Feeling rather hellish this morning, I had to force myself out of bed and at least take a shower to try and get to feeling well enough to take a 30 minute phone call concerning park insurance. I am definitely doing price comparison shopping with this one.  The first one is 3k per year, I'm hoping that can come down - a little or a lot, but something. 

The phone call is in 20 minutes.  Then tomorrow another phone call with a campground reservation software company - basically it's software that allows customers to pick dates, pay for them etc etc etc.  It isn't accounting, either, but the one I'm speaking with tomorrow can upload to quickbooks without any manual inputting which is a huge plus. 

I doubt the gravel will be done this week and iffy for next week as well.  Just when I want to get it done, boom!  It starts raining.  It rained 2 nights ago with the weather report saying there was only a 4% chance.  Not at my house, either, over at the property, which is only 4 miles away. Weather patterns can be quite strange.  

So, about the time the dirt is drying out, we will get to Friday with a 74% chance of rain. And then, with the weekend to dry out, we get more rain on Monday.  

Onto other things.  A simple 15X15 platform made out of 2X6 lumber will cost around $600.  So, it would take 24 nightly rentals to pay that back.  ROI or Return On Investment.  It is worth it?  Not now.  I have a place set aside for tent camping and yes, I did a poll on an RV site. Most people don't care if it's on a slope, as long as it's on/near the top of the hill, not the bottom. 

Of course.  2 other spots are going to have to have platforms, it's that or get a dozer and level it out and then have to build a block wall.  Yup, a platform will be cheaper - much cheaper and easier - than all of that with a dozer.  But I'm figuring around $600 per platform so I have an idea of what I will be getting myself into.  

I think a group campground, after thinking about it, is out of the question.  That large area would be better served with a fancy glamping setup.  Too much logistics in trying to figure out how to get a bunch of people down there and get their equipment down there for a large campground setting.  Build a 30X30 platform instead, put a large (huge) canvas tent on the platform, put appropriate furnishings and amenities in it, walaah.  Yup, almost impossible right now. Glamping necessarily means electricity and that would mean running a line for about.....1,500 feet.  It would cost literally thousands of dollars just to run the electrical line back in there at the cost underground power line is running right now. 

Likely I will build a large platform back there, use it for tent camping and then upgrade it further down the line.  

Unfortunately, I have a problem with the main driveway - that the gas company is supposed to maintain - that I will have no choice but to shell out the bucks and fix myself.  There is a 10 foot long area where water builds up on the wrong side of the driveway - meaning it just pools there and erodes the driveway instead of flowing downhill.  If I had only thought about this when I had the machine...

I could have brought a bunch of dirt over, build it up and then when they bring the gravel, divert some of it to that area.  The entire length of it needs a 2 inch layer of fresh gravel dumped as well.  

It's about 2k to have it shipped and dumped, not including spreading it, which I would do myself with a $280 per 24 hour period machine I can rent.  Why not do the rest of the park too? Because I have no experience with this stuff and it will be far easier to spread over an existing driveway than starting from scratch. 

Just off the phone.  The insurance provider asked a plethora of questions.  I have very few amenities so it made the application process easy and simple. He didn't even ask about dogs or walking trails - so I brought them up. He said yes, that's included under your liability protection already.  Great! The other company asked a lot of questions about both, but particularly the dog situation.  It's a granted that many if not most parks allow dogs. That's because lots of campers ... bring their dogs with them! I used to when I was camping.  Full-timers especially have pets with them.  

Ok, the price? No idea. He said he'd have a quote for me next week.  

I doubt I will do any more insurance quotes.  2 is enough, to be able to compare prices. I'm almost set to pick a campground software package as well.  Just need to get on the phone with these people and get some specifics.  

That leaves Quickbooks. Yes, I know I was going to start on it the other day, but I didn't.  I'm trying to work through all of this desk stuff - stuff I greatly dislike but will grow to "love" and embrace.  

That leaves buying stuff.  Minimal...stuff.  Finances are getting down there and it's really time to get this thing up and running.  

All I can say is...I'm trying.  Doing my best, applying myself to learning a lot of new things and attempting to get this thing going - soon, please.  

Meanwhile, I figure I'll need 105,000 pounds of gravel for the existing driveway.  Sounds like a lot but that's only 7 truckloads give or take.  It's money I don't want to spend but do I have any choice? People driving in 100, 200 and more K rigs are not going to want to be driving them over half-assed driveway conditions. Not that every rig that comes in is going to be that pricey, but those are the ones that bring in more money.  

The biggest thing that needs to happen right now is the gravel, because after that - immediately after that - I have to spread the grass seed and start watering it. Yea, pain in the @$$. I'll be spending a lot of time just trying to get that done.  And I still need a riding mower to cut all of that grass.  The grass, gag.  I need that gravel in!

Oh well.

Off to the property. Whether I plan on doing work over there or not, I'm over there pretty  much every day just making sure everything is intact and that no-one has been fooling with anything.  

G'day

 I was up in the middle of the night last night - not unusual for me but this is really eating at me - thinking about this situation.  When is it going to be appropriate to go back to work?  

They are supposedly coming out this week to install the gravel and then? My finances are going to take a nose dive. Frugality only takes you so far and you can't skimp on certain things.  

If I want to advertise the walking trails as a prominent feature of the park, I have to install signage to show people where to even find the trail head.  I mean, if you just started wandering around back there you'd find  a hill on all sides and if you wandered down the hill, then yes, you'd stumble upon them.

That doesn't sound fitting for a feature that is advertised as one of the compelling reasons to come to my park.  

So today, I'm ordering all the signs I will need. Internet, yes internet. Locally, they do a great job but it's not cheap and I can get a much better deal with an online sign company. I like to try to keep things local, but there is a limit to that desire.  If local means paying a third or more again for the same thing you can get elsewhere, I'm not going to do it locally. 

My main street sign being the notable exception.  I'm very pleased with the outcome of that and I think it was money well spent.  I'm still waiting for everything to dry up before mounting it.  It rained for over 24 hours and the quick crete still appears to be wet.  I did order an entrance sign at the local sign shop, made out of aluminum he said it would last a long time - but he also charged me $250 for it.  

I'm battling in my mind with which campground reservation software to go with.  Pricing is top of the list, but features are also important.  

And I'm going to shop for insurance.  A man from a large rv insurance company is getting back with me hopefully today, I want at least a second quote to see where I stand with the first quote.  It will be $800 down just to get the first company started up.  It's 3k per year, so the sizeable down payment was a bit strange.  I don't get to make the terms. 

But yes,  When do I go back to work is the big question.  Soon, I can say, but how soon?  Well obviously if I'm about to go completely broke that would force the issue.  It's just amazing that even after getting that second 401k cashed out, I'm still going to be facing this question soon enough.  

Gravel is the biggest expenditure left to go.  After that it's small stuff comparatively speaking, but it all adds up.  And even just driving around town eats up the fuel.  Eating out has gone by the wayside, occasionally but nothing like what I was doing.  If I go try to do more work on the driveway today - which I think I will, not sure yet because I am still coughing and still not feeling the greatest yet - I will come home to eat, not go to applebee's for salmon or whatever lunch.  

Some of the habits I got into making the kind of money I was making baffles me now.  I could have saved a lot of money instead of just wasting it.  But, I guess it comes with the territory. Your whole mindset changes.  Oh, and yes, I can go out and make the same money now. In fact, even more.  I would be on the road all the time. 

If there was such a thing as a part-time trucking job, I would definitely take it.  But there isn't - none that I know of anyway or can find.  Work 3 days a week, home the rest.  Take care of my monthly bills and have time to continue work on the park.  The local jobs around here are fast food and low paying junk that I won't be fooling with. If I'm going to work, I'm going to make the money regardless of how long it keeps me out.  And if it does come down to that, I at least have the reassurance that it won't be forever.  Just long enough to get the park running, keep it running for a while and then apply for that big loan.  

I intend on having the property appraised after I get the gravel in, the grass started and the fire rings on each lot (or every lot where it looks like I can put one without hazard of setting RV's on fire anyway).  With what I'm reading and with the current pricing of RV parks for sale (it is a hot market, surprisingly and a lot of people with little or no experience want to get into it, they just don't want to start from scratch like I am, they want a turn-key business venture), it should appraise from 300 to 400k.  

Yes, even small parks are going for a mint.  And if it's in a good location - such as a beach, national park nearby, river, etc - even higher. I don't have any of that tho there is plenty nearby.  I'm pretty confident in my assessment.  Put that up as collateral for a half million dollar loan and they won't need a cash down payment.  Now that I've got my feet wet and have been through the process, I have an idea of how to write up a business plan of how the park would be built out. 

_______________________________

Very long phone call (I don't do long phone calls anymore and that mindset is just going to have to change if I want to get anything done, I'm working on it lol).

It was the web designer.  He is a true expert, there is no questioning that and I am blessed and lucky to have found him.  He has a heart to serve and help people, it's not just about the money.  I know this because he's already done a lot of stuff for free, even tho I did offer to pay him.  He said his policy is to "not charge if it takes 15 minutes or less".  He went on about the analytics and the way Google works and how they penalize you for some things and reward you for others (moving up on the search results). 

Some of it got into technical stuff that I admittedly don't even understand.  

And we went into campground management software.  Again, this man has amazing knowledge of everything web related, whether he knows about a specific subset (RV parks) or not, the methodology is the same.  He went into the hidden costs of the software I was wanting to use and said he had found something better.  

Just really a lot of information that I need not go into detail here, just to say it was a very interesting phone call.  He backed up my thought that I need to have this campground software installed on my website soon.  I'm thinking within the next 7 days.  He said he would go through several different software options from different companies and then give me the top 5 that he thinks would be best and keeping costs down.  Yes, let's keep the costs down. 

He also said he would design one of those small signs you see on the side of the road everywhere and order it for me.  The point is to have something that says "coming soon" and have it in place along the highway up the road from me.  For $3.99, I think it a worthwhile investment.  

With his knowledge of setting up websites, I wondered if it would be possible for him to duplicate a blogging journal I used to be a part of that was maliciously destroyed by a disgruntled ex-employee. It was named Journalspace and tho it wasn't an internet sensation, no one wanted it to be.  It was a large community and it was set up in such a way that people could and would interact with each other within the community. 

A lot of friendships were made because of the design.  I was wondering if it could be duplicated, but I need pics of the old setup to give him an idea of what it was like.  It might be worth attempting to resurrect.  

Anyway, today is Halloween and I'm pulling my trailer - at a very slow speed thank you - for people to sit on while the group is trick or treating.  We are meeting at 6:30 pm, I hope it doesn't go on more than a few hours, I'm still not feeling the greatest but I think I can manage sitting in my vehicle pulling a trailer at 3mph.  

With that, I am off to do more research on various things that need to be addressed before any park opening can take place.  I'm working my way up to buying Quickbooks and getting start on that..wish me luck lol. 

....and my poll.  So far, 18 votes and a vast majority say a slope (for tent camping) is ok.  

 Sunday evening.

This was a nothing day. I haven't even left the house, I really should have driven over to the property just to check everything - but I didn't.  

The website builder/business growing dude contacted me back.  He had checked out the Camplife software and thought it was much more expensive to use than another one that he found on his own. 

Funny, Camplife claims they have transaction fees for "as little as $1", but the info this guy found was much more per transaction.  Registration fees can eat your bank account up.  

Stuff is starting to wear me out.  I need the cheapest thing available, I don't need fancy, I only have 14 lots and probably tent sites and maybe a couple of boondocking sites.  Take payments and have a calendar reservation system that shows what's available on any given dates and blocks out dates where the lot/s are/have already been reserved and paid for.

Note, they will be paying in advance for their intended lot usage.  

I really can't dwell on this stuff forever.  I need an answer and I need it to be made within the next week at most.  

I still have to buy more signs, buy the fire rings, maybe buy at least a few picnic tables, not sure about wifi yet but I am going to check with T mobile about their business plan, get insurance - I have a quote on that but I am getting another quote from another company first.  Plus the cost of installing the last 12 feet of electrical line.  The gravel of course.  Add that all up? Yup, it pretty much eats up all of my finances.  

I still need to plant the grass, but that has to wait until after the gravel, finish clearing the driveway, build a large fire pit and consider where to put boondocking spots, if I am, indeed, going to do that.  Well, it will have to be away from the RV park portion for boondocking pretty much guarantees people running generators and I don't want that noise disturbing the regular RV spot guests' peace.  

Oh, there's a pottery company - it's a huge plant actually that makes pottery - that is selling truckloads of broken pottery. They claim it can be used for driveways, it was posted in the local chatty facebook group replete with pics.  This could be used for boondocking sites to start with anyway. 

Well whatever. I have a lot to do, is all I'm saying and getting sick yet again isn't helping anything.  

 Lighten up.

I'm telling myself that.

Lighten up Ben.

It's just a business. 

You just have your life savings on the line.

What could go wrong? 

LOL!

Still.  Whatever happens, happens. 

 So it rained much of yesterday and all night long. 

A visit to the property was in order, see if I have any water retention issues on the pads.

2 of them, one of them was a huge lake.  But, the only issue is that the pipe is stick up too high and the water cannot flow through it.  I walked over to it and my foot sunk 10 inches into the ground, muddy ground. But I pushed down on the pipe and the water start flowing very nicely to the other side. I mini-stream going. 

I didn't finish.  I went to Lowe's instead to see if I could find something that I could put in the ground to hold the pipe in place.  Yes!  Some sort of holder for 4 inch pipe, it has a loop around the top and a 12 inch stake going to the bottom. 

I will try to insert that into the ground over the pipe. If it isn't deep enough, I will attach it to a 2 foot stake and drive the stake into the ground with the loop going over the top of the pipe. That should be deep enough to hold it in place.  

There are adjustments on some of the other pipes needed as well, but nothing near as serious as the 2 that were forming giant puddles.  The larger one was probably 50 feet wide. 

No, I'm not going to try to put that in today.  I will have to go back over and find something heavy to put on the end of the pipe to force the area to drain out.  Otherwise it will take forever for it to drain and dry and the gravel is supposed to be installed this coming week. 

That may very well change because of this weather, I will not have them driving heavy trucks through all of that mud if it doesn't dry out.  

The electrician wouldn't give me a date when he's coming. So I contacted the head-contractor who informed me I would have to contact the electrician. "So, I am taking it that this guy has his own company and only sub-contracts out to you". "Yes".  

Oh, okay, I replied, well if he doesn't get to it soon I will see if Don Wood will come out and finish the job.  I have half a mind - only half tho lol, it's a lot of voltage - to do the job myself.  I don't know if there's a giant circuit breaker in that green box the power company installed or what. I need to open it up and take a look.  If there is, it's a simple thing to put in the lines, rent a trencher and run 12 feet to the meter setup.  

I'd rather not, even if it is going to cost more money.  I really want the original contractor to do all of the work so I can contact him if anything goes wrong.

Of course, getting him to fix anything might be a challenge.  

I'm trying to get all the business end of this situation dealt with.  A meeting with a Camplife official next week, setting up Quickbooks - the cheap version - probably tomorrow - rules are finished. At least, they are finished for now. Rules can be adjusted, changed, some can be eliminated, new added - whenever you get the experience and understand why certain rules are needed and possibly others are a turn off.

Picnic tables - $155 a piece.  I'm not sure I will be doing that right off the bat, I will try to get the fire rings in every lot tho.  At $79 for 3, that's a no brainer. Lots of people carry their own tables with them.  

And now, a whole new opportunity that I may very well take advantage of, since it would only cost me the use of that mini-excavator again and a truckload or 2 of SB2 gravel.  

This subject of boondocking came up in the RV owners and investors group. It came up before a long time ago and several people naysayed it - why have them on your property for free?  Well who said anything about free? They can pay to park, just not the say rate as the people that are getting the power, water and sewer outlets are getting.  

Boondocking basically is camping out in the wilderness without any amenities.  In an RV, that would mean no water, sewer or electric hookups, no bathrooms, etc.  Fully-self contained RV's supply all of those things within the confines of the unit.  People mostly boondock for free, finding public lands where they can park wherever.  

Well, there isn't much of that in my area.  Public lands consist of State parks and they all charge to park at them, plus they are always full and hard to get a spot.  If I could charge $15-$20 per night for this kind of stay, it would add to my monthly revenues without costing anything more than occasional cleanup for those that don't know how to throw trash away.  No picnic tables, though I could build fire rings out of rock and not spend a lot of money on it.  Hey, give them something! Plus access to the walking trails.  

That would be geared toward RV's, I already have tent campsites in mind and I just need to finish those up.  I'm just concerned about most of the sites being at an angle. I could build decks out of 2X6 wood with 4X4 supports, but that would be costly an I have to wonder about the return on investment and how long it would take to pay for itself.  It seems to me if I'm going to go to the trouble of building a large deck, I might as well put on a huge tent and set up a glamping site - and make much more money off of it.  

But, a truck load of SB2 is something like $500 and I figure one or 2 truckloads for a place for RV's to park would be sufficient. I have plenty of room for such a setup.  Just locate it further back on more level ground, they pull in, spend the night, leave. Or stay as long as they want, providing they pay the nightly fee.  

I don't foresee a park expansion for a while and I would rather take advantage of the space I have than just let it go to waste.  It's a bit of a gamble, but for less than a thousand bucks of investment, I'm willing to take it. Basically, in my mind, boondocking would be the same as a truck parking in a truckstop parking lot that charges you to stay there.  Most don't like paying for a spot, but some will gladly do it to have a guaranteed spot and usually not have to be crowded in with other trucks. 

I think a truckload would be enough for 4 spaces worth.  Back in lots only, tho, I'm not building another driveway for that.  If it failed, I would just turn it into a social gathering spot with a large fire ring that people can use at night after quiet hours.  I intend on doing that as well. Tho I don't really want to spend any money on it more than buying the blocks to set up the large fire pit.  

 Kind of irritated right now with this electrician and wanting to charge me an exorbitant price to install that power line. Not just because I was under the distinct impression, considering the original wording from the main contractor, that everything was included, but also that it took me to have to blow up the main contractor's phone to get his guy to even respond. 

8 days to even get to this  point only to find out  that he wants to charge me even more.  This stuff is eating up my finances, that's all I can say.  They are allegedly coming next week to dump the gravel and get that part over with.  

I know I'm not feeling well when I wake up at 11:00 am.  Yes, I was shocked when I woke up a little while go, looked at the clock and saw it was 11.  Like wow, I never sleep that long.  And after all of that sleep,  I still don't feel particularly well but I forced myself out of bed and took a shower anyway.  

I've found and purchases an RV Space Rental Agreement online. It was less than $5.00 and everything on it can be changed/added for the particulars for any given park.  

That may have been a waste of money, now that I'm looking into online registration sites.  It can be used for in-person rentals, of course, but I'd rather have everything as "automated" as possible and taking payments including reserving spots on a calendar and forcing people to agree to rules, terms and conditions before payment can be made is a part of what I want.  I don't want to have to hassle with this stuff.  It's worth a buck or two per registration to have a company doing all the credit card processing and having all of that stuff online.  I just add it to my website and once a person clicks on registration, it takes them to their site to fill out all of the details.

I would have had to pay a company to process credit card payments anyway. Plus, this particular site will allow PayPal payments, which I personally find extremely convenient when I'm buying stuff online.  It doesn't cost the buyer anything more and gives assurances about getting what you paid for.  I have to learn more and have scheduled an appointment for next week.  I would have today, but they had no time slots available.  

It's Friday, the Queen of the house is leaving for the weekend which leaves kids and James home.  We'll have a big party and make sure the Queen sees some of it on the Nest cameras, lmao. JK, of course, it will probably be a "boring" weekend, at least for me, for I am still not feeling well and I don't know when this thing is going to depart.  I do know that the kids have been sick for over a week - tho they are still going to school. This kind of thing just hits me harder than the average person, a thing I learned to deal with long ago.

But, it doesn't help that I have a myriad of physical things to do, such as finishing that driveway - almost done - putting up that sign - the quick crete is going to have to dry completely tho before I do that and it's been raining and is going to rain more today.  I have other signs I need to order.  The trail has to have signs directing people where to go.  I need an EXIT ONLY sign and an ENTER HERE sign.  I'll need numbers for the lots, but I can get those locally.  The local sign company is pricier than what I can buy all of those other signs for at an online sign store. 

Yup, the costs continue to rise.  I had a person call yesterday asking if I would have laundry available. No, I replied, that's a future project. 

Dealbreaker for him. I already knew I needed laundry on-site, it's just that everything else is eating up my finances and I simply don't have the money for that right now.  I would have to run electricity to the shed, for one and that's $500 right there.  If I do it myself!  Then run the outlets inside, buy the machines and install them. It's thousands of dollars, basically. 

I'm not using that electrician for anything else after this ordeal.  If I need an electrician, there are others in town with one that sticks out with an exceptionally good reputation.  

Well, I do wonder if we're having guy's night since the ladies are gone.  We did last time, spent over 8 hours at one of their houses.  Sunday, we helped one family move into a house, but I don't think they're ready for guests just yet.  I don't know that I am feeling well enough to do anything, anyway, unless they do it here at our house.  Then I can just disappear if fatigue sets in and bid them all a wonderful evening! lol

G'day. 

 I'm still waiting and starting to put pressure on the contractor to get the damn power line hooked up. It's 12 feet, it's an hour's worth of work if that.  

I don't like to do it, but I'm basically blowing up the contractor's phone. It's been 8 days since the power company came and installed the poles and on that very day, while the power company crews were still out there, I discussed this with the electrical portion of this contractor's company's lead man.  He made it sound like he was coming tomorrow to do it.  

So now, I have to practically beg these people to finish the job and get me on the path to getting the place opened up and getting some money flowing in.  It's really starting to annoy me the lack of communication and lack of motivation, apparently, these people exhibit.  They're running a business, they should understand the needs of people that are also attempting to get a business rolling.

Whatever the case, the driveway is almost done. I sent the boy home after he let the chains on both chainsaws come off, instead of tightening the chains as I have repeatedly asked him to do.  I am not sure if I"ll have him back, but if I do, it won't to be to operate a chainsaw.  It's a good way to get hurt and also a good way to break the bar and/or the chain.  

I have been sick the last several days and have gotten much of nothing done, save the rules. I think I am finished with them.  I have some time to look over some other RV park rules, but the gist of what I want is there.
_______________

The electrical dude contacted me back and quoted me $1,400 to put in 12 feet of line.  I not only balked at the price of such a short stretch of line, I also asked him about the "quote" I got for the entire project that I have already paid for?

His excuse was that they couldn't determine that up front since they didn't know "how" far away it would be.  What a crock of shit.  I got pissed, to be honest.  And I let him and the main guy know about it.  You quoted me the entire job and now you are adding even more money to this project?  They certainly didn't tell me this stuff up front.  "Well I can come down a few hundred dollars, but I have to bring out a crew and"yada yada yada.  

Whatever.  Calling another company would be at least that much, but that isn't the point. I was quoted this project and there was nothing about additional costs at the end of it.  I'll say this: If I ever do business with this company again, I'm going to get a detailed cost for every phase of the project from start to finish, on paper and guaranteed - or I will find someone else.  They can do the septic, that's about it.  

The main dude said they can come next week for gravel.  I'm getting this stuff over with and get this thing rolling.  

It is highly likely that, even with the extra 401k, tightening the belt and trying to keep expenses down, that I will end up with having to get another loan.  This is not optimal and I would rather not, but it appears that after the cost overruns for building the park, I'm going to have very little cash left over to start with.  My idea is to get enough to pay all my credit cards down and then the money being spent on credit card payments every month will pay for the loan, which will give me much more money than just credit card debt paydown.

I don't know everything, but I do know I need to get over this illness quickly so I can get back to work. Today, I spent much of it sleeping.  Oh. Well, the kids got sick but the real culprit I think is this dude that was at one of our card nights coughing wildly all over the place, not covering his mouth, not caring whether anyone else was going to catch it or not and then, when we were moving those people on Sunday, he showed up again, this time the coughing much more drastic sounding and again, coughing all over the place.  We sent him home, frankly, but the damage was done. 

I don't understand how people can behave like that.  

The midterm-election nonsense is heating up. I watch/read (mostly read) some of it but then I get disgusted with the way they are behaving and just do something else.  There really isn't any reason for me to be watching it anyway, I made up my mind long ago about who for what. I certainly am not voting for Beto for governor! A nightmare that isn't even in disguise, he would try to turn Texas into another California.  It is interesting to watch some of these heated races in other states, especially Pennsylvania, my original home state.  

Well enough.  It's not that late but I'm going to go lay down again.

 Sunday.

One of the group (their friends which will likely be my friends as well if this all continues) changed their moving plans from - the 5th of next month - to today.

Yea, that was a bit of a surprise. They can't move by themselves, they need help both manpower and truck/vehicle power.  

I really wasn't keen on spending my Sunday moving people.  This was not my first rodeo, it takes all day long, it wears you out and you are toast by the time you get home.  But I just got with the plan, said fine, let's get this started so that we can - eventually - get this over with.  I went to the property, got the trailer, back to the house.  Over to the apartment, start loading the heavy stuff.

That's all I was there for, get the heavy/larger stuff done.  The boys/ladies could do the boxing stuff.  It was a team effort, there is no doubt about that.  There were 5 of us to start with plus kids, several hours later another family showed up to boost the effort of  - let's get this over with, thanks.  

Up and down stairs for hours, we finally got the first load on the trailer and headed over to the house.  We had just started unloading and were in their new living room when we saw a paint roller going up and down the window. Yes, the window.  Whoever owns the place had done a bunch of painting and had left the roller and paint out on the back porch.

The 5 year old decided it was a great idea to pain the bricks and the window, gag.  That was probably an hour's worth of going to get  a garden hose and pressure washer from the house, getting it to the new house, hooking all of that up and James getting all of that stuff off of there.  

Back to work, unload the trailer and back to the apartment.  It was over 6 hours.  I had put crackpot chicken recipe in the crockpot this morning - completely forgot about it until we were about to leave the house and head home. I'm famished, was my decree.  I had had chicken salad sandwich this morning before we left.  No one wanting to cook, it just popped into my head: Crackpot chicken!  

That hit the spot for everyone and no great effort to finish, which was cooking bacon and crumbling it and chopping green onions.

And now...I am definitely toast.  Just winding down, relaxing, trying to get into sleep mode because I am totally out of it.

Plans changed for tomorrow. The boys were going to go to daycare, but Taylor's work changed and she had to load a bunch of stuff into her pickup, into the back seat.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, she couldn't have that stuff in the bed. Can you take the boys to the daycare tomorrow?  Yup, I can or they can just stay home with me. 

They want to go see some alligator cartoonish type of movie that's in the theaters right now. I can take a day off from the property, actually 2 days since I didn't work over there today. I did check my posts for the sign, the quickcrete is still wet.  I doubt it will dry out for several days if it's going to rain tomorrow. 

No biggies.  Once it dries out I can drill the holes and get that sign up.  However.  The chainsaws are sitting in the woods and I really don't want them sitting in the rain.  I'm going to bring them home tomorrow and fix the chains on them.  

Anyway, I'm too tired to do any research tonight. It's just time to go to bed.  

 Saturday. 

The group was over last night for one of the member's birthday.  These people are pretty cool folks, fun to hang around, it was a blast last night really.  I have a bit - different - personality - it took them a while to adjust to me, my friends I live with, the house, the giant dog, etc etc etc.  I was reading some definitions out of the Urban Dictionary last night concerning a phrase that one person had never heard of - and honestly, I hadn't either. The whole group was belly laughing, as I said, we had good times last night.  

A nice reprieve from everything I have been dealing with, with this RV park.  

The kid let the chains get way too loose on 2 saws yesterday and so yes, the saws threw the chains off the bars.  I don't know how many times I have to tell a 25 year old the same thing before I get disgusted and say no more, no thank you.  I'm not ready to burn bridges just yet, but his days of operating my saws are over.  It doesn't ruin the saw or the chain, it's just a hassle to take everything apart, get the chain back on the gear correctly and then feed it around the bar, and then tighten the chain.

And I've found that once I tighten the chain after it throws it? You just pull the gas trigger, get the chain around a couple of times and then, the chain is dangling off of the bar and you have to tighten it down again. After that, however, it lasts quite  a while before the chain needs adjusted again. I just get tired of repeating myself and I'm done with it.  I have other work he can do maybe in a few days or a week or so in helping cleaning up the lots, using a metal tine rake and smoothing the dirt ridges out.

I also find that I have to constantly monitor him or he'll get on that damned cell phone and then expect me to pay him to text his girlfriend - or whoever he is texting.  It's ridiculous.  I had to leave yesterday, I noted where he was at.  He got the rest of the pile gone, yes, but that would have only been 20 minutes worth of work. There was nothing else done on the side with all the brush - tho most of the brush is gone.  There is a 15 - 20 foot section left at the end and I will do that myself, including cutting down a large tree which is hanging over the driveway.

Much too low, it just needs to go.  I am also going to take down the gate. They don't close it anymore. They used to have it locked but now?  No one uses the gate at all.  It stays open 24 hours a day. I didn't tell them they couldn't lock it, so I'm glad they decided they don't need to use it now. Probably because they surrounded their tanks and well head with gates a while back.  They can have their gate, it will be deposited next to their operation in the rear.  The posts will be trashed. Wood posts, they will have to be cut down, I'm not going to waste my time trying to dig them out.  

If they want compensation for those posts, I will say fine, here is the bill for all the work done on the driveway that YOU are supposed to be maintaining.  I may send them that bill anyway.  

I texted the contractor today asking when they are going to come and finish with installing the power line from the poll to the meter array.  No reply, lol.  That is the contractor's foreman, actually, I contacted the contractor about gravel and got a "thank you" back when I said I would be needing him to come soon, probably in the next two weeks and spread the gravel.  Thank you in his world? Mean he's going to order the gravel, have it delivered and show up and spread it. 

That's my take anyway after having had dealt with this dude all of this year and part of last. 

Anyway, I need the gravel done sooner than later. I need to get grass growing and tho rye grass doesn't take terribly long to grow, it's at least several weeks before you have much of anything.  

Now the major drawback. It's going to rain next week and from the looks of it, heavily.  They can't spread gravel on muddy driveways and pads.  The upside is if it rains as much as it appears it is, I will be able to determine where the water is flooding over the pads and the driveway and fix it.  Oh well. If it rains Monday and Tuesday and other days next week, it will just shut me in the house and I will do more work attempting to iron out all of these different facets of running a company that are behind the scenes. I can make an appointment with the accountant as well. 

 This has been a very long and trying day. 

I was determined to at least get those post holes dug for the sign. But, the 20-something showed up much earlier than expected. I ended up going over there to show him what I want done, hooked up the trailer and headed to - Kroger's actually. My friends' friend birthday today, they are having him/them over for dinner and we were to make the macaroni salad.  

Yeah, I had no idea how much work macaroni salad is until I tried making 2 different versions of them today.  

Anyway, over to the rental place, get this auger machine for digging post holes, back to the house with Kroger goods, over to the property and then I expected to just dig the holes quickly and be done with it.

How wrong - utterly wrong - I was. 

I would have never been able to finish those holes with the post hole shovel.  The first hole? No thanks.  20 minutes and maybe a foot and a half deep before it got hung up on something. I just let the auger do it's thing while pushing down on it. 

It wasn't having it.  Hole number 2.  Hole number 3 finally took. Over to the other side for that sign.  One hold was enough.  Then, I started drilling a hole for the opposite way traffic. I wasn't going to put in a sign for that considering hardly any traffic - probably none but who knows - will be coming that way.  GPS will not take you that way.  But, I noticed the private RV park down the road had a sign facing that way, never-the-less.

I don't have that sign yet and it's not a priority, but with the difficulty I had already face drilling holes for the main sign? Yeah, honey, we gonna get that done.  It was something like 10 hole tries for the various signs that were left abandoned and try further away. 

I was sweating my ass off pushing down on that thing constantly.  I was totally worn out, but  while I was doing all of this? A pickup truck stopped in the middle of the road.

I waved, trying to be a nice neighbor. He waved back, backed the truck up. So I turned the rather noisy machine off and we chatted a few seconds.  What's up? Well, is this the RV Park? Yes, it will be the RV park.  Can we go take a look, or isn't it done yet? Nope, it's not done but you are welcome to look. 

They disappeared back there and I went back to this confounded machine attempting to drill a hole deep enough for a post.  After 15 minutes, they came back out, turned off their truck and asked when it will be available and how much?  Uhh, probably a month or two - I'm not giving firm dates yet until I am sure I have everything in place, it will hopefully be more like a few weeks, 3 at max, but who knows? 

Ok, well we want to reserve a spot.  Is this long term? Yes, 2 or 3 months worth - at least.  Long story, their kids are out of the house, they have the house sold, they are moving into a brand new travel trailer, hooray for them! Note that they were driving an at least 80k, brand new pickup truck as well. These are the types of people I want - have money, not begging people for cigarettes and beer (common with poor people living near others, I have ample experience with it, thank you). Or just plain out stealing. 

They wanted to give money down. No thank you, I'm just not in the position for that yet.  I don't have a company bank account - high on the priority list now - and I don't have my accounting set up yet.  I didn't tell them that, of course, all of these things are being worked on.  I just told them I will hold it for them in good faith, if you decide to back out, please just let me know no hard feelings. 

These are not the first people that have driven by the property, they are just the first ones that I encountered and were actually serious about renting.  

No, I don't want to do a lot of long term stuff, but I feel a mix of both kinds will work out for me.  It was a nice chat with them. They own a martial arts studio in town and say they have had it since 2004. Yup, I will be checking out that story but I have no reason to not believe them considering the vehicle they were driving, something is supplying them with money.  

They were in love with the idea of having rules, for I stated after they left and sent me a text message to give me their names for holding the spot that I have rules and they will be posted soon.  Yes, we want rules!  They aren't new to rv'ing and they know what happens with places that don't have rules or have them and don't enforce them. 

It was an interesting back-and-forth session.  I hope to have some more of them soon. I could see renting out longer-term the back 7 lots and keeping the front 7 pull-through lots open for over nights - which make far more money.  Yeah, you have to have the business to accommodate for that, again, I have hopes, that's what all of this is based on.  

I at least need the place to pay for itself. The mortgage payment, the water bill, the insurance bill and the power bill. That is not the goal, obviously, its' the bare minimum.  Considering these folks checked out every other RV park in the area? Yes, that really boosted my confidence in this endeavor. 

I have had my doubts, folks, that's the reality of it and I"m not going to even try to mispresent it.  What if......a thousand what ifs - but the biggest one: what if I spent all of that retirement money and it doesn't work out?  What if I just dumped - probably 150k in this thing before I open up - and I have no-one coming here?  

Bad economy, high inflation be damned, there are plenty of people with money that aren't overly affected by any of it. They may be irritated with higher cost of living, but that doesn't really make them slow down on spending or doing what they want to do.  Or if it does, it's not that much.  People selling pricey homes to go live in RV trailers and Class A Motorhomes.  They are relatively rich by our society standards, they are sick of living the status quo and a lot of them take great pleasure in traveling from place to place, checking out new scenery.

This is why I wanted those walking trails. It's not just a place to park, it's a place to explore.  

Well, I got done with the holes and took the machine back.  I went up to get lunch at Chili's, visiting with folks, went home and started on this macaroni salad stuff. 2 types to appease 2 types of pallette.  It meant boiling eggs, cooking bacon, boiling noodles, chopping things up into fine bits and putting together the ingredients X 2.  

And now? I'm very tired.  I would love to just take a nap right now.  

G'day. 

 Anyone that has access to my facebook as well as this blog knows something major happened today.

Upon arrival at the property, there were fully 3 Swepco power company trucks, the telephone poles had already been installed and the line was almost finished.  I was - shocked actually.  Yea, I was really quite surprised that they had actually shown up this week.

I drove to where the boy - he's actually a 25 year old but whatever - was working, parked there, went and got the 4 wheeler with the trailer so he could start hauling the stuff to one of the burn piles.  I instructed him on what I wanted done and then walked to the front of the property where the workers were.

One of them introduced himself and we chatted for a while. He actually lives on the street and was talking about the 18 acres he just recently bought replete with a 2,500 square foot house for $189,000.  I'm telling ya, that's a good deal with a house on that land.  

He did let out a piece of information I did not know: The engineer is the one who releases the work to be done on any given week. He said they had just gotten the work order yesterday.  Seriously.  This engineer has been holding me up all of this time?  I was a bit disgusted but I bit my tongue, this dude I was talking with was really cool and laid back. He said they have a shortage of workers after I mentioned how I tell young people to get into the power line for electric business with the local state college.

 They pay them over $30 per hour plus overtime to start right out of this college.  And it's only 2 years.  

Anyway, I just stood there and marveled at the sight of those new power poles and the new line they had already strung. Even after I left them, I just couldn't help myself in looking at everything.  

I texted the electrical contractor - the poles are in, please come and hook up the power.  The power company will not hook up the line from the telephone pole to the meter assembly, that is up to the property owner to do and I already paid for this service.  Once they hook it up, I can call the power company and find out how much deposit money they will require. I can see thousands of dollars after paying the city $1,500 deposit for water.  

I texted the owner of the company that has been doing everything. The electrical contractor actually works for him.  I said I'm ready to get the gravel in as soon as Wesley verifies everything is in working order. He said thank you.  They have slowed down recently and are needing work to keep his crews busy.  He didn't give a date, he does things his own way. He does things right, so I won't question that part excepting it needs done very soon. 

The insurance.  Well, it's 3 grand and change per year.  It's a little over $800 down payment. It covers everything that I wanted - well as far as I'm reading it anyway, I'm going to ask some specific questions about the doggy park and the walking trails.  Is all of this covered? Because it's 2 million aggregate and 1 million each incidence.  Which is fine by me, but I want everything covered.  

I also called T Mobile. No down payment, router given to you upon signature on the line, business account, I didn't get into specifics, just how much does it cost? $55 per month. Mind you, that's a business account, not personal. It's for internet only, but dang that's a good deal.  It may go up when I tell them it's for an rv park and I will probably need some broadcasters to booster signal strength. 

I did not get the sign up today. I was supervising the boy and working as well. He was hauling the very huge pile of debris I had stacked and I was either cutting down more brush/trees along the driveway or pulling weeds on the backside. 

There are going to be weeds to start with, but I don't want them around the park area.  

What else. I need to get that appointment with the accountant, I was going to do it today but I just had so much other stuff going on and seeing the power company out there, well, that kind of sealed the deal.  

Oh, the router setup. There is no justification for running 400 feet of electrical wiring to that building right now.  I will buy some kind of lockable locker and put it right next to the power setup, making it necessary to only run 10 feet or so of electrical wiring and a single circuit breaker on the panel.  
The wiring to the office bldg will cost many hundreds of dollar - just for the wire. No thanks.  Not right now anyway.  

Tomorrow. I need that sign up, dang. Lol. Just keep putting it off for other things. Get the drilling machine, get that done and then call the accountant to make another appointment.  I dunno yet. It seems I can do the books without an accountant, but at the same time, is it wise to do so? I don't think so, but the finance department of my company is telling me that after that gravel is put in, my funds will be getting low.  

Finish the rules eventually - it just isn't there yet but yes, it's close.  Still need to find someone to draw up a contract.  This all costs money, btw, it isn't free.  

The pressure is on. Well, it will be after the gravel and all that money is paid off.  

Nah, the pressure is on, lol, it's been on for a while. There was always a lot to do without the power being hooked up.  I've been working diligently to keep up the pace.  

Yup, I'm going to work on the rules again after this post, lol.

G'day

 Thursday - morning.  

I was going to have one of the boys - the older one - out to help clean up today, but I was admittedly feeling lazy and canceled  At least for this morning. If he wants to come late morning, then fine.  I have a long line of debris along the driveway that needs to be hauled to the burn piles.  

I am wondering if the power company is actually going to show this week.  2 more days left and then? I will start ramping up the heat on this engineer.  You promised me after all the other statements that they would definitely be coming out THIS WEEK.  

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that too much, it is a source of irritation and I just put it out of my mind as much as possible. I suppose it would be a good day to go get the machine to drill out the holes - I still haven't done that yet, I keep getting caught up in other stuff.  

Apparently the insurance agency hasn't completely given up on me - yet.  They texted yesterday asking me about what, if any, breed restrictions would I have?  I knew instantly they want to hear the "right" answer.  "Aggressive dogs (regardless of breed) will be asked to leave along with their owners. Rottweilers, Pitbulls and Dobermans will not be allowed. I think there's a couple of other breeds as well that just aren't coming to mind right now". 

A giant check mark was received back as a reply to that answer.  The reason any kind of business that otherwise allows dogs on their premises don't want those breeds there is because of insurance companies either saying no or jacking the price WAY up to allow it.  My encounters with Dobermans have always been nasty. The first one was when a man down the street sicked his 2 Dobies on my Great Dane (I was in my teens at the time).  My Great Dane was a total bad-@$$. The Dobies were running down the street at him, snarling and growling, obviously ready to pounce on him.

When my Dane saw these 2, he squared right up to them and was more than ready to take them both on.  I had no worries and I laughed when the 2 Dobies got close to my Dane, turned around, tucked tail and ran back home, lmao.  The man came running down the street, accusing ME of sicking MY dog on HIS. What an idiot!  I laughed at him as well and told him that if his dogs had attacked my dog, I would have let my dog off the leash and he would have mess both of your dogs up.

Not what he wanted to hear, he tried to get his dogs to attack mine again - to no avail.  They wanted nothing to do with him. 

On another Dane adventure at a doggy park, some dude with a Dobie came into the park, let the dog go and it immediately went straight for my black Dane.  His name was Prince and he was minding his own business, sniffing around. At the time, I had 3 Danes.  The dog attacked Prince blind side, Prince whirled around while my other dogs came to his rescue. There's a reason they call them packs.  

I've also seen very vicious Rottweilers and everyone has read in the news endless stories about Pitbulls attacking and even killing people, including young children.  I'd have to look up the other breeds, I think there are 2 more insurance companies don't like.  Yes, Pirhanese (spelling) are one of them.  My only encounter with a dog of that breed was when a tenant who claimed the dog was "very friendly" (I had never heard of the breed before so I had no idea) and it turned out to be very hateful towards everyone but her. That dog tried to bite me on several occasions before I informed her that the dog was going or they were both going, but I wasn't going to tolerate it. That was after the dog tried to bite ONE OF HER OWN FAMILY MEMBERS that were visiting her.  

I think there are legitimate reasons to not allow certain breeds, if people don't like it, that's not my problem. Those are breeds I will never own or want anything to do with just because of their reputation. I DO think Dobermans are very cool looking dogs, but good grief, it's not worth the risk.  

It's highly likely, at least from my thinking about this, at this point that the park will be a mix of long term and short term stays.  It would be awesome if the place would fill up daily with short term stays - I could live off of that without working another job.  Net profit would be in the 6 grand per month range.  My take would be what, $3,500 after paying myself and paying income tax on it?  Trust me, I could survive and then some off of that.  

It IS possible, especially with the help of this web expert ensuring maximum exposure on internet searches for rv parks in my area.  My listing is showing on page 4 of google search for rv parks in my area.  It was at page 6.. and while I was doing that, I saw that a brand new park has opened south of here.

38 spaces, it is actually at a location I was thinking about buying last year.  But I decided it was too far away from anything, out in the middle of nowhere and not useful if people want to live there and commute to work, if it comes down to that.  It was also far from the nearest utilities.  I was shocked to learn the price. Some investor apparently built it to instantly resell it.  They have it completed but haven't opened it up and already it's for sale.  At 1.5 million, I just balk at such things.  There is a building on the property and a fishing pond and that's it.  

What on earth.  I've seen the prices of RV parks going anywhere from 500k up to 8 million. They are hot investments right now, a lot of people want to get into it.  Not unfortunately, I'm not getting into this to resell the thing right away.  I think that would be - ridiculous.  Unless I could get a million dollars out of it lmao.  

Oh myyy. The insurance company just contacted me and told me "it was approved for binding". I assume that means they have okay'ed it and are sending it to me via email.  The price tag is what I'm afraid of. 

Score! Way better than she originally thought the quote would be! $251 per month includes everything! There are a dozen documents they just sent that I will have to look through, there are likely specifics in there on what I can and cannot do. But, I told them 2 tent camping sites to start with, 14 lots, a doggy park and walking trails.  

 Pretty seamless and easy job to install the "noodle" insulation around the pipes.  Much longer to spray out a gallon of weed killer with root killer in it.  I'm attempting to kill all the weeds that have grown on the pads before any gravel is laid.  I need a couple more gallons of that stuff.

Didn't get around to the post holes because I felt compelled to get those pipes insulated.  I don't know how hard the ground will be tomorrow after a 29 degree temperature night, but I assume after the sun comes up and starts warming things up, it won't be an issue for the machine to get it done, if I do, indeed, get around to doing that tomorrow.  

The insurance agent asked a bunch of questions, I answered all of them. I had already read in the rv park owners group on facebook that a person that has no experience managing an rv park may find it difficult to get insured.  I'm guessing it's just going to be expensive to start with.  I'm not ok with that but I have little choice in the matter. It's another reason I want to keep the number of amenities to a minimum to start with.  The more risk, the less likely I will be able to get insured. 

Would I open the park without insurance? Let's just say I don't even want to have to face that prospect.  I will contact as many insurance agencies as I have to get some kind of liability insurance on the property . Without it? I could be sued and literally lose everything if someone trips, falls on the trails and determines I should be held liable.  Or whatever - lots of potential scenarios.  

Of course, the power company was yet another no show today. How surprising.  

I'm working this thing down to the point of having little or nothing left to do but - open the park.  

I didn't finish the rules yet.  Working on it.  Lots of different rules parks have, I'm just attempting to figure out what I really want for rules.  

Facebook posted a memory for me to view, it was me walking the dogs on the freshly minted trails a year ago! Look at how long it has taken to get this far along with this project! Craziness, if you would have told me back then it was going to take a year to get to where I'm at now and probably a couple more months before opening, I would have balked at you.  

Why would it take so long? I would have thought.  Well, I found out.  Weather, contractors, supply/demand issues, utility companies - read: Swepco (power) - taking forever.  Long list of things that really made this project take much longer than it should have.  In my mind? This operation should already be running.

And now, facing this insurance issue, gag.  

Well, back to researching rules.

 A few things that will be added since there is plenty of room and at very little cost: Horseshoe pit and a large fire pit area with chairs.  Socializing is a thing, at least with some people, having a place to gather around will cost very little and add a bit of extra appeal.  There are other games that one can install that are not costly as well, but I'll have to look them up again. They aren't games I had ever heard of but were mentioned in a couple of posts that I was reading on Facebook.  

Oh, a corn hole game I could buy pre-made for around $50, I believe. Another cheap thing that can be near the horseshoe pit.  

I'm not adding a playground, at least not yet, it adds a lot to insurance costs.  There is plenty of room to play if a family happened to venture in, bring your own stuff to play with. Playgrounds aren't exactly cheap to build, either.  Perhaps I can put up a fenced in area and slowly start acquiring the things needed to have some semblance of one.  

However, that is not a priority and tho the park will be 'family friendly', there will be little for kids to do unless they like walking on trails.  Other than that, there is plenty to do in the area with lakes, museums, historical sites, plenty of already-built playgrounds, etc. 

There will be a list of all of the nearby attractions as well as a list of all nearby restaurants and stores that RV'ers may find handy including all of the propane service stations. There are 3 of them in our little town if I recall correctly.  One of them sells propane very cheap compared to others.  Tractor Supply also refills containers.  

Okay, well the insurance agent is "blowing up my phone". Welcome blowing up, she is attempting to find me insurance.  This is a local agent, I would rather be able to go to an office here and look at these people in the eyes with any problems than having to call some 800 number and get - lessor - service. We'll see what happens.  If this doesn't work out, then I'll attempt to use the nationally-recognized premiere leader in RV park insurance - so everyone claims.  

Plain, basic fire rings are 3 for $79 at Tractor Supply.  Perfect.  The employee is an outdoor enthusiast and told me that if I drill holes near the bottom of the rings, a "smokeless fire pit" would be created.  Apparently the air intake eliminates most or all of the smoke. Yes, that is highly desireable.  

I'm heading up to Lowe's to find some sort of tape or insulation you can wrap around the water lines to keep them from freezing and bursting. It's going to get below freezing tonight at 29 degrees predicted.  I hadn't even thought about this until I saw the weather forecast and was like, uhh, I better do something about that!  There's only 15 of them and 14 of the 15 are only maybe a foot up out of the ground. They did that on purpose both for freezing and for less exposure to damage from - people that don't know what they are doing.  

More job perusal has found several interesting things.  I will be keeping the names of these companies - all local work. Even if they take down their listing, I can still try to apply at these places whenever I'm at the point where I am ready to go back to work.  Not that I'm not working, folks, this stuff I have been doing is hard work and really takes it out of me!

Anyway, I need to get that tape and get that done.

G'day

 I will only do OTR as a very - and I mean a far distant - last resort.  That wording should indicate how much I despise the trucking industry.  It might make you a good deal of money, but you make a lot of sacrifices in your personal life to get that money.  

It's not worth it.  I'd take a drastic pay cut to be home every night if it comes down to choosing between staying on the road weeks at a time or getting home every night or near every night.  

I only say this because this dude that has been trying to get me to switch over to his company for several years now flatly stated that "we can't get you home that often" after I indicated I'd need to be home at least 2 nights per week.  I've paid the price, I've done the "live in a truck" routine, I'm sick of it and I am ready for a change.  

He suggested some other company he is apparently affiliated with that could get me home weekly.  Now, in terms of trucking companies, getting home "weekly" usually means 1 day per week. These companies are draconian and severely outdated in their views of how people that drive trucks want to live their lives.  The entire industry needs to be restructured. There may be people that actually like being on the road endlessly - more power to them!  Me? No thank you. 

I read these companies' ads all the time, they show up on my Facebook and Google feeds daily.  "Our home time is structured so that for every 7 days you are out, you get 1 day home!"....as if that is some sort of gleeful, glorious, wondrous gift from the company to see your friends, family, bedroom and dog once a week.  

Sick. They wouldn't ever dream of living their lives in such an arrangement.  

Folks, I could get a job right now.  Just call pretty much any of the major trucking companies.  I'm ready to go back to work!  They'd schedule me for an orientation and I'd be whisked away to some other state to sit in an office building for 3 to 5 days and informed - commanded - how I am going to live my life for this company. That's literally what it is, this is what your life is going to be working for us.  

The longer I am out of trucking, the more I abhor it.  I just hope that when I need to get back to work, I can find something decent.  I will start with home every night/day jobs and see what that gets me. There is a wood chip hauling company that is local here, I think their yearly earnings are in the 60k range. That's a 30k pay cut, but you have weekends off and you are home every night.  

 Company drivers - people who drive trucks but don't own the truck they are driving - don't understand how shi*** their lives are until they get out of it.  Well, I know how crappy it was, I just did it because I had to.  Now that I am facing and hoping for at least a partial income from the business startup, a part time job somewhere sounds nicely appealing.  Not even in trucking.  

I'd still like to find a lot somewhere nearby, flat and level with a big entrance and turn it into paid trucking parking. They line the Interstate at night in this area. Actually, they do that everywhere - can't find a place to park they end up on an onramp to sleep.  It'd have to be fenced in of course and have an attendant.  Big enough for at least 100 trucks, give a cheap rate that they won't scoff at.  Every place I've been to that charges for parking starts at $12 and goes up to $26! For ONE night, to park for 10 hours! Give a discount for a 34 hour reset and make it close enough to local business that one of the companies that picks up food and delivers to you will be in their range of delivery.  

Just a simple land lease, not ownership.  Limited risk, limited exposure.  I haven't been looking lately but I do have a place in mind. It's an old, abandoned truck stop, the building is gone but there is still all that nice room. It's only used as a - truck parking area - at night, lol. Free parking, of course, they take up what space is left. The land there has been abandoned so long, it's full of trees and brush, not a lot of area to park.  Trust me, I have paid to park in dirt parking lots many, many times over.  

))))))))))))))))))))

Enough of that.  It's Monday morning and I'm fixing to go get a bag of ice and head over to the property.  I will continue to cut the trees and shrubbery along the driveway.  I was over there yesterday during the rain - I got there about an hour and a half after it started.  There was no build of water anywhere. It was a medium-rate downfall of rain, apparently not enough to cause the flooding issues I saw a few weeks ago.

Unfortunate. I wanted to see where the issues are and address them directly.  Apparently, it must have to be a deluge, a very heavy downpour of rain to cause that kind of flooding. I am "promised" that the construction crews will come this week to put in the power poles and run the lines.  If we get to Friday morning and they still haven't shown up, I'm just going to contact this engineer again. 

I've been polite and professional with him to this point. I will continue to do so, but I will definitely be turning up the heat.  I need this done.

OH. The sign!

Change of plans. I will see this morning if the ground got wet enough to dig out those post holes. I'd like to save the $90 to rent a machine, for right now, it's just 2, 3-feet deep holes.  That's it. Put the 4X10's in there, dump the quickcrete in there, level them, make sure they are situated correctly and walaah.  Sign posts.  The tree and brush thing sort of blocked out everything else.

I was looking at it yesterday. In order for longer rigs to pull out of their spaces, all of that brush will have to be cleared out of there.  No choice in the matter, not a big deal, but it is hard work.  There really isn't any "easy" work to be had out there.  I can't really think of anything that has been on the "gee, this is relaxing, pleasant and doesn't require a lot of physical output" type of work that I have engaged in out there.  Maybe operating machinery, but after hours of being cramped in those things in hot weather, that becomes a chore as well.  

I don't think I'll get into politics today. I read the news - I'm not even watching it on TV anymore - and just become disgusted with the attitudes that politicians are taking against "the other side".  A "threat to national security" - that one will never be lived down. 70 million people in this nation are a threat to national security! 

I'd laugh but these people are serious about their rhetoric.  Socialism and communism are becoming more and more popular. The demise of America before our very eyes is starting before our very eyes and the only thing, in my view, that will stop it at this point is a revolution. Yeah, I don't favor that option, I'm just saying, with the push towards and authoritarian society with an elite ruling class that "takes care of everyone" that is becoming more and more popular?  

I dunno.  

I have a lot planned today.  I need to get busy.

G'day

 Enough of that.  The ground is hard - yes it poured rain 2 nights ago but the soil is so dry right now, the water just passes over it.  I tried to start digging out the 2 holes with the post hole digger and was getting no where fast.  I got about 5 inches down, got a bucket of water and poured it into the holes. Hopefully by tomorrow morning that will loosen everything up and I can also dump more water in them.  

I'm not going to torture myself in some sort of frenzy to get that sign up.  

Really, I just decided to come home and start doing rules research, incorporate other parks' rules into my own version of it and try to get that junk over with.  This is probably going to take the rest of the day. It takes a while just to find a park's rules on their website, many times they are buried in layers of pages and you have to keep looking to find them. I'm not sure why that is, are they trying to hide them?  

I need to get the dreaded paperwork stuff done. Stuff I have mostly been avoiding because I despise paperwork. Yean, I'm going to have to get over that.  I get it, but gag me with a giant wooden spoon, I really don't like it.  Maybe it will grow on me after I do it for a while and get used to it.  

I did learn that for Texas, I don't need a retail permit from the state unless I intend on selling products aside from renting out the sites.  Yeah, I'll bypass that one for now, I have no store and the only thing I was thinking of selling was firewood.  

I already have the required EIN number for the federal government, the website I used to get my LLC also signed me up for that . Of course the feds want their share - of everything.

On a different note, I was reading about the contention between current Texas governor Abbott and wannabe governor O'Rourke.  Beto claims he's going to use a good portion of Texas' rainy day fund - there's billions of dollars in there, I think near 30 billion now - to "pay down" property taxes by giving school districts more of the operating budget they need.  Yes, a vast majority of what you pay in property taxes goes to school districts. 

Apparently, Abbott says he is going to do something similar.  I'm all for NO property taxes whatsoever, so I am in full agreement with bringing the price tag down, at least.  Beto made an actual valid point: Why has Abbott not brought property taxes down before now?  I am NO fan of Beto, but this is one thing he said that I actually agreed with.  

Well, that was quick. I had saved to my documents a link to an RV park's rules. These rules are complete.  I think I am going copy them into a document and then adjust them to my liking - not everything in their rules applies and I don't necessarily agree with some of the rules.  Some things are a mystery - why do that want or not want that?  But, you get people that have been in the business a while and they come up with rules that work to keep the headaches down.  

Anyway, before I get too far into this post, I'm ending it and getting busy. 

 Well, of course, no power company. 

Daily statement here.  The sign maker came out this morning with the newly-made sign. It's 4X8 in dimensions and it looks exactly like my logo online. They did an excellent job and I am sure it will last as long as they claim it will.  

After she left, I immediately texted the power company engineer.  Can you give me a revised update since it's obvious crews aren't showing up today and it's been over 2 weeks since we last spoke? 

No reply for quite a while, I texted a question mark. That apparently got his attention and got an answer. "I check with construction. Will be worked next week for sure."  That's quoted as he wrote it.  

I'm definitely not getting gravel installed until the power lines are in and ready to go.  I just can't wait long between paying for the gravel and getting the operation up and running. I could probably go several more months without getting another job, counting pennies and getting extremely frugal. I've already started heading down that path because I want to have the operation going and the kinks figured out before I go back to trucking. 

After the sign delivery, I headed over to Lowe's to get the materials needed to install the sign. I want it up quickly.  I dunno why, but it always takes me a long time to stand there in Lowe's and figure out what I need.  Or find what I need that I've already figured out. 2 4X10 beams to hold the sign up with 4 bags or quickcrete, lag screws, machine screws and needed more chain saw bar oil and fuel.  

I was going to rush back over there and get this process started - but I realized my stomach growling and right now? I'm eating at home almost entirely.  1, to save money and 2, because it's hard to find Keto friendly items at restaurants or fast food.  It's there, but usually it's higher on the carb count than I'd like it to be.  

Instead, yesterday I went to Kroger's and bought a bunch of Keto friendly coupled with low-cholesterol foods. 

I'm really putting stuff on hold until the power is in.  I will be very busy after it's installed and ready to go.  I suppose I should make an appointment with the accountant today for next week. Really need to get the bookkeeping part of this thing settled.  It's a bit unnerving for me for I have never done anything like this before.

I also stopped at the post office and asked for service at the new address.  Not sure what that process is, I just know that I have an official address and I'm ready to get that service established. Not a high priority, but since it was on the way home.....

And, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to have to haul a bunch of stuff from the bridge setup to the front to install that sign.  Post hole digger, generator, cord, level, etc.  Yeah, good thing my 4 wheeler is working but that adds a lot of time to the equation. I may just get the post holes dug out today and then get the generator out there tomorrow.  I can pick up where the 25 year old left off yesterday in cutting down the shrub next to the driveway that is sticking out.  

This weekend, I think I will go through all the websites I did before and come up with my own list of rules and get that done.  These things are all time consuming and I need to start working on it.  I've chosen the online payment company to take reservations online, but I will forward that to the web designer.  He can put the rules, the calendar with "available dates", the online payment, etc on there.  These are things out of my expertise and I don't want to fool with it, he knows what he's doing and the money spent is the money saved. 

Well, off to the races.  Start prepping that sign for install.

G'day. 

 Power company - no show. Even my contractor was in disbelief.  I contacted him asking him if it's ok to put down grass seed or should I wait until the gravel is spread? Please wait!  I kind of thought so.  I did put the seed down on the doggy park tho, the gravel operation won't affect that area.  Tomorrow marks the last day that the engineer said they would show up to install the poles/lines.  That's 3 weeks later than what they said they were going to do.  

I had the 25 year old back today - but he brought his younger brother (without letting me know) to work on the main driveway.  The gas company isn't adequately maintaining it and I think I'm going to send them a bill for half of the cost to get all of that brush out of there. Yeah, I doubt they will pay either, but it's worth a try.  If anything ever goes to court, there will be an email-trail of attempts to get them to do anything. 

Anyway, the younger was "helping" the older by standing around with a big pair of clippers - doing nothing. Clippers irrelevant and useless for that operation, the only thing that's needed is a chainsaw.  So, I called him over and informed him I needed him to pull weeds, showing him what I wanted done.  I got busy on the machine, even tho it rained heavily last night and the ground not in great shape for doing any dirt work, I had the thing and there were a couple of things I really needed to get done, mud or no. 

I get back to where they are working after completing those tasks and where is the younger brother? Back with his older brother.  Doing nothing, again.  Well, I had to leave with the machine to return it. When I got back, of course he's standing there.  So, I drove up to him and informed him that "I don't need you over here, I need you pulling those weeds over there" pointing at the back row.  Your brother can do all of this by himself, as he was doing so yesterday.

The boy made excuses and walked over to the weeds and started pulling them. I had to leave. Upon return after they left? Yeah, very little done - by either one.   Irritating.  I told them I didn't need them tomorrow.....probably won't "need" them again.  I got some work out of them, just not what I'm paying them worth'.  

I took that ridiculous sign out.  They can have it back.  The one that says no hunting, dogs, guns, fishing, alcohol, etc.  They aren't having such signs on my property, period.  I get to determine if there is hunting, dogs, guns, fishing, alcohol, etc.  It's laying there on the ground, they can recover it if they like. The sign wasn't even on their easement-meaning it was on my property that they have no control over. 

  I also cleared out 2 spots for the new sign up front.  I haven't decided where to put it and I don't want to be fooling with weeds if I decide one location is better than another - they are both good locations.  I think I need a second set of eyes to help determine which one is best.  

And because it poured rain over there last night, I got to see this morning if the drainage pipes are working. Yes, they are working but there's 3 more places where I am going to need to install drainage pipe, very much unfortunately.  At $125 per stick, that's an expensive proposition.  But it's clearly in need of it.  It'll just eat away at my driveway - gravel or not - the money spent is the money saved.  I was going to dig out the trenches for them at least while I had the machine - but it was far too muddy in there, no way was I going to destroy the driveway driving that machine over it.  I can probably do that stuff by hand, I guess, I don't really want to spend another near-$400 for a day's worth of that machine just for that.  

That's it, really. I did manage to start Keto yesterday and am on it again today. I think I can get back into it again, just limiting it to chicken, turkey and certain types of fish.  Lots of salad.  I'm at an unhealthy weight and it's time to get serious about shedding it.  

Well, here's to hoping that tomorrow? The power company will finally show up.

G'day. 

 Half decided to go back on the keto diet today. Half because I've been eating rice and potatoes for months now and they are so delicious.  Getting off of the "good" food again isn't going to be an easy task. The motivator is the fact that my belly has grown larger than it's ever been in my adult life.  

I think I'll start out Keto and start researching other kinds of diets. The Mediterranean diet seems to have great appeal to it's followers. 

Of course, no power company yesterday.  I have plenty to do, however and I will be getting about it today - if it doesn't rain.  Not a high chance of it, but it would be a waste of money to rent a machine and then have it start pouring.  You can't level overly wet land, it just doesn't work.  

I also identified yesterday on the fence line on the east side of the property a large swath of area about 100 feet long where I need to take out all the shrubbery and some small trees. This will enable people to park on the main driveway without blocking it. It will also eliminate any potential for scratching the sides of beautiful rigs.  THAT would get me some pretty bad reviews.

Amazing I hadn't seen that before yesterday.  But, my mind is full of stuff and there is still a lot left to go here, I'm working on it one thing at a time.  I'm going out there shortly to check to make sure the light rain yesterday didn't mess my plans for today up. If it did, I will simply get out the chain saw and start working on that driveway instead.  

I feel like I'm getting close, even tho the power isn't installed. IF they come this week - 3 days left in the business work week - then it's all downhill from there. That will be the key to unlocking get the rest of this done and getting it done quickly. It will also give me a fresh dose of motivation.

It's been a hot summer out there and I've really gotten tired of it. It's going to be 90 degrees today, allegedly, even tho it's currently overcast.  

I just really need to get the lots leveled so I can get that grass seed out there. It's going to rain this weekend - supposedly anyway - and that will get that seed growing and hopefully quickly have a nice ground cover of grass where there will be no gravel instead of dirt.

Oh, the 15 foot wide RV parking pads.  I've got all the dimensions of the sites written on paper and I've now got the sites numbered, at least on paper, not at the sites themselves yet.  No sense in doing that until the gravel is installed, I imagine a dozer running over signs I just paid for and that wouldn't set well.  

I asked in an RV owners group about those wider pads.  There wasn't a single negatory on it. They all said the wider the pads, the better. Note that I am not talking about the width of the entire sites, but the pads where they park.  Why, I asked?  Because people put out big rugs and their own tables and chairs and they like it all to be on the pad instead of half on the grass.  They just like it better.  

I've seen them doing this before - the main reasoning is that their awning gets put up and then they can sit in the shade. If they're sitting in the grassy area, unless there are trees, they aren't going to get shade at all.  Makes perfect sense, but I didn't know.  Some even said to go all gravel on your lots. 

No thanks. I've seen lots of pics of all gravel parks, they just look like giant parking lots, very unappealing.  At least to me.  Grass adds a touch of nature to the scenery that gravel certainly doesn't do.  Grass is an integral part of the plan regardless of the hassle of having to keep it cut.  I'll probably spend several days a month cutting grass.  It will be a chore, no doubt, but that's what my original plan was and in that sense, I am not deviating from it. 

I also read one person who said "they will absolutely LOVE it".  This person says their park has NO amenities but GREAT reviews on Google because their parking pads are so wide.  Yup, my amenities are going to be few in number at first.  So hey! That might work for me, because in the beginning? It's going to be a bit spartan beyond walking trails and a doggy park.  

I can adjust my pricing accordingly at first, just to try and get people in there and get some hopefully good reviews going.  I have so many ideas - but the money just isn't there yet and I'm not in the position to get a decent business loan - yet.  I keep telling myself, plug away at it, keep moving, keep on getting things done, you will eventually get there.

And on that note, I was in the local gathering group - just a place where people dump everything from restaurants to eat at to lost dogs to local business attempting to get some people heading their way.  I was scrolling down and a pic grabbed my attention. My  mind thought, that looks like my logo? Is  someone else putting up a business with the same design?

Silly me, lmao.  It IS my pic, they are painting it and it's looking really good! They are using it as an advertisement to attract more customers. That's how I found them in the first place, that group and a pic of a billboard style sign they had made over 20 years ago that was still in very good shape.  Go local! That's what I try to do.

Oh, and picnic tables? Do I really need them to start with? After that discussion about people putting their own tables out, I wondered if picnic tables at every lot makes good business sense on a dwindling money supply, or, perhaps, carve out an area maybe 30X30, put in a large fire pit and also put in some tables near it?  Just a gathering place people can go to socialize if they so desire and cooler weather is coming.  I could even start out with supplying a cord of wood for people to make the fires in it - to start now, not permanent.  

I've got to get creative on a limited budget.  Give as much as I can give for appeal without spending a fortune on it.  I even thought about building an outdoor shower.  I was looking at designs, pretty simple setups that don't need anything but a water supply and a water heater that doesn't need electricity.  Of course, it would need a propane tank to fuel it, but still.  Dunno, just thinking.  There is natural gas running down the street, but to run a line that far back would cost some big bucks, no thanks, not at the moment anyway.  

Well, anyway, off to the races!

G'day. 

 The Tractor Supply nightmare has finally ended.  Unsatisfied with the outcome - which was simply that I ended up going to my home town store and paying $6 more PER BAG for the rye grass seed, I decided to call them one more time.  This time, I spoke with a headquarters manager.

Word salad, excuses, etc was what I heard.  I'm very persistent, however, when it comes to things like this.  Going to a store to pick up an order that I had already paid for and having them tell me the order was thrown into the trash can, so sorry, nothing we can do for you, bye-bye?  

No.  That doesn't work in my world, especially for a company that proclaims it's "great customer service" value and ethic.  I spent half an hour on the phone with this lady who said I had received a gift card via email - which I was never told about nor did I see in my inbox because I was receiving a lot of emails from them on both orders.  I eventually found it going through all the emails - with her on the phone - it was for $50.  

Although that's nice, I didn't ask for neither did I want a gift card, I wanted a discount on the price of the seed since I had gone through quite the ordeal.  More word salad until she became exasperated with me and asked, well what is it that you want me to do?  I want a discount.  I didn't even get the price from the Longview store, they charged me $6 more per bag.

Well, let me call the store and find out if they can do anything.  Why does she have to call the store? This isn't something they empower their headquarters employees to do? Apparently not.  After another lengthy wait, she got back to me and told me the manager of the store in MY town, not the store where this fiasco originally started, said he would give me the seed for $40 per bag, which is over $15 per bag discount.  Now I got happy. Thank you!  I am getting $60 plus back on that purchase plus I have the $50 gift card.  I am rather soured by this experience, but I will spend the gift card money and I know exactly what I need: 2 ratcheting chain binders.  They have them there for $32 (I think? ) a piece.  This will bring that price down to a very  minimal amount and I can start using my trailer to haul the equipment from rental places instead of paying an extra $30 for the trailer rental as well. 

I just couldn't let that thing go, not without trying one more time.  

No power company. Yup, my normal update, lol.

Dozer rental place doesn't do it anymore, told me to try another place. The other place is still under construction and they aren't open for business yet. 

Another place rents them but the cost is a bit high - like really high. $450 per day plus $350 for delivery and pickup. Gag, that's a lot.  I think I'm just going to rent that mini-ex again and just get the area around the pads finished and get a good 50 feet area cleared around them on either side if possible and save the rest of that for some other date.  

But it's getting late in the day for renting one, just wait until tomorrow morning.  I have not been having those boys out there to do anything, I'm good with the trails for now, it's the front area I need to focus on.  

Now, I knew something was off.  I couldn't figure out what it was.  I had all of the lots meticulously measured and marked with stakes.  I didn't mark the pads because the contractor said he would do that after we were discussing it.  

So I was sitting there looking at the pads this morning.  Just something said no, this isn't right in my brain.  I drove the 4 wheeler to the back of the property, got my 300 foot tape measure and also my level - I wanted to see how much of a grade there is on the lots - went back to the pads and start measuring the lots and the pads on the back-in/west side.  The lots are/were 40 feet wide.  Now? 37 feet wide here, 45 feet wide there - measuring from water spigot to water spigot. The pads? that was what was really eating at me.

The contractor said 12 feet wide.  No.  Most of them are wider, some of them are much wider.  Now I understand why there is less room - psychological effect anyway - between the pads.  What anyone needs with a 15 foot wide pad is unknown.  It's just a lot more gravel and waste of usable "grassy" space.  I don't know if I can alter that stuff with a mini-ex.  I am going to contact the contractor and ask him about why they are so wide?  I could maybe see 12 feet wide, I cannot see 15 and wider.  

I'm going to ask in a couple of groups if anyone has wider pads and what the advantage of it is?  I do remember seeing one park owner saying if he had to do it all over again, he would have made the pads 14 feet wide, but his only explanation was that "the campers will appreciate it".  

It's just a little bit interesting that they didn't meet my design specs by clearly set stakes that were easily visible from the inside of a dozer or trackhoe - the two pieces of machinery that were being used for that operation.  I'm not real happy about that and yes, I will ask the contractor directly.  Need to back out there today and measure all of the lots all the way around and the pads and write it all down on paper. I need to number the lots as well so I can reference any lot to the size it is.  

Anyway, that's my day.

Happy Monday!