Friday, July 21, 2023

 I've been feeding Addler (my Great Dane) Iams Minichunks Chicken kibble for many years now . It was something like $25 per 30 pound bag when I first started him on it.  It kept going up until it hit $32 and then it stayed there for a while. Then, inflation hit. It jumped up to $41 per bag and now it's up to $46.  Yes, I went to Walmart, Target, Chewy, Amazon, all of them looking at pricing.  It's getting out of hand.  I don't know how they justify raising the price that high, I'm sure they'll cite inflation and high cost of everything, but a $14 jump in price in a short period of time?  

Anyway, I'm down to the last bag. I had it on auto-ship with Chewy and ended up with 5 extra bags laying around, shipping far too many for the amount the dog actually eats.  So I've had quite a reprieve from having to buy his food.  But this is getting ridiculous.  Sigh, I'll keep buying it but if it goes up much higher, I'm going to have to consider putting him on something different.  

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Went back to the property, sprayed 8 gallons of weed killer in areas that desperately needed it - especially my septic system, gag.  3 to 5 foot tall weeds growing over there! I sprayed almost 2 whole gallons just on that area alone.  Got some of the areas where I had already tilled and the weeds were coming back.  

I'm in kind of a dilemma. I've got 6 lots that were tilled.  Just let them go?  Buy 6 pallets of sod and just do them?  Higher price, by far, per pallet when buying less than truckload.  Or wait until it rains?

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Friday - morning.  I was informed last night that it will "probably be Saturday", citing the lack of motivation or desire to have to drive 7-1/2 hours with screaming kids fighting with each other.  I already knew this was coming, didn't know it would happen so soon. They were going on outings to fun places every day for .. a week? ... in a row and yesterday, kablaaaaam!  That was over and done with.  The kids were at each other's throats, whining, etc.  It is highly predictable aftermath after having had gone full tilt for so long, there is going to be a crash at the end where you are just doing what every one does - much of nothing, basic life, sitting around, the extreme adventure, the excitement of going to wonderful places is done, over with and gone. 

I wouldn't have wanted to go on that trip unless it were in my vehicle, which can comfortably seat 6 people without scrunching kids/people in. 2 front seats, 2 second row, 2 back row.  Or, if the kids all want to sit together, 3 back row and 1 middle row.  

Anyway...the new tenant did, indeed, show up last night.  He called several times. I had just left, in fact, when he arrived.  I missed him by maybe 5 minutes.  "Well, do you want to come back so I can pay?"

No, I replied, I just left there, I was hot and sweaty, I'm home cooling down. Pick whichever lot you want.  I think they think it strange that I don't just assign them a lot.  I don't care what lot they take, if there is a reservation for that particular lot, the reservation can be moved to another lot. Happens all the time in the RV park industry and people don't necessarily pick a particular lot, they just input one so they can make the reservation.  

There are people coming the end of next week.  Those lots are reserved already, no one can make a fresh reservation on them.  I have 2 lots available for long term right now after this newbie arrived and another one will be leaving - soon.  No idea when, he doesn't know, he was thinking he should have already left.  The longer he stays, the lower the refund.  I agreed to let him pay for a month and give him pro-rated refund.  So, now that the month is whittling away, the refund will be fairly small if he does, indeed leave before the end of the month. 

The heat is apparently making some of those RV's uncomfortable in midday, even with 2 ac units on the roof.  This is why I have such high electric bills - those ac's compressors are running all day long currently.  I'm still waiting to see what the next electric bill will be, it will by force of issue have to be lower than last month. Fewer RV's for one and 5 days, I think it was at the property, without power.  It should be less than a grand.  Hopefully a lot less, but I like to prepare myself psychologically for a high bill.

Agenda today? I still have that leaking water spigot to fix.  I have the parts now, including a new shut off valve in case it happens again, I won't have to shut off the water to the entire park for an hour.  I really don't have much choice in that. Once the water is off, then I can cut the line and install the valve. Unfortunately, you have to give that glue time to dry and set.  You can't just turn full pressure back on and expect that fitting is going to be good to go.  It'll be good to go alright, blasting right back off the pipe you just glued it to.  It's an inconvenience but what am I to do? Sit there and watch dollar bills dripping onto the ground? I should have already done that but I've gotten distracted with weeds. There is still the entire area behind the back-in sites to mow down.

Don't know if I'm going to do all of that with a push mower.  Take half a day.  Yet, the weeds are growing quickly and over a foot tall already.  Well, a foot and a half tall. As it stands, when I went back over there last night, I mosied on over to the septic system. The weeds have taken it over and are as high as 5 feet tall. I'm hoping by this morning they are looking like they are dying off. If they had to work on that system right now? They'd have a rather large undertaking moving giant weeds out of the way to get at it. No thanks, I'll deal with it, whatever that takes. I was a little apprehensive about snakes being in the midst of all of that. Fortunately didn't see any.  

I'm going to have to get the boots on, a pair of gloves and pull a lot of that out of there, but I want it dead first so there isn't any resurgence. I think some of those giant things are going to be hard to pull, tho, I may have to cut them down with a chain saw or something.  It's kind of a priority - if that system fails they can't get at it.  

Every morning now, apparently. The WiFi goes out on the main router.  It's not even hot outside.  The other router is working, I know because I just checked the cameras.  I don't get it, unless there is just too many people on the network and it can't handle all of it. But, that doesn't make sense if the other router is working off of the same network?  So that sort of narrows it down to something wrong with the device itself.  Which means I need to be over there when it's not working so tech support can do whatever they do with them.  As I said, I've racked my brains and done the research to try and find something else, there is nothing affordable and it is what it is.  It seems that resetting the device works, so I told the people that contacted me to go over and shut it off, leave it off a minute and then turn it back on.

No, obviously, I'm not over there.  I went to bed early last night and actually slept, with only a very bad dream waking me up in the middle of the night.  I was so tired,  I just went straight back to sleep.  I'm glad they aren't coming back today, I'll have another night/morning without kids making all kinds of noise.  It's basically many nights in a row where I didn't sleep worth a petunia's smelly leaves and then finally, getting some sleep, you bet I'm going to take advantage of it.  

Now that I think of it, I don't know what waiting another day is going to do for a trip back here? If those kids are cranky, it makes little difference where they're at, lol.  I'll just enjoy another day of freedom fro the bs, especially from the youngest one that starts trouble ... for the fun of starting trouble . 

Well, the day isn't getting any younger. I need to go get a new chainsaw chain and fuel. I have put off cutting trees up and I need to fix that. The chains on both saws are so dull they are hardly cutting through anything, but especially not wanting to cut through dense wood.  The problem? Those chains aren't cheap anymore.  They're in the $30 range, which is simply outrageous.  A year ago they were less than $20?  I'm not even referring to trees over the walking trails, there are small trees that snapped, fell over and need cutting from that same-said storm.  I move them out of the way, yes, but they are unsightly.  Cut them up into firewood sized logs and be done with it.  

Wait. I have that brand new 20" chainsaw from Walmart. Never been used. I brought it home for James to use but he went out and bought an electric thing. Whatever, I'm of the 2 stroke, much more power fan club. IT will have a brand new chain on it, no need to go buy a chain, yayyy! Still need 2 stroke fuel, probably better off buying a 2 gallon can, buy the oil and mix my own much cheaper than the ridiculous price they are charging for pre-mixed fuel.  

Look, everything is being affected by inflation. They say inflation is coming down, well if that's true, the price of everything is not coming down with it and actually still going up. 

September 18th. That's the date the trucking company just told me over the phone is my orientation date.  Can  I last that long? Well, I'll find out.  Take out upcoming, outgoing bill payments but also factor in upcoming, incoming lot payments, including this new person plus 2 short stays that add up to some money? Maybe.  Get a couple more long term in there and definitely.  We're getting close to the end of the month, it might be worth taking out another small-fee Facebook ad.  Even if it could net only one long term, it would be well worth it.

Time to get out of here. 

G'day.  

 Friday late-morning Typical morning when there is no work.  It was, I should say, until the new guy called.  "There's nothing wron...