bought.  The farmer gets the land back and the old lady - grudges, misgivings, who knows - didn't get her way at the end of the day.  

Well whatever. I'm just sitting here, as normal on a weekday morning, drinking my coffee and contemplating getting this grass stuff done and over with and also contemplating, as I have been, what I'm going to do when the winter grass dies off.  It's already starting to do that now.  I wish I could find somewhere that sell hundreds of pounds of bermuda grass seed at bulk prices. I've looked and looked, I can't find a "good" price anywhere.  

I'm going to keep looking, it really doesn't matter where it comes from in the US, it can be shipped, obviously.  I think I ended up putting down 500 pounds of rye grass seed.  That's 2 to 3 grand in terms of buying that much Bermuda seed and an actual truckload of sod is cheaper, amazingly enough.  That doesn't mean it's cheap, per se, it's just less expensive and already grown.  Much easier, but still a bit more than I can absorb into my business checking account right now.  

Maybe the beginning of June?  I don't want to put anything more on credit cards.  Just no thanks.  

Well, while I bake and stew on that thought, it's 9:00 am, there is no rain in the immediate forecast, time to get over there and get this chore over and done with.

G'day.