Sunday - Morning

Much of what I have been writing about for quite a while is related to the business/property and all of the things that have to come together to make it happen.

Is that all I do with my time? Absolutely not.  It's on my mind a lot - probably too much - but it's certainly not all that I do.  The other day, we went up to the square to watch the official light ceremony that starts the season for the "Wonderland of Lights" in this town.  They dress the old courthouse up - pretty large building - with lights all over it and then we all do a countdown standing around it and walaah!  They flip the switch, the lights go on and Christmas season has officially begun!

We had card night 2 nights ago. That was at one of the other people's house.  It didn't go very late, half the people there had started at 3 am to go to Black Friday events.  Around 10:30 it was time to leave.  No problem for me, I tend to start getting sleepy around 10:00 pm on any given night and I'm ready to go to bed.  But we had fun.  It was a wonder that they had wanted to do card night tho, after being out literally all day long and having had started that early in the day!

I take the dog to the property frequently enough on non-business related hiking ventures.  Addler loves it and I enjoy it as well.  

I used to go out to eat probably more than I should. I have curtailed that greatly. It's expensive and it is not necessarily the healthiest food, shows up on the belly.  I've got a pretty good sized belly going right now, lol, I determined last night I would be going back on the diet.  About the time I start inching closer to the 230 pound range, I'm done, it's time to get back on the diet and at least get back down into the 2-teens range.  I haven't been below 200 in quite a while.

I also watch reruns of old shows at night.  Star Trek The Next Generation, Bonanza and The Big Valley to name a few.  There is a new show out called "Scary People" that goes into the lives and the minds  of people that have gone around killing innocents.  It's interesting because most of the names are names anyone that has been around for a while have heard of and probably lived through the reigns of terror. Such as John Wayne Gacey. It's also interesting because they often times have the people that worked those cases trying to solve them commenting on the different phases of the investigations throughout the show.

I also go to church here and there.  Last week was an interesting sermon that touched home. I usually only go if the kids want to go -which they do but on days such as today where they aren't even out of bed yet and it's 10:00 am? Probably not.  This is their last day of Thanksgiving break, they will be back in school tomorrow.  It's good, I suppose, that the oldest had the time off, he got very sick, feverish, head/chest cold, lots of coughing, etc.  He's still coughing and runny nose.  I've been taking zinc to try and ward off any sickness. So far, I actually feel no symptoms whatsoever!  Will it continue that way? I have no idea.  It was bad that the oldest got sick during his break as well. He didn't get to do very much but sit at home and rest.  Not exactly a fun vacation for a child.

I think about the Lord a lot.  I feel like I'm not really where I'm supposed to be to some extent.  But if I weren't here, where should I be?  Maybe that's not it. Perhaps it's more I'm not doing what I should be doing, especially in context of my missionary years.  I still help people - frequently - but I am not going around preaching and telling people about Jesus like I used to.  I dunno, there seems to be so much hate and anger among the citizenry of this great land of ours right now, I believe God is the only thing that is going to change anything.  Most of the people that are being broadcast over the airwaves and the big names in the media and in social media are atheists or agnostic. They do not speak for the majority of the citizens in this nation, IMO.  But people are led  to believe they are speaking for everyone.  

God is greater!

But, I always get back to the business of getting this business - going.  I feel like if I can get it done and going,  a lot of pressure will be taken off of me and I can focus on other things. Such as getting another trucking job and getting some income flowing back in.  Will the RV park succeed? Well I certainly hope so! I've got a lot of money riding on this one!  I think a worst-case scenario with it is that it becomes a park full of long term tenants and I will be making far less on it than I am hoping with having more short term guests coming and going.  

All long-term tenancy would equal gross receipts of $7,350 per month at the rate I am going to charge.  That includes electricity. So you take out electric, water, insurance... all the expenses plus taxes before you get to any profit. From the profit, I have to "pay myself" and pay federal income tax out of that.  Imagine that. I make money that is taxed only to be taxed again to actually get the profits.  This wouldn't bother me so much if the rate of the taxation wasn't so high. 

However.  I intend on charging rate taxes back to the guests.  Most places do not just absorb taxes, you will see on your receipt the cost of an item or service and then the cost of the taxes related to it.  So, now that I think of it, the $7,350 per month wouldn't include any taxes, those would be paid for on every reservation. 

Now, if I had ALL short term and I had the place filled 100% of the time, we are looking at almost 15 grand per month.  It isn't impossible to predict 80% occupancy, many parks are reporting 80% to 100% occupancy at all times. But, this is a new park, number one and it's also going into winter. Snow birds coming from northern states might be traveling through to south Texas or over to Florida, but is there that much of a market right now? I can only find out by opening up the park.

I've already paid up the insurance for an entire year.  I paid up everything related to construction costs, I owe nothing to the contractor/s.  The power is on, the water is on. The power company sent me the first bills. There are 2 bills because of 2 services, which is what I was afraid of.  However, since no power is being used yet? Each bill was only $3.50. I can tell ya I was holding my breath opening up that envelope!

The septic system isn't turned on - but it doesn't need to be yet.  It isn't being used, lol.

So what's left? Grass, install more signs, get some more gravel on the old driveway.  Install wifi system - even if a marginal, cheap system to start with.  I can't really afford a high dollar system right now and it's not a huge priority. Lots of RV'ers have their own internet they take with them everywhere. Starlink, Verizon, ATT, etc.  

I need a riding mower, finish the doggy park fencing and also cutting out roots sticking up.  I will be finishing up the doggy park this week.  I have all the fencing already, I just need to get a couple of gates.  I have to number the lots - easy-peasy and I just bought the numbers, they will be going on the electrical pedestals.  

I'll be talking with the gravel man this week. Going over to his place and seeing what they have. SB2 is nice - but it's expensive and I don't want to pay for it for a shared-use driveway. Shared with the Gas company that refuses to pay for any of it after initially offering it.  I finally got out of the guy a few days ago that he had been "overridden" by higher ups and that is why he canceled the deal.  I have gone over all of their heads since they don't want to discuss anything and have contacted their mother company.  I'm not saying the mother company will actually do anything, but it is the last resort.  

I'm having gravel installed regardless, I can't have a driveway that turns into mud every time it rains.  From the street to the entrance to my park is over 800 feet.  Hence the idea that its' going to be cheap gravel that will serve the purpose. That entire driveway actually needs to be done tho.  I can't have boondocking further back, that idea is off the table as well as tent camping.  Well, I can have those things, just not when it rains.

Yeah, that doesn't work.  I can't say on the website: "Tent camping and boondocking available during dry days only. Any rain in the forecast will implement a cancellation of your reservation, sorry for the inconvenience, have a nice day!".  How much will it cost to run the entire driveway? I have no idea, as I said, I will use cheaper material, but I don't yet know the cost per ton.  It's likely going to be crushed concrete.  That stuff is much cheaper than SB2.  I informed the gas company I would be dumping gravel and sending them a bill for half of it, lol.  

I also need to get the weeds cut down.  Whether I find a place that rents a brush hog setup or have to pay someone to do it, it has to be done.  

There's plenty left to do, is what I'm saying and I'm definitely going to get with it starting tomorrow. Today? I am going to see about building those benches.  Today and tomorrow are supposed to be sunny, so if it dries up enough, I will be dumping grass seed over top of where I have already dumped it.  More rain coming this week.  I will also put in 2 4x4's for the other sign and likely install the rest of the small signs, including the walking trail signs.  

Oh, the gas company. Had the gall to tell me that no one is allowed on the production site.  Lmao.  Sure, buddy, and tell me how I access the rest of the property?  These people have taken hostile tones with me, that's all.  I complained about some of their employee demeanor and they got defensive.  Yeah, whatever. I've been putting up with it for a while now, I'm done with it.  The part I am really not liking is the speeding down the driveway part.  

I really need to get some help with some of this stuff, but I dismissed the 2 boys after they ran the trailer into the new shed and didn't bother to say anything about it. Bye!  I don't know if they thought they were going to get away with it or what, but I'm stuck with the bill if I want to get it fixed.  It's not bad enough that it is causing any leaks and the wood framing on the inside wasn't damaged, so it's not going to be fixed right now.  

I also need to get the 4 wheeler fired up and take the trailer along the trails and clean up.  That shouldn't take but a few hours.  I need those walking trails ready to go!  Oh, and I want to take a video after cleaning up of the trails while walking them so potential visitors can see what they will be getting if they stay at my place and they do, indeed, like walking.  

Now, that all sounds like a lot, and indeed it is.  But, I'll get it done. Not like I have a choice in the matter. I've dumped the money into this venture, it's time to finish it up and get it rolling..

Happy Sunday. 

 Well. 

It's raining and has been raining all day long.  No surprise there, but I went over to the property anyway to take some pics.  I had posted a question for RV'ers on an RV forum, the angle of the pic I posted made it look like the lots were very small.  Fortunately, I didn't post the name of the park or even where it's located, tho I did reply to a few comments from people who like it and wondered where it was.  

Anyway, a good pic can generate business. A bad pic can turn people away.  It was a good to see all the negative comments - it was probably 65% positive and the rest were negative to varying degrees, including people engaging in name calling and insults for unknown reasons.  

Even more fortunately, the group is pretty well moderated and without my asking, those comments were deleted.  I definitely remain civil and upbeat on posts like that, these are potential, future customers. Or people that might direct others to my place in the future if they saw it, liked it and said, wow, this is great!  

To that end, I want to clean up the walking trails and take a video while walking it. Probably just a "quiet" video where I'm not really saying much of anything, but people can get an idea of what these trails are like  Because if you looked at the RV park portion pictures and didn't see the walking trails, you'd be left thinking it all looks like that.  There will definitely be a page on the site devoted to a video and pictures of the trails.  I kind of think I need an actual camera for that, my iphone camera really doesn't do pics or videos justice, I just use it because it's what I have.  

In fact, cyber monday is coming up, I bet I could score a decent camera for a good price.  Nothing fancy, just something that puts out quality photos and videos.  I'm really trying not to spend money on things right now, but this seems something that would be worth spending the money on.  

I posted the new pics on that forum but I haven't had anyone respond to it.  People tend to see what they want to see.  It's ok, I know the park won't be appealing to everyone, that's fine. I just need enough people to like what they see and fortunately, a good number of people on that post said it looks nice and they would stop if they are ever coming through there.  Yes, please do!  

From that post, I decided that all the west side lots will have fire rings at the rear of the lot instead of in the middle and some of the lots will have picnic tables - but definitely not all of them.  The reason not all of them is finances.  I don't need to be spending close to 2 grand on picnic tables right now.  I'll probably get 7 of them and call it a day.  I won't be putting fire rings on all of the pull through lots - not because of finances but because there probably isn't enough room to keep away from neighboring lots.

What I really want to do is get 2 rv trailers out there parked on lots next to each other and take a gazillion photos of it so I can have posted online what it's going to look like.  After the grass grows, I will be posting local facebook groups to see if there is anyone who could pull their rig out there for a bit of money - not too much but enough to say okay, this is worth the 2 hours it's going to take me to do this - and get some "real" pics up.  

So, I'm going to order the fire rings now that I know how many I need and I'm going to go to Lowe's and see if they'll cut me a deal for their picnic tables that are currently boxed, sitting out in the rain and potentially warping.  Wood tends to warp when it's not all fastened together, lol.  They actually raised the price of those tables that have been sitting out there forever - so inflation affects purchases that were made before the inflation hit? lol

I'm thinking I will build the bigger firepit with blocks for the social area (versus buying a premade steel setup).   I need to get really busy here, now that December is approaching and I am not ready to open.  However, I have determined that it's just not going to happen what with the grass and how long it takes to grow.  I'm going to plan the next coming days and get as much done as I can.  Monday I'll be out there dumping a lot more grass seed. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and clear as well as Monday. By Monday, hopefully I can walk on the soil without sinking into it!  There is a chance of rain the rest of the week - really hoping it will rain. Even tho that will hamper getting much of anything else done, it needs to happen.  

Well, back to campground software. I have run into a glitch that I need help with from the owner.  

 Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a wonderful day!

It really is, even tho I had a bit of a mishap today, lol.

Yeah, I went over to the property as is my want on any given day - but it's raining. It's been raining.

The first sign was driving to the back of the property in order to drop the trailer. When trying to back out beside the trailer, the SUV slid sideways and came very close to hitting the trailer.

I pulled forward and angled the SUV much farther away and made it out of there - at least.

After that? Well, I was trying to get out of the rear of the property and yes, the thing sank in the very soft ground and I was stuck. It was raining and I was getting wet and muddy attempting to dig the thing out and giving "rocking room" to go back and forth.

The ground just laughed at me. Oh? You think you are going somewhere? I really tried, lol, for quite a while before I caved.  Taylor sent me a photo of our adventure last night - the photo she got from the Longview News Journal.  My face and the 7 year old's were on top of the front page! I had the boy on my shoulders so he could see better - the lighting ceremony at the town square. 

They put unknown amounts of lights on that building - a LOT of them - and then they have an official lighting ceremony. Lots of people out there! It was fun.  Well, I'm standing there with this boy on my shoulders and Taylor comes up and taps me on the shoulder.  This guy wants to get a pic of y'all. 

Okay? After he took his pic, I asked who he was? 

Anyway, I mean, that's the "premiere" news outlet for this entire area - there is on over in Shreveport that covers our town as well - but that was great.  

It's been great being off the road. Yes, I know I groan and complain about stuff related to the business, but that's really coming to a close.  Well I hope anyway. Regardless of getting stuck, I saw alot of that seed I planted 2 weeks ago popped up! Yes!! For the win!  It isn't suppose to rain tomorrow, I'm going to go out there and reseed over top of all of it, all 14 lots.  

I might do it a third time, especially now that I've found that seed for $37 per bag! I'm so happy. It's getting close. I spent quite a while yesterday with the campground software dude on the phone, he took over my computer and we set up a good chunk of it. He left me with more to go, yes, but hopefully I can figure it out. Well, I'm going to have to figure it out, lol, it's my campground I need to know how this stuff works! 

Looks folks, I can't make excuses for my behavior, I was really getting irritated, down and out with this business proposition. I've spent a  lot of money on it and I still have nothing to show for it.  I still have more money to spend on it!  Fire pits, a couple of picnic tables, wifi and definitely going to have to spend the money on that old driveway to rehab it with fresh gravel. 

We're probably talking 5 grand worth of stuff left to go, maybe a little more? I dunno, but it's down to the wire.  Insurance kicks in on the 1st and if I ain't going on the first, I want it as close as possible! Let's do this!  

I'm doing nothing with anything related to the property today, sans the visit I took over there to see about the grass seed growing - and getting stuck lol.  It's a good day.

 Well that wasn't easy. I don't even know how to input stuff on half of that website. 

I'm going to need some help tomorrow with the setup, for I have no idea how you get some of the fields to allow you to input info in them.

I can tell ya, I tried lol. That's the campsite software and it's got some quirks.  I'll learn it eventually. There are seemingly endless videos one can watch to learn the stuff. All well and fine, but I want the initial setup up and running tomorrow. I don't want people to be able to use it - yet - I am not open.  I won't even allow future reservations. I definitely intend on opening up, but I really don't know if we're doing a December 1 start.

The reason being - and it's really all down to this right now - is the lack of grass.  It's all just gravel and dirt with a bit of grass thrown in.  I don't wonder if it'll take a month to get a nice covering of it.  I mean, I could open up with dirt, but I suspect people wouldn't much care for it and since it's the rainy season, it's going to get muddy. 

There are some things I won't have for the start up, but I think grass and first impressions are pretty important.  It's why I want all of those weeds mowed down regardless of what I have to do to make that happen.  

I'm working on this stuff, one day at a time and usually more than one project at a time.  

I'm going to set a date for finishing the doggy park and get it done - on that date.  Tomorrow won't be it, I'm supposed to be on the phone at 9:00 am and then the developer is going to link into my computer - he can actually go through my computer and set it all up.  It's cloud based so I am allegedly able to access what's on this computer from other devices. 

We shall find out.  

I think I will get everything situated in the back of the house including moving the boat and attempt to start on those benches tomorrow.  The kid is still sick - tho mommy only has one appointment in the morning tomorrow and that's it.  

Anyway, I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit today in reality.

G'day

 So, yesterday, the boy was sick with fever and hacking his lungs out.

Now, his fever has subsided but now he's puking and hasn't eaten a thing all day long.  This is some nasty stuff, whatever it is.  I'm wondering if he has RSV.  Hmm, well the symptoms don't include throwing up, so I dunno.  Whatever it is, he is not a happy camper and wants me to sit with him. He always wants me to sit with him, but I have 2 problems with that.  

1.  I am currently awaiting a call from the campground software guy to do the install.  I'm going to get this over and done with. I've been watching instructional videos on how to use the software - this is a lot to it.

2.  I don't want to get sick. This would be and incredibly bad time for me to get sick.  I have a lot left to do and my health is too important to me, especially right now, to be getting too close to him. It is possible I already have it and it's doing it's number incubating and about to explode, who knows, but I am not knowingly doing things to get myself into the situation he is in.

I am also taking zinc, vitamin c, multivitamins and other stuff to combat this thing before it even starts.  

I got the lumber to build the benches.  I still have a lot to do, folks, it's not like getting the gravel was easy-street to opening. It was just the primer to get my @$$ even more in gear and continue working until I have everything I can get done? Done.  

I was correct about the pad length of the west side pads.  They are all shorter than 65 feet.  Hindsight, I should have marked the sites again.  What I ended up with is the east side, pull-through sites at well over the 70 foot length, up to 80 feet (there is literally no use for a site that long, there are very few rigs that are pulling trains around, what I like to call them anyway, super long rigs pulling big trailers), but I can market it I guess. Might as well, if it's available, put it to use. Not many places have the super-long sites.  

So I lost footage on the west side lots to the over-long east side sites. 

Yes, this problem can be remedied. I have plenty of room to put even more gravel behind what is already there on the west side sites.  Could easily add 10 feet to them, most of them I could add 30 feet.  Some have trees behind them but who cares.  Look, most of them are 55 feet - that is plenty long enough for most regular sized rigs.  

++++++++++++++++++++

They are building my campground software site and will have it completed this afternoon. This is, of course, good news. He will go over it with me tomorrow to sort out the details.  

I have the lumber.  I want to get busy with that, but I have to move the boat.  It's kind of in the way of doing any work like that. There is a shed out back, but it's full of stuff and I can't do anything in there. 

Tomorrow I will likely go to the property and start putting up the doggy park fencing. And installing the posts for the "RV Park Entrance" with the arrow for the front near the main sign.  

That is, if I don't get sick. These boys get sick, I almost always get whatever they have. It sucks, I don't like it, it really affects me quite negatively.  

So here we go. The owner of the software company is sending me the link, I get it started, I try to set it up, whatever I can't do he finishes it up for me tomorrow.  

 I didn't hear any rain last night.  But looking out the window this morning, everything was wet.  Having no idea whether they were out there doing the gravel install or not, I went and woke the boys up, they got dressed, I got ready to go. 

It's Thanksgiving holiday week, they are off school the entire week.  It didn't sound too good with the older boy coughing pretty good and telling me he didn't feel good, but I at least needed to get out there and see if the contractor's crew was out there.  

I just didn't know what I would see when I got there, but it didn't appear as if it had rained too much. Sure enough, turning onto the driveway to my property, there they were.  The large dozer was sitting in the driveway and a Bobcat was brought out as well.  

There were two guys, one was the operator the other a foreman.  The operator is a real nice guy, really laid back. The other guy I've seen a few times before, my word for him would be unfriendly.  But whatever, I don't need them to be my best friends, I just need the work done. I was chatting with the operator when a truck pulled in the driveway.  10 wheeler - bobtail truck, regular old dump truck.  

He came down, dumped the load and left, when another one and then another came in.  3 trucks were running back and forth all day long from my property to the place where they were getting the rock.  Something like 6 miles away.  Maybe 7.  

I asked the dozer operator if he would push down all of those posts that used to hold up the gate.  The gate, as previously mentioned, is useless now and the gas company knew it would be useless after seeing how my new driveway bypassed the gate. That wasn't my design, actually, it was the contractor's.  I had laid out the stakes for all of the lots and the width of the driveway, but the ends of the driveway?  "I'll leave at your discretion" was my comment to the contractor who said sure.

Well, I was very pleased, actually, with the end result and how he had made the driveway but I also figured the gas operator wouldn't be real happy with it - and they weren't, hence they put those panels all the way around their tanks and their wellhead.  

I had to take videos and pics.  I wanted this day to be memorialized if you will. Something I can look at in the future and say, yes, this is the day when everything actually started to materialize into a real, running business.  

We left.  Boys were hungry, took them to IHOP for breakfast.  They wanted to go back to the property, but I wanted to go home and get my computer, I planned on staying out at the property longer and I wanted my computer with me in case I decided to install the new campground software.  But I realized I would have to do that on the phone with the company rep and that wouldn't be possible with those boys around.  Canned that idea. The boys insisted on going for a hike in the back of the property, so I obliged them.

Back to the front to watch more of the operation going on, the oldest was coughing now.  Well, coughing more now.  We had been out there several hours at that point, I decided I best get him home and take his temp and get him out of the cold.  We no more got into the house and he basically was toast.  He got very warm, very quickly and was up to 100.6 temp.  20 minutes later he was almost to 102 and hacking - very unpleasant sounding hacking.  Like, really not so much fun stuff.  

We just got past this last sickness and here we are again. Now? There is some RSV I think it's called cold going around that is basically a normal cold but it's sending kids and older people to the hospital.  I can only hope this doesn't happen with him or his brother, who probably will come down with it as well. And me?  I tried to keep my distance from him as much as possible today. And downing zinc, Vitamin C and other stuff.  

I hung out the rest of the afternoon at home, I wasn't about to take him back out the way he was looking and feeling. But, when mom got home I did go back to the property and it looked pretty well finished. My only thought was about the west side, back-in lots. They don't look like they are 65 feet long.  I'm going to have to measure it tomorrow. My 300 foot tape measure finally gave up the ghost.  I got almost 2 years of use out of it, I can't really complain.  I don't know if I need another one that long, but I do need something at least 100 feet long.  

I feel like a big weight has been taken off of my shoulders today.  Yes, there is still plenty to do before opening day, quite a lot actually, but it's all "small" stuff.  Ok, the campground software might be a pain, I don't know but I will work through it - probably tomorrow - and get it done.  Putting up the rest of the signs.  Working more on Quick books.  

I am going to wait on buying several hoses, it's supposed to rain 3 days in a row this week, if that happens, that should be enough to get all of that seed sprouting.  Well I don't know.  I can't afford to wait for grass to grow, I need it growing now.  I may just go ahead and get a couple of hoses and just have to go through the pain of moving them 7 times to get everything watered. It's not supposed to rain until Thursday and I don't want to wait that long.  

I may very well have to postpone opening day from the 1st until whenever - soon - but until the grass is going well enough to have everything green and looking decent.  Well, take that back.  I can't be going out there tomorrow with a sick boy, I'll just wait until Thursday - Thanksgiving Day is showing a 98% chance of rain. I hope so because I don't think I'm going to spend Thanksgiving at the property watering the ground.  

If nothing else, tho, I can go to Lowe's quick tomorrow and get the materials to build those benches.  I can do that work at the house and just transport them over to the property when I'm done.  James has a miter saw and I want to use that for nice, clean, straight cuts.  Which means I best be looking at a video again tonight to watch again how to build these simple but nice-enough benches.  Nothing fancy here, folks, just a place to sit around a fire. If people want to socialize, there it will be.  I'll have a cord of wood delivered and have it stacked near where the fire is going to be.  This will be a freebie, at least to start with.  Cornhole is also a freebie and wouldn't mind getting some horseshoe pits going.  

And whatever else I can find that is outdoorsy in nature and appealing.  I think the larger fire pit would be nice just because it's getting into winter and the temps have definitely dipped.

Anyway, the dozer operator did, indeed, remove all of those posts.  I put the panel in the back next to the gas operation tanks - if they want it back, they can have it.  I have no need for it but even if I did, it's not really mine and I don't want to be accused of stealing something.  This saved me a lot of work - I would have had to cut those posts down with a chainsaw and there would be a bit sticking out of the ground. The dozer just removed them entirely, lol.

Oh, and they dumped gravel into that area along the old driveway that was a mud pit. I would have preferred they dump dirt in there first and then gravel.  I think that would have worked better.  I do think I will need a small machine out there when I get the gravel dumped for the old driveway.  I watched them doing it today and tho the truck can dump it while driving, it's far from and exacting science.  The operator today did agree 2 inches would be enough, at least.  Let's try to keep the costs down at this point.  It will be hard to part with 28k for that gravel, but what was I supposed to do?  

There was nothing else.  I couldn't get the gravel as cheap as the contractor did and I know I would have gotten higher bids from everyone else around.  That's just the nature of this contractor, he's fair and probably the best around. He just doesn't like to communicate.  Apparently his phone rings constantly all day long.  I mean, non stop and then the texts.  Seems like he needs to delegate some responsibility and have someone else help him handling that stuff?  

Don't know, I do know that the only thing really left is to get the septic system running. It's all hooked up, it just needs to be turned on once - stuff - starts getting dumped into it lol.  

Well that's it. It's been a long day and there are many more long days ahead of me before I can open up this thing and get it going. 

But, it's all good!

 So. The boys wanted to go to church this morning.

I started this by asking the oldest quite a while back if he wanted to go with.  The first visit he didn't much care for. Well, not until we got home and he had a couple of days to process it.  Then he decided he wanted to go again.  Which we never found time for or getting out of bed late on Sundays. 

Today, he wanted to go again and the youngest wanted to go as well.  They have this giant, indoor playland thing like you would find at McDonalds with those tubes you crawl through - but this tube setup is far larger than the thing you would see at McDonalds (or do they still have those?).  

From floor to very high ceiling and from one side of the building to the other.  Anyway, that is pretty much why they like to go. Anyway, we went - but they had changed the start time from 10:30 to 11:00 am.  

I decided to go take a look at the property.  I normally go everyday, but I missed yesterday as we were busy all day long.  It is nice to take a break from all of that stuff and even thinking about it, which is what happened yesterday.  The property is a 3 minute drive from the church and we were 40 minutes early for church.

When we got over there, I was surprised to see a bulldozer sitting there. It's 500 feet back to where it was sitting from the roadway but it was quite easily seen from the street.  We drove back and I was even more surprised that they had already realigned the 3 pipes that needed moved and had graded the driveway and the pads once again.  

It was looking nice.  the only thing I disagree with is the one that was sitting up too high.  They only needed lower it, not move the position from where it was at.  I can see how they came to the conclusion of where to place the end where the water goes through. The water overflows right there and in reality, there needed to be 2 openings.  

I'm going to have to fix that, I can guarantee there will be a small lake over where the pipe used to end. It really only needed to be lowered maybe 2 or 3 inches.....

Oh well. It doesn't have to be done to put in the gravel.  I can work around the gravel and would have done so anyway.  Looks like they just cut off longer pieces of pipe I had sticking out on other pads to compensate for the repositioning.  I purposely left the pipes laying well into the intended grass areas to be sure that wherever they wanted to put gravel, the ends of my pipes would not end up being covered up.

Come back and cut them to size after they are done and put in these small, pre-made concrete pads they make to put under where water drips - it keeps the soil from eroding.  I am going to put those under the water outlets for the RV's as well.  It's all of this little stuff that I didn't know I would need that keeps adding up to a lot of money.  I don't know how much he is going to charge to realign those 3 pipes, he didn't quote me on that.  It needed to be done, that's all I know.  

It appears as though I am going to have to buy several garden hoses with the lawn sprinklers. It's not raining enough to grow the grass seed. It's going to be a pain to move hoses around from one site to another, I need the grass, yes, but I don't need 14 hoses.  Like everything else nowadays, garden hoses aren't cheap and I can see getting maybe 4 of them and just having to spend a lot of time out there dealing with it.  

The grass is a dealbreaker, I have to have it and I will do whatever I have to do to get it in there.  

I guess they left the dozer to spread the gravel - tomorrow.  Yes, since they got all of that dirt stuff done, they should be having a lot of truckloads of material brought out tomorrow and spreading it.  This is the last major expense and major item on the checklist that needs to be done. The rest is small stuff comparatively speaking, tho this software business is for the birds.  If I could afford it, I would just have an accountant take care of my books.

I identified a lot more stuff I need to do so tomorrow, whether they are out there or not, I'm definitely going to be out there.  I've got alot of roots sticking up out of the ground I need to cut out.  I'm going to have to order the material to cover the old driveway.  I will need extra truckloads for the boondocking sites and the portion of the driveway that needs repaired.  I need to install 2 4x4's for the other sign for the front.  I'll hopefully see the finished product tomorrow with the gravel in place and see if there is room for picnic tables and fire rings. Fire rings will definitely be put in place, picnic tables may take the backseat for now.  

The reason is the price of those things keeps going up and I don't necessarily think I have to have them out there. Fire rings, yes and much cheaper, picnic tables no and no worries.  

I am also going to buy the wood to build 3 or 4, 8 foot long bench seats and build a fire ring with stones for the socializing area.  I haven't quite definitely decided where to put it.  I thought I knew but I changed my mind because I want to allow the 2 boondocking sites and the fire pit would have created a conflict.  They both need to go in the back. Boondockers will be making noise with generators and people using the social area will be making noise having their fun.

I'm referring to after the 10:00 pm noise curfew.  Quiet hours exist at every RV park I've looked at and they are already on my website posted from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am.  

I've got a lot to do, to end this.  I've had a lot to do all along, just taking one step at a time.  We got the sign up today and I don't think I'm going to do anything else out there today.  A day of rest will be nice.

Happy Sunday

 Friday - morning

I cold day in northeast texas, it's 8:30 am and it's still only 32 degrees outside.

Now, I'm not complaining.  It's sunny, the temp will come up over the next few hours and goodbye to that drastic, hot summer. It's funny how we complain how hot it is and then we complain how freezing cold it is!  Yup, I've done it too, just not today. I guess the only complaint today was the temperature of my room when I got out of bed this morning. If it was 50 degrees in here I wouldn't believe it.  More like in the 40's.

This bedroom is an add-on - used to be a carport.  Whoever added it on did a poor job of getting the central AC and heat in here. There is hardly any flow coming out of the vent and if I want it warm in here, I have to turn on my large space heater and even then, it takes a couple of hours to bring it to warm feeling in here. 

Well, as I learned growing up, you can always add layers of clothing.  I just don't like to waste electricity all night long on heat that I don't need when considering the fact that I am covered up with blankets in bed. 

Anyway, we are shooting for Monday to do the rest of the work out there and - well I don't know if he's including the gravel in that equation.  I certainly hope so - they get out there early, they can have that work done in a couple of hours at most and then have the trucks bring in the gravel.  But, that's the way I think, this dude? Who knows.  

I'm going out there early Monday, that's what I can say.  See if they are out there and make sure they are doing everything I wanted to get done.  

In other news, there are numerous other RV parks in this area.  One of them always comes to the top of the list when Googling Rv parks and I checked on them yesterday. I busted out laughing. They had stolen my web designer's ideas and implemented them on THEIR page!  All of a sudden, they have a motorcoach and a travel trailer on the front page and a group of 4 people - 2 couples - that are sitting out there having a BBQ.  They also put in the exact same google search map showing where their park is as my web designer put on mine.  

I'd like to send them a bill for half the costs of the ideas, lmao.  My site jumped up to page 3 of search results overnight.  Remember, it started out on page 7, I think it was.  It's also jumped up on the first page where it shows all the RV parks listed.  This competitor stealing ideas also posted their pricing on the front page, an apparent attempt to show they are going to be cheaper than mine.  Yes, well I am not going to be operating a junky park with dirt roads and overgrown grass with cement slabs that look like they needed cleaned years ago.

Or have them so crammed together you can hear your neighbors eating dinner inside their rig with their doors closed.  

I do wonder about opening in what will be getting close to the dead of winter, but I'm not going to just wait  until Spring.  It costs me nothing more to open and I have already paid the insurance up for a year, which starts on December 1st.  I figure there might be the adventurous crowd that will want to go camping as well. 

I've gone snow camping and extreme cold camping. The part about camping like that that isn't so precious is when it's time to get up in the morning, it's 20 degrees outside and you know you aren't going to be able to warm up until you get a solid campfire going.  

Maria came over yesterday with her new roommate.  He apparently has money as he's retired and staying with her until he finds a property to buy that he can build a house on.  He has a dog, Maria has 2 dogs and Addler was out there as well. Addler and her dogs used to live together, to it wasn't surprising after all that time that they hit it right up and no real fussing.  The new dog wasn't particularly hostile either.  

We walked the entire circumference of the trail.  She had never been and just wanted to take a look.  She was impressed and complimented the entire layout.  Thank you! I think it's pretty nice and I am hoping the trails well help sell the place as a quasi-destination spot.  I'd love to be able to buy some of the land behind my property at the rear.  It's undeveloped land, forest I should say.  An extra 10 acres would be very nice back there.  No, the land isn't for sale and even if it were, I don't have the money for it.  

Some day, tho, I would love to be able to expand in one direction or another.  Another 10 acres back there would open up huge possibilities for a lake and cabins.  

Anyway, sticking to the here and now- today? I always go over there whether I intend on doing anything or not.  I will be checking the grass seed I planted, I have no intention of planting the seed I just bought until I can see there are several days or even a week worth of rain coming. I'm just hoping what I have done - takes - because it's basically the entire RV park section that I dumped seed on.  

Today, I am hoping to get a demo of the campground software - but really - I just want to upgrade to the real thing and get this ball rolling.

With that?

G'day.  

Thursday, morning. 

I got up early to see Taylor and the kids off. Taylor got a new espresso machine and wasn't sure last night if she would have time to make a cup since she deals with the boys in the morning.  But, she had it going and had her own cuppa before she left.  

Yesterday.  Getting frustrated with this rye grass seed situation and not being able to find any.  I went to Tractor Supply to see for myself if they had any that came in with their weekly shipment. No, the emphatic answer.  Lowe's - nothing but way over-priced 25 pound bags.  I wasn't going to pay that much for grass seed, sorry, but no thanks. 

I had already checked around.  Buchanan's - call them, the thought came into my head. It says it's a "Seed and Feed" store, but what you see going in and out of there are ranchers and farmers.  Stuff related mostly to horses and cows.  There are a lot of horses and cows in this area, lol.

The dude on the other end of the phone said yes, we have 50 pound bags for $37.  What? Did I just hear you wrong? $37 per 50 pound bag?  Yes, but we only have 5 or 6 bags left right now, we're waiting on another shipment.  Yup.  Got the trailer, went over there and bought 6 bags. By the time I got there -several hours later - they had already received their shipment and a lot more of it.

The amazing part? This is the exact same brand and seed that Tractor Supply is selling for $54.95.  The man was shocked.  I agreed, it's just grass seed!  Just another example of corporate greed. When another company can sell it $17 less and still make a profit, there is greed going on there. Lowe's even worse at $65, tho a different brand. 

Well, I've got that going this morning, just taking it  over to the property, putting it in the shed and dropping the trailer.  I've got to go to the other's kid's school this morning.  He also wants McDonald's Happy Meal (versus the tragedy they call a Thanksgiving dinner served at the school), so I will oblige him since I did the same for his older brother on Tuesday.  

Their lunch time is 10:00 am. I asked him this morning, is this your normal lunch time? Yes!  That's early!  That's more like late breakfast or brunch!  

I dunno, but I'm going to check the soil again over there this morning.  It rained a long time on Monday and it really saturated the soil.  I'm afraid that nothing is going to get done until next week - and there is a chance of rain every day next week.  This is going to seriously jeopardize any notion of opening on December 1st.  

No worries, I guess, it will start up when it starts up.  I was originally hoping to get going the middle of this month, but that obviously isn't happening.  I mean, it may actually be that it will not happen until well into December and tho it isn't what I want, it will just have to do.  

I think I am going to make this blog "public", ie: create an actual website for it and drive a few more visitors.  I wouldn't mind getting some minds commenting on some of this stuff, perhaps people that are in business could give some advice.  

G'day. 

It's 9:00 am and it's 40 degrees outside. Winter is officially here? 

I dunno but I just spent an hour doing "card compliance" - because I am going to be able to accept credit card payments on-site (either for a spot or for firewood or whatever) - I had to go through a very extensive list of questions specifically pointed at security and what I will do with any information once it's used. Get rid of it, frankly. I don't want to keep people's credit card information and it will only be input through the system - if Cardpointe stores it, that's on them.  

What a pain.  I get that they want users to do specific things when manually taking a card but my goodness.  Well, anyway, that is over with.  I don't know what the next step is.  The campground software person didn't really specify that- yet.  I'll be sending an email today asking when/how we are going to upload the actual software to the website.  I think that rep has to work with my web designer to get that done.  I know I will have nothing to do with it - because I know nothing about how that works and frankly, I don't want to learn.  It's a one-time deal.

I have the contractor nailed down to call or text me when he's (allegedly) heading over there today.  Specific things I would like them to do that I just don't want to continue to fool with. I did my best job, saved a ton of money and will pay for the rest.  I could probably fix the things that need fixing, but I feel like at $400 per day to rent the machine, I'm better off having an expert do it and it won't cost much more than that. Maybe a grand I'm thinking to do what I need done, which really isn't that much for an expert using a machine.  A couple of hours and they would be finished.  This way, the job is done right, we don't put down 28k worth of rock and then find out we have to move some of it to facilitate a repair that should have been done in the first place.

I have an electrician coming next week to see about hooking the shed up with power.  I'm not going to fool with high voltage under ground lines.  I'm good with circuit breaker panels and running line in the shed itself, but I have no experience with these much larger lines and how to attach to them, I'll leave that to an expert.  Of course, the expert isn't going to be cheap considering he'll have to dig down to the line and dig a trench to the shed. 

BUT, from where the line ends to the shed is maybe 40 feet.  It'll still cost a couple thousand dollars I'm guessing.  Once I get a quote I can decide what to do.  A couple of washers and dryers would really help getting people in there.  People don't want to go sit at a laundromat.  They'd rather take it to your place, load the machines, come back in an hour, repeat process.  I just should have had this included in the cost of running the line - but - I didn't know when I was going to get a shed or where I was going to place it.  

Future reference? Yes, figure out where it's going to go and just have a line run to that vicinity with a box sticking up out of the ground, same for sewer and water.  

Right now? Well, after this, I'm heading over there.  See how it is drying up and cut down that big tree and whatever else I can get done over there.  Oh and see if any of that seed I put down last week is sprouting.  The seed I just put down 2 days ago obviously isn't going to be sprouting quite yet. OH! And go to Tractor supply this afternoon to see if they did, indeed, get in a pallet of grass seed.

Off to the races. 

 3 draft blog entries just sitting there lol.

It rained all afternoon yesterday. I went over there twice, identified more problems - mostly it's just leveling the ground so the water can flow downhill without pooling up.  I was thinking of renting the roller they have at the local rental place.  It would flatten/smooth out the ground and eliminate most of those problems.  

The contractor says I need to fix a storm drain issue before they dump gravel. Great, but that's a quick fix and it won't hold them up.  It will be a couple of days drying before they are going to come out. In fact, I would suspect if they are coming this week, it will be Friday.  That gives 3 full days to dry including today.  Very low percentage chance of rain, I'm hoping this time it's a go. 

Wednesday/tomorrow afternoon Tractor Supply allegedly getting a truckload in and on that truck a pallet of grass seed. Yup, I'll be over there getting at least 4, 50-pound bags.  Maybe 5 since seed is in short supply in this entire region - and I don't just mean at Tractor Supply. Yes, I looked up all the Tractor Supplies in a - 70 mile? - radius, only one said they had it but after calling them? "We don't have any grass seed here".  A 40 mile drive for nothing would have been a bit frustrating.  

I got the stands to hold up my new signs - but I don't think I'll put those in until after the gravel install. Won't take half an hour to do it and there is no sense in risking having new signs run over by a Bobcat. 

I have also determined to have the driveway done.  I don't know when yet.  Before the 1st, obviously, but I want everything to dry out first.  Actually, since it's an existing driveway and there is already a thin layer of gravel down - dirt tho in some spots - it shouldn't have to completely dry out.  I could have it dumped and hope that it will spread nicely - and if not, just go ahead and rent a small tractor with a box grader attachment on the rear.  

It isn't a Bobcat but it is $150 per day cheaper and I don't have to have a bobcat to effectively spread the gravel.  

I'm going to send a bill to the oil and gas company.  They will probably laugh, but whatever.  There will be record of me doing something about "their" driveway that they refuse to maintain beyond having a giant bush hog coming through attempting to do work that only chainsaws or perhaps a trackhoe could do. 

The 25 year old I had out for a couple of weeks ran the trailer into my brand new shed.  There is no other explanation.  One of the fenders on the trailer has been ripped out and the damage on the shed is that same height - and the fact there is no reason for any "intruder" to have been driving on that portion of the property. 

It was no wonder when he came the final time to our house to get his pay that he gave me a look and literally ran off.  It will probably cost a thousand dollars to fix that damage.  I can leave it for now - it's not open to the elements and it's not visible from the driveway, I just don't want to leave it like that.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to get done today.  I could get busy with the chain saw, there isn't anything I can do in the wet mud of the driveway.  The 7 year old's school is having Thanksgiving dinner today and I'm going to that per the kid' request.  He reminded me last night. "Are you still going to come tomorrow?"  Well of course I am, I wouldn't intentionally let him down like that.  After that, I may very well go over there and cut down a large tree on the driveway that's been needing to come down and maybe do some raking.  

I wouldn't mind going and getting some hard rubber boots to be able to walk in mud and water without getting my feet wet.  Not sure who in town might sell those, but Walmart and Tractor Supply would be good starts.

And - the web designer went to town on my website over the weekend.  He added as much stuff as we can right now without having the campground software in place.  I did the phone interview for card processing yesterday, they said up to 5 business days.   So I have to wait on that approval before movin on to having the software released and having the web designer install it on the site.  

To date, a Google search on a desktop shows my park on the 5th page now instead of the 6th.  The effect of what the web designer should move it well up in the next coming days.  

So wifi.  Gag.  Well, there are 2 relatively cheap options, at least for regular customers, I don't know about business. I'll be going to both places to see if there is anyone there that is knowledgeable about setting up wifi for 14 spots.  I don't need it, I have Verizon and it works ine over there.  I don't want to spend a lot of money on it because really, most people should have their own wifi they take with them.  Still, too many people complain about a park not having wifi - but they complain even more bitterly about a park that has wifi but poor reception or not enough bandwidth. 

It's kind of a no win situation as far as I can see it, but I will provide a cheaper alternative.  Waiting til a week before opening day, I see no reason to start up a service I won't be using for 3 weeks.  Well, 2 weeks? lol I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but that's what I'm working towards.  It's between T-Mobile and Boost.  Boost is 2 towns over to go talk to anyone, tho, T-Mobile is in town.

I'm doing the work that needs to be done in a time frame that I'm hoping will get this thing going soon. 

That's about it.  

It's not really all that shocking that the Senate may be controlled by Dems once again.  Dems have also made gains in the House race, it's anyone's guess really who is going to take control of the House - despite what the media may have to say about it. 

Citizens will get what they voted for.  From what I have been seeing for the last couple of years? What the want is what they have been spoon fed by legacy media outlets and all the rest of the liberal/progressive propaganda that is endlessly being disseminated.  Arguing with them is pointless. This new brand of socialism will work, they all proclaim in unison. 

When asked why, they have no rational answers.  They resort to emotional outbursts and lambast the person asking the question (otherwise known as an ad-hominem attack) instead of going down a list, point by point, how this version of it will work versus the seemingly countless versions that have been tried throughout history, all of which have failed - not a single example can anyone point out without accompany human suffering.  

They'll have to get rid of the Constitution to realize their ultimate goal.  Or, pack the SCOTUS with enough liberal, activist judges who are more interested in moving progressive goals than truthful interpretation of the document. 

I can actually see the day where living in some foreign nation will be more appealing than staying here in the U.S.A. 

Just musing about this election.  The Senate race is at 49-49 with only 2 seats left.  The House is 211 Rep - 201 Dem with 23 open seats left to be determined.  Now, the Senate even as it currently stands would have to still deal with Republicans with any bill that needs 60 votes, but when you have the likes of McConnell, who sells out more frequently than not, leading the republican minority side, well, yes, I do believe it's time to get rid of him.  

Anyway, it's Saturday.  It rained for a considerable amount of time yesterday. The first round only lasted maybe 20 minutes but the second round went on for many hours. It wasn't a downpour, heavy/driving rain so the seed I scattered the other day may still have a chance of taking.  I intend on getting out there today or tomorrow - or both - and dumping the rest of the seed out there, in time for a 100% chance of rain Monday.  

I can only hope it will all take and have a nice layer of it growing by the time we get to the intended start date.  19 days until intended opening day, it should be growing by then and a second application on everything as well.  Yup, it's going to be at least a 2-fold application, maybe 3.  It needs to be a nice, thick layer of grass, which usually means seeding it several times, actually.  

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that I will have to do sod in the spring.  It just wont be possible to seed the ground if there are people trampling it and using the facilities.  There are areas away from the park that can be seeded, but not the RV lots themselves.  Worry about that later, of course, but it's something I have to think about for it will be at least a truckload if not a couple of truckloads of sod that will be needed to do all of that.  In other words, set aside the money for it. 

Sod isn't cheap, is the point and I will have to make sure I have the money available for it when that time comes.  

And thinking long and hard about the placement of that shed before I start putting utilities in it. The future would hopefully be adding at least 50 more spaces in the next coming years and I am thinking it might not be in such a good position.  Needs to be closer to the old driveway do rigs can pull in and turn left. Right now, that would be a very tight squeeze. 

I'll have to get a large forklift out there to move it without damaging it, but yes, I can rent one.  It's build on long, wooden beams at the bottom.  Simply thrust the forks under it, lift it up and move it where ever.  I'll be assessing that today or tomorrow.  I should have had more foresight about that one, but oh well. 

Well enough of this. We have a card game tonight and I have work to do before then. The folks left, sans one child that is with me today.  They take one out at a time occasionally to have alone time with mommy and daddy. The other can go with me to the property, if he doesn't like it, so sad, too bad! lmao

G'day

 The rain started 15 minutes ago.  Looking at the radar and the forecast, it isn't going to last very long and it isn't a heavy rain.  Later on this afternoon, more rain, but that also appears that it will be short lived.  It's a shame that any rain came at all.  The gravel could be getting dumped and spread right now.  

I feel like I'm left with no choice.  Just spread the grass seed everywhere and hope they don't destroy most of it with machinery.  It appears they may only have to use a Bobcat to spread it, which would mean a much smaller machine and more likely to stay on the pads and driveway instead of going down into the future grassy areas.  

Whatever the case, I'm going to spread the rest of the 3 bags that are left - 50 pounds a piece - of seed this weekend and hope for the best.  It is a foregone conclusion I will have to buy more of it, I want a nice thick layer of grass on the ground to look good and help prevent any more weeds.

Even the contractor was commenting on the need for grass.  Yup, but you are the one that told me to hold off on it so I did.  Well, he didn't say any such thing yesterday - either way actually - but I can't wait.  Especially knowing that after today, I have a couple of days of dry weather and then Monday, more rain.  Give it Saturday to dry out a bit and then go Sunday and get busy.  

At least I have a spreader machine that covers a lot of ground pretty quickly.  I wish the hopper were big enough for all 50 pounds, then I wouldn't have to keep stopping to refill it.  But, I am not going to go spend money on another one, I'll live with this one for now. I originally bought it for the house, not for a commercial project.  

Now I need to figure out how to get some dirt to the old driveway where there is that pooling going on.  I guess hand shovel it onto the trailer and then hand shovel it off?  I don't want to rent a $350 per day machine just for that.  Maybe get that boy out there to help with that.  

Then, have a truck load brought in and partially dumped there and then dump the rest where I want to have boondocking.  Then 4 more truckloads to cover the driveway nicely and eliminate dirt areas that turn into mud during the rain.  

So.....the mechanic shop couldn't find what was wrong with it either.  They had it on the rack twice and drove it trying to figure out what is making that noise. He said we can't see anything broken, dragging, dislodged, loose, whatever.  He thinks it might be a body mount somewhere, tho he said he checked them and couldn't find any of them damaged.  

Well, something is wrong with it and more importantly, that noise is irritating. Hit a bump and clunk.  Oh well, he isn't charging for it even tho I offered.  He's actually a good shop.  I just said I would drive it until something actually breaks and becomes visible. I hope that happens soon, because I want it fixed.  

There's YouTube for everything, including my vehicle and that sound.  A mechanic couldn't find the problem on an exact same type of vehicle, so he started spraying different bushings with a silicone spray, let it sit over night and then would drive it. Clunking noise still there, he would try other bushings and kept going until the noise was gone one morning, anti-sway bar that goes from one side of the front end to the other.  

I will start there. Because this shop couldn't find what was wrong, the mechanic on the video showed the bushing that was the culprit and from a visual inspection, it was fine.  This would be my guess, one of the bushings now that I saw that video. Hitting a hole like that could have certainly damaged one.  I will be getting under there and re-inspecting the bushings as well as try the method this man used.  

Whatever the case, there is nothing wrong with the steering system or the suspension, at least not visibly, nothing that would make the vehicle dangerous to drive so I'm just going to have to deal with it.  I have things to do -every day really - there are no "extra" vehicles here, I need my ride back, noise or no noise. 

Short-lived rain. Like 20 minutes and it's done.  The gravel could have been spread today even if it is going to rain this afternoon. It doesn't take long for an expert operator to spread it and get it where they want it.  Yes, there is one area where they said I need to "fix" the storm drainage but that's a 15 minute fix.  They could have spread the gravel over it and I would have just had to dig up a small area, put in an elbow, stick a short piece of pipe on it and walaah.  

Whatever.  This is the way weather goes around here, it did rain so the forecasters were right but not enough to stop a gravel spread operation.  Frustrating.  

Well, like I said, I'll just move on with my grass seed operation and then I won't worry about rain. It will dry up sooner or later and then they can come and get it done.  

____________

Clunking vehicle acquired, went to the bank only to realize it's Veterans Day and of course the banks are closed.  A short trip over to the property - I check it pretty much every day - no one had driven over the freshly fixed driveway and pads.  Off to Lowe's to get a 90 elbow and a short piece of 4" PVC to deal with that on Sunday - hopefully anyway.  Grass is growing nicely where I've spread seed, I will try to get all 150 pounds of seed left waiting to be spread put down on Sunday.  Sounds like a lot but it's probably an hour's worth of work.  1-1/2 hours max.  

 So I'm sitting here at my desk, about to wind down when it hit me: I left all of that stuff out in the open yesterday.  Stuff being a $1,500 generator and various power and hand tools, 3 chainsaws, etc. I had pulled it to the front of the rear of the property to situate it for working on the actual front of the property.  I was going to go back today and do some work and then tarp it.

The point being there is a 98% chance of rain tomorrow and it starts around 9:00 am.  But, that could change - sometimes it hits earlier and sometimes it hits later than what the forecasters are saying, I didn't want to take a chance to wait until tomorrow morning.  

Yeah, that's what hit me.  It's sitting on that trailer with no tarp over it, all that money worth of stuff. I had to ask to borrow a vehicle, but James jumped up and said let's go!  Okay!  

It's really dark out there at night!  We pull up in the woods, get out and suddenly we hear a 4 wheeler riding somewhere very close.  Like what?  It sounded like it was on the other side of my property on the trail over there.  Yup, I ran over there and James jumped into his truck. Got over there? 

Nothing burger.  It was a property that butts the pipeline easement and my property is right there, up next to it.  They were on a side-by-side and they were making an awful lot of noise. I mean, not only was the machine making all kinds of racket, they had a  very loud stereo system in that thing and it was carrying a long way off.

I can't say I was pleased at that. How often does this go on out here at night? I thought. But, it was only 8:30, so I could only hope that they don't do it that often and not after 10:00 pm.  

Well, we went back to where we started and walked to the rear of the trails where the bridge is, grabbed the tarp and went back with it, covered up the entire trailer, put heavy objects to hold down the tarp and that was that. 

As I said, walking through those woods was trippy.  I knew it would be, so much so I had a pistol in my pocket "just in case", but being out there!  You couldn't see anything without a flashlight, it was pitch black. I could imagine tent camping back in there.  

Anyway, the shop never even called me saying what was wrong.  I'll be calling them tomorrow morning - I really need my vehicle. Yes, whatever is wrong with it needs fixed, but I can't just wait forever.  I am mostly just driving around town but it's all on trips that serve some useful purpose. Either getting food to cook for dinner, buying stuff for the property/business, going to service providers or going to the property itself.  

That's it. An interesting adventure tonight.  

 A ray of hope hit when I got to the property this morning and saw - 2 men out there. One was the contractor and the other is the dirt work expert - dude who operates machinery like magic.  Seriously, the man is as good as they get.  

However, that hope quickly faded. They were there to re-do the dirt work.  I instantly saw dollar signs going off, he didn't say anything about this and I am not interested in spending ANY more money on dirt work.

After discussing it with him, however, it turns out this is part of the deal with the dirt work I have already paid for and there is no extra charge for it.  Look, dealing with this guy has been pretty frustrating, but he has crews of people that know their business and I can't get away from that aspect of it.

We went into this long discussion about a park he and his co-investors recently built. I had NO idea that was his doings.  It's out in the middle of nowhere and I was wondering about this property and actually went out there and looked at it not long ago.  I put up an ad for it in a facebook group that has ready investors, these people have money and they buy parks from all over the country.  

Yes, I'd like to take a 50k chunk of the money and say thank you very much. He is willing to part ways with it for the amount they have dumped into it, which almost a third of what the realtors have it listed for.  I might as well try, I could certainly use the money right about now.  

Back to the dirt work. He was going to dump gravel tomorrow, but if you read this blog at all, you know that tomorrow there is an almost 90% chance of rain.  So, they are still doing the dirt work - right now actually - and he said with it leveled back out it will dry faster after it rains.  

Ok.  I told him I need this thing done, soon.  That's all I can do, try to light a fire under his feet, but he has no control over the weather.  That's in the God department, the rest of us mere mortals just have to deal with it.  I'm going to start incurring costs with no incoming revenue to pay for it.  I just feel kind of ridiculous that I put off the gravel, I should have done it when they were going to do it, I just wanted the electricity done first.

Hindsight is always perfect vision.  

I need to get out there after they do that dirt work and block that damn driveway.  Yet ANOTHER large truck had driven through there. What is with these people driving vehicles through my property?  I have no trespassing signs up and I had the entrance to the new driveway lined with signs that either the wind blew down or they just drove over the top of it. It's starting to piss me off, actually.  I'm going to get a bunch of the branches I cut down 2 days ago and just block the driveway with them.  

I need to get that hunting camera out there, I keep forgetting to do that, I have way too much on my mind right now.  I catch people driving on there and I can get their license plate number? I'll call the county sheriff.  Take that to the bank.  

Anyway, he pointed out one of the drainage pipes I had installed and said that is really where the gravel is going to go.  I've got to go buy a 90 - 90 degree angle PVC fitting and run the pipe over to the side.  

That shouldn't be too difficult and I won't have to do anything but probably have to buy another stick of pipe.  

I can't do anything right now, tho. I took my vehicle into the shop and the guy was too busy to get to it right away.  He drove me home in my vehicle, heard the noise and said "that's solid". Yes, hence the need to find out what's wrong and get it fixed before it turns into something - more.  So I'm home - probably all day if this guy's record is any indicator.  He does good work but he's very popular and hence busy.  

I think I have all the ingredients for a nice, crock pot stew and fixing to go get that stuff together and get it into the crockpot.  It's still early yet and the recipe says 6-7 hours on high. That puts it an hour before dinner time.  

It's not like I don't have anything to do today.  I've got quick books to figure out and it wants me to take photos of all my receipts so it can input it into the system. Great! I have like 50 receipts and invoices, gag.   

Oh well. I knew the business end of this deal would be a challenge for me, putting it mildly.  

Oh, and the contractor backed up my assessment.  I can just have a 10 wheel truck out with a good driver - he said make sure he has a good driver for this - that can chain open the rear gate and dump the gravel while driving down the driveway.  He also agreed I only need a couple of inches of material and said he can get 100 to 120 feet out of one truckload doing it that way.

At least I got some useful info out of him, that puts it in between 4 and 5 truckloads, a couple grand worth.  

He also said that unless I can supply a pond with well water, the water table won't be enough to fill up a pond out front.  Yes, I replied, there is a well by the gas company stuff. It's capped off but it's still got the casing in it and just needs to be checked by a well company and have a pump/water line installed.

I already knew it would require well water - you can't use city water, the monthly water bills would be ridiculously high.  That's not really a priority but it is something I'd like done.

He said he was discussing it with his folks at work and they thought a covered party area would be a better fit out there. Yes, I said, I intend on having one - but in the back of the park, not up front.  Keep it away from neighbors and away from the RV section.  In fact, I am going to put up a basic fire pit with outdoor seating after I get everything else done.

We have the same ideas - he just has more money lol.  I'm glad my ideas are fitting with others who are already in the business of building these parks.  That is something that won't cost a lot of money and gives extra-added value for the late-nighters/partying bunch that won't negatively affect people in their RV's wanting to enjoy peace and quiet at night time.  I need to go out there and measure how far away from the rv park area it is.  

Ok I'm missing my vehicle.  

 So here.....we.....gooooo.....

Will they be out there installing gravel? Or will this project be put off for potentially weeks? Because there is a good possibility of rain every day next week.  

Fixin' to go find out. Got up early to get the vehicle in to the shop. 

But, I'm detouring to the property first and see if there is an miracles going on over there.

G'day

 Tomorrow is the last day of this week that the gravel can be installed.  I'm not sure everything is dry enough yet.  88% chances of rain on Friday, that will blow off any hope of doing it beyond tomorrow.  The contractor hasn't contacted me one way or the other - typical for him. 

What's the big rush? I'm shooting for a December 1 opening. day.  Insurance will kick in that day, gravel will hopefully be in but - I need that grass.  If I can't get grass planted soon, it's going to lengthen the delays.  I did plant grass in a very large area next to one of the end lots today.  It is unlikely they will be driving equipment through there.  But I'm not taking a chance with the rest of the lots, the only other area I can put down seed is behind the west side lots.  I very well may,  I don't want weeds taking over back there again.  

I was looking at my main competitors today.  Most of them are trashy.  Dirt driveways, outdoor storage, junky, just not appealing at all.  They are all older style, they don't have the room to put in bigger lots but why they don't put fresh gravel down is unknown.  One in particular comes up at the top of the list on google searches.  I just can't believe that these people don't invest the money to upgrade that park.  

Oh well, I was looking, see what I'm up against. I've looked before but it's been a while, wanted to refresh my memory and create some talking points for my web page.  

There is still a lot to do both at the park and in the background.  The insurance is done - yes I know I posted earlier that they hadn't called, but now that is another check mark on the list of things to do that is done.  Half the price of the first place and much more flexibility, if I need to add something - more lots, a building, whatever, I can do it with this company, the other company wanted to put me under contract for a year which stipulated no changes at all.  

I guess my business bank account will be put off til next week, I have to pick up the boys tomorrow - I shouldn't say "have to", like it's some chore.  But, it's fine. I can get the bank account, credit card processing and campground software done next week.  Still plenty of time before the end of the month for that, I just want it done and over with.  Quickbooks is a work in progress. 

Tomorrow - get the vehicle looked at and then head over to the property - see if they're doing gravel and also get some work done.  I'm not going to order fire rings until I can see if there's really enough grass area in between pads to have them. The pads are wide and eat up a lot of grass area. Not the worst thing, less grass to cut but you can't have fire too close to the RV's, obviously  

There are lots where there will definitely be fire rings, they are clearly big enough. If there are lots too small, I will make up for it by having a community fire ring area.  The tent campsite is definitely going to have both a fire ring and a picnic table.  I just don't see the point in ordering that stuff before I know how many of them I can actually use?  

There's a list of things to do, I'm working on all of it.  The grass is the biggest concern right now.  I think when summer comes, I'm going to put in sod and skip trying to grow grass.  But, winter grass grows so easily it's a no brainer to save the money on a truckload or more of sod.  

Well that's it.  I'm going to price running power line to the shed and the breakers and such I would need.  I need to get a better idea of how much everything is going to cost to get power in that thing and get a laundry facility going, plus a soda machine and a vending machines with snacks.  

 The closer I get to an opening day, the more information I learn that I definitely didn't know before.

For example. I just got off the phone with Campworks, which is another campground online management software system.  The man gave it to me straight: the fee all of these software application companies charge is only for the use of their system, it does not include the cost of the card processing company - which is a separate company from the campground software company - per use! So, I can look forward to a buck and change more per customer on top of the fee the software company is charging.

This stuff really is getting to me.  Waaah! lol.  I'm working through it, that's all I can say.  

So, anyway, I got that done, sold a chainsaw I bought for $50 at Walmart for $110, off to haircut, sign company has my new signs completed, over there, then over to the bank.

Lots of things slip my mind, there's a lot to starting up a venture like this. But one thing I absolutely need is a bank account in the name of the business.  So I want to discuss with a bank official what it will take to open up an account, monthly fees, etc etc etc.  

That is going to eat up a lot of my day after everything I've already done, but still hoping to get at least a few hours of work in at the property.  

The sky is overcast, not favorable conditions for drying out the dirt.  I really have this need to get that gravel in, get those funds out of the bank account and move on with this.  

The only thing I can predict at 99% sure right now is that I won't be going back to work until the beginning of the New Year.  It is pointless to start a job this close to the holidays, I will get no time off for anything being a new driver and I will "suffer" the holidays on the road somewhere.

NO THANK YOU.  

I'm also trying to determine when to go back for a visit to AZ.  I think it will be put off to December instead of the November date I was looking at. This because of this business proposition and all that needs to be done.  I need to be here for all of this.  

___________________

Insurance company still hasn't called back, but they assure me they will once they get a quote.

Bank account - Had to make an appointment even tho the place was deserted. Literally, there were no cars in the parking lot nor were there any customers. Oh well, trying to get that set up tomorrow afternoon. 

After that, I can get the credit card processing application completed, they have to have a banking account to dump money into and I don't want it in my personal account, the business needs to be separate for accounting and tax purposes.  

My signs were plain-Jane but they will serve as intended for now.  Not doing that today, I haven't even been out to the property yet, been running around getting things done including an appointment tomorrow morning to find out what that awful sounding clunking is. I've gotten under that vehicle numerous times now and can't see anything that is broken under there.  Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed. 

With that?  I am done with "business" stuff for the day. It gets overwhelming and I have to take a break from that stuff, which means going over to the property and get some physical side of the equation stuff done. 

The skies cleared up and the drying process can begin, plus it's fairly warm!  Maybe we'll get gravel this week after all!

G'day

 Well, I can say I worked for 4 hours today, the first time I've done anything since I got this coughing cold.  It felt good to get stuff done, regardless of the type of task it was. First was getting the generator up onto the trailer - that was a real chore.  Then getting the 4 wheeler and trailer out of the woods - dumb me forgot to put the landing gear up and hence it was digging into a hill every time I tried to get up the thing.

It seriously took me a minute to remember to even look to see if that thing was down! 

Then I went and started repairing the chainsaws.  The boy has been shown multiple times how to tighten the chain.  He obviously didn't get it.  He just about destroyed one of the chain tensioners - but I got it to work - and the other one had also jumped off, he just doesn't get it.  I haven't had them out in a while and if I do have him back, it's only to be to do some serious raking that needs to be done along the driveway.  He will not be operating a chainsaw and right now, I am not having anyone out there to do anything that I have to pay for, I just don't have 8 hours of work in me yet.  

I then went and started cutting down trees and shrubs along the driveway.  I did get quite a bit of it done, but there's plenty left to go. I also detached the gate from it's post, there is no longer any use for it and it can go in the back to the gas company's operation. While doing that, one of the gas company employees came in in a pickup.  I waved at him to see what kind of response I would get - he actually waved back.  20 minutes later, while cutting down trees, a 10 wheeler came driving by loaded with containers full of chemicals. 

That took me by surprise, tho that time, the driver waved fanatically instead of my having to initiate the "friendliness". Of course I waved back - he was filling up the tanks that have the foam liquid that they pump down into the cracks through which the natural gas escapes.  It helps keep the cracks open and apparently even helps expand them further.  

But I was done.  Starting to get a headache it was time to quit.  Yup, I'll be back out there again tomorrow, hopefully, I'm really wanting to get my street sign up but I think I'm going to need help.  I'm going to ask James if he can come help me this coming weekend.  I can't hold that 4X8 sign up while drilling holes to mount it.  I probably can get the 4X4 mounted to the top before then, I may try to do that tomorrow. 

The insurance guy contacted me back after I contacted him asking him if there had been a quote yet. He replied later on that they were supposed to be giving him a quote sometime today and that he would call me. 

The web designer found yet another software management company and wants me to consider it as well. Well okay, I'm thinking, but we can't be doing this forever. I want to get a final decision made and get it installed.  It's a setup fee and then after that it's a per use fee. So, it's not a monthly fee so it really doesn't matter that I get it set up in advance, let's get this done.  I respect that he wants to explore all of the options tho. 

It looks like it rained out there yet again last night, gag.  

Some man in LA won 2 billion dollars last night. I can't even fathom that. 

The election - I voted today. We have new voting  machines now.  It's still a paper ballot, but you make your selections on a screen, the machine records it, when you're done, it prints it all out.  You review it and take it to another machine to insert the ballot in.  Yup, I like it.  Still a paper result but much easier to do.

I take nothing for granted and I seriously do NOT want a Beto Texas governorship.  That would be, IMO, like AOC being the President of the United States.  That was the most important thing on that ballot. There was also a decision between a democrat or republican US senate seat, big time important as well. The rest were local judges, no referendums this time. I thought that was odd, but that's fine, we don't need more laws, we have plenty!

I just remembered that the Post Office never got back to me.  I want mail delivery to the property. Anything in the business name needs to get delivered there.  Loan money hasn't shown up - but I don't really need it yet.  I just took the offer before the fed increase raises rates even more.  I'm tempted to pay off my vehicle, about 3 grand worth, which would almost completely offset the monthly loan payment.  But, it wouldn't much help my credit score and I need that score to go back up to be able to even think about getting another loan in the near future for park expansion.  It's only 15k, it's really, to me, something to hang on to as long as possible.  

____________

8:00 pm.  Watching the House and Senate races as well as Georgia's hotly contested race and of course waiting to see who will win Texas as governor.  Right now, Abbot is well ahead of Beto.  I expected that, but nothing is granted.  I know people who didn't vote and refused to do so.  That is a thing I cannot understand.  But, that's their choice.  

I hope I can get to sleep a bit early instead of staying up late watching the election results for I need to get out there and get a lot more work done tomorrow.  In fact, I'd like to light up the 3 burn piles and get that stuff burned down to the ground.  But only if I get out there early enough.  Whatever the case, I need to get further along with finishing up that driveway. I have identified even more area that needs to be cut out.  

One large tree needs to come down as well and another large tree is - up in the air atm.  If I can get up high enough to cut off some branches then it can stay. Otherwise, it's also coming down.  But there is another area of brush up near the park entrance that I think needs to be cleaned out.  I'm going to wait on taking out the gate posts, when they show up to spread the gravel I'm going to ask them to push those posts out of the ground instead of cutting them with a chainsaw. 

Anyway, I never heard back from the insurance agent. Whatever he has, I want to hear it, even if it's bad news.  At least give me a comparison point for the first quote.  

The website designer called and we had a rather lengthy conversation.  He wants me to get a demo for yet another company for the software. Gag. He's dragging this out, I'm ready to get this over with.  I get that he's doing due diligence to try and identify the creme de le creme, but let's get this done within the next few days, please and thank you.

The money was deposited in my bank account. I won't need to worry about money for a while.  If I can get the park going in the next 2-3 weeks, I hopefully won't have to worry about money at all.  

Admittedly, it may be a very bad time of year to attempt to open an RV park with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner.  However, if I could at least get enough guests coming/going to pay the bills, that would be great.  I mean, whatever time of year it is, I'm starting this business up regardless.  It will be what it will be.  I'd like to not have to go back to work until after the New Year, to be frank about it. Work as in trucking.  

There isn't anything else to add here and I want to get back to the election results.  

 The meters are in, the power is on.

The loan came through, at least in promise, the funds will be there shortly. 

The signs are ordered and will be done in a few days. 

The gravel - no clue. I texted the contractor numerous times today without a reply or a "read receipt".  Not unusual for this guy, but still, I'm past this.  

Tractor Supply fire rings were not the deal I thought they were, I have found fire rings elsewhere. Not ordered yet, but I know 2 places to get them and delivered to my house for free.  It wasn't $79 for 3 or even $36 for one, it's $79 for ONE of them.  Yeah, the associate is the one that told me  the 3-for price and the accompanying sign showing $36 was right there. 

Whatever. The fire rings I found at both Walmart and Home Depot were much nicer looking and $41 per ring cheaper than Tractor supply. Yup, you can bet I'm going with either of the 2, but probably Home Depot.  

I did try to get stuff done over there today. But as soon as I started heavy lifting, I started coughing uncontrollably and got a headache quick. It was very surprising, considering I thought I was feeling better. Tonight? I've been hacking my lungs out.  It's really disconcerting.  I have a lot of stuff I need to get done and get done quickly now.  

Well, I went home to get some ramps to try to pull the generator up on, but I never went back. I'm not going to say it's terrible I didn't get back there, not after the way I felt.  These last 2 sicknesses have dealt a serious blow to my health and I don't have any answers.  I can only hope and pray to the Almighty, Living God that He would find it within His mercy and Grace to heal me.  

I look semi-hoboish  Participating in the no-shave November challenge, I have this half beard - thing - growing on my face.  I've been told it looks good, but I think they were just being nice. I'd rather they be honest, for what I see in the mirror? I don't think it looks particularly great.  

So much to do and so little energy to do it. I did get Quick Books up and running today, I have a lot of input left to do but I got a good start on it. 

I will go back to the property tomorrow and attempt more heavy lifting. If I can't, I will go home and work on Quick Books.  Either way, it's stuff that has to be done before opening up the park.  

 So. My world of woes lmao.  I call this number to join the virtual meeting and...waited for 20 minutes. I couldn't believe this guy was just going to forget, so I wondered if it was a "time" issue or something with Daylight Savings time. No, it turns out, it was the fact that he is in mountain time and I am in central time. A thing he probably could have pointed out, lol. Oh well, another half hour until meeting time for that. 

Meanwhile, waiting on an email message from the second insurance company for a quote. He said it would come today.

Also just biding my time on the loan.  As late as Friday to find out whether they are actually going to send the money or not.

And of course, Swepco the power company. Will they come out today?

It didn't rain here last night, but I just got a text that it's raining 2 cities away.  I could do without the rain for the sake of dumping the gravel. 

I will be going over there after the meeting to see if it rained over there and if there are any remaining drainage issues. I knew drainage would be a problem, it's just something I have to work through.  Most of the issues are gone, at least.  

I have determined that if the loan doesn't go through, I am going to partially pay the gravel bill with credit card debt.  This will free up as much money as I decide to put on the card, but probably around 5k.  It's not the greatest move and there is the option of the company that will pay off the credit card debt - but I get no cash.  That would free up the monthly payments, tho. 

Been waiting to order much of anything until I see what happens. But gee, those signs.  Exit only, entrance, walking trail with arrow, another walking trail with arrow, trail head.  The rest is up to them, lol.  It's not impossible to get lost back there, I guess, but there are so many ways back out.  4 exits out of that maze, just head north, you'll find your way out!  

Google Earth. If it would just update the photo.  I could use that instead of paying someone with a drone to take aerial footage.  I need a map of the RV park and of the walking trails, Google Earth would supply that nicely. It's just showing the property covered with trees at the front.  I should take a screen shot for memory's sake while it's available.  

$250 to make a park map! Dangitall, I think I'll just see if my web developer can do that, otherwise, Campsite Premier sounds like the one I'll be going with. That doesn't include the cost of getting aerial footage.  But, he (representative of Premier) gave detailed replies and I suspect he would be better off working with my website pro than me.  I just wanted to hear specifics to the questions my designer had for certain aspects of the software that he believes are a necessary component to making it seamless and user friendly  He's the expert, not me!

I was going to do early voting today and get it over with - but early voting ended on the 4th.  Oh well, I'll be at one of the many voting locations tomorrow.  It's going to be an unabashed Republican voting ticket for me, they usually give the option to vote party line in one box, eliminating the need to check everything else besides local referendums.  Much easier and faster!  

Okay, that is done, there is allegedly no more rain, I have work to do! 

G'day