I started watching YouTube videos this morning about electricity setup and spent far more time doing so than I anticipated.  However, it's a good thing I did.  The underground line needs to be laid first before installing anything inside the shed or even mounting the panel. Well, the panel is mounted but it can come back off easily.  By the time I was done watching those videos - and admittedly needing to watch a few more for more enlightenment on subject matter that I am grossly uninformed or knowledgeable about - the boys/dad were back from their excursion around town. 

We ended up going to the property, but I had no intention of working today. My leg was aching - it comes and goes. When it comes, I'm done.  This is from the injury several weeks ago. It may take months for it to heal completely to the point it doesn't hurt anymore.  I built a fire, the oldest boy wanted to work for money. Great, start pulling those weeds.  He got a few weeds pulled and then wanted to play with my old phone.  I still have the Iphone 8 - it works perfectly well, just that it's battery doesn't last terribly long even with a full charge and doesn't have some of the features of the Iphone 13 I now have.

But I saw no reason to sell the thing, it works on wifi. I can even send text messages on it from an email address set up on it, which I have.  I can run it off my 13 with tethering.  Or hook up to local wifi.  

Anyway, he wanted $5 for the work he was doing and I laughed at him. Yeah, sure thing you pull a weed, come over, sit down, play on the phone, go pull another weed, lather, rinse repeat.  I might give you a quarter for the work you are doing at the pace you are keeping.  There is no sense, in my mind, to give kids a false sense of what life in the real world will be like.  You have to prepare them if you want them capable of being able to function in a society that is sometimes brutal and cutthroat. That sent him to working.  The other boy kept trying to distract him, so I called him off. Nope, you can go play in the dirt, the weeds, whatever, but you are going to leave your brother alone while he's working.

Anyway, several things happened during the 3 hours we were out there.  A person had called earlier asking about a spot and if they could come see it? Sure, I don't have to be there, you can drive through and see if it's anything you want to get yourselves involved with.  Shortly after I got there, I had the "bright" idea to go to an old post I had put in a local facebook gossip group and try contacting someone else about bush hogging these damned weeds down. They are unsightly and rather irritating.  I got into a conversation with a particular person online and then it ended.   

After that, a 4 door, 8 foot bed dually - big pickup - came slowly driving into the park.  They drove around and passed by us on the RV park driveway. I waved at them, they just kept going. I suspected it was the people that were coming to look at the place.  I never heard back from them - so write them off. I don't stress over people not wanting to stay, that's their choice and if they don't want to be there, I certainly don't want unhappy guests/tenants there either.  Just a recipe for disaster.  

Then a car came cruising in - very slowly.  Thy went all the way down the driveway. ??? All the way to the gas operation.  No idea. They came back and introduced themselves. I'm Amy the person you were talking to. I'm horrible with names, mostly with people I have only known for a short period of time. Oh, are you the ones that called earlier? No, we are the people that were going to bush hog. OHHH!!

I said, well, I just want the front portion done.  How much will you charge for that?  I braced myself - people around these parts are notorious for extremely high pricing. He said "I can do it for $100".

Wait, what? I thought but didn't say.  A hundred dollars?  I've given up on the bulldozer for now, it's just too much money, the driveway needs gravel before I rent a bulldozer.  Yes, let's do that! We had final words and they started driving off before - wait! How much to do that back part too?  The back part has far more weeds and they had viewed it.  He said $350 and I said do it. He knew enough to say it is too wet to do it now.  Yes, I thought, it is but I wanted to see if he knew that.  Why? Because the last jackass I had out there too my money and didn't do the job.  That was many months ago.  

After that, I made sure the fire died down to smoldering embers - it doesn't have to be put out, it's in a 3 block high ring, it's not going to spread anywhere - and we came home after. We had been out there long enough. One boy wanted to stay, the other wanted to go home, I sided with the latter, it was time to eat.  

After that a call came in. We talked a while back, she says on the phone, I was asking about a lot.  Ok? I don't remember people that disappear, I have no need to.  If they don't want it, they don't want it.  She went on and on about a local competitor they ended up at.  It's a married couple and the man was too busy with work to deal with it, he had left finding a place in her hands.  She said at the time she thought my place was "too far out of town". What?!! Lmao, I'm a mile away from city limits. It ain't a big city, I can tell y'all that for a fact.  

After a lot of explanations - apparently she thought I would remember the phone call we had - which I don't , again, these are not things I need to concern myself with or keep in my memory banks when they don't show up and they find another place ....and I've talked to a lot of people - it turns out they were calling me from my park.  I had just left there, lol.  They were checking it out and checking their cell phone reception.  ATT, Verizon and now T-Mobile have decent connection there. 

I could hear the husband in the background. He was mad that they hadn't moved to my park in the first place! Lol. They are moving in tomorrow.  We will be getting out of church, Lord willing of course, about the time they are setting up.  

I'm sitting with the older boy and something about God came out of his mouth. It opened up a discussion about Jesus. If you want to hear about the most important part of the day? This was it. Money and tenants are irrelevant compared to souls and the Kingdom of Heaven.  Random things come out of kids' mouths.  It can be pretty entertaining - or it can be fairly serious stuff.  It covers the gamut of earthly things and you will get explanations from a child you would never think of. Sometimes it's rather enlightening.  Sometimes it's silly. Strange.  Scary...etc. 

It all came down to going to be with God after we die.  Yes, but there is only one way to get there. I refuse to say "in my opinion" for I believe it's the truth that cannot be denied whether anyone wants to believe it or not.  However. I did not convey the message to him like that.  You just present the truth, they have to be free to accept or reject it. God is a God of free will. You can come to Him - or you can ignore him and do your own thing.  Presenting the truth to a child has to be in a child's understanding of things. It is kept pretty simple and easy to understand.  

At one time in my Christian life, I was one of those "cram it down your throat" people.  It's easy to get into that mode once you come to the understand that there is a God and that the only God is the God of the Bible.  I have found that there are different ways to get the message across to different people and you have to be in tune with the blessed Holy Spirit to understand what to say to who.  You wouldn't get harsh with a child about God, you might get harsh with a person so lost in drugs or demon possessed that they only way to get through to them is "in-your-face".  I've done all of it and then some - I have stories, lol.

It was a simple, heart-felt message. I remember now, it started with asking about why Christ was killed?  I explained about God, a bit about the Old Testament and our need for a Savior.  We have all sinned, all of us, and we have to ask God to forgive us and invite Christ into our hearts. If you ever think you want to do that, just let me know and we can pray.  As i said, I am not forcing or trying to manipulate anything about God or Christ down his throat, it's totally up to him. 

Ok, well I want to do that.  Ok, well let me know when.  I want to do that right now!  It's been a long time since I've led anyone to the Lord. But I did and we prayed together, leading him in a prayer and he received the Lord.  He understood that we have all done "bad things", things that are not pleasing to God.  I am not going to sugarcoat the Word of Truth. Just like facing life and all of it's realities when he grows older, if he's going to believe in God, he needs to know who God really is.  A wonderful, caring, loving God, yes!  But also a holy, just and righteous God!  

I have to say I broke down in tears. Haven't felt that way in a long time.  Haven't led anyone to the Lord in a long time.  

We prayed tonight when he went to bed.  I asked him to pray. "Well I don't know what to say?" Well just ask God to bless our sleep.  And that he did. God doesn't require some scripted, professional, prayer that comes from a book instead of the heart.  He listens to us, we can talk to him in reverence, yes, but real.  Down to earth. 

Well.  A eureka moment came to me today.  I truly believe I will get more people in for overnight stays if I get laundry and a shower in there.  But after giving it an exorbitant amount of thought, I also came to the conclusion that if I had a minimalist kitchen and a toilet in there, I could really get some HipCampers in there. When I say kitchen, I'm talking an electric oven with range top, a sink, a small counter to work on and a cupboard with pots, pans and cooking utensils.  I absolutely must have a toilet in there to get HipCampers to come.

What led to this? I was thinking.  If I'm running all of this stuff to the shed and I'm spending all of this money, why can't I just run a couple of 20 amp lines out to the side of the shed, have a regular plug in and get some of those people coming in here?  This would cost less than $100 to install and I think it would attract some of the different kinds of traveling customers that don't want to pay much to stay anywhere.  

I could go on, and I probably will tomorrow. My thoughts have expanded this park without spending tens of thousands of dollars doing it.  Rest assured, I have bene racking my brains and reading inordinate amount of material trying to figure out a way to do it.  Get myself out of trucking permanently without having to expand the park right away.  

Enough, It's 11:00 pm and I want to go to church tomorrow. Rested if possible.  

 Make sure that doesn't happen again. 

I arrived at the park yesterday with my laptop.  They wanted to pay credit card.  It totally escaped me that they could have just paid online.  I'm new to this, folks, I haven't done this that many times.  Got the laptop out, got the card processing app up and - it wanted the user name and password.  Drew a complete blank.  It is saved on my desktop, I don't need to enter it every time I bring it up.  I said I could just go home and they can give me the card number over the phone, they decided to just pay with a check.  

I'm not sure why these other people are coming in March, but the curiosity of the situation is that I never received an email from the software telling me I have a reservation that needs attention.  It sent me one the last 2 times? I'll have to go back into that system and figure out if I did something to stop the emails.  

I also updated HipCamp with more pictures, I only had 3 on there. Hipcamp also asked if I could like a professional photographer to come and take pics in exchange for free night/s stay.  Ok?  I signed up for it.  It's just a thing where they put up requests into some system somewhere and if there happens to be a photographer in the area that wants to do it? They show up.  

It also dawned on me that I could easily set up a couple of electric-only sites on the other side of the shed.  It's flat, level ground and I'm only talking 20 amp, regular circuit, no 50 or 30 amp stuff.  Why? Because there is a market for it.  Reduced prices as well.  It would basically be a place to park a small rig overnight at the same price a truckstop that has pay parking would charge a trucker.

I'll have a water spigot by the shed as well.  They just won't be able to dump sewer, tho in reality, since I'm running a line over there, I could install a sewer dump.  They charge anywhere from $10 to $25 to dump a tank full of sewage. It's mostly frowned on in the industry, parks would rather they just spend the money to stay a night.  

Anyway, this would be a version of boondocking but with electricity and I would have to do nothing more than install a couple of outdoor electrical outlets.  I'll have plenty of juice at the shed to handle it.  This is what came in last night. A pickup with a bumper pull, small trailer.  We're talking less than $100 to install.  I could, actually, put in sewer and water, I may end up having enough pipe left over, not sure.  I also could get a small kitchen going in the shed - an electric oven, a sink and a small counter.  Put some pots, pans and cooking utensils in there - cheap stuff - and add that onto the site as well.

I'm getting ideas as I go along here. If I could put up a used oven cheap, it would cost a few hundred dollars to install a simple but usable setup.  The shower - I have found it's just as important as laundry if not more so.  People are asking if I have a shower? No, unfortunately, but we can change that.  

I'm just not sure how I would be able to install it.  The shed is elevated off the ground, but it's not enough to crawl under it.  To install a toilet or a shower, you have to bring the sewer pipe up from underneath.  I've seen the fittings at the store for both a shower drain and the toilet, it's 4 inch you just attach the sewer pipe to it.  I'll have to spend even more time looking at YouTube videos I guess. 

I want to utilize this rather large expenditure of money just to put in a laundry setup as much as possible.  If I can add stuff to it that doesn't cost a lot, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to do so.  

I think it would be a hit for HipCampers, that's a bit different crowd right there.  I don't care who comes in there, I just want to maximize the potential for more customers. If you look at the bathrooms that many HipCamp locations offer? They're mostly outhouses.  That's right, a hole dug into the ground and a toilet seat mounted onto a wood structure.  I could actually put a working toilet in my shed, nothing like an outhouse.  Lol. 

A toilet is like $100. The fittings for it - well i need to find out how to install sewer line P trap or how that works.  I don't smell sewage coming up out of the shower stall in my room, I assume there is something you have to install in the line before the drain like a p trap under the sink to stop bugs and smell from coming up into the room.  

Let me put it this way. After spending thousands of dollars doing the shed for nothing but a laundromat? We're going to spend another grand on a shower stall, a toilet and a kitchen. Nothing fancy.  If I ever get there, fancy can come later.  That shed is 12X16.  The machines will be at one end, the bathroom can be at the other and the little kitchen can be in the middle and I think that will gobble up the space in there.  But, if there happens to be some space left over, a couple of chairs to finish it out. The kitchen only needs the oven, no other electrical appliances except maybe a toaster. I'm not supplying food, lol, a refrigerator is unnecessary.  

So what am I doing today? I'm going back up to Lowe's to try and figure out what to put into the electrical box for fittings and conduit, I don't need much.  Enough to go into the ground where the wire will come out and enough going from the breaker box to the inside of the shed.  Once I get the machines setup done, I will install an electrical outlet and try to get a toilet in there.  

Well that didn't take long to figure out. We all know toilets have their own trap, I just didn't know if another one was needed under the flooring? Nope.  The shower? They have a special, narrow trap that attaches to the drain line under the floor.  Of course sinks have a p trap in the closet underneath them.  

Sounds easy? Lol, likely not.  Everything I have done so far has been a pain in the rear. I could only hope that something else might go easier! Well, enough. I'm going to watch more videos and figure some things out and then head up to Lowe's. 

 I'm going crazy with this electrical stuff. Lowe's twice today, was going to go a third time after taking pics and looking at an existing setup elsewhere.  When....the dude finally calls. He's had a bad day. Actually a bad week. He said he had dropped his trailer and where am I? I had already informed him I was going to be a bit behind him. He was in a bad mood. The slide out he paid a grand to fix? Wasn't working. He needed to leave right now and I said fine,  we can settle up later - but - I'm only maybe 7 minutes away.

He insisted on leaving and I said fine, we can meet up Monday- I think he was needing to go to work like right now.  If he doesn't pay when he says he will? He can leave. I doubt he wouldn't pay.  It all changed to meeting me at the highway. He got out of the truck, walked to my SUV, handed me money without even asking who I was and then said, I hope you are the RV park guy? Yes, lol.  

Then some other people called.  We'll be there in 3 hours, is that okay? Yes - they were asking because that is well outside the window of most RV parks time limit for showing up.  That's a couple more hours from onw.

Then, another lady called wanting to reserve a spot in March.  Ok?  4 days. Ok? I'm fine with that, lol.  They wanted a specific spot - it's the one I'm using to hook into power, but I should definitely be done with that project by then.

______________

And bam, just like that. The people for March are booked and paid.  The people showing up for overnight are walking the doggy trail right now - yes, even in this cold weather they were all excited about that trail. I was excited that someone was finally going to walk it! Another couple started on it a while back but it was getting dark.  

And the longer term guy paid up.  This is what I'm talking about.  More of these overnighters, please. I gave them a discount over an already discounted rate. They wanted to pay by card and my laptop was acting up. They wrote a check so I gave them $5 off for the "inconvenience".  Really isn't an inconvenience, but maybe I'll get a review out of them? No clue.  

The trash dude across the street? Animals are getting into the trash now and scattering it everywhere. He is now piling the trash up on his porch.  It's disgusting.  It is a horrible image and I completely forgot to send the mail out to the lady who owns the property.  I will definitely have that letter in the mailbox for pickup tomorrow. If she doesn't do anything about it, I dunno what to do.  I am not going to clean up their mess - tho I have been sorely tempted - because then they'll just think they can do that forever.  

There are giant birds - look like some form of vultures - picking at the trash all the time now besides the signs of animals having dragged the garbage all over the place. The only thing I can say is, even tho it is a horrible look coming into the park, my park is so far back you can't even see that nastiness from the park or even if you can, it's a distant view. I'll have to look tomorrow, but people aren't going to be looking at trash.  

I dunno, I could go on but we are fixing to leave for Longview to go on our bowling adventure with the gang.  

 What happened last night? I was laying there around - whatever time it was in the middle of the night - had turned the light on to get up for a minute.  The light turned itself off.  

Anyway, I have this T Mobile thing that didn't work at the house - tho it was supposed to, I'm taking it over to the property this morning, plugging it in and finding out whether it will work over there.  If not? It's going straight back to T Mobile and they can refund my $50. 

One cheat day - my birthday - and after 5 days, I'm almost back down to where I was when I took the cheat day.  There is a bit of regret on that one - I didn't expect to gain that much weight that quickly or take that long to get it back off.  I won't be doing that again anytime soon.  Give me 3 months or so and I might start discussing a cheat day.

As it stands, we went to a place called Fire and Dice last night for dinner - it's a gaming place but they have a Thursday special for hamburgers with whatever you want on them for $5.  I actually took my own break, ordered the hamburger without bread and used mine. That may sound tacky, it is what it is.  

We are going bowling tonight - I'll just make sure I've eaten before we leave. Haven't been bowling in ages.  I brought it up to the group a while back and it gained some steam to the point that everyone decided they must go, kids and all.  The kids here have never been bowling before, that should be entertaining.  I love bowling. Not particularly good at it but it's fun. The bowling alley in our town closed - I think it was Covid that killed that place.  It's never reopened. They're using the parking lot to train new truck drivers how to parallel park, back in to spaces and general maneuvering.  

I'd go warn all of those people about the horrid aspects of trucking, but - maybe it's their lifeline.  There's plenty of money to be made in that industry, but there is heavy sacrifice to get it. I won't go into all of that, just to say that eventually - sooner or later - I will have to go back into it.  Even with a full park, well maybe I could eek by a living off of it.  I don't think I can get an expansion loan without having some solid income tho and that park just isn't going to cut it as it currently stands. 

I knew that getting into this thing.  I had to start somewhere.  ATM I've got the Amex card, have used it twice and now will wait a couple of weeks and then pay it down to zero.  This will slowly build a credit history.  I'm going to need more lines of credit, this is just what I have at the moment.  The shed loan is in my name, not the business name.  The land loan the same.  

I was just sent a piece of mail - real mail/snail mail - from some group that offered me $74,000 for the property.  What a great price!  More like, you can't be serious.  Even without the park on it, the property is now worth between 150 to 200k.  Add the park and we're more like 350k.  It's not for sale, but it will eventually be used as collateral for a loan somewhere in the vicinity of 250k.  That will upgrade the park from 14 spots to around 50, add a pool and some other amenities that will draw people.  It will also pave that driveway. 

With 50 occupied sites, I can retire.  Well, I can retire from the rat race. I don't consider the stuff I do at the park any form of rat race at all. It's hard work most of the time, but I do enjoy it.  It would be nice if I had another 40k laying around right now to do some of the things it needs and add at least 5 more spaces.  

Now that's a thought.  What if I just went for a smaller loan and only added maybe 10 spaces?  

I could live off of that.  After expenses and taxes I'd take in around 4 grand a month.  That's not bad.  Not for take home pay.  Umm, but right now I'm just struggling to fill the place up.  I still only have 1 Google review.  I have a great review on Hipcamp, I'm hoping that might translate into some more business and a great Facebook review. I need the google reviews, frankly.  

The people I let tent camp overnight for free, in exchange for a Google review? Yup, they never did it.  The people I helped that were struggling to find a place at nighttime? Nothing from them, either and yes, I asked.  The newbies? I won't ask them for a while. Let them stay a bit and then I'll see if they're interested.  

I'm not sure how the parents think about it, but they aren't stopping him from going to church, so I am going to continue on with my discussions with the boy about the Lord.  He asked God to speak to him out in the wood a while back.  I don't make fun of children and their youthfulness and their perspective of the world or in this case - God.  And God knows and even tells us to have a "childlike faith". It's amazing how this kid is really getting interested in knowing more about the Lord.  

For right now, it's time to get my @$$ over to the property and try to get some serious work done today on the laundry project.

 Besides last night's episode of the tv turning itself on and the night before other thing, now an electronic device elsewhere in the house has turned itself on.  I'm not sure what's going on, but if I were going off previous encounters, I would say there is some spiritual warfare going on in this house.  I dunno, but I can tell ya, I've been doing some praying here.  I also was talking to the 8 year old today about the Lord.  He has learned about heaven and hell and other things pertaining to eternal life, but he doesn't quite understand the Christian baseline of "no man shall enter except through Me" and "the only name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" and a lot more scripture.

That name, of course, is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  

I have often found that the enemy ramps up attacks whenever a person is getting close to receiving Christ in their heart.  I can't say I much care for it, especially when this stuff is going on in the dead of night.  But, that is the enemy - darkness.  The Light dispels the darkness.  There are so many scriptures that come to mind now that I'm thinking about it. 

I am going to pray tonight that nothing happens.  Because I really don't want to keep going through this.  I've had these battles and they can go on almost indefinitely.  Rather just believe God to send angels to deal with the situation and get the enemy out of this house.  I'm not going to be run out of here, either.  The blood of Christ breaks the curse - the enemy does not like to hear about the blood of Christ. Mostly because it's the shed blood at the cross of Calvary that defeated satan and his minions.  I don't think the devil understood that killing Christ was actually what God wanted to happen.  What needed to happen. The ultimate, sinless sacrifice - for without the shedding of blood, there is no atonement for sin. This is why bulls, goats, cattle, a lot of different kinds of animals were being sacrificed in the Old Testament.  

Once Christ was hung on the cross and pierced by a spear and his blood came out - and he died - that was it. It was the end. No more sacrifices needed to be made. The thing people don't understand is that Christ came to FULFILL the law, not abolish. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  The 10 commandments didn't somehow disappear in the age of grace.  

I could go on and on, but I do think that this boy coming to Christ is probably the reason for all of this nonsense and if that is true, then it's worth the fight.  

“Pay attention, all of Judah, every inhabitant of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat,” Jahaziel said. “This is what the Lord says to you: Don’t be afraid or discouraged by this great army because the battle isn’t yours. It belongs to God!

  This is what I have to remember when these things start happening, the battle is the Lord's!

6But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. 

 I have lots of scripture flowing through my mind and my heart.  God's word is the way to defeat the enemy, standing in faith upon the Lord's promises to us - yet also remembering to submit to His will. Not because we are obligated, but because we love Him and we want to! It's pure freedom.

"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

 That posted because tomorrow is never a given. It may come or it may happen that I - or anyone - may pass. Just look in the news lately with all kinds of celebrities and people in the limelight that are passing away - even at much younger ages than you would expect or hope for the person. 

So, if the Lord wills - I have been saying that a lot to myself lately - I will go to the property tomorrow and hopefully get something done now that I have pretty much everything that I need to get a lion's share of this project done. The wood to mount the panel is in place, I just need mount the panel now.  

Hopefully the new guy will show up while I'm there working.  This is really contingent upon my sleep tonight tho. Regardless of this stuff going on, some nights I sleep great and other nights it's very poor sleep.  It dictates how much I will get done. In extreme cases, it dictates that I will get nothing done.  I'm trying to get back into "working for a company" mode and it's been very difficult.  

Well, T Mobile router didn't work here at the house.  Not a strong enough signal. Even tho we are allegedly smack dab in the middle of 5g territory.  The property? No idea, it'll be going over there tomorrow. If it doesn't work there, either, it's going straight back to T Mobile.  Great price if it works..useless if it doesn't.  

Then, I'll be stuck with this over-priced Verizon setup and there isn't much I can do about it.  I keep getting emails from Verizon about "overuse" of data and "adding" more to it.  I will be calling them asking them again - for the fun of it - if there is an unlimited data plan for the thing.  There are endless companies offering satellite internet - but it's all the same as Hughes. Slow and expensive.  The different with Starlink is the satellites are much closer to the earth, so I've read anyway.  Other satellites are 22,000 miles up, Starlinks are much much closer giving much faster usage.  

I just can't fathom paying $500 per month for Starlink. In the long run, it is highly likely that coughing up the 7 plus grand for the local, wired internet will be a better deal.  

I've sent an email to Fidelity business sales - a thing I haven't done yet - to ask if they could check into why the engineer thinks the setup needs 1,700 feet of wiring when the next door neighbor has Fidelity?  And clarified - in case they didn't know - I don't want internet at each site, I just want to broadcast wifi.  I don't know what else to do.  Eat high internet bills until something comes along that will work.  

Hmm. Well Starlink is now showing April as the date it will switch from "low capacity" to high capacity in my area.  Well if that's true, that's not terrible far off.  RV starlink is available now, but there aren't any guarantees of service and looking at their service map? Not worth it, we are in low capacity area and very low speeds.  

Well, anyway, if he comes, tomorrow the park is half full.  That is a good thing.  Just 7 to go!

Now, if I could get some sleep without weird things happening tonight....

 Did I have another light encounter last night? No.  Did something out of the ordinary happen? Yes.  In the middle of the night, the TV turned itself on.  No one was awake. The remotes were sitting on the desk, nothing had fallen on them.  That TV has never turned itself on before, ever. Maybe if it had happened by itself and not had the experience I had the night before, I wouldn't think a lot of it.  Then again, TV's don't just turn themselves on.  

I'll just leave that there.  I'm not really looking forward to more things happening in the middle of the night, I can safely say that.  

Today's agenda: Go back to Lowe's yet again. I have a list.  It isn't a thorough list, there will still be some things left to buy, I'm not buying them because I need specific lengths and I'm not going to buy more than I need, not in the inflation-laden economy with ridiculous prices on everything. 

I'm none too keen on buying a metal detector, but I seem to have no choice in the matter.  Well good thing I looked it up. A metal detector won't work for aluminum wiring.  You need a "pipe and cable locator".  Whatever that means, however that works. I'll go to Harbor Freight and see if they have anything. If they don't and if Lowe's doesn't - or if the price is too high - I'll have to either just dig down right next to the water pipe coming up out of the ground and hope that works. I'm not interested in paying people to find it for me or spending hundreds of dollars on this nonsense. 

I guess that's really the best idea. Just dig down the side of the water pipe - all of the stuff should be in the same trench, that's how they did the other side. I never saw how they did the west side, but one should be able to safely assume it was done in the same manner.  It's just digging trenches by hand? Yeah, that's not really easy work.  

My machines are actually in Dallas right now.  So why they are saying they won't be delivered until the 17th or up to 3 more weeks is unknown.  Dallas is 157 miles away from here.  They actually want to schedule a delivery day that I will be there. Well I'll be there today!  Not that I need them yet, but getting them out of the delivery system is a great idea - the longer it sits "somewhere" the more likely to be damaged. And I can tell ya, if either of those machines have any damage at all, I'm going to reject them. This stuff wasn't cheap.  I don't want a single ding or scratch on it.

I think they have a delivery service that actually does this type of thing beyond UPS, FedEx or USPS and likely have you sign a form indicating you agree there is no damage.  Fine and dandy. I will be removing literally ALL of the packaging and inspecting both machines top to bottom, sides, everything.  

If I ever get this done, I will immediately start work on a shower room.  Maybe.  Depending on how much it will cost, but the infrastructure will already be in the shed including hot water, the major expense is the shower stall itself and probably a sink and toilet.  

Politics. Well.....just to say the children are at the circus again.  The name calling, denigration, childishness and buffoonery being displayed in Congress and by the White House right now are astounding.  If you didn't know these are the people running this nation, you would think you were watching some sort of middle school debate club or possibly some sort of social club where people are getting drunk and hurling insults at each other.  

Ok, well time to get down to business. Get to Lowe's get to the property, get to work. No shows on the people that said they were staying for 2 weeks, I assume they went somewhere else. No show on the guy that said he's coming from New Orleans.  So, lost revenues.  Nothing I can do about it, just hope that some more people will see the facebook ad or find my place while looking up places to stay and come in to stay a while - or longer.  I can only do what I can do, the rest is up to the people themselves.  And the Lord's blessing, I should add. Definitely praying for that!  

G'day.  

Property then to Lowe's.  I determined - erroneously - that the panel I bought at Home Depot was the incorrect one.  When I started taking panels (breaker boxes) out of the boxes at Lowe's (with the store employee's consent), I started scratching my head.  I couldn't understand where the main underground wires were supposed to attach to.  I'm from a different era, apparently, where they always connect to lugs that connect to the different plates to deliver power or neutral.  

Reading all kinds of instructions, there was no indication or pictures of where they go into.  I went to an area in Lowe's where my phone actually has good signal and started watching youtube videos.  This went on for a long time.  So I'm examining the setup - it's completely different than anything I had seen.  They were all like that and trust me, there were 3 different brands of breakers and I looked at a lot of different panels. 

The main breakers were attached to the same blocks where you would install a circuit breaker and run lines out of them to the various outlets.  This didn't make any sense to me.  How does the main breaker get power?  How can it shut the power off if it's attached to the same blocks as the rest of the breakers.  That's when it finally dawned on me that the main power lines must connect to the main breaker itself, not to lugs on a separate position in the box that power the main breaker.  I pulled the main breaker off and sure enough.  

I had to hit myself for spending such an incredible amount of time trying to figure that out.  I was at Lowe's for hours. Not 20 minutes, not 45 minutes, hours.  The employee finally inferred that "well may you should get an electrician".  Yeah, but I don't have thousands of dollars to pay that same-said electrician and if I do enough research and think about this stuff long enough, I will figure it out.  I only have 4 lines to run.  It really shouldn't be that hard, but again, I have never actually tried to install a breaker box before excepting one I installed at my house for outdoor use. But, I hooked that box up to the main breaker box.  That was pretty easy. 

So, I had to go back to the property and look at the box I bought. Sure enough, same thing, same setup, I was relieved, actually, that I didn't have to take it back to Home Depot.  Then I went over to the power pedestal and where the water and sewer lines are.  I started digging into the ground - and hitting roots.  Well wait a minute, these are giant roots, there are no trees here now (there used to be), if they had dug down here for the trench, the roots would be gone.

So I tried to dig down further over, same thing.  In case you didn't know, digging dirt isn't exactly the easiest thing to do, it's very physical and no, I'm not just going to randomly try to find those pipes and the underground electrical wire. I'm going to see if I can find someone with a metal detector that can go up to 4 feet in depth.  If not, I'll have to buy my own. I really do not want to buy a metal detector for a one time thing.  It just seems like such a waste of money.  But, I'm not going to just blindly start digging out a trench with a mini ex and risk hitting that stuff and then having to have it fixed.  Or sitting there trying to locate it by digging down by hand. It's too far down to do that. 

Back to the shed, I started taking measurements for the electrical lines.  Pretty simple stuff, I've got all of that done. Now, to try and find out how they connect a waste water line to a 4 inch sewer pipe.  I would assume there is a reducer you can buy. But, I am not going to go anywhere to buy anything for that set up until I know 100% what I need. Not after today's fiasco.   While I was out there, a late model - very expensive - F250 full of young men came driving through.  They didn't want to stop, I just waved at them. Pretty sure they were scoping the place out for bringing in one or more trailers.  

But, since they didn't stop, I don't know if that means they aren't interested or if that means they are going around the area checking all the places out before they decide where to camp out semi-permanently.  

Hmm, well we have a washer setup in the pantry. I can at least find out what size line they use for the water to dump into.  I'm thinking a 4X2 wye.  Or T if I want to set it up for future use to run to the shower that I eventually intend on setting up.  In fact, I know where I want the shower, I could dig out the trench to that location and install the pipe if I have enough or even go buy another stick.  It will save me from having to rent an rather expensive piece of machinery.  

I don't know, but there is still some stuff left to buy and this brain activity has drained me. Time to relax for a while and then decide whether I'm going to go back at it today or just wait until the morning. Considering the time of day? Probably pick this up in the morning.  

There was a couple that was going to show up today - it's not too late yet. They may have found something else or they are just more late in the day travelers. The guy from New Orleans? I have no clue.  I'll give it until Friday and then I'll just give up on it.  Money I could use is all I can say about that.  

 It was a pretty strange night last night.  Number 1, the sleep that I have desperately wanted finally came.  I was dead to the bone out of it.  I slept 4 straight hours, woke up in a fog and went straight back to sleep.  But the strange stuff occurred around 2:00 am.  I was having this vivid dream where I put on a particular song that I have been listening to for decades and then started praising the Lord.  It was getting quite intense.  Usually, when a dream gets too intense I wake up.  At some point, a brilliant white light filled everything and I woke up during this bright light. It didn't go away.  I felt like I was being dragged off the bed and being pulled to -somewhere.  The light was so bright I couldn't see anything else, not even in my mind, it was all this brilliant light. 

It went away eventually and I realized I was still in the same sleeping position that I was in when I had originally gone to sleep. I could have sworn I had been pulled off the bed at least.  I then came to the understanding that it was my inner being, not my body, that was being pulled.  I literally thought I had died and was approaching the afterlife.  

It's hard to adequately describe what happened last night, but I can tell ya, there was some "reckoning", I'll put it, with the Lord and repenting of things.  It wasn't a sense of going to Heaven or Hell, it was more of a "you need to  make some changes" once it was all said and done and I was laying there - trembling actually - and wondering what, exactly, just happened to me.  

Not going to go further with it than that, most people don't believe in the spiritual realm, I have been getting subjected to it since I was a small child, some of it was quite chilling in effect and nature.  I have also been having dreams of the future that come to pass for many decades now.  

Anyway, it's supposed to rain.  That isn't going to stop me from going over to the property, in fact, it's much earlier start today than I did yesterday.  I'm not sure what, exactly, I'm going to do, but likely I'm going to pull that breaker box out of the box it's in, examine it and see what it's going to take to mount it.  

I'm fairly certain I'll have to buy a 2x4 to add to the frame in the shed to be able to mount the thing to actual wood.  Obviously, something that big and after adding wiring and more circuit breakers isn't going to "mount" to a thin sheet of metal.  I need more supplies, but I want to take another look at everything in the shed first.  Caution tape, dryer outlet, 8-2 wire for the dryer and the water heater and a bit less gauge for running through the walls for the ceiling light and regular outlets.  20 amp for the washing machine.  I've got this pretty well figured out, but actually doing it?  Yeah, that's going to be interesting to say the least.  

It just feels a bit - strange - right now with all that stuff that happened last night.  

The washer and dryer are "in transit".  Apparently they will be in transit for quite a while.  Still, I need to get everything set up and ready.  I think I dread trying to dig that ditch more than anything.  It's much deeper than anything I've tried and I don't necessarily have the skills - yet.  Ok, well I guess sitting here isn't going to accomplish anything, tho I am enjoying a nice cuppa.  

I was in the dark when I got to Home Depot and realized there is more information that I needed. Can I run aluminum wire to the box?  Well I don't know why not.  But I wanted to be sure, everything was talking about copper on it.  But you aren't mixing the aluminum with the copper. The aluminum clamps into the lugs to supply the box with power.  The store employee running that department knows nothing about electrical, so he wasn't helpful.  Sometimes they have people working there that are previously in the trade and can answer all of your questions.  But I determined that was okay.  Then I was trying to find a dryer outlet, the 4 prong things.  They either didn't have them or they certainly weren't on the shelves in the electrical section.  

Yup, Lowe's it is, I know where they are in that store.  They also didn't have the 8-2 interior Romex wire I needed.  I hope Lowe's has it, otherwise you have to buy an entire roll for hundreds of dollars.  I need maybe 20 feet.  My water heater is going to be 2 feet away from the breaker box.  I will need 8 feet or so for the washer. Wait. I'll need more. Just remembering that I'm running a wire to a switch and then to an overhead light.  It would be a bit ridiculous to have a dark room.  

And an extra outlet - for my use.  The water heater is direct wired, there are no outlets.  You simply run a wire from a 30 amp breaker in the box, through conduit - it's external so I have to use conduit - and wire nut the wires together and walaah.  

This all sounds so easy, right?  It's a good thing the machines aren't showing for at least 10 days, I suspect I will be going crazy trying to figure everything out.  As it stands, I will be watching YouTube videos tonight.  I should say, MORE of them.  What I watched initially wasn't enough information, I'm finding out after today's visit to the store.  It's no big deal, I haven't even started yet.  I will be going to Lowe's tomorrow and then just start on the interior.  There is in the 80-90% range chance of rain.  If I can work outside, then so beit.  I want to get the breaker box installed and I suspect that's going to be an ordeal in itself.  

___________

Many hours later.  I had gone home - it didn't appear Taylor was going to be home in time to get the kids from the bus stop so I went and got them, threw a whole chicken in the oven and then received a few phone calls. One was from the trash service that I had contacted days ago.  The lady said, oh, well it looks like you contacted us a while back, are you still in need of trash service?  

Yes, indeed I am.  I flat told her I'm a business but I don't yet need a dumpster.  Went through yet another account setup - although they certainly didn't want near as much information as T-Mobile - which just sent an email saying my new unit is on it's way. Anyway, we got the nitty gritty of the deal: $30 per month for trash service, once a week pickup.  These are large containers - big enough to possibly last a week.  Well, I'd say definitely it would last at week current usage.  I was expecting more, $30 per month is great!  That will be added to the business account as well.  

The other call was from a lady looking for a place to stay for a couple of weeks.  Sure!  She said that sounds great after telling her the price but at the end it was "we'll probably see you tomorrow".  Meaning, of course, if they find something they like better, they are not going to show up.  It's going to rain tomorrow, but I'll get out there and take care of them - in the rain - to give outstanding customer service.  I want that to stay consistent as long as I'm in business.  

I mean, I could definitely use the money. I haven't had anyone calling about long term. I just can be glad that I have 6 of them in there now and so far, no sign of anyone leaving.  Some short termers would be great, that's what I'm saying.  If I can get the internet under control, I'm going to be pretty happy with everything, get that laundry stuff done and wash my hands of it.  Meaning, it's going to be time to go back to work - but I can hold out longer now that I have transferred a lot of bills to the business checking account.  

I just contacted the web designer to change the rates back down.  I need to get access to everything and see if I can change it myself without messing anything up.  I don't want to have to contact him every time I want to change wording or prices on the website.  I get a little antsy when I want a change but I have to wait sometimes up to 24 hours for him to change it.   

Anyway, I really need to get some good sleep tonight.  

 I wasn't going to write anything before going out to get stuff done this morning - but....

It was a horrible night in terms of sleep.  I got 4 straight hours of sleep, woke up and then half the night laying around trying to get back to sleep. By the time I did get back to sleep, it kept me sleeping til almost 9:30 am!  

This has got to stop.  I'm thinking I just need to get out of bed and do something when this happens - something monotonous and boring.  I have exactly the thing for that: business paperwork.  Spend an hour doing that and something inside of me will be begging  me to go back to sleep.  I'm seriously considering doing that tonight if this nonsense happens again.  I can't be laying around in bed, sleeping until the morning hours are almost over. Ridiculous.   

I've got the first month's bank statements and I want to do that on the ledger.  Quickbooks supposedly will automatically input anything going in or out of my bank account.  Well and fine, but not everything I am doing is going through the bank.  

My personal bank accounts are now, finally, depleting at a much slower pace now that I have diverted a lot of stuff - all business related -over to the business checking account.  About time.  I need more long term tenants.  I've only had one guy saying he's coming "sometime" this week and a lady that was interested but no real commitment.  I have another Facebook ad running.  

My new T Mobile internet box should be here on Thursday. Whenever it arrives, it is going immediately over to the property and getting set up.  If it doesn't work, I'll try it here at home. Fidelity isn't exactly cheap. The "claim" from T mobile is that it is on 5g network, extremely fast speeds and it allegedly doesn't matter how many devices are hooked up to it.  Well, this household has a LOT of devices between us. Laptops, desktops, phones, game systems, Nintendo Switches, I don't really even know the extent of what they have.  We definitely get our money's worth out of the bill I pay, but if it could be more than cut in half with the same results, I'd be down for it. 

Otherwise, the thing will be sent back to them - sorry, this thing didn't perform as advertised.  Still, $50 per month. They claimed it will never go up from there. I wonder how long they'll have that available at that rate?  Unlimited data? There must be something here that isn't telling the whole story.  Like perhaps throttling the speed so it's extremely slow after a certain amount of data is used up.  Or who knows what games they can play?

Alright, even tho a bit late in the day - I haven't left yet because I will sit and drink my obligatory cup/s of coffee before I do anything - I can still get over to Longview and get all that stuff I was thinking to get today.  I also remembered this morning we have an "old" trash can that I can take over to the property. A few years ago, the city's contract with the trash company expired - that trash company didn't want to do it anymore.  We were required to have our own trash receptacles to put out on the curb side.  It was great tho, you could put whatever out there, as long as it was curbside, they would pick it up.  Once Republic took over, they had their own trash cans and they wouldn't allow your own can out there.

Well, one of them is sort of a mini version of the Republic can and my giant trash bags will be big enough to line the thing.  This way, more trash will fit into it with the same sized bag as the 55 gallon thing I have and won't be quite so wasteful on bags.  Anyway, until I get more people in the park, I'm not going to be getting a trash service out there. Too much money for too little trash.  

Well, I guess I'm awake enough now.  Time to get with the program. 

 T-Mobile. I was told the other day I do not qualify for not in their 5g area. Now I'm told I am. Unbelievable amount of personal information they want to set up an account.  Might as well be getting a home loan.  Seriously, the electric company giving me thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment didn't ask for this much information.  I did it tho, because if it works, its $50 per month for unlimited data with the capability to connect up to 60+ devices at once.   I have to try something other than this Verizon.  I'll be close to $300 for the first month.  That isn't unheard of in the RV industry, but I've only got 6 people living there.  What happens when I have 14?  Untenable.  This is a no contract situation with T-Mobile, the same as Verizon.  

I'm really hoping it works.  I just can't be dumping all this kind of money out for a free service.  I could even see getting 2 accounts for a better experience.  I'll be doing a speed test whenever the thing shows up. You just plug the thing in and it does the rest. Seriously, you don't have to do anything else.  It was the same with the Verizon unit.

I'm actually thinking of getting the trailer and going over to Longview tomorrow instead of going to Lowe's. This would give me the opportunity to get the water heater, the heater enclosure, breaker box, breakers, line, outlets, fittings for the sewer and water lines and whatever else I need all in one fell swoop.  

I take that back. I will go to Lowe's to get the wood to finish the sign - I have the generator still loaded on the trailer. I'm not going to want to take that off until I get that sign finished.  After the sign is done, then I can take off for Longview. I am imagining several hours in that store to get everything.  I've priced out water heaters all over the place, they aren't cheap.  I don't think those inline instant heaters are cheap either.  I'd consider going with one if it were.  I've also determined that I am going to install a shower. 

No, not buying that tomorrow, I don't want to get distracted with that. But, I want to T off the water heater right off the bat with inline valves so I don't have to cut line and shut off - well wait, I'm glad I just thought of a water cutoff.  I'm going to put one to the whole shed and then 3 more: 1 for the water heater, 1 for the washer and 1 for the intended shower.  

This shower is not going to be anything fancy. Buy a premade thing that doesn't need anything but to hook up water lines and a drain. I know nothing about hooking up a shower drain pipe to 4 inch sewer line. Must be adapters.  Obviously would need some sort of P trap as well.  And if there is going to be a shower, there is going to be a toilet. I have nowhere to go over there besides stepping into the woods. That's more for myself than anyone else.  But I suspect I could attract tent campers if there were a shower to be had and also some of the overnight rv'ers.  

I also wouldn't mind putting some of whatever is the cheapest flooring in. Probably not a good look to be having bare, plywood flooring.  Oh, and I know how to install toilets- onto existing setups, but the setup itself? Lol, no. I'll have to do a lot of research before I try setting up a shower stall with a drain setup and a toilet.  That will come later, I just know I want it in there. If I'm spending the money on a water heater, might as well. A utility sink wouldn't be such a bad idea, either.  

It hopefully won't be terribly long before I'll need to rent the mini-ex. But I'm going to have to dig down by hand to the access point where the pipes and power lines go to that last lot.  I will need to see what I need to hook up to everything.  Again, I don't want an open trench for too long.

Whatever the case, I'm writing and rewriting this stuff to get it all in my head everything I will need.  If there's one thing I didn't much care for, it's the contractor's installation of the water line without any shutoff valves anywhere besides at the street itself.  Any future setups will have a water line shut off valve at every site.  They don't cost that much money.  It's a bit ridiculous to think you will have to shut off the water to the entire park because of a problem with a single water outlet.  If I have to cut any of those lines, a water valve will be installed.  In fact, I will just be buying some extra fittings - including a valve - for any problems.  If something breaks, I want to be able to fix it quickly.  

Well, as I said, just filling my head with the information I currently need. There is a lot of stuff there.  Just a lot of minutia.  Some larger items, yes, but a lot of smaller stuff.  Time to go to bed, actually. 

 Long day.

I figure the next few weeks are going to have some long days.  

I was bound and determined to get that sign up. Loaded up everything and then some, including the generator. I took more than I needed in tools - once I  get up there, get the trailer situated next to where the sign is going  up and get started, I am not going to want to have to put everything away and go back to the shed for one thing.  I was so focused on tools and things that I forgot the most important thing: The Sign!!! 

Lmao.  I didn't get far, lol.  Imagine a 4X4 sign, attempting to put that thing up by yourself.  Include in that equation a very windy day.  I almost gave up, the wind was really blowing pretty good and it was making an already difficult job that much harder.  But I didn't give up. I got the thing mounted and screwed in and realized I needed 4 more brackets. It was actually good it was blowing so hard today, it showed that the 4 brackets I had installed? Aren't enough.  The wind pressure will eventually crack the sign and there will be over $300 down the drain.  Those aluminum signs are not cheap and it is supposed to be "permanent".  

So, meet Taylor for lunch and then over to Lowe's.  Got all of that stuff, back to the sign, installed the brackets plus more screws that I didn't have for the earlier-installed brackets and got it all tightened up. But, the wind was still blowing and I was concerned about it bowing in the middle.  I was looking at the sign next to mine.  They had pretty much the exact same setup, except, they had put in 2X2's along the sign edges to help stabilize it. Yup, I'll be going to Lowe's yet once again tomorrow to get the wood for that.  

I bought paint today as well to paint the boards and I was going to paint them, but that wind? I could just imagine paint blowing into my face, so I put that off. Maybe tomorrow will be better? I hope so.  

Still, the sign is up and I think it looks good. I want to get the same type of solar lighting that the people with the other sign have.  This is all about people being able to find the place. Enough had stated that I need a larger sign - but I had already determined that long ago, I just had that small thing in there as a temporary stop gap - at least people could see something to indicate that yes, this is the correct road to turn onto.  

That project is almost done. At most a couple more hours and I won't have to think about that anymore.  

The  next project, of course, is the shed and washer/dryer setup. The underground wire showed up today.  So, while I am at Lowe's tomorrow, I'll also be getting as much of the electrical stuff as I know what to get.  Mostly, I want that outside breaker box installed before I do the trenching.  I just want to be able to dig the trench, lay the pipe and the wire and get that all hooked up quickly. I don't want eternal open trenches and as it stands? I'll have to get caution tape.  I'm not taking any chances with people not paying attention to where they are going, that trench will be going right by the doggy park.  

I think I'm going to have to put in more boards on the inside wall to attach the breaker box to - it really just depends on how big the box is.  As you may be able to tell, there are going to be numerous trips to Lowe's - I just am not in the mood to buy stuff, find out it's wrong, take it bac, etc ad-infinitum.  It's probably 7 miles each way from the park to Lowe's.  I'd go to Home Depot, far prefer them, but they are more than 30 miles each way.  

This is somewhat new territory.  I have never installed underground electrical cable nor have I installed much sewer pipe.  Rest assured, I'll figure it out and get it done.  I don't know how long it will take - but probably longer than what I expect. If I say a week, it's probably going to be more like 2 weeks. The machines are being shipped in the next few days, it will be a good week before they arrive.  My electrical setup will include wiring for 2 of each machine.  Yes, I'm only getting one of each.  

New Amex card showed up today.  I'm going to use it tomorrow for purchase of the stuff at Lowe's - and then turn around and pay it off after 15 days.  No balances will be carried over to the next month on this card. I'll show Dunn & Bradstreet this business isn't near as likely of going under as they estimate it is!  I wish I could change the mortgage to my business as well.  

Fish tank, onto other trivial tidbits of - information lmao.  I've been trying for a while to get it clear in that thing.  It was clear for a long, long time and then suddenly on day, it got all cloudy and has been that way for months. I've tried everything.  Well, everything excepting to change the water several times while cleaning out the gravel.  I'm on the second half tank drain and refill in the last 7 days.  I will do it again in a few days and hope this will begin to clear it up.  I thought at first it was algae.  I also tried some treatment the clears cloudy water. Nope.  This must be it, just dirty water.  

That's it, for today anyway.  Busy day and will endeavor to fill tomorrow up as well.

 My first Hipcamp guests also already left a very cool review. I mean, it's really a very good review.  Hipcamp really pushes the idea of leaving reviews both from the guest to the place they stayed AND the owner of the place they stayed at for the guests. Everyone gets reviewed on Hipcamp!  I did go out of my way to try and make them feel special and comfortable.  I hope that translates into more of them coming my way.  

I went to bed early last night - I was out of it, having not slept worth a crying baby's empty stomach's screams in the middle of the night. But as usual,I woke up in the middle of the night and was awake for a few hours. Sleep did come back to me, tho and I ended up sleeping something like 9 hours.  I need it, I have plenty on my slate and I am fixing to go over there and get the ball rolling.It helps that today's weather is going to be fantastic and the temperature will get up to 70 degrees! 

Unfortunately we're in for more rain on Wednesday, but at least the forecast isn't showing anything like last week with 5 days in a row of it.  

Rain day - if it actually happens - will be spent doing paperwork here at the home office.  I haven't even started on the ledger yet - in that regard it's a good thing there isn't a terrible lot to have to input.  Tenants that are permanent and the overnighters that have come and of course the accounts payable.  Once I get that up to date I will keep it that way from that point out.  

Quickbooks is doing a good job of taking the photos of the receipts and actually interpreting what the receipts say and inputting the info, even the date that the transaction was made. That saves me a lot of work.  

Ooops, the Hipcamp review says "minutes from I-40". I'll have to contact him and hope he can change that, it's I-20 lol.  

Wow this is even better than I thought!  Quickbooks sets up your tax rate and automatically adds it to any incoming sales receipts!  It seems to have done it right, too, it bypassed city sales taxes (I don't have to pay them since I'm not in city limits, thanks, I'm not a tax cheat) and just set it up for the Texas Comptroller. Texas doesn't impose any taxes on me, either, unless I start selling stuff. Yes, the cord of wood I brought in I'm letting people use for free.  I don't want to deal with that right now and it's hardly being used. 

Now, I don't see what the comptroller is taking, if I understand this correctly, it ends up getting paid to the feds.  I could be understanding this wrong and it may be adding tax I don't have to pay.  I'll need to get more info about that.  

Anyway, the day is beginning to age and I am motivated to get stuff done today.

G'day

 I dunno what to tell ya. 

If these people want to just show up and move in?  As long as I at least talked to them on the phone first? It's fine by me.  Exactly what happened today.  Dude calls - How much, do you have 30 amp hookups, etc.  Yes.  He says he's a couple hours out - this is long term stuff here - so I told him he could check it out first, if he likes it, call me and I'll come over there.

Well, I thought nothing further of it, if they show, they show, if they don't, they don't, I'm not stressing ove this stuff.  

Later on, I got a notification from HipCamp. That's a venue where people who have any kind of place to park your RV or pitch a tent get on the platform and say, hey! We gotta place for you!  Well why not?  It actually costs me less than the campground software I'm using now, including the credit card processing fee.  Hipcamp is pretty cool, actually.  It was my first customer with them.  Hipcamp sends you a text message notifying you of the reservation and all the details, then at the bottom it says something like "If you wish to communicate with them, you can do so by replying here!".

I like that, it goes through their system to deliver messages both ways. Well, after a texting discussion, I waited about an hour and then went over there. It isn't actually surprising now to me that the first guy that called today had picked a spot and moved in. Nice guy, got out a checkbook, another pipeline worker.  Says he lives - well far away, enough that making a trip everyday is not desirable. 

He said he came to my place, looked around, went to 2 places closer, was not happy with them and came back to my place.  Okay!  His statement was the spots at those 2 places were both muddy and sites crammed in together. "You know, when you put your slideouts out, they are almost touching your neighbor's slideouts?".  

Yup, I know. I didn't say that to him, I just thought about all the research I had done before deciding to make wider lots versus attempting to save money on utilities and gravel by having them scrunched in. A LOT of research.  It may seem like a no-brainer, but there are still people building new parks that are - cramming them in like sardines.  

I'm up to number 6 long term now.  If the other guy shows this coming week, I'll be half full.  Regardless, I'm more than paying the bills now.  And if I could just get more people to come in for overnights?  I wouldn't have to go back to trucking.

I went out to the highway, figured I'd wait a minute and see if they were going to show up - however, they already paid in advance.  I followed them into the park and we got into a lengthy discussion. 

You see, they just came from Fort Meyers, Florida- they normally fly in down there but they said the lady's sister and family were sleeping on cots in what was left of the garage of their home.  They showed pics.  You know those news stories about boats in mangrove trees? Yup, that family had had one end up 20 feet or so off the ground, they had pics to prove it.  They're just overnighters, but I am glad for the business. 

 I'm hoping these people leave me a good review, they were very happy about my place and informed me it was "on the upper end of the scale" of how nice it was compared to other Hipcamp places they have stayed. 

Well it's been a long day.  I was 2 towns over - getting the cheaper version of a cornhole game that Dick's sporting goods has.  My website says I have it, I'll just set it up somewhere and if people want to play it, great. In fact, I'll be putting it somewhere near the community fire pit.  

Trying to get those - railroad ties - cut up has been a ridiculous exercise in futility.  The miter saw has a maxium lift setting, it won't go high enough to get the tie into it's cutting area. I would have had to take off a safety device, which I actually would have been happy to do, but I didn't have a hex wrench to get it off with.  

I actually was able to get a few cut off with the chainsaw - and then gave up on it.  Nonsense, I had no idea how difficult that was going to be, I wouldn't have bought the darn things if I HAD known, or asked Lowe's to cut them up for me. 

I'm not unhappy right now. Every time someone moves in there, I get a little more relief. Like, ok, this might actually work out for me.  

 You could tell Addler was having an absolutely delightful time prancing and galloping around the trails, stopping to sniff here, do his thing there, etc.  We went around the entire thing and headed back to the SUV - however, he was having none of that. He ran straight for the trailhead entrance and then stopped, staring at me. Ok, Ok!!! I went around a shorter version for I have stuff to do today, but I wanted to give him plenty of time to get his pent up energies out.  

The driveway near the back where the gas platform is, is rather ridiculous.  I'm figuring with everything I need to do, I would need 17 truckloads of gravel.  That's $8,500 plus tax for the cheaper stuff, about $9,500 for the better stuff.  Yup, I don't have that.  Or, I should say, I don't have that to spare.  

________________

I don't know what happened to the day. Took Addler home, came back with a grinder, made the new saw blades to fit the sawzall (a huge selection of them at Lowe's, none of them were the right size), then tried to cut through the remaining portions on the railroad ties.  

I am amazed at these ties.  They don't want to give it up.  I can see why they use them for railroad tracks, they aren't busting up into little pieces any time soon - and these are old ties that have been removed from the tracks!  I may be amazed, however, I have ruined a chainsaw chain, probably the motor on the circular saw and the sawzall ran out of power before I could finish - and that was taking forever just to do one cut anyway.

James has a miter saw he says will cut through them. I'll find out tomorrow morning, I'll be over there attempting to get stuff done.  I want those blocks available from those railroad ties!  And I want the sign up!  And a lot of other things that cannot be done in one day.  I've got all the elbows in mind that I will need for the piping and I've scoped out the electrical outlets, the outdoor breaker box and breakers I need and other things at Lowe's today. I didn't buy anything - just want to get some of it on the new Amex card.  Don't actually have the card, I can buy it online and pick it up curbside. 

I have not yet looked into what you can use for holes drilled into the shed.  Meaning, some kind of flange or something to seal the inlet for the water line, the sewer line and the wiring.  I will be looking into that - tomorrow or Monday, actually, it's getting late and I'm not staying up too much longer.  

Oh, the estimated shipping date for the washer and dryer are between 2-6 and 2-8. That's the shipping date, not the arrival date.  Apparently ships from the east coast, 1 to 7 business days to arrive. Well, we aren't close to New Jersey, I'll guess it's closer to 7 days.  So, that's that 15th at the latest the machines will arrive.  Wire "expected to arrive Saturday Feb. 4th". Well, I can get the trench dug and get that stuff installed anyway, basically try to have the whole thing up and ready to hook up by the time the machines arrive. I'll have power in that shed for general use, rest assured I'm installing a couple of regular outlets as well. I've got too much money in this stuff, I'm going to work on it once I have everything until it's done.

Mom ordered a folding table for the operation as my birthday gift : ) I wanted her to pick one out and she got it done quickly.  

Still trying to decide whether to get a dumpster or not. Today, that 55 gallon canister was crammed full of garbage. I'm going to see how long it takes to fill it up again before deciding.  I have room at our house container for 2 more of those in it. I'm not looking to spend money I don't need to spend.

Finally? I was looking for land to rent for a truck parking lot. There is none available. But the thought crossed my mind - they are going to build that Interstate right through here - well the other side of town anyway. THAT is where I need to find something.  Not now? Well, the problem is that I am guessing others will have similar ideas.  A truckstop, gas stations, whatever, over there for people to stop at.  Wherever the exits are going to be, that's where land is going to probably go at a premium. NOW would be the time to find something.  

With that? I"m offa here. 

 Google Update. It installed a new version and somehow managed to sing me out of every thing that I have to log into.  Some things I forgot the passwords to and had to go through a whole password reset.  

I will never voluntarily update Google again. If it happens on it's own, so beit, but I'm not clicking on the "update now" button. I simply don't have the time for this nor the desire to have to sit there and log into all of these different platforms. Geesh.  

Anyway....now that that drama is over with, I was finally down 2 more pounds today!  I'm back in the teens territory again, sitting at 219 pounds. I stepped on and off the scale a few times to make sure I was getting an accurate reading.  My original goal was 200 pounds before cheating - but - Sunday is my birthday and I'm definitely going to take a cheat day. I'm already regretting it, lmao. I was going to go full blown cheat all day long, but after seeing this morning's progress, I have decided....not to decide yet. 

Just have to see. The two week guest left yesterday, his work at the plant completed.  I sent him a request to give me a Google review.  As of yet, he did not do it.  I can only ask, folks, if they do it, great, if they don't, at least I tried.  

Next: There is finally some sun shining ! Yayyyyyyyy!  Thank you Jesus!  

What to do with it? Get out there and get busy!  You know, it would be a great day, tho, to take Addler for a nice long walk.  He hasn't been out in 5 days except to go potty excepting yesterday, I forced him to stay out there for a while after it had warmed up a bit. Oh, that's the other thing, he doesn't like cold either. Can't blame him, he is short-coated and can't tolerate cold conditions for too long.  It's 41 degrees right now, getting up to a high of 52 later on. Yes, the dog is on his bed in my bedroom.  But if I take him for a walk he will warm up quickly. I'd like to see what the tiny stream looks like right now. I have never seen that much water running through the RV park area before, I'm curious as to how large the actual stream has widened to? 

So wonderful. The washer and dryer set I ordered? Yeah, it never went through. I'm sitting here going through the system to find - nothing.  Gag. Another week at least before I will see them.  My wire was just today sent off from the USPS facility it was sitting in Illinois.  No shock there with all this bad weather but the washer-dryer thing a bit perplexing.  Oh well!  Crazy.  Now the company just called to confirm the purchase.  

Anyway, allegedly I have a couple coming in today.  I don't know what time and frankly, I don't know if the roads over there are decent enough to drive on yet?  But, I assume if they are typical RV'ers they'll arrive sometime this afternoon. Which is good, because after I take Addler for a walk, I need to go to Lowe's and buy the electrical equipment and also blades for the sawzall to finish cutting up the railroad tie.  I have 2 ties out there, just cutting up one for now.  Those ties are solid and that tar or pitch or whatever they put on them makes it like cutting through stone or something. I think I destroyed my Harbor Freight circular saw doing it.  I'll try the next one using the sawzall only.  I'm not ruining any more chainsaw chains.  I should have just asked Lowe's to cut them for me, I had no idea how much of an ordeal that little situation was going to turn into.  

Whatever the case, it's 10 am and I'm outta here.  

 Sat at the property for a long time. 

Got fresh pics of 3 trailers side by side to give context for how much space you will have away from your neighbor if you come to our park. 

It's much more space than some of the other pics really show you and some people have stated they originally thought everything was crammed together.  This is why I wanted a pro photographer out there.  She took great pics, but none of them really show you the space between lots without 2 of them being parked side by side. 

Honestly, this weather is just gloomy and depressing. There is a reason I don't live in constantly rainy regions - Seattle come to mind. I think everyone is going to be happy tomorrow if the forecast is accurate and we get a full, sunny day!

Well, just no motivation today.  It's been raining all morning and into the afternoon. I went to Kroger's, home, then realized I was missing an ingredient and saw the older couple - the dude half - at the store.  He said a truck had come pulling in and was sitting pretty much where I had been sitting.  He thought it was a service truck and that I was waiting for them to show up.

No. Wasn't expecting anyone.  Did you see what company it was with?  He couldn't tell from that far away.  Well, it could be the power company, there isn't any other service companies that would need to go back there.  I am expecting a washer and dryer to show up - I don't know when. A roll of underground wire - stalled in Illinois because of weather.  I sort of figure a lot of people coming through are either competitors checking us out, neighbors that are curious or potential customers.  I've seen lots of them.

Oil and railroad so far, the next one coming in - if he shows next week - is power. He says he is coming for several months to be an on-call person for whenever the power goes out.  There is an energy plant down 43 - that I didn't know about - that he will be on call for.  I'm as close as they get to that plant.  No one has shown up with junky rigs.  I don't want junky rigs - at all - I'm just saying I haven't been disappointed with the quality of the RV's coming in. 

Okay. 

Delving into the world of Quickbooks.  Some of it easy enough, some of it needs explanations.  I'm currently taking photos of all of the receipts I have saved for construction of the business. There are a lot of them.  I'm up to 60 grand and much more to go.  I don't know if buying the property is somehow tax deductible.  I want to get all that stuff in there and then I'll make an appointment with the accountant.  I would assume they will work with quickbooks and hopefully will just access your account for the info they need.  

Very time consuming.  But I've got to get it done.  Once I go see a tax expert, I am fairly certain they are going to give me strange looks and wonder wth all of this is?  Well, it's the receipts for building the park, most of the incurred last year.  I made zero income off the business last year - that should simply things.  I also connected quickbooks to my bank account - and there is a lot more they want me to do to have a "complete" profile.  

Yeah, well one step at a time, please. 

I've written down all the people that are staying long term, the date they paid, their credit card info (yes, they are allowing it), phone number, lot they are on.  It's mostly that I need to know when they need to pay. But it appears I can set quickbooks up to remind/show me when any given customer is due to pay rent.  I'll figure that out - eventually. Until I do, I have a written record and frankly? I'm going to keep a written record of it regardless.  Quickbooks will keep track of incoming payments and outgoing payments. It will do a lot for just the basic setup.  $15 per month is money well spent for this, I do believe.

Well I'm started on that anyway.  I figure working on it an hour a day or so and it won't take that long to get all the receipts in and get the software setup correctly.  I won't need campworks to hook into it, everything coming in is going through my bank account except for cash payments which obviously don't go through the campgound software anyway.  In fact, so far, the campground software has been all but useless.  I hope someday people will use it to book daily or weekly stays!  Yeah, getting those daily people in.  Tough.  Working on it.  Need more reviews.  After these long term guys have been here a month or so, I'm sending them a request link to give a google review.  The guy that is here 2 weeks I'll send to him after he leaves.  

What if they didn't like it? If they didn't, they certainly aren't giving me that impression.  

I was looking at receipts for the trackhoe (mini-ex, I call them trackhoes regardless of size, even the mini's ARE on tracks) $477 per use.  Necessary evil,, perhaps, but that's a lot of money for only one day's use. 

I have all 8 hours of that thing planned out for it's use.  It'll be a long day.  I don't even know if I can get the trench dug out in one day? A pro could do it in a couple of hours but me?  Lol, no idea.  But, we'll hope for no longer than 5 hours?  I then have a ditch to dig alongside the driveway.  The fenceline side.  There is nowhere for rainwater to drain, it just runs on the driveway itself.  If I can get that done ina timely manner, I can try to push the first burn pile out.  It's just a mount of dirt with ashes and some burned wood left on it.  Needs to go. 

That will take all day, at least. I don't have to plan anything else for it. I'll get my money's worth of it, in other words. I don't really think a machine that small is worth that much for one day rental. There are no other choices. Bring it from Longview and pay a hefty delivery fee.  I haul the trackhoe from the local place myself, it's only a few miles. But I wouldn't want that much weight on my SUV for 35 miles each way.  

Well I'm done with this.  Getting the kids in a few and dinner is on.  

 Sometimes I write an entry, click the button to post it and then get off of here. I come back the next day or later on or whenever and there it is, still sitting as a draft?  Many of those never get posted.  

This weather is starting to remind me of Seattle, when I was up there 3 months and it rained every single day.  Not most days, not many days, every day.  We're on day 5 of rain and there is no letup in sight, at least for today.  Tomorrow the forecast is bright and sunny. Can't wait for that!   Ill be planning today what I"m going to do tomorrow since much of the last 4 days have been a bust.  I'm hopeful those new tenants stuck in Dallas-Forth Worth area haven't had time to change their mind.  That happens you know.

I wouldn't be pulling a super-large 5th wheel trailer if I were them through that mess, either.  Well, I wouldn't want to anyway.  My trucking experience I would probably just do it anyway unless the roads were so treacherous it would be stupid to keep driving.  Yes, I've been stupid before, freely admit it. Drivng through blizzards, tornadoes, sleet, hail, flooding, I'm a little wiser in my older age but I've done some pretty dumb stuff out there.  All in the name of the dollar bill.  Which makes it even dumber to do.  

Personal wealth and the daily rat race are becoming less and less important to me.  If I could get around 30 more lots in there and fill them up, I wouldn't have to "work" ever again.  I love working out there at the property. It IS work, but it's something I mostly enjoy. Not everything, of course, but most of it is therapeutic even.  

Once I got into it a bit, I didn't even mind starting to pull all of those weeds. And there are plenty more to go, lol.  I dunno, but sitting at home I'm starting to get restless. Yes, I have plenty I can do here, but I have to have some outlet, get moving, get the heart pumping, feel alive.  Of course, I could go stand out in the rain in a muddy field and pull more weeds.  They would slide right out of the ground right now.  I probably will do some of that tomorrow just to take advantage of it while it's still quite wet out there.  

I'm now stuck at 11 pounds down, Keto diet that is, but the fat is coming off.  It's becoming noticeable now. The love handles have shrunk considerably.  The belly is shrinking and the waist is definitely smaller - a bit. It almost makes me not want to cheat for my birthday on Sunday.  But they mentioned cake and it would be rude to have a birthday cake put in front of you and not eat any of it.  It'll just be a day of high carbs and then the next day? I'll fast at least 24 hours.  When I say fast, I mean water only.  It's the quickest way to get back to ketosis.  

I think I'm going to go to the property in a bit and just sit and dream.  I did that yesterday, it was raining and I just sat there.  There are 6 trailers there but when I was there yesterday? No one was home.  All out working excepting the retired couple, don't know where they went.  None of my business, either. They are friendly people and will socialize here and there, but for the most part, they like to keep to themselves with the noteable exception of having family and friends over here and there.  Oh,they have the rent for me, but I'm not collecting it until tomorrow probably. I'm not going to get wet getting money, it can wait another day.  

I've just about given up trying to find another internet solution. 7 plug grand for Fidelity or wait for starlink (and hope it works as well as people say it does).  From my calculations, I'm 3 days away from running out of my data allotment for the Verizon internet setup and then there will be 6 days of extra charges on there.  It will bring the total bill for 30 days to around $240.  There are 5 out of 6 people using it so far.  

There are plenty of satellite options out there.  Endless advertisements for them.  But their speeds are questionable.  T Mobile apparently has internet access out there and if I could get the 5g signal, they would give me an awesome deal. But since 5g isn't available out there - yet - they want to put me on a limited profile. Meaning, the same thing I have with Verizon right now.  Limited data and then overage charges.  Well, I checked those options all out, Verizon has the best plan for allowable data and overages.  

I have no idea what to do beyond going into yet another loan for Fidelity wired cable or just waiting for starlink. ATM? Waiting for starlink. I'll pay the upfront costs for Starlink whenever it becomes available to find out if it can supply what I need.  It is highly likely that at some point? I'm going to cough up the considerable amount of money Fidelity wants and eat it.  They're hard wired and I have it at home.  It works great - usually anyway - and they have unlimited plans.  If I ever get into building more lots - which I definitely plan on doing at some point - I'm going to need cable that supplies a much better signal and download speeds.  

Well enough.  Some things you just have to let loose and let go.  The only reason I kept looking at internet possibilities is because of course, once you start googling something, Facebook picks it right up and starts throwing endless ads at you.

For now? I'm heading to the property.  See what kind of catastrophe the driveway is. 

 Well, we were spared the sleet/freezing rain/snow.  I would have loved to see some snow tho.  We have not been spared the rain or cold temperatures, however and it's slated to rain all day long and the high is slated to be 35 degrees.  It's not going to be a productive day in terms of work, I'm simply not working in the rain.  There is nothing out there that important that needs to be done that I'm going to risk getting sick over.  

I have plenty of paperwork to do and today seems to be the ideal day to try to get it done.  Quick books may be my business friend, but it's paperwork and I don't like it, lol.  

However, before I start doing that, I will be taking my daily trip over there, check everything out, see if the new guy has moved in yet - and then leave, lol.  

Anyway, the lady from the welding company paid the bill for the 2 lots - I added the alleged card processing fee, only to find the full amount in my business checking account.  They haven't actually taken any fees out of any of  the payments I have received thus far, neither have I received a bill for it?  My bank hit me with a service fee at $15 that I didn't know existed.  

I don't know, maybe there has to be a  minimum balance maintained all month long to keep from getting that fee.  I"ll be finding out.  What is nice to see is that all the bills have been paid for last month and there is a nice little chunk of change sitting in that account.  

My Facebook ad actually helped me get these people and I'm considering doing it again.  I really want to get at least 2 more long term in there.  In fact, if I got 3 more in there? I would be able to pay myself the same wages as when I was working at Ferguson.  I'm not saying that's anything great - but I could live off of it.  It's kind of an interesting situation.  Pre-tax of course.  Get the park full of long term?  If I just cut back on certain things I could actually keep myself out of trucking.  

I think for $20 it's worth trying that ad again.  I've got it up on my website some verbiage saying laundry room coming soon - I can't remember how the web designer worded it.  You have to scroll down a bit to see it, but it is prominently displayed.  Now that I've got oil field workers in there, it may be that they might give some word of mouth promotion for the park as well.  I dunno. I may rethink my action of raising the rates $50.  

We'll see.  I'm leave it there for a while and see if I can get anyone to take a lot at that rate.  Look, I'm encouraged that I have 5 full timers in there now and none of them indicate they are going anywhere anytime soon.  

I've figured out that I have to send in payments to the federal government quarterly.  I have not figured out how much of a percentage I need to pay them. Because I am a sole proprietor, what I'm required to pay is income tax and I think SS and medicare.  There is another park in town with an office manager that is willing to help me, I'm  trying to think of everything I want to discuss with her before I call her. She runs the nuts and bolts of the operations - the thing I despise the most: paperwork.  

I know, I need to see a CPA, there are plenty around and one 2 blocks away taking appointments.  It's just money I don't want to spend but money I must spend in order to keep myself out of IRS cross hairs.  First and foremost, 2022 taxes.  I had no income from the business but I sure as Hercules spent a ton of money on that project!  I haven't even looked at it, but I can guess how much I made from the previous job last year.  I was taxed at a much higher rate, I should stand to be due a healthy refund.  

As always, sitting here drinking coffee and writing isn't getting much of anything done, but it does help me focus. There is no way I"m going to go back there today and try to get that trailer out of there. Recipe for disaster, I'd have to wait all day long for James to get off of work to get him to come over with his 4x4 pickup to pull me out.  The water heater and enclosure? Can wait.  

But what I think I will do, now that I'm thinking about it, is go to Lowe's figure out what I need, write it all down and then go home, get on this computer and order everything for the electrical.  I wish one of the other credit card companies would have given me the nod because Amex doesn't like you carrying balances and right now, it wouldn't bother me to carry a balance linked to the business account.  Just perplexing why Amex said yes and others said no.