Concerned that they haven't called me about getting the Bobcat, I called them a few minutes ago.  Oh no, sir, we wait on you to call us. 

That was not communicated to me at the time of rental.  I was under the assumption from the way they were talking they would be about promptly on the 30th day to pick it up.

Now the thing is in limbo, I have no idea whether they are going to try to hit me for a few extra days - or what.  They "got busy" and will call me back later.  

Come get the thing, that's what I have to say about that.  I need a dozer if I'm going to continue on with this, not a bobcat.  They don't have dozers, of course.  

It's Monday and I'm heading back up to - where else - Oklahoma today.  Got bac from Brownsville early after noon yesterday. I was able to leave early morning, like getting up at 3:30 am and get that trip over with.  My only concern about this next pay period is if they get me something decent before it's up. Then I can have another decent paycheck versus what I will be getting this week.  This week reflects the first week of this new dispatcher - doing miserably at her job so far, hopefully will get better.

Apparently the idea that she isn't the friendliest person got back to her from whoever, she is now at least putting heart emojis on replies and making an attempt to use socially acceptable intro's to her texts.  Maybe she's just nervous, I dunno.  I just don't like the idea that we have to keep going through these new people, what kind of working conditions do they have over there that they keep quitting? 

Well, being the trucking industry? Probably not good.  The trucking industry is fairly brutal all around, no matter what part of it you are working in, tho the drivers get the lion's share of the bs,I'm speaking generally of the entire industry, not my particular job.  My job would be considered on the "easier" end of the scale what with not being out all the time, coming home after almost every run, the kind of pay we are getting and at least half decent management.

Well whatever. I'm still putting in emails to companies that claim they do the drawups for business plans.  I've got to find out how much that costs - I expect a couple thousand anyway if they are literallyi doing the entire site plan from start to finish.  Maybe more, I really don't know, never waded into these waters.  So far I have found 3 local companies that say they are architects, planning, draftsmen.  One of which is the surveying company that did the botched survey on the property.....

I haven't worked on the property in at least 3 days.  I took yesterday off - it was Sunday, my arrival at home was enough for me to just stay here.  Sundays are not good days for me to work and I had spent 10 hours on the road anyway.  

I can tell  ya, if I don't get a loan to do everything all at once? It's gonna be years at the rate I'm going before this thing is at any stage of "alllllmooooost done!".  Yes I expected that, but the reality of it isn't all that pleasant.  

My search for a rental dozer is going to ramped up today.  If I can find one, I'm taking several days off and just do that those  several days.  The company that came out said they would just pluck the trees out of the ground with an attachment on a track hoe.  That sounds ideal, but at $2,200 per acre, that's pricey as well.  15 grand just to clear the property.......maybe that's not too much, I dunno, but it's out of my affordability right now if I want to keep my 401k intact until I have to have it for the underground stuff.

This thing will either work itself out - or it won't. If it doesn't, it won't be because I didn't try until the very end.  I don't even know if the water install has taken place yet, that guy isn't exactly big on communication.  I'll be driving by there this morning to see if anything is happening. When he shows up, it should just be a one day install, if even a whole day.  I'm guessing it will take them 4 or 5 hours from start to finish, it's a pretty simple job for an experienced installer and he appears to have been doing this install for decades.  He was just questioning my need for a 2 inch tap.

Well that's enough.  I'm gonna hit up Waffle House (no waffles tho lol) for breakfast before heading into the yard.  This won't be a one day trip since I am loading at noon - that would put me at 3:00 am to get back to the yard and home.  Too late, ruins the next day getting to bed so late, I'll probably just hit the Casino truck stop up again on the way back and finish the trip tomorrow morning.  No, I haven't been gambling. I did a few months ago at another casino up near the plant up there when the truck broke down.  But I just hit up the bar top thing that you put money into - and won actually lol.

But, I'm pretty much giving up the "vices" and seeking the Lord.  That kind of thing interferes with your relationship with Him, IMO and I need it out of my life.  It might be all of these people that I know passing away in recent times, or just the need for His presence, or both, but I feel like I need to take a different direction than what I have been doing.

Y'all have a great day.

 And with that, I am done for the day.  I need a day off of all of this stuff.  Working or property - it gets a bit much.  After doing all of my chores around town, came home, started enjoying a keto crust pizza from  a local pizzeria and started up on laundry.  That will take all day long as it is.  

The SBA director wrote back and said he had a person that could help, he's got an email in for him, he will let me know when he replies.  I went over to the property to see if the water guy is out there yet - nothing.  I dunno, lol, this guy is a real character.  I'm not going to give it much longer before I switch to another contractor. 

There is nothing else, per se.  The dogs are - smelly and need baths.  The SUV just got new steps installed on it.  It didn't have any when I bought it, which I thought strange. James put the new set on and pulled off a broken mount from underneath it and said the whole thing was damaged. That answers that story: It came with them but someone drove into something and tore that side off.  So they just took both sides off instead of replacing it. Weird. It's 10 years old but it's still in great condition, hence I figured to keep it for a while longer while I'm trying to sort out loans and such.  

My credit score took an 80 point hit when my credit card payment for the bobcat went through and then the beginning of the month hit.  Yes, it's a larger sum of money, but they didn't even give me until the payment was due to hit my credit score with that nonsense.  I dumped the cash to pay that stuff off but I have no idea how long it will be before my score goes back up...a bit ridiculous to say the least.  

The small property sale is almost complete. The buyer has to pay to have the deed filed, pay the amount owed to me and we will have this thing done with.  I'll make around a grand off of it.  Another property will go up for sale after this one is complete.  One of them I really want rid of - there are large trees on it that need to come down. I'd just as soon pass that headache off to someone else.  

I guess I was wrong about the city council's intentions. I was at Chili's yesterday when this local guy that everyone knows showed up, we hadn't seen each other in a while so we spent quite a bit of time talking. He claims that the only vacant lots the city is wanting to address with even a class C misdemeanor if necessary are those with junky old houses on them that are uninhabitable, not purely vacant lots.  Id have to listen to that meeting again, it sure sounded like they were talking about all lots that have no one living on them. I can see wanting to get rid of old houses that are falling apart. They are an eyesore and they are dangerous.

Many of those come up for sale at all of the auctions, which is why you have to do your homework.  You don't want a lot with a house that has to be torn down on it, that will cost you thousands of dollars and good luck getting your money back out of it.  But I gotta tell you, if that IS true, I will buy several more of those at the year end sale where they start the bidding off at $30.  I am selling mine at thousands of dollars -even tens of thousands of dollars - less than comparable lots in the city.  I spend an hour or two buying them and then the agent takes care of the rest?  That's pretty easy money.  

I think that covers everything for now.  I'm going to turn on Dish and watch reruns of old western shows and relax, lol.

 The new dispatcher has the personality of a rock. Any social graces such as thank you, please, you're welcomes are lost on deaf ears.  She literally doesn't even want to talk to anyone, just send dry, curt text messages and nothing back. She asked me yesterday what trailer I had brought back and I told her in a return text. She didn't say thank you or anything, so a couple of hours later, I replied "you're welcome".  I didn't receive any response to that, either. 

Beyond that, since she started a week ago, I've only had 2 Oklahoma runs.  I mean, yes I love staying at home, but it doesn't pay the bills and doesn't get me ahead.  I'm spending some money right now. After I got back from that 14 days off, I was being given a lot of great runs with Oklahoma's interspersed into them. I didn't mind that, but next week's paycheck is going to be less than a thousand gross pay.  That doesn't work.  I've got $452 in new expenses every month starting the beginning of November. That was expected of course, and with normal running in the truck, I can easily afford it.  

To that end, I asked my manager about it the other day, he said he would look into it for me.  Of course, he is overworked and inundated with other driver's calls and texts, heard  nothing back. So, I just texted him again and of course heard nothing back - but that is normal for him.

Meanwhile, I am upping my search for a designer to blueprint my RV park.  I've been looking locally, finding nothing, I am now going out of my territory and looking for anyone in the US that specializes in it, of which there are several that I have found thus far and reached out to.  I also asked the SBA consultant if he knew anyone local, also awaiting any kind of word on that.

The land clearing company came out yesterday, but he wants a blueprint. He charges a flat rate per hour for his work, I said I needed an estimate and he just said give me a blueprint to work with.  Okay, well, that's where I've been stalled so far.  That isn't stopping me from going out to the property and cutting down trees, but even the chainsaws I bought are offering even more trouble than the first one I bought. These things are apparently heating up and the chain guides are warping.  Yes, they are adjusted properly and yes there is bar/chain oil in them.  Not sure what the problem is, the instructions give nothing beyond if it's heating up, make sure you have bar oil and the chain isn't too tight. lol

I was going to go to the tax sale auction the other day, but after taking another look at what was available and the starting bids, I scrapped that idea. I was off work that day, but it just seemed to me that I didn't need to be getting involved with another purchase of land right now. My money needs to be reserved for getting the property blueprinted.  I put up a local request on a facebook group for all of the estimates I need to get this thing moving along here. 

I really didn't think this was going to be an issue so I never looked before now.  Literally all I need is around 75 spaces, an office, a bathhouse, a swimming pool/jacuzzi, laundry, dog park, the electrical,water and sewer hookups and design, a pond dug out, the land cleared etc.  I mean, I know what it needs is the point, I'm not clueless, but I can't draw up blueprints!  Lol

Well, I have stuff to do today beyond the property, I can't spend all of my time out there.  The small property needs a paper notarized - totally forgot about it, probably making my realtor a bit unhappy, the house in AZ said the satellite isn't working - the bill is paid thank you, no clue what's going on there.  I need to go do some grocery shopping and I'd lik toget these dogs out for a walk.  The property will just take as much time as it takes. If it's years, it's years.  Shrugging my shoulders. I can't make anyone do anything faster than they are going to do it.

Even the water tap installer was questioning why I need a 2 inch tap?  I will need the capacity at a future date, please just install it. Well, you know a water meter that size is $1,100?  ..... he originally quoted $1,100 for the entire project, but that was a 3/4 install. Yes, sir, I know, it's not cheap. Neither is the 2 inch ball valve, the saddle or the copper tubing. The meter box should be cheap, about the only thing about that setup that won't cost a fortune. I originally figured 4 to 5 grand, it's probably going to cost me $2,500 to $3,000, so I'll consider that a wash.  

I've come to the conclusion the park area is going to have to be leveled, meaning clearing out all the trees.  I'll have to start all over with vegetation, unfortunately, but there is no way around it. I can't have a swimming pool on uneven lot and RVers aren't particularly fond of unlevel sites, especially in a new park.  the trees will come down and I will just have to plant new trees and shrubs.  It's a big loss in my book, but it has to be done. At least it's just small maple trees, not the giant majestic pines that are prevalent in the area.  The views surrounding the park will still be stunning, I do believe, plus I will still have the forested walking trails in the back. 

I was quoted, btw, $2,000 per acre to clear it all out.  Pretty penny, $14, 000 to clear it all off, I guess that's really not that unreasonable with large, heavy earth moving equipment and the experienced personnel doing the job, he said it would take less than a week to clear it all.  Yes, if I had access to a large trackhoe with the proper attachment, I could easily do all of that myself and save a  ton of money.  I'm still trying to find a bulldozer, plowing those trees down would be easy work for a large dozer.  These are things I am keeping in mind incase this loan doesn't go through. And I don't just want to stop working out there because I "might" get a loan.  That will easily take months at least to come up with an answer.  

Now what? I'm just looking up RV designers all over the country and sending off emails.  And waiting on my manager to give some kind of an answer as to what's going on .  Maybe there is something happening at work that I don't know about. There was a rumor that the plant was shut down, but I just got a text from another driver in the driver group saying he is loading. Obviously that can't be true.

Looking for another job right now is really nothing I want to do, so I'm keeping my tones down and good attitude, but I do want some answers.  

Well the day ain't gettin' any younger.

G'day.  

 Facebook experiencing worldwide disruptions lol.  I can't even access the site.  I think they said Myspace and Whatsapp - both Facebook owned social media platforms - are also down.  I think it would be wonderful if the site would stay down for say - a month.  Let people get used to not being on Facebook constantly and get used to living a - normal - life again.  Of course, that isn't likely to happen, but it would probably help this world immensely.  

I went out to the property early this morning and got with it.  I bypassed doing any RV park work and went straight to work on creating walking trails.  I spent something like 6 hours doing that total, plus the time I spent there the other day, got quite a lot done.  It isn't finished and isn't likely to be,l my time with that machine is running out.  I quit earlier than I would have liked, just got very warm and hence, quite fatigued.  

It wasn't the easiest work back there either. It's like a jungle back there, unchecked growth that was so thick it took quite a bit of time to work through any of it.  But it was something that I really wanted to at least get a good start on and that I did.

After I was through with that - got to dead ends, things in the way that the machine can't move and no alternate routes - I went back to work on the RV portion of the site.  

I'm not sure what's going on, perhaps a load being sent for tomorrow late, there is no reason I should not be going on a road trip somewhere tomorrow.  I'll gladly take another day to work on the property, but these dispatchers lately are sending loads late in the afternoon. It's 4:00 pm right now, that's getting late.  They don't seem to have a problem leaving people's lives - on hold.

I have been watching the democrat infighting and some of it is disgusting. People stalking Senator Sinema into a bathroom, protesting her stance on the reconciliation bill while she's using the toilet?  Kayakers going to Manchins house boat to protest his stance on the reconciliation bill as well?  There is no low for these people. Bloodlust for raw power, the biggest power grab we've probably ever seen in this nation's history.  I was aghast when I read yesterday that Sanders originally wanting six trillion dollars, and thinks 3.5 trillion is lowballing it. 

Or Biden declaring this bill costs zero dollars! Pelosi reaffirming that position.  And then you find out the stuff that is IN that bill and it's scary, to say the least.  Forget the money, they are attempting to reshape the culture and the belief systems of this nation.  It is utterly amazing, they have just caved to the far left progressive-Communist ideology, these people that are espousing this stuff are a small minority, yet you'd think they are literally running the party. And the hate and disdain they are expressing to the 2 aforementioned hold outs that refuse to kow tow to party lines.

The only thing I can do is send letters to representatives and senators, pray and hope for the best. Short of a civil war, I don't see these progressives being stopped. Eventually they will get their way, if not now, it will happen down the road.  Even more astonishing, at least to me, is these people think that most Americans are for this nonsense.  I sincerely doubt that.  I am quite certain most if not all Republicans and conservatives will never agree to anything with a price tag that high or having the government intruding into your personal business to such a degree.

Reporting to the IRS any transactions over $600 in your banking account?  You really think that average Americans, especially the middle class, aren't going to be on the receiving end of high taxation?  A mileage tax to drive your car?  And far more garbage buried inside that bill, it would be a huge stepping stone to out and out Socialism.

Whatever.  The dude that is supposed to install the water tap on the main line hasn't shown up nor has he called me.  I know 2 inch material for the project is readily available at any water works store.  It's common usage and they all keep it in stock.  The tap, the saddle,  the ball valve, the meter, everything should be easy to get.  So why this guy is neither doing the job nor calling me about it is unknown.  I will let a few more days pass and if he still doesn't show up, I will call him.  

Not in any great hurry to get it done, but now that the wheels are rolling, let's get it over with.  I do wonder if the city raised any kinds of alarms over my wanting a 2 inch installation.  

I'm not going to start making phone calls on the SBA information until after the Bobcat is gone. That thing is taking up my energies and I just don't have it in me to work with that thing all day and make phone calls.  I need to get estimates, I have contacted by email two companies who have not responded.  

Ugh. I completely forgot about getting a warranty deed paper notarized.  

Well, I'm invited to go to the fall festival at the 6 year old's school.  I'm planning on going, might as well see what they have to see and perhaps meet some of the teachers.  He's not my boy, of course, but he certainly has his attachments to me lol.  

With that, i think I'll take a short nap, then get the roast in the oven and then get ready to go. 

G'day. 

 Oklahoma run today, loading at noon.

The paperwork for the SBA loan is the headache I figured it would be.  So much information I will have to come up with, well beyond anything I had to do for the land loan.  

But, however long it takes to come up with all of this - quite a while I'm guessing - I think it will be worth it to at least try to get one of these loans. Otherwise I'm going to be short on the cash necessary to build the park and I will have to take out personal loans at much higher interest rate and subsequent higher payments.  

I'm going to get estimates for the whole, fell swoop done all at once. That will include a medium sized swimming pool with jacuzzi, fencing and bathroom at the pool.  Whether I get that or not is unknown, but it's something I have identified that would appeal to many more RV'ers, especially during the summer months when it's hot outside and not much to do without burning up.

It will also include a 4-room bath house quote - absolutely necessary, a small structure for washer/dryer set up, a small office, don't really need anything giant, digging out a pond in the back, the land clearing, lot set up and gravel, a dog park, small playground, all the picnic tables and fire rings, possibly cement patios, electric, water and septic install and whatever else I'm not remembering.  I'm thinking of going 80 lots instead of 60 to be able to pay for all of this stuff. If it has a swimming pool I can expect the place to be 80% full much of the time. Yes, that's much more money than I initially was thinking, but if I'm going to go for it, I might as well go for it all.  

The man at the SBA center can tell me what is realistic and what is not after he sees what I have come up with.  Right off the bat, I need to get a design company to produce a blue print for the park, something I didn't want to do because it probably is fairly pricey, but now I have no choice.

This is what I will be working on for quite a while, unless something else pops up that can finance it without having to go through all of that. 

Regardless, it's almost time to leave. Trucking will be, unfortunately for me, a thing that I will still have to do for some time to come.

G'day. 

 Brownsville, Texas.

I have a day or so to go on Facebook suspension.  There are a few people's pages I would have liked to have been able to say something.  I have no regrets on my activities that got me the suspension, it will likely happen again and sooner or later, they will delete my account and then....I will have to decide whether I want to bother with Facebook.  

My thought processes lead me back to an SBA loan today.  The loan officer I had originally talked to about getting an SBA loan left out one very important detail that would have had me pursuing an SBA loan if I had known it at the time.  

This is how this went down today.  I started thinking, I'm going to have to take a loan of some kind regardless if I do this myself or if I have sub contractors helping me out.  If I end up doing a personal loan, the interest rates are high. The payments are high because of it - well that and short terms.  I thought, what if I could get a much bigger loan but at a much lessor interest rate?  The payments might not be so far off from each other.  

After much pondering, I decided I would be wondering about this for - a long time - if I didn't at least try to get one of these loans.  Remember, I have to make that decision before I start using my 401k money.  I haven't cashed it out - yet - but if I spend any of it on building the property, there goes any kind of high dollar loan out the window. All of that money would have to go as down payment or whatever they are calling it to get - 250k is what I want.  

So, I texted my next door neighbor who is a banker and runs 2 banks.  He had told me he knows the guy that does SBA loans in another town and he could introduce him to me.  Before going on, I just found out a few minutes ago my neighbor has tested positive for Covid. He is in good health, I suspect he will not have any great problems with it.  

He texted me back the name of the man that runs the bank and the name of the bank - said he was driving and didn't have the phone number, but to contact him, tell him I am your neighbor and I sent you.  So, after I got through Houston and then all the construction down south of it - rain/thunder storms and terrible driving conditions - I called. Ended up he had to call me back, told me what I have to do to get one of those loans: Call such and such man at the small business help center (or whatever it's called, sorry, I've heard a lot of different names in the last several days and I am not good with names to begin with) and he will help you put all the paperwork together including the projections you will need.  

He basically said they would do all of the paperwork for me, or most of it anyway.  Trust me, there is a lot of paperwork to fill out. If you remember, I was writing about this months ago, I decided against it because I would have to pay a firm to do all of this stuff for me, I couldn't possibly, legitimately, come up with those kinds of numbers and even if I could, a bank likely wouldn't be taking my word for it.  They want experts to sign off on it. My objection to that at the time as well as now was I didn't want to pay some firm thousands of dollars for something that I am not guaranteed to receive.  

Here comes the part I didn't know: That SBA center? Is a government financed agency.  The first loan agent I talked told me nothing about this agency and  - may not know about it himself? The second revelation was the best part: it costs me nothing.  It's financed by Mother Government and Mama says they be giving away such stuff for nothing.  Yup, your taxpayer dollars at work, the things we sometimes find out about, revelations, that are actually surprising.  I'm not one for government handouts, but if this is the way to get the loan - which the bank officer said it was the only way they would finance me - then there you go.

What kind of hellish nightmare am I in for giving these people all the information they will need? I have no idea.  I do believe it will be far more involved than the loan for the land.  

But think about it, if I  could get a 250k loan, what that implies.  I simply pay a construction company to come out and clear the land - or not - I'm not sold on that even with that kind of money. The reason is that I don't want them cutting down all the trees and I can't really get a feel for how the thing can be laid out until I get all that junk out of there while at the same time leaving up the bigger trees.  I could just lay out the blue print which is in my mind on paper and say okay, any trees - here - stay up - any trees here - come down.  But in my mind, it's just not that simple and I will continue to work on clearing the land by hand until something different - if something different - occurs.  

So lets' get past the land clearing.  I will need a blue print for them to finance this, that's just common knowledge.  There are firms that specialize in RV parks that can do this, it would be the only out put of money I know of that I would have to do for this loan - unless this agency also does that as well.  I doubt it tho, RV parks are a specialty thing.

Regardless, a 250k gets me an office, a laundry room, a  4 room bath house, all the lots and the driveways created, around 300 tons of gravel (maybe more, not sure about that yet), the electricity, water lines and septic installed, a dog park, a playground, a pond built in the back  and possibly even a swimming pool installed with a jacuzzi.  In this scenario, I would still create my own walkways in the back of the property, just something I'd like to do.  And the tent campsites, I don't need a contractor for that. It would include a picnic table and a fire ring at every lot.  It would hopefully allow for a pavilion - a covered gathering area for large parties that might come or just the people that are there to use as a gathering place.  

This park would be built much faster than my current time table and it would be far better endowed with amenities that I want to have with the park.  I am so far off with having to take any steps beyond land clearing that I am definitely going to at least try going the SBA loan route. 

I did call the man at the SBA center, but he was unavailable - it was near closing time.  I should hear back from him tomorrow, if not I will be calling back lol.  

Really, after finding out the government pays for an agency to help you with all the paperwork, that was all I needed to hear.  It's not information that I had heard anywhere before today, not even in the RV build groups.  I should have taken my neighbor's advice and offer to call that banker sooner. I'm not experienced at this, I am wading through unknown waters, it's a nice challenge but it can be a bit perplexing.  This information was more "finding out by accident" than anything.  A Godsend, tho, as far as I'm concerned.  

So tomorrow, I hope to talk to this  man and get a feel - or direct information - of what I will need to do to get this process started. I am sure it's a process, dunno how long it takes.  A month, months, no idea. I'm probably months out from getting all of that land cleared so I don't have any looming decisions to make beyond what I have already decided on - the water install and the survey marking out the entire eastern side of the property.  I do hope that takes him less than a day to do, at $125 per hour, that could get expensive.  My great interest is the portion of the property in the front - how far east does it go?  Can we set some stakes in the ground starting at the road and going all the way back t where the trees start and then, ribbons around the trees?  

Yes, he is going to do that, sometime this coming month.  Well, October is virtually here, a few more hours and there it is lol.

What if this SBA loan doesn't work out? The lady I talked to at the center today said they do the paperwork for "all kinds of business loans, not just SBA loans".  Oh?  I didn't ask, she just said the SBA loans give the best interest rates.  What other types of loans are there? What do they want up front? I will find that out of SBA doesn't work.  As I have said, I will find a way to finance this venture. It's not if I can, it's how it will happen.  Personal loan, HELOC loan, SBA loan, other type of business loan, who knows, maybe someone with money that I haven't thought of will offer a loan.  That's not a hint, I'm just saying, there are many ways this could work out.  I will exhaust every avenue until I find some way to make it work.  

And with that? It's almost 9:00 pm and I have - well need - to get up at 5:00 am, to leave here around 5:30 am.  I ran into all kinds of traffic snarls today with the rain and slow downs with visibility reduced to almost nothing, everyone slowed down, but for good reason.  I got here later than I would have normally without all of those delays, so I'm leaving later than I would like to because of it.

G'nite. 

 Started early - 4:30, got back up to Longview at 2:45 pm, got out of the yard and headed straight to the property. Got on the Bobcat and got busy for 2 hours.  

I could have stayed out there longer, plenty of daylight, but this is a grueling schedule.  I have to go straight back down to Brownsville in the early AM, 2 hours was all I could handle. And more hornets trying to get at me, stirred up yet another nest = somewhere. I see old, rotten wood and I get a bit - respectful of the idea that there may be yet another hornet's nest under there.

And believe me, I was upending a lot of old, rotten logs.  They have to go.  Put them in piles and get them ready to burn.  I've got 5 huge piles in the back going now.  I'll likely set them all on fire after the Bobcat is gone.  My days with that Bobcat aren't over, I'll need it again, I just won't get it for a whole month.  I really need my own machine.  Just too much debt.  For now anyway.  

My focus right now is use the machine until they come get it. Chainsaw work can wait. If I can get others out there using the chainsaws, they can do that, but I still have ample Bobcat work.  I got down in the rear of the property and started clearing out a path where there was once a drive.  

That took quite a while, but it was worth it.  I still have the rest of the rear to go.  It was steep down that hill, I was afraid of tipping the thing over but it's pretty stable machine. There is hill to go in the rear of the property - and it's bad back there.  Vince, thorn vines, thorn bushes everywhere.  But, there is still plenty of Bobcat work at the rear of the RV park portion.  

I can only do what I can do.  But interestingly, I'm feeling more energetic.  Figure that. More work equals more energy? Seems like it would be the other way around. Must be the almost 4 years of sitting in a driver's seat of a truck and now getting out and getting some real movement .

.......
 

Umm, that's all the time I have.  It's bedtime and another long drive tomorrow.

g'nite

 Beautiful Wednesday morning. Heading up from Brownsville, if I get back early enough I’ll run over to the property and get some more work done. 

 As normal for this app, the 3 minute video I uploaded didn’t show up. I also didn’t get after a days work pics. 

 Long, hot day.

I started working on the rear of the rv site because the front - is just more than I want to deal with right now. The rear was open land with lots of trees, yes, but nothing like the front.  I'm worn out.  I was on the machine all day long and I can tell ya, it ain't as easy as it looks. 

This is the type of work that I was doing at a younger age and - even then I still got worn out, but I only put in maybe 7 hours today.  I got lots done tho.  

Another hornet's nest was in cue as well, unbeknownst to me.  I don't know what log or whatever they were in, but they started swarming the Bobcat.  I high tailed it out of there back to my vehicle and hopped in my SUV before they could sting me and go into attack mode.  The Bobcat needed fuel and I hadn't eaten anything, so I mosied up to Applebee's for a spell, refreshed myself, went and got diesel and went back out there.

Dumped a coffee can worth of diesel on a large pile of trees and shrub and junk I had piled up and got it going  - a little.  I figured since there is a huge tree trunk in that mix already partially burned, I could get something going. Oh, I called the county as well, they want to know about controlled burns.  You know, in case it becomes uncontrolled lol. But I had a dirt ring around it that went well off in each direction, wasn't really concerned about a forest fire.

But, Brandon showed up anyway lol. He's my friend's fried who is a volunteer county firefighter.  Apparently the powers that be wanted him to come out and check that I wasn't fixing to burn down the entire neighborhood.  He ended up going out there after I left to put out the smoldering pile - I'm going to let that stuff sit a few weeks and dry out a bit and then try again. I have 5 piles out there now, they are all going to be set on fire on whatever day I get around to doing that.  I'm actually glad he went out there and doused that, I am fairly confident that nothing would have happened but you never know.

After I did all that I could handle - and getting bugs in my face all day long. Well, let's stop there. When I got back there, the hornets were no where to be seen.  But I was obviously disturbing lots of bug habitat because all kinds of - flying things - were trying to get into the cab of the Bobcat and do whatever they were going to do. I don't even know what some of those flying bugs were to be honest.  The hornets and the giant wasp were the ones that got me going pretty good, lol.

I also identified an area where Taylor could have a garden.  I want to know where she wants one, I'd like to plow it up and at least have it semi-ready.  

Covered in dirt from head to toe, I wished I had water out there to hose myself off at least before getting into my vehicle.  Arms looks like dirt piles, face, hair neck, everything.  

To that end, I just called one of the contractors and he said he'd get going on it -right away. I sort of expected it to take - months- like everything else takes around here to get done.  Nope, he was warning me it would take "48 hours" for some kind of whatever he was talking about to happen first.  48 hours? I guess he thought I was going to complain about it, I was like, wow, that's great! No rush.  You know what the really cool thing is? He quoted me $1,100 for it.  Now, that was a 3/4 inch tap, I'm wanting 2 inch so I'm guessing we're talking around 2k.  Still, I was amazed.  I had discussed my thoughts about this in previous posts on here a long time ago, thinking 3 to 5k, probably closer to 5.  

He was a bit taken aback with the 2 inch request.  Uhhhh, well, okay!  This guy has redneck written all over his voice lol.  So I'm getting water out there.  Had to do it sooner or later.  Just sort of didn't want to spend the money so soon, but it's a need that can't be ignored.  Electric can wait and septic will wait until much further down the line.  

Progress. It may be slow and it will be slow, but I am motivated to make this happen, however long it takes.  Lord willing......

Brownsville in the am.  It got late in the day, I thought I wasn't going to get a run tomorrow and was making plans to run the machine all day tomorrow.  I'm afraid I'll be working until my 70 hours are up again.  Maybe I'll get an Oklahoma and get it done in a day and have the next day off - I really need the time on that machine before it goes back.  

I'm still just in awe of all of these people I have known for decades that have all passed away in a very short period of time.  That just doesn't seem normal.  

Well, anyway, I need to get offa here. Dinner is soon and I just want to relax.  

 "my mother's kidney and liver are failing. they have her on a ventilator and lots of meds to help keep her In a coma and out if pain. .please help in anyway you can."

This is heart wrenching. I've known this person since I was in my teens.  Covid is unforgiving to people who are already fighting some other disease.  She was diagnosed with cancer almost at the same time her father was, another person I knew for 40 plus years. He succumbed to the devastating effects of cancer that had spread through out his body and was buried last week.

You read that right, he just died. And now, she is dying and there is nothing but an act of God otherwise known as a miracle that will help her.  Medicine only goes so far.  Can you imagine the agony of a family line losing 2 people in that short of a time frame?  Her husband is not dealing with this well, I also know him.  

If she passes, this will be 4 people that I have known since I was either a teenager or even in my single digit age that have died within the last several months. 

____________________

I started this post last night.  8 hours ago, my friend passed away.  Her daughter was there with her, holding her hand until the last breath.  My friend's dad passed away less than two months ago. I've known both of these people since the late 70's.  Another friend passed away around 3 months ago - I knew him for about 30 years.  My cousin passed away something like 4 months ago.  I was not very close with her and she didn't like our side of the family.  We did talk on facebook messenger here and there but that was it. 

But all of this in such a short period of time. The daughter is, of course, in agony, a torrent of emotions overwhelming her as the reality that both grandpa and mom are gone.  

She had cancer but Covid came along and preyed on that cancer situation and took her life.  She was 52.  I may have to find the time to go to this funeral.  I would likely know many of the people that would show up, people I haven't seen or talked to in decades. I doubt it's going to be anything fun, but I feel the need to go.  I'm just not sure about whether I have to have the vax to fly - if I do I won't be going as it will take too long to drive there and back.  

May sound selfish, but I need not go into the reasons why I refuse to get the vaccination regardless of the consequences.  Mostly, my health and life are at stake and I believe the vax will do more harm than not getting it and getting Covid.  As far as I know, I have already had Covid anyway.  If I didn't have it, then what was it I had when everyone else in the house had it?  It appears as tho for domestic travel you need only wear a mask.  

_____________________

It's relatively early, 8:00 am Monday morning.  I'm going to spend the entire day working at the property. The homeless guy was asked by his regular person to go work with him, so I'm going it alone.  It is what it is. I wish I could at least take the dogs, but I can't focus on keeping them nearby and working at the same time. I will be mixing it up between the machine and the chainsaw all day long. I'm going to take the machine to the back of the intended rv park and start cleaning up the brush filled clearing back there.  No trees to have to come down at all.  I will work on taking down trees back there as well, the front can wait for another day.  It doesn't really matter, it all needs to come down so where I am working isn't really that relevant.  

But I was on Facebook - of which I am still under a 30 day suspension which is up at the first of October (and I make no guarantees how long it will be before I get suspended again, I'm not going to be nannied and mothered by a social media outlet) - and read of the passing of my friend last night, so I felt compelled to get on here and make some kind of entry.  Haven't been doing as many entries lately - but I have been rather busy. Work has been shoving the loads at me and of course there is the property. If it's not one, it's the other.  

This is part of an entry I was writing yesterday when I got distracted..." I would like to say that I have my "act" together with this project, but I seriously do not.  

The new chain saw that threw the chain the other day? I got home from work this morning and started trying to figure out what the deal was.  It took me a while to figure out that this brand new chain saw with a brand new chain that hadn't been used more than an hour and half? The chain was already bad.  

I've done a lot of chain sawing in my lifetime, never have I had that happen. Yes, there was ample suppy of bar oil, the whole thing was amply coated with it.  I wondered if they had put the wrong size chain on at the thing at the manufacturer.  

Whatever the case, once I realized the chain was binding up in the bar, I put a new chain on it and walaah, the thing worked fine.

So, I headed over to the property after messing with that thing for well over an hour - at least I know how to replace a chain on it now - and got to work.  I realized the bar oil jug was missing. James located it - on the front porch where I had absent mindedly left it the other day. 

A lady in a late model pickup stopped out front. Lots of people are curious what I am doing out there.  I walked up to her - she might have useful information, if nothing else, she's probably a neighbor and I want to meet everyone.  She went into the history of my property. Mr. Cook - the road is named after him - had a hay meadow going where all of these trees are currently at. What? Really? 

She went on to say she can't imagine trying to cut all of that down with chainsaws, she has an acquaintance that does land clearing - for a price of course.  $125 an hour.  

That's pretty expensive, I replied. She says, yes but he his very good at it and can get it done fast.  It's very tempting. If could spend a few thousand dollars and get a lion's share of that done quickly, I would consider that money well spent.  

But, I spent the money on these chainsaws. I gave up on it today. It's Sunday, I forgot the bar oil, I already drove today to finish out the Oklahoma route, fix the chainsaw, go over there, forget the bar oil - I just gave up..    "

______________

So there it is.  I knew this time was coming - when I would have to force myself to get up and get out of here and go to the property and go to work. I can't say it's been easy.  I could easily just sit here all day long, after all the driving I've been doing lately, and just call it recuperation day.  Easily....do.....that. 

But I can't. It's something that must be done, in my mind anyway. I went through all of this hellish stuff to get this property, now I have it, the time is here.  But I know I will be driving all day tomorrow - likely anyway.  I'm no spring chicken and I don't have the energy I once had, but, I think I can get it done, it will just take longer than it might if I were 20 years younger.  

I think America is in for some dark times with this current administration.  If Afghanistan is a taste of things to come, we are not in for a fun ride.  Congress is hastily determined to pass 5 trillion worth of instant debt.  I still sit in wonder at that amount of money - and who is going to get all of this money?  What kind of shady deals are going on that we don't know about? Who is going to get instantly rich off of all of this?  What kind of personal gains might these politicians be getting that we know nothing about?  Who is holding these people accountable? Who is going to oversee all of this ocean of money to ensure it is spent according to the purposes it was intended for and that it won't be rife with waste and fraud?  WHO is going to pay for all of this? We are already seeing it - it's going to be dumped on the backs of working Americans who are already paying taxes through the nose for everything.  I could show you one of my paychecks as proof of that statement....

My only answer is that whatever is happening, it is a spiritual battle and God is still God, still sitting on the Throne and still the Creator.  My only question is, is my name written in the Lamb's Book of Life?  Because everything else that goes on in this life pales in comparison to the answer to that question.  The reality of all of these people that I have known that have passed away bring that to the forefront.  

Whatever the case, time is slipping away and I must go to work.

G'day.  

 If it isn't one thing, it's another.

Getting back to the yard yesterday, I heard a loud hissing sound when I got out of the truck.  I tire with a fresh, giant bolt in it.  Got that fixed, got to work this morning - they are working me hard - got loaded and had yet another flat tire on the trailer.  I dunno, someone threw some bolts or something on the ground at the yard.

So now, I'm sitting in front of a closed tire shop waiting for them to show up and repair the tire.  There will be no one day trip on this Oklahoma run, I'll be doing good to make it back to the casino truck stop tonight.  Supposedly the guy is on his way.

Meanwhile, I paid for an overnight delivery for antibiotics for James, he has a sinus infection.  It was allegedly delivered yesterday - which it was not.  I had no idea how hard it is to actually talk to anyone on the phone at UPS.  The system will tell you your problem does not qualify to speak to an agent and it hangs up on you. 3rd try was the charm.  A philippino gal answered - you can always tell by their accent and twang to their voices - said they would start an investigation that would take "1 to 8 business days".  Are you serious?

She didn't care. She's just an incoming call center attendant, programmed (trained) to give whatever the company tells her to give, written on her computer screen.  I paid extra $25 for overnight delivery.....the UPS driver lied.  I looked at the cameras for yesterday, the UPS driver drove by our house at 5:04 pm, he wasn't anywhere to be seen at the 2:00 pm he claims he delivered the package.  

Whatever the case, after work yesterday I drove to the property, got out the wasp spray and sprayed that entire area down, including the old tree with numerous large holes in it that looked like entry ports for - wasps or whatever.  Once I started spraying that old rotten tree, I didn't linger, I ran out of there in case there was another hive inside of that thing.  My bee suit finally showed up, I will have that on the next time and leisurely look at the entire situation.  

cutting this short, tire guy is replacing the tire and I'm almost ready to leave.

G'day

 Wednesday was not, unfortunately, a day where I got much of anything done work-wise on the property.  I ended up driving to Longview, eating breakfast at Waffle House - getting the runs from that and ending up in the restroom at Home Depot. After that lovely affair was concluded, I bought 2 chainsaws and several other items property related.

Coming back to the property,  a county road crew was out there working on the road right in front of the property. No clue, I didn't ask them to come, probably all the "important" people that live along that road get their way when it comes to keeping things maintained. The pervasive opinion from those in the county that don't have such privileges is that the roads are horrible. 

Yup, there are definitely horrible roads in the county, probably as there are in any county.  Counties don't generally enjoy giant budgets where they can do whatever they want or even need. I picked the right road to do this on, that's what I can say lol.  Regardless, I decided to wait to dump the diesel fuel on the hornet's nest. If it didn't work out - well I didn't want all of those workers to be getting stung by angry hornets.

I cam back later and they had moved on down the road.  So, dogs in tow, I poured a coffee can full of diesel - bought 2 fuel containers at Home Depot as well, one for diesel to start fires and kill hornet/wasp nests and the other to mix my own 2 - stroke fuel for the chainsaws. They want $19.95 per gallon for it at both Home Depot and Lowe's, unbelievably high prices for something I can mix myself for less than half of that price.

I posted video of it - well I posted it on my YouTube account.  I cant post anything on Facebook at all - for another 8 days I think.  I can't even like people's posts lmao.  I think it's funny that Facebook thinks these measures will help their business succeed.  I do like doing live videos on Facebook tho, I will get back to that after this suspension is over.  But don't be shocked if they suspend me again or even delete my account. I know several people whose accounts have been permanently deleted for "violations". 

Anyway, I crept up to the nest - easy to remember where that chaos was located - and stood there for a few minutes attempting to identify exactly where the hornets were going in and out.  One of them came up near me and hovered there - weird stuff.  They weren't particularly interested in my presence, they didn't know the violence I was about to enact on them. They caused me serious pain and suffering, I was ready to pay them back.  I shouldn't have brought the dogs with me, but they wanted to go...

So, I walked up, poured the entire can of diesel fuel into the hole and ...ran for my life! lol  Bashed my head into a tree attempting to get out of there, but boogied nicely once I got past all of that.  Got out to the street and just stood there, waiting to see if they were going to chase me?  Nope.  In fact, I very slowly walked back to the nest. Nothing coming at me, tho I didn't get too close, I think I wiped them out.  

Yet, there is the issue of all of the hornets that were out foraging for food.  They had to come back. And then what? I assume they move somewhere else and start building a new nest.  

I did not come back later, it was something I figured I'd get back to next time I have time off.  Well, I"m getting up at 4:00 am tomorrow morning and heading out of here. I'm in Brownsville yet again - a nice change for getting some good runs and getting some decent paychecks starting this week, after 3 weeks of very low paychecks and not covering basic bills.  I have a new payment coming up with the property payment and I can't be doing this low paycheck stuff.

I bought 7 cans of hornet spray in large cans that spray up to 27 feet.  That's exactly what I"m going to do when I go back there - hopefully tomorrow - and use a whole can or more of it on there and make sure at least that nest is completely wiped out.  

It also dawned on me that dude living in that storage place. I am going to try to get him out there on any days I can't get James out there - he's basically only available on weekends and now that he's doing the volunteer fire department stuff, well, that may lesson his availability even moreso.  Whatever the case, I need to find someone I can get to go out there and actually work - versus looking at cell phones - and get stuff done. With 2 chain saws I can see getting that forest cut down of the garbage relatively quickly - with help of course.  

I am probably going to be put on a 34 hour reset after this run, so I hope to have Saturday off as well.  I will work all day long, I think anyway lol. The temps are coming down and being outdoors is much more pleasant right now.  

Not a lot else. I was just listening in on Zoom to over 2 hours of the city council meeting. Proposing wasting money on useless stuff while the entire city complains about the horrible road conditions that they won't even entertain anyone addressing them on.  They also had some dude going on with a presentation how the city should adopt an ordinance to fine people that own vacant lots.  It was even proposed that it be classified as a class C misdemeanor and a $500 fine.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing and I couldn't believe they were actually entertaining this man's nonsense.  

The property I put up for sale is moving through.  The man really wants it - I'm more than happy to unload it on him.  He can buy the other two properties cheap as well if he wants, I will never buy another property in that city again if that nonsense goes through. They didn't vote on it tonight, it was a second address from whoever that dude is to attempt to sway the council's favor in his favor. Remember, this city is out in the middle of Nowhere, Nothing and the idea that they are acting like some big city and adopting big city codes is stupid and ridiculous. People move out here for the country feel, not the big city feel. 

Meanwhile, they put out a two page list for the next tax lien sale.  I will not be asking for the day off, but if I happen to have it off, I will go.  It has 5 properties listed that are 2 acres or less on there. In the county of course. Why do I want more property?  A small property in the county, I can buy a mobile home, fix it up and rent it out.  Easy income, not a lot spent compared to what I"m looking at now, something that could even fund this venture, or at least help it along.  If there is as property selling for 2 grand and it doesn't get bid up, I will buy it.  Just one, yes, but it will be much easier to simply set a house on it and call it good. Or even have several mobiles on it, I don't really care and I know at the right price I can rent them out.  I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I will try to look up the properties on the county site and see satellite pics if nothing else.  

I think with that, I am off to bed.  Hoping to get back to Longview by 2:30 - 3:00 at the latest and then drive straight to the property  and get some stuff done.  That may be wishful thinking, but it's a goal lol.

G'nite. 

 I dunno.  I just got back from Oklahoma. Yes, I did it in one day, I really need to get over to the property tomorrow and destroy that Hornet nest.  The bee suit seller hasn't even shipped it yet.....so I'm going to have to improvise tomorrow and just put a lot of clothes on and find some kind of netting to put over my head.  

I'm going to have to buy a 5 gallon can for diesel fuel, at least a 2 gallon can for 2 stroke fuel and at least one chainsaw tomorrow, so I'm just going to go to Longview first to the Home Depot, get all of that stuff and anything else I can think of - extra chains for the saw/s - and something else I can't think of atm.  There is some sort of hornet spray that you can spray on their nest that foams up and basically kills them right off the bat. 

Whatever the case, I have to do all of that before I can resume any land clearing operation over there.  I really need to get some laborers over there, I think I will go to the storage facility where I normally keep my boat -- it's still at the shop and I've heard nothing from them since the last time I called them - and see if the homeless guy is over there. He's homeless, yes, lazy, no.  He's gotten himself into a predicament that I could likely help him out of - if I can get some work out of him.  I could get him over there for $10 per hour and get a solid day's worth of labor out of him, get some of this chaos dealt with and just keep plugging away at this situation.

It will take months to clear that land at the rate I am going.  If I said that in another post already, I do apologize.  I just like to face the reality of all of this.

In other news, the surveyor from the 2009 survey he did called me back today and we had a very long conversation.  I'm not refuting the west side - I don't really care that much, If it's not mine, it's not mine.  Important lesson learned out of all of this: fence lines do not necessarily delineate property lines.  The man confessed that he had no idea who put up those fences or why they wouldn't have put them on the property lines.

He did say that the current surveyors did a good job - based on a faulted partition. This gets into lingo that I am not familiar with and have no need to learn - well I may end up learning it if I end up having to go to court with other property owners to get my property lines the way they should be.  You can either get the property owners - all of them - to agree on any particular issue or - you can live with it - or you can go to court.  Obviously it would be best to get the owners involved to come to an amiable agreement.  

The point is, on the east side, there is 33 feet on the other side of the fence that is mine.  I want that land.  It's covered with massive pine trees that are beauties.  

I am paying the man to come out and mark out the entire east side of the property. He will mark the entire property off with ribbons down the line.  It will cost me $125 per hour - but for that much land at stake, yes it's worth it.  That includes the back part of the property where there is no fence. There are property corner markers but there is a massive amount of trees and underbrush in the way to be able to run a straight line for 1,200 or more feet.  Yup, it's going to cost me, but it's oh so necessary.  I am not going to lose acreage over fence lines. Or attempt to gain acreage for same-said reason.   

This surveyor is related in one way or another to pretty much every one lol.  There are 8 different land owners surrounding my property.  I have not made my intentions known to any of the people I am talking to about turning the property into an RV park.  The county says I can do it, that's great. But these people all grew up together, they know everyone and likely know people at the county.  In fact, the ex-Sheriff of 25 years, part of whose land butts up against mine - would undoubtedly know everyone in any county positions.  

If they had some disagreement with this idea, they could make trouble.  

Just going to plod through this thing at whatever pace it's going to go.  Fast, slow, turtle with legs cut off version of slow, whatever it is, it is.  But I'm not giving out information people don't need to know up front.  What are you going to do? Build a house? I just reply that I'm clearing the land to start with.  I wouldn't mind building a house - at the rear of the property.  

My right arm is itching incessantly and my ankle still itches. The rest of it has mostly subsided.  Referring to the hornet stings and the aftermath.  I feel much better tho.  I think I'll try not taking Benedryl tonight. It works - but it works too well.  I have had a very hard time waking up the last two days and it keeps me groggy for quite a while after I wake up.   

I do need to get to sleep. It's almost midnight and I would like to get up at 7 am at the latest and try to get some work done tomorrow. 

G'nite.  

 Not to sound like a drama queen, but today has been rather - agonizing.  My back, my butt, my side and my right ankle are so swollen up, I look like I just gained about 50 pounds of fat.  

My right ankle? You can even see the bone that sticks out on the left side of it. I don't know how many times I got stung there, many many times, I could feel it while I was trying to get away from those damned things.  Actually, now looking at it, both sides are swollen up, it's actually gotten worse since I started this morning.  

But the itching, all day long. And the pain and the swelling.  

I just got done, finally, with everything and the first thing I did was get into the sleeper and strip down into my underwear.  That helped immediately to not have the clothing rubbing up against all of the swelled up areas.  I then took a Benadryl - found some at a gas station convenience store this morning, I didn't take any cause' they cause drowsiness.

I already didn't get enough sleep last night as it was, maybe 4 hours.  Put Benadryl on top of that and I probably would have had to stop driving. It was bad enough when I stopped for my 30 minute rest break - that I pushed into 45 minutes - that I was still quite tired when I woke up.  I could only dream of getting down there - here - and getting this miserable day over with.  I can only hope for better sleep tonight with that Benedryl hopefully reducing the extreme itching.  

Onto other things.  The chainsaw is boxed up and ready to go back to Makita.  An almost $500 pile of rubbish, good riddance to it.  I was looking at chainsaws online again today, but I think I'll just go to Home Depot in Longview when I get back, if it's still open tomorrow and see what they have.  I'm going to get 2 cheaper ones this time instead of one expensive one.  I thought - you get what you pay for. Well, I don't expect to pay $500 for a brand new chainsaw and have nothing but problems with it.

I would have liked to have hoped Makita would have a better product, they didn't  I'll get 2 saws - cheaper versions - and have them available for if James can work again, we can both be sawing down trees and get a lot of that mess over with.  

Taylor wants to have a garden over there!  That was surprising to hear.  I guess she hates the back yard - it is a mess and the dogs get into everything - and there really is no way to have a garden out front of the house.  I am thinking of an area where she can have a garden out of the way of RV stuff, at the back of the driveway, off to the left.  Can't really have a garden there tho until I get water run onto the property and can run a 1 inch line back there and put up a spigot for a hose.  

She'll be able to just drive back to it, stop in front of it, get out and do her thing with it.  It's going to be winter soon tho, we didn't get into specifics but I would assume she is more referring to a spring start for a garden than now.  And without any running water, she'd have to haul water over there if she wanted to start one now.  I think it would be delightful to have a garden going over there with all kinds of different things growing.  Onion, tomatoes, squash, watermelon, whatever you want to grow!

The cold air in this sleeper sweeping over my body is also quite refreshing.  I have no idea how long Benedryl takes to work, but I suspect it's got a tough job ahead of it with as much as is going on with me right now. Perhaps I would have been better off taking two of the pills instead of the one I took?

Well, as is become the norm down here, there is always empty trailers now.  It has much to do with them having two yards down here instead of the one and having two separate companies hauling trailers up and down to Alta Mira instead of the one company that's been doing it for decades now.  It's sad to see detention pay go, I've done at least 10 trips down here without any, probably more.  I still contend that the plant down there will eventually have problems and they will start having issues with getting empties up - but who knows. I'd like to ask my manager about it, he's the one that's been gung ho about getting rid of detention pay down here since he started here.

It is likely they started getting serious about it in the last round of detention hold overs where there were 4 or 5 drivers sitting down here waiting on empties.  That puts a huge strain on the rest of the system where other companies need deliveries as well.  The product we are hauling? If a plant runs out of it, the plant shuts down.  They are all 24 hour operations, shutting down means losing a lot of money. 

Okayyyyy, Benedryl just said hello to me. Like, all of a sudden I am extremely drowsy and hopefully means I can sleep a bit...

G'nite. 

 I have giant welts all over my back, upper butt, legs, arms, even on the knuckle on my middle finger.  

It does not feel good.  Between the intense itching and the and the general feeling of - ugh - it just isn't going to be a pleasant day driving down to Brownsville.  

I need some serious Benedryl or hydrocortisone, neither of which are in the house atm.

It's just very uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep half the night anyway and getting up and taking a shower was at least helpful.  

Still I can't imagine what this day is going to be like in this condition, especially having to sit there driving for 10 hours.  

Of course, no choice in the matter and I can't afford to lose these runs, I'm going to do them and enjoy the agony lol.

Bee suit has been ordered.  Chainsaw will be picked up UPS on Monday.  Next will be a stop at Home Depot or Lowes and get a giant jug of poison. I know exactly where them suckers (hornets) are at and they are going to pay.

I'm pretty sure I don't want to have to wear a bee suit the entire time working there, so I'm going to have to pretty much walk the entire front property with a shovel or something and find any other hornet nests and destroy them as well.  That will be time consuming and getting - much of nothing done.  

Yup, this is going to be a long, drawn out process.

And with that, I must be out of here. 

G'day.  

 It went down like this.

James and I went over to the property, about 3 hours ago.  

I came up with the new plan to just use the chainsaw to cut down everything and then come along behind it with the machine or just get rid of the machine and rent a stump grinder when it's all down and get rid of the stuff.  Or burn it out. The tree stumps and roots left over, that is. 

Whatever the case, James couldn't get this almost $500 chainsaw I just bought online from Home Depot to work. It wouldn't start. After a serious amount of time trying, he got it started but the chain would turn even at idle. It's not supposed to do that.  

I was out in the woods. Measuring 20 feet from the west fence to a baseline to start with and then measuring 65 feet to the first driveway, at a 55 degree angle.  Approximately, I was using an app to get the angle correct.  Not that it would matter if it were a few degrees off either way. 

So, I got that done and then measured 40 feet south along the 20 foot setback from the fence line. I couldn't go that far, a huge, dead tree stump in my way, about 15 feet tall.  Rotted, it needs to come down. I'll be talking to the neighbor about clearing out the junk from his portion of that property before I do so. I can't imagine him wanting old, rotted wood staying there, but you never know. 

I went on the other side of that giant, rotted tree and measured 20 feet from the fence line.  I put in a wood stake, this would be the first lot.  I was having James help with this, there is too much shrubbery in the way, it really takes two people to do this job. 

Did I mention I had blood all over both my arms?  I was getting punctured by the thorn vines.  I was trying to cut them down and stay out of them, but they got me anyway.  I was ignoring that for the most part, it looked bad but it didn't hurt that much and I was laser focused on getting this project well underway.  So, we got uip to the first driveway  - where it will go anyway - measured 40 feet from the line we had just put in - via an actual string to make sure it doesn't go anywhere, set in place by wood stakes on either end.  

Then, we put a string in on the other side of the 40 feet wide parameter, from the driveway back towards the fence line. But, the 40 feet width on the driveway was only a guess as to where the 65 feet would end on the far end.  So, I handed the 300 foot, giant roll, tape measure to James and went to put the metal end on the stake, where I would hold it until he got 65 up to the driveway and then mark it.

That, folks, is when all hell broke loose.  

I was standing on a rotted piece of tree on the ground, holding the end of the tape measure on it.  I turned around to see where James was at and my foot pivoted on that rotted log - which dug down into the log.  I wasn't looking down there, what's in an old log? 

Well, I can tell ya, I found out the hard way.  My pivoting foot smashed down into it, which disturbed a nest of ground hornets that I didn't know where there.  Hundreds of them instantly converged on me, James was right there - RUN!!! I yelled while being stung multiple times on my lower back/ass and my ankles.  Even through the shirt on my back. They don't just sting and leave. James bolted around and - smashed his head into a tree - gag.  

 They curl up and they sit there, stinging you relentlessly. I was yelling in agony as the multiple number of stingers were being inserted into my body all at once.  And running for my dear life, James as well. They didn't just say, oh, well they're leaving now, we'll go home.

No, No, NOOOO.  They chased us out to our vehicles.  I didn't know they were chasing us clear out there. We got to the street and I felt a stinger going into my back. OMG! James started swatting the damned things off of my back, I started running around in circles, they were after my @$$ and they weren't going to leave me alone.  We ended up getting into our vehicles to get away from them. I was sitting in the driver's seat of my SUV, watching these things flying up against the glass of my windows, trying to get in.

Relentless demons.  Like an extremely bad nightmare.  My body was in pain, my lower back, upper @$$ region were in extreme pain, my ankles as well.  Oh, I forgot. When I got to my SUV, I looked down at my pants and dozens of those things were curled up on them, trying to inject their poison into my body. I grabbed the Deep Woods spray and sprayed their @$$es and they didn't do anything. So I started brushing them off of me, there was little I could do against them. A relentless army of hellish minions, they were intent on their mission.  

___________

It's hours later and thankfully the pain has subsided. Even the extreme, initial swelling has gone done, at least for now.  I called the Urgent Care center - I was stung enough times to prompt my memory of seeing people on the news dying of such things.

As long as your breathing is okay, you don't need to come in here.  Okay.  The day was ruined, as far as getting any work done over there.  I wanted to get several hundred feet down the driveway worth of lots.  I wanted to get all of those trees cut down as well.

Between a useless chainsaw and all of that? Naw, fam, I went home.  Home Depot said they would take the chain saw back and issue me a full refund, even offering to send a "person" to come get it. The person is UPS, which is fine, they are coming Monday sometime to get the thing.  I am going to buy another one or even 2 more. Cheaper versions, I dunno how the price tag got up to almost $500 for that one, but that pile of junk is totally worthless.  

And so, the day is over.  A few more hours, go to sleep. I have at least 3 days worth of work ahead of me. A Brownsville trip tomorrow, taking me into Sunday and a preloaded trailer to take to Oklahoma on Tuesday.  I intend on Tuesday trip being one day, I don't even have to load the trailer and I won't be losing 30 minutes of drive time on the 11 hour clock, I will easily (hopefully anyway) be able to get that done in one day.  

I just ordered a bee suit.  It won't be here for 10 days according to the site, I am hoping sooner. If it doesn't get here, I figure I can put on double, long socks, a sheet or two of aluminum foil around my waist, a shirt with a sweat shirt over top, more aluminum foil on my neck and figure out something for my head.  I will go out there and douse that log with gasoline and set the damned thing on fire.  Those ground hornets are all going to die. I will kill every nest I find on that property, they will ALL die.  There is no way I can have an RV park filled with those demonic creatures, merciless little hellions inflicting endless pain into the bodies of innocent people. I literally had no idea they were there and I doubt I killed any of them just stepping on that log.  

The ruthless attack on me was unwarranted, but that's nature.  I just couldn't believe these things were still  all curled up on my pants after running out of the woods, relentless, not letting go.  Even spraying them did nothing to their resolve.  

I really had no idea these things were in the woods around here. I haven't encountered them until today.  Live and learn, no breathing problems I just was filled with pain.

And so, there it is. The end of the day is near, I am going to get off of here, watch a few reruns of a few of my favorite westerns and then go to bed.

G'nite. 

 I like to post sunsets on Facebook. Since that’s not happening, here or is. Forgive the dirty windshield, still the time of year where you can clean it and 100 miles later it’s dirty again. I’ve got 5 to 5-1/2 hours to go. 

 Annoying.  Another company showed up at the loading rack - well before their load appointment time.  I was here 15 minutes early as prescribed by the plant. But, the plant doesn't care if someone shows up early and they will start loading them first.  It's ridiculous and it's costing me time.  Instead of getting done at 12:30 - 1:00 AM tonight, it will be an hour - at least - beyond that.  Ridiculous nonsense, the powers that be at this plant say they won't do anything about it to our management. This has been endlessly complained about. So, today, upon my turn, I'm going to ask if I can start showing up 3 or 4 hours early and butt in ahead of someone else and they will just load me instead since I was here first?  I'm going to tell them this delay is going to force me to have to work until the wee hours of the morning.  It was bad enough a noon loading time, now it's a 1:30 loading time and whoever shows up for the 1:30 load is also going to have to wait. 

If they don't care if other companies show up early, then they shouldn't care if we do, either, right?  I'm sure it isn't going to go that way, but I want to stress the point that there is no way they should be loading trucks that are showing up hours ahead of their appointment time, butting in front of other trucks and causing the other driver/s hours on their 14 hour clock, potentially leading them to not be able to get where they were supposed to that day and also, in my case, forcing me to stay out an hour and a half later into the wee  hours of the morning than I should have had to. Appointment times are made for a reason and if they continue to not honor them, I'm going to start doing the same thing these other companies do.  Just say screw it.  Contact my dispatcher, find out when the last of our trucks is loading and then just show up right after the last one  and see what happens.  If they push me back and make me wait, then management can contact them and ask them why they aren't dealing with us the same way they are doing the other companies? Almost guaranteed my manager will call them out on it.  

As for the survey, I apparently stirred up a hornet's nest - but it's a nest that needed to be stirred.  I can't have them showing that I own property that I don't own and someone else owning property that isn't theirs either.  This mess is going to be straightened out, one way or the other.  If I have to get an attorney, someone is getting stuck with attorney fees in the end, for none of this is my doings and I can thank the next door neighbor for showing me the real property lines before I got too far into it. 

I don't even remember if I wrote about this, I was contacting my realtor who was taken by surprise.  Yea, this isn't going to work.  My property starts 20 feet MY side of the fence on the west side and my property allegedly starts 33 FEET on the OTHER side of the fence on the east side!  So I am sitting here at the rack (loading site) doing my homework before I call this other surveyor who did the "real" survey in 2009.  Looking up property ID numbers, names, survey names, etc.  I'll be calling him as soon as I get started getting loaded.  Or maybe not, I might just take a nap considering I'm going to be up very late tonight.  

Okay, it's the other way around. This driver showed up late - just before I got in here.  Lol.

Well, anyway, it's time to get offa here.  I need to find out the name of the current surveyor so I can tell the surveyor from the 2009 survey who did it - perhaps they can give insight to what's going on here with them. 

 About half way through my FB jail suspension.  It feels kind of a school teacher putting little Johnny in the corner and facing the wall for 15 minutes, Facebook is not my daddy or mommy or anything for that matter.  It's just a platform.  The good ole' days, you could speak your mind.  If you someone didn't like what you were saying, they could simply block you.

They can still block you, so what's the point?  How do you harass or bully someone that can just click you off at any point in time?  You can shut your page down to friends only.  I went on mine the other day from an account that is not linked to my account through friends and doesn't have my name on it, there was hardly anything showing at all.  Thankfully.

It just lends credence to more conspiracy theories. That Facebook actually is censoring people whose opinions they don't like.  That they are flagging them as potential "offenders".  This suspension happened within two seconds of my statement back to that jerkoff that was starting s*** with me, it was obvious it was a bot that did it and I doubt a real human even reviewed it.  You can't actually talk to anyone at Facebook.  Well I guess I could find their corporate number and start making phone calls but that wouldn't do any good and I wouldn't want to waste my time with it anyway.  I'm telling ya, if I didn't have all those pics on there, I would have already succumbed to the impulse to permanently delete my account. 

Whatever the case, the progress on getting down those trees and such is so slow, I have come up with a new plan of attack.  I'm hoping I can get James out there again this weekend if I don't have to work at least one of those days.  Just cut the trees down with the chainsaw and come behind with the machine.  If it can get the roots out, great, if not, flag it with pink paint to deal with it in the future.  Either burn them out of there or get a stump grinder or a combination of both. Burning will cost less money and likely do the job as long as each of the fires is hot enough.  You get those hot embers at the bottom of a fire eating up those roots and they will disappear, I think anyway.  

If fire don't work, a stump grinder definitely will, but that means renting more machinery.  I think the local rental place has a stump grinder.  I want progress and right now, that seems pretty slow moving stuff. I can go to Lowe's buy a dozen bottles of marking paint, get out on the property and start marking lines all the way down the first driveway and the pads as well and just start using that chainsaw and clear it all out of there.  The machine can try to get out the roots.  It can also be used in the back 15 to clear out walking trails, if I have the time for it.  I don't wonder if I shouldn't just call them to get the thing and take it back and credit me for the time unused, if they will even do that.  

I have another Brownsville run today.  I need the work. I didn't demand anything or even say anything at all about it, I was tempted to for sitting around for 14 days and then getting days off in between runs all the time isn't going to work for me.  I need the days off here and there for working on the property, but I can't afford to just be having off after every single run.  

Besides, the Oklahoma run is a two day affair - at least to them - I can get it done in one day and have that next day off for working over there.  At worst, I get a day off after every 70. I'll get this thing figured out, it's all uncharted territory to me, it's a learn as you go type of thing. There are no manuals on the internet for a step by step process on how to build your own park. There are generalized pages that don't give any specifics - probably because they don't have any.  It will be something I will document from beginning to finish, probably start an RV page with it's own address away from Blogger and start advertising my intent to eventually have an RV park.  

In fact, I will probably just name the park and call it that on the page I create.  

Just one thing tho, I'm not going to create the page.  I want someone that's good with design to do it for me.  I'd like to get that going ASAP, actually, I can post pics of my progress and do entries of everything that I have experienced thus far. This page here is just for writing entries for my own use, yes there are readers and that's cool, but I need something that people are going to find on an RV park google search.  The sooner I get that going the sooner it starts gaining any kind of sequence on Google for it's level of importance.  in other words, instead of being on page 2,000,000, it might be closer to the front.  Especially if the page is devoted to building an RV park, that will interest some people.

Anyway, there's 4 days in a row I haven't worked over there including today and tomorrow going to Brownsville. But, I'm not worried about it and I haven't taken out the 401k yet and probably won't until I get this land cleared.  Can't really do anything about installing the utilities until everything is set up and ready to really get the nuts and bolts of this deal going.  I suspected clearing the land would easily be the biggest obstacle in the way of doing anything, ,I didn't suspect it would be as difficult as it has been.

That, specifically, due to these plant or trees or whatever they are that have these ridiculous root systems in the ground.  Just never expected a plant that has a one inch stem to have a 4 inch thick root system underneath it. It definitely doesn't want to go anywhere and I suspect if I just clear out the plant and don't deal with the roots, they'll just start growing again.  I will find that out soon enough, there are several of them I wasn't able to extract, the machine just couldn't do it.  It rained yesterday, if that junk is going to start sending up shoots it will probably happen pretty fast.  That will cement the idea that those entire roots systems need to either be dragged out of the ground, burned up or pulverized into sawdust.  

I've pretty much conditioned my thinking that the roots need to come out.  I've also come to the conclusion that at some point, I'm going to need my own version of a tractor of some sort.  One with a brush hog attachment, a bucket and a hoe would be nice as well.  Pricey stuff, nothing I want to get into right now. 

I like going to the property and not doing anything, lol. Just enjoy the fact that I own a piece of Americana now.  Not the biggest property on earth, but it's mine and I can do whatever I want with it.  Okay, I can't do anything on the well pad, lol, but the rest of it I can.  Even the neighbor that came over stated the same sentiment: They can't stop you from driving on that driveway they built or even the well pad.  No, they can't.  They haven't even tried.  I was back there a couple of times now when they showed up.  They weren't even going to say anything to me but I engaged them in conversation. They literally don't care that i was back there - but - they aren't management either.  

I'm brewing more ideas in my head as this thing starts to slowly - ever so slowly - unfold.  If I find out for a fact that my property along that driveway extends much further back than that fence, I will be making plans for that as well.  Just depends on how much of it is mine.  But there are definitive possibilities.  Such as primitive cabins in the woods - that property has towering pine trees on it, that land was not harvested.  

News -- is appalling. I'm talking about the media/legacy news that is broadcasting how republicans don't care about anyone's health, love the covid virus, want everyone to have it, etc etc etc ad-nauseum.  It's sickening and outrageous.  I have a friend that is still in the hospital right now, breathing tubes shoved down her throat and in the battle of her life.  No one wishes Covid on anyone and the portrait of the Republican mindset according to liberal tv news pundits on CNN, MSNBC, the View and a host of other outlets is appalling.  This nation is so divided right now, it's amazing we haven't already delved into a civil war.  I don't know if one is coming, but these people continue to poke the bear and the bear is going to awaken eventually and say enough of this s***.  

I really don't even watch that much of the news, but you hardly have to open it up online or turn it on for 5 minutes on the TV and hear all of this bs.  I don't know about you, but this kind of drama I don't need in my life.  I'm not trying to hide my head in the sand, but for example, this dude in the military - Millis I think his name is, that contacted his Chinese counterpart - or allegedly did.  Trump hate to the extreme, we are still seeing it, we are STILL hearing that it's Trump supporters that are to blame for all of this Covid stuff going around the world right now.  

Off of that, my pond is doing well, the fish are all still in it.  Really, during the day time I don't have to worry about predators, those dogs will take care of any of that nonsense.  At night? I dunno what's coming out, raccoons for sure but birds? No.  A raccoon would have to climb over the top of the edge of the pond and dive into the water to the bottom to get at any fish and even then, the fish can hide under large flagstone down there, I doubt a raccoon could get at them.  

Not much else going on and I need to head out, I want to stop at Waffle House and have breakfast before I have to drive all day long.  Get the food in the belly now so I don't have to waste time doing that later on.  I drive to get the run over with  not drag it out.  My stops are quite infrequent, only to use the restroom and then only when it gets so bad I really have to go. Stopping for food is not high on my list while driving.  My intended route today is to drive clear down to Kingsville before stopping for fuel and take a short nap.  That's about 460 miles down there.  Houston will stink today, I'll be hitting that around 5:45 to 6:00 pm, the beltway will still be busy. Nothing like this last trip where I breezed through there both ways without hardly slowing down for anything. 

Late loads aren't really all that fun.  

G'day.