Thursday, July 10, 2025

 Tuesday - late morning

It finally caught up to me.  Night after night of sleeplessness in a warm room with a loud fan and uncomfortable bed.  I slept 8 straight hours, waking up once and going right back to sleep.  I went to bed at midnight, I dunno why I just did but it's now 11:00 am and I just got out of bed maybe 10 minutes ago and frankly, I feel like I could go back to sleep.  

The only reason I got up is the phone rang a second time from the septic system. I saw it earlier and didn't feel like talking to anyone.  But this time, I figured I better take the call. It was the owner of the septic system place - pretty crazy the owner calling me this is a large scale operation he's running with all kinds of spin off businesses - said he's coming to install it tomorrow. "But we haven't really discussed where we're going to put it". 

No, we haven't.  He or someone from there needs to come out and take a look and let us both figure it out.  So he asks if I'm going to be around tomorrow? Well, I'm not really sure.  

I haven't heard from work and the way I feel right now? I'm not scrambling to get back into that truck.  I dunno how I would have made it driving that truck the way I feel right now. It's like a hangover with drowsiness and sluggishness even tho I haven't been drinking nor did I drink anything yesterday.  It's just a full week of not so great sleeping conditions that caused me to get 3-5 hours of sleep per night. I already have sleep problems but this was far worse.  

So, I offered that I could definitely meet him out there today.  And the reason I want to do it in advance is in case some kind of dirt work or something needs to occur before they show up.   What is the point in arriving with all of that equipment and man power only to find out they can't do it where I want it?  So at 3:30 this afternoon I'm going out there to meet up with him.

Things are starting to pick up now what with them getting that thing installed soon and this weekend the boy is going to work on that dirt and I'm renting him a skid steer to do it. I've said this before but I"ll say it again: He's got an excellent work ethic, a good upbringing by farmers who probably didn't cut him any slack.  He still helps out on the farm even tho he has a full time job and he's going to school in-town, the whole reason he's even staying at my park.  He got quite a bit done on that old tractor, I'll hope he gets a lot more done with a skid steer that is on tracks and can whip that dirt into shape with someone who can do the job correctly.

However.  I am going to ask the contractor today what he'd charge to bring out his dozer and operator and just smooth that land out.  It's probably going to be pretty pricey, but I have to at least ask.  

I'm starting to get more motivated now that we are finally getting somewhere.  The only setback for me is the high heat and humidity.  Regardless, I feel like I'm finally getting on the path to making some real money off of this enterprise and that the goal is actually attainable, albeit getting there via a different path than originally intended.  

Who knows how long it make take to fill those lots up, the point is that I won't owe any money on it.  It's all going to be done with cash unless I decide to finance a building to take care of laundry and shower needs.  But if that were the case, the building would be big enough for a sizeable laundry room, several showers, an office and a C-store.  You get an operation big enough you are going to want to start selling soda, ice, junk food and maybe even a deli -in the future of course but who knows. At least a basic C store with all the usual offerings.  

I have goals as I said. I want this to be a destination spot, it's just that the path to getting there is taking a few turns that were unexpected. If truth be told, I eventually want luxury cabins in the rear of the property in the woods, well away from people, quiet, beautiful and peaceful.  And expensive. Not only to build but to rent.  If you really wanted to get into my mind, I'd love to acquire the property next door to the east of me. 

It's unused, undeveloped and definitely not for sale. I have tried along with others.  Whoever owns it doesn't want to sell it.  They do nothing with it, I don't know what the allure of it is but that's none of my business.  He has several small acreage parcels running alongside the front 1,400 feet of my property.  A perfect place to develop a swimming pool, office, laundry facility, etc.  

Anyway, let's get back to reality. 14 more lots, maybe 16 on this septic.  I've got 16 on the other septic plus a laundry, why not do the same? No reason not to unless there simply isn't the room for it, but I'm pretty sure I have plenty of room for maybe even more than 16 now that I have altered my site plan for building it out.  I dunno, it just never crossed my mind to get rid of the exit that curves back around.  Why do I need that when I'll have one at the end of it?  I don't. 

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A few hours later. I was supposed to meet them over there at 3:30, the contractor's grunt man called at 1 and said oh, well I called him and he told me 3:30 but I thought we were meeting sooner. I'm over here now....

So, I got my things and ran over there. They already had a truck delivering one of the septic system tanks.  It is HOT outside, gag reflex.  Anyway, no big deal and glad we met beforehand for my manager called and I'm supposed to call him back.  I didn't even see he had called until a while ago, I have my ringer off and if I don't see the phone flashing or feel the vibration, it's a missed call.  

We decided on a location in the center of where everything will go in terms of lots and that was that.  He offered without my asking his dozer and operator - his operator is one of the best dozer operators I have ever seen and considering my trucking onto construction with a previous 12 year long job, that's saying something.  You just want this smoothed out, right?  Yes.  Well, you'll have to knock the weeds down first and what about these Sweetgum treest? I'll cut them down, the ones I don't want anyway.  

How much is it? 2 grand a day but we can knock it out in a day if you're just talking about smoothing it out.  

I still intend on having the kid do the initial work, the dozer can come behind him and finish it.  Some of the stuff needs to be done before they'll do it anyway.  

A crew coming tomorrow to install it, he said they're busy and have 4 crews installing 4 different systems tomorrow  Dang! I didn't know they had that many employees.  
















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