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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'nite.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'nite. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And with that, I must be out of here. 

G'day.  

 It went down like this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That, folks, is when all hell broke loose.  

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

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

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

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

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

___________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'nite. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Late loads aren't really all that fun.  

G'day.  

 It's been a bit since last post.

A few things have transpired. 

Upon renting a skid steer and going to town with it, the next door neighbor on the west side came over.  He talked with James first - who was out helping me, he was doing the chainsaw and cuttin down all the junk I had uprooted, needed to be done to fit into a smaller fire - of which I intend on doing soon.  

This man went straight into property lines.  Not in a bad way, at least I didn't take it that way, but he definitively informed me that the barbed wire fence running between our properties? That is not the property line. He had a general good tone about him. He went to his house, found the copy of the platt and came back with it.  They had to have his property surveyed in 2009 - but for whatever reason, the surveyor did several properties in each direction. 

I thought about it and said, yes, there was a barbed wire fence post over - there - so we went and took a look. I had accidentally broken it off at the base, I was wondering what that thing was there for?  But upon closer look, there was a piece of rebar sticking out of the ground with a yellow cap that says surveyors cap or something on it.  Now, if this is where these current surveyors had intended on showing the property line, they didn't show it on their version of a plat. Their drawing showed the property corner at the end of the barbed wire fence! 

This neighbor went further to say he was a surveyor for 18 years.  I lost 14 feet at the front of the property and going back to the rear, over to 20 feet.  I had no idea and apologized for cutting down trees on his property - tho I had only taken down stuff along the power lines, trees that were growing up into the lines and had gone past them a couple of feet.  He said no problem, same sentiment, the power lines.  At some point - and soon - someone would have had to come out there and at least cut the tops off of those trees, but the sensible thing would be to cut them down since it would be a recurring problem if the trees lived through it. 

He then informed me that the property line on the other side was not along the fence line either.  I'm thinking, losing even more property I thought I had! Nope, he showed me the plat.  It showed the fence line and then it showed the property corner 33 feet the other direction!  We could not, however, find the marker for that one.  I went back there yesterday trying to find it, even measured it back from the fence line, still couldn't find it, tho if it's rebar and only barely sticking out of the ground, it could be right there and not ever see it without digging into the ground.  

Whatever the case, these current surveyors screwed that one up. They put ribbon around the fence line at that corner marking it as the corner and from the old plat, that is definitely wrong.  These surveyors didn't bother to mark 5 of the property corners, it is interesting that they marked 3 and not the rest. 

Why?  I intend on calling the surveyor from the 2009 survey and see if I can get him to come out and not only find the corner stake for the one 33 feet from the corner, but also mark it all the way to the front - street - of the property so I know what's mine.  If this is really true, then I am going to call out these other surveyors.  They made almost 2 grand and it's obvious they spent very little time doing it.  They also didn't site anything, they just found markers and restated those were the property lines.  They made their money but they didn't do their job....

It's not going to fundamentally change everything on the neighbor's side. I'm giving it 20 feet from the fence all the way down to ensure I'm not encroaching on his property.  

Progress  has been slow.  The chainsaw isn't working right and these "things" that are growing everywhere are ridiculous.  They have a thin trunk to them - stem-  whatever you want to call it, but their roots are up to 5 inches thick!  Getting the root system out of the ground is extremely tedious work and takes up too much time.  Yet I need the whole thing out of there, it's pretty obvious they will just regrow if you don't get it all out and even if not, I can't have these stumps sticking out of the ground. Some of them I just couldn't get to come out, so we cut them down as close to the ground as possible.  I figured I could just build fires over all the stumps that are left and burn them out.  Not like there isn't enough wood to do it with.  

Well that's all I can get in for today.  I'm in Brownsville, time to go to sleep.  No detention - won't be any time soon as far as it looks. There was only 1 empty - in the normal yard where I dropped the loaded trailer.  And then?  I get a text from the dispatcher: "Just wanted to make sure you know that the loaded trailer is going to the new yard".  Yea, no, I didn't, I replied and informed her I had already left the yard with an empty.  She got pissy with me, so I got pissy with her straight back.  You 

 Umm, okay. The pics I posted in the last entry did not show up in the order that I posted them.  Apparently Blogger knows best.  The first pics were supposed to be before and the last pics were supposed to be after.  I'm certainly not going to try and change it, it is what it is.  I was just marveling at the amount of work I got done yesterday in 5 short hours and wondering how much I could get done if I could work 10 hours?  

Even better, if I  can get some help out there on at least a few occasions?  

I intend on getting the full 110 feet back tomorrow if at all possible.  It may not be finished per see, but I want to be back there.  I can have a clearing somewhere and burn all of that felled tree/underbrush junk and get that stuff out of my way.  Well, I'm going to have to find out if there is a burn ban and also if the county requires any kind of inspection of your intended burn sit, as the town does.  I doubt it tho, the town I live in just loves to make sure everyone is under their thumb.

One thing I noticed yesterday that I hadn't before is that the communications lines on the telephones don't go past my property.  It ends at the house next door.  I'm wondering what kind of trouble I may get to get it extended to my property and get wifi going there?  That was a bit disconcerting.  I also wondered why they hadn't gone all the way down the street with it? Maybe there is some other provider with underground access? ATT is there, but they claim that there is no wifi, just cable TV.  They meaning no one, I didn't talk to anyone I just input the address of the house next door to see what would come up.  

I'm kind of stuck with this place now, whatever I can or can't have, I'm going with it.  Somehow I'll have to figure out someway to get wifi in there.  Hughes stinks.  They have a terrible reputation and their upload speeds are not that great.  I think it's Elon Musk's enterprise that is sending thousands of satellites out into space to allegedly have wifi available everywhere regardless of land lines. Perhaps that will be an option some day.  I'm so far off from needing wifi, yet I'm going to find out who the provider is - presumably Fidelity - and see what it will take to get it to my property.  There is already telephone poles there, they need only wire it up.

But is there some specific reason they ended it there?  Of this, I have no clue.  There are definitely houses, ranches and enterprises further on down the road, wifi seems to me to be mandatory in this day and age of internet everything.  

I'm going to start making those calls next week. Inquires to begin with. Find out what's available and what I have to do to get it onto the property.  At what point I want to have all of that done? I dunno.  Not really close to needed electricity right now and even if I did, I have a large generator to supply whatever I need. Water the same, tho I'd like to get that done and over with, I'd also like to hold on to the cash I have as long as possible and at least get this clearing done.  One step at a time, but it won't hurt anything to make phone calls and find out what my options are.  I already went to the city for water.

Yesterday, tho, there was an older man in a late model Ford pickup pulling a Uhaul going back and forth in front of my property.  He kept stopping, but he never got out.  I'm friendly enough, if he wanted to talk I would have engaged him. I am not, however, going to be giving out info of what I intend on doing with the property.  Right now, it could be anything from a 3rd party perspective.  I just bought the land, cleaning it up a bit.  Why not tell people? Because I don't need them starting trouble with any utility service providers.  If someone objects to me starting this business, one way to make it difficult to get it going is for them to talk with their "friends" at whatever - power, water, etc. - and tell them they don't want this business on "their" street. There are people living on that street that I wouldn't doubt would have such connections, especially the former Sheriff of 25 years.

Why would the oppose this operation? I don't know and I don't need to find out, not at first anyway.  

I'm pretty free with personal info, a bit too much in some cases, I've learned my lessons from previous experiences that keeping my mouth shut and offering little info on what my intended goal is, is the best path to take.  I don't have to lie, I just am not going to go there.  If they happen to notice that lots that will start appearing - probably sometime soon - well, I dunno what I will say. It's pretty dark in those woods, standing from the street it will likely be difficult to see what exactly is going on back there.  They'll see a driveway but I don't know if they'll be seeing any of the lots further on in.  

Yes, I had to tell the gas operators what I intended on doing up front.  I really thought I had no choice and frankly, it's pretty good that I did call them right off the bat and get the issues hashed out. We aren't done yet, there will be walking trails in the back of the property and they want to be sure that I head them off to the left and showing me "their" parameters for their well site.  I'm going to try and remain at peace with them as much as possible, they have shown that they can "go there", however, in terms of attempting to make life miserable in trying to tell me what I can and cannot do - on my property.  

They put that down pretty quick after I asserted myself and started using their lingo that I had learned from reading up online about their rights on the property and mine.  There is nothing anywhere that says I can't go anywhere on the property I please, including any portion of their easement and well site.  But, I am not into poking the bear needlessly, let's try to remain on civil terms.  Remember, they have much deeper pockets than I do and probably have their own legal department at the ready for anytime just such issues arise.  

Well, I am going to take a nap - I woke up in the middle of the night last night and it was hours before I got back to sleep. I don't know if I'm going to try and make this a one day trip, about 7 or 8 tonight I'll be coming up with that answer. Right now, I don't really care either way except I'd love to get to the property earlier in the morning - it started cooling right down in morning time, down into the 60's which is lovely working weather. In fact, I probably am starting this operation at the perfect time of year - summer almost over and fall about to begin, the day time temps are going to start coming down later on this coming week.  Yes : )

Property

 Before and after. Took the after pics this morning. I didn’t realize how much I had gotten done yesterday. I’m about 65-70 feet in. I’m leaving some of the trees up at the front. 

 If you were alive and you were of any age above probably 5 or 6, you remember 9/11.  You turned on the tv and there they were, discussing this commercial jetliner crashing into the side of one of the World Trade Towers.  At somewhere around 7:10 am - time zone I was in - you're watching this news footage and behind the dude on the top of the CNN tower, you see another plane crash into the other tower.

The verbiage immediately turns to the fact that this is intentional, we are being attacked and terrorism has arrived in America in a way no one would ever forget.  You watched the man in a full dress suit doing a swan dive out the window of one of the towers - he was either going to be burned alive inside the building or he would take his own life.  You watched in horror as the first building came down and the realization that there were still people/firefighters inside of it.  

I need not go into all the gruesome details, but I have vivid memories of that day. It was hard to get out of bed and go to work.  My friend had called me about it before I even got up - are you watching this?  Watching what? On TV? What channel? ANY channel! he said and I just turned the thing on to see what I just described.  Tragically, at least for me, my friend is passed, he had a massive heart attack one day at home and that was the end of that.  He had a military funeral and it was one of the most awesome things I have ever witnessed.  

But for me, 9/11 is not just marked by the tragedy and horror that occurred 20 years ago. It is also my mother's birthday. And as I always say, her birthday takes precedence over 9/11.  Happy birthday to mom! Wish I could get on Facebook, then my friends could also wish her a happy b-day, but, a phone call will have to do, later on, I'm still waking up.

I've got an Oklahoma run today, I haven't decided yet whether I will try to make it a one day trip. It just depends on how I feel and how long it takes to get loaded at the loading plant.  I have work to do and that machine isn't doing anything but sitting there. I need to get the chainsaw put together, I have decided it would be a lot easier to cut the trees down to about 5 feet of trunk left.  Some of the trees that need to come down are too big for that machine to take down anyway.  I can cut them down and deal with the remain trunks later. Either get a dozer to finish out the work at some point or get a stump grinder and chew them up.  

Or, if it rains, I may be able to dig them out of the ground.  The ground is a bit dry right now and getting those trees out has been more of a chore than it should be.  It is likely that tomorrow, when I go over there (Lord willing of course) I will take some time to cut a bunch of trees with the saw down and then go to work on the machine.

I really wish one of those places had a dozer or would rent one to me. This job would be immensely easier.  I've got what I've got, tho and it's going to do the job, it's just that the machine is small and I don't particularly fit into it that well.  My legs are long and my knees start hurting after a couple of hours.

I got a lot done yesterday, at least I like to think so.  Realistically, that first 110 feet is the most area that I will need to cut down.  The driveways are going to be long, so yes they will take  a bit as well, but the front is the beginning, where it all starts.  I'm working and trying to decide which trees to leave up out there.  I'd like some shade for the front building.  And just for the look. I'm leaving all the bigger trees up - there aren't that many of them. If they get in the way later on, they can come down.  

I worked about 5 hours yesterday before my knees and my lack of water there told me that was enough.  I had a huge cup of ice water - it broke. I figure if I mix cutting trees with machine work - in and out of the machine, giving my knees a break - I can work longer and my knees might be spared.  

I dunno if James intends on going out there, tho I have the angle stock, if he gets bored there are ramps to be built.  Those machines are too heavy for my trailer so I didn't necessarily need them for that, but I want the ramps anyway.  The ones I have are aluminum and they aren't exactly heavy duty. 

Okay, I don't have a lot of time.  Just wanted to get something out there.  Yes, I got a machine rented yesterday - a skid steer - and yes I got a good start.  Maybe I'll post some pics on here later when I'm sitting at the plant waiting for them to load the truck. 

With that, I must be out of here.

G'day.  

 A beautiful day in the neighborhood...

I was going to get up at 6:00 am - and the noise was definitely there, someone was in the kitchen and woke me up, but I ended up going right back to sleep, lol.

Still, it's only 7:20 am now and I'm ready to get out of  here - sort of.  You know, coffee.

Actually, my body is telling me to go back to bed. It's not like I'm 100% yet or anything.  Not far from it, but a bit more rest wouldn't hurt.  

Unfortunately, the hands of time are reaching out and telling me that my days on this earth are numbered and if you want to get anything done? You best be getting about that business.  

Now, the outrage of Biden's presidency.  I guess one could point to several things, Afghanistan being right at the top of that list, but forcing employers that have over 100 employees to force employees to either get the vax or get tested weekly?  THAT is an outrage.  

"President Biden announced proposed rules that would force private-sector employers with more than 100 workers to either require them to be fully vaccinated or mandate that they undergo weekly tests. Biden referred to the mandate as a "new action plan." The rules would be enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Businesses that do not comply would face fines up to $14,000 per offense, an administration official told The Associated Press. The mandate is expected to affect as many as 100 million Americans."

This is a patently unAmerican, freedom HATING, tyrannical dictate that has no place in a free Republic.  Biden even said "It's not about freedom".   IT's EVERYTHING to do with freedom and the fact, Mr. President, that you hate the citizen's freedom to not only express themselves, but also to snub you and reject your dictates!  

I will NOT be getting the vax! I will quit my job before they force me to inject that poison into my system.  Fortunately, governors of several states have already rejected the mandate, calling it unconstitutional and declaring that they have their lawyers ready to file a lawsuit as soon as this dictatorial regime files this mandate and makes it official.

I've tried to stay away as much as possible from politics as I've been able to, but when I saw this s***, it made my blood boil.  The President simply does not have the authority to tell American citizens what they must or must not have injected into their physical being.  If he had that power, what else could he tell us we must do?  

I hate to bring up Germany, Hitler, Chinese communist regime, Castro, Stalin and the like, but this is, to me anyway, exactly what this sounds like.  It's for your own good!  We have been patient with you but our patience is wearing thin! ......the President says.

I .... don't.....care.....about ......your.....patience.....or....lack.....thereof. WE ARE NOT LIVING IN MOB RULE, as much as democrats love to espouse.  Appeals to the masses is meaningless to me.  I don't care how YOU want to live YOUR life, YOUR opinion is not going to RULE ...ME.

I'll get off the soap box now, but this latest pile of unmitigated bs is over-the-top.  It's beyond the scope of anything I ever imagined with this "president".  This "president" went so far as to say he wants to push two particular governors "out of the way" - referring to DeSantis and Abbot - of Florida and Texas respectively.  

THE POWER BELONGS TO THE STATES.  Thank you!  That is what the Framers clearly intended!

Ok.  Well, anyway, I'm going to go out front, open up the gate, hook up the trailer and head over to Longview. Whether I get a machine today or not - I still need the trailer to pull back 40 feet of 3X3 angle stock.  I can't be putting that stuff inside of my SUV, no thanks.  

Just found a skid steer for $1,900 per month rate. That's excellent, exactly what I need.  I think I will stop by that place after getting the steel and see if they will rent it to me. I have no idea whether they demand an experienced operator. If they do, that will obviously dash my hopes of doing it myself.  The worst they can say is no.  They are in the business of renting machinery, I would like to at least hope that they would say, ok, thanks for the 2 grand, see you in a month. 

With that, I'm offa here.

G'day.  

 Brownsville and back.  Saw an absolutely horrible accident today.  It was an RV - a motorcoach, the kind that has it's own engine.  I came up on this accident shortly after it had happened, people had just gotten out of their cars to run down to it and see if they could be of any assistance.  This was an at least 40 foot long coach and it was pulling a pickup truck.  I have no idea what happened, but the entire coach was flattened.  The whole thing had just collapsed in on itself and was completely destroyed.  The driver's seat area was not looking good.  

I wondered if anyone had lived through that. I saw several accidents today, actually, but that one takes the cake of most accidents I've seen anywhere in a while.  Just from the sheer damage, I've never seen anything like it.  

Anyway, just like that, my coughing all but stopped yesterday. Which was an amazingly wonderful thing, I didn't feel near as horrid as I thought I would.  I got down to Brownsville at near 1:00 am, got out of there this morning near 11:00 am and just cranked it back up.  I fully expected another run for tomorrow - which didn't happen.  

So, tomorrow I'm run over to Longview and get the angle stock for James to build a set of heavy duty ramps for my trailer.  I'm also going to stop by the place that rents the steer skids and see if they will rent one to me.  I don't exactly know how to operate the thing, but it won't take long. Yet, they might not much care for that particular detail.  But, I have to try and it's only a few miles away from the steel company.  

That's the plan for tomorrow, anyway, whatever materializes - we'll see. I really just have this internal need to get something done on the property to make me feel like I've got a start on it beyond just acquiring the land. 

I was thinking about this situation this morning and have changed my mind on yet another thing.  I don't know why I didn't think of this in the first place.  Yes, I probably won't be able to produce the money to get all the lots full hook up - namely: sewer.  But how does that stop me from building all 60 lots?  There will just be 40 lots that don't have full hook ups- yet.  They may, indeed, have no hookups, but the work will be done.  If I can get power to those other 40 lots, I can still try to rent them out.  Regardless, there is not real, good reason to not at least develop the lots and have them ready for conversion into full hookups.  I also have - loosely - come to the decision that I can run 30 lots down the western fence line and 30 pull throughs in the center instead of the other configuration I was originally thinking of.

That would mean I wouldn't have any lots along the existing driveway.  Doesn't mean I never will, all of that land can remain available for future use.  1,200 feet of pads going down 2 rows, all lots at 55 degree angles.  

This is a fluid situation, my mind changes as I think about how the customers would like it to be.  

Here's the deal.  A row along one side of the westernmost driveway and a row on the other.  This reduces the amount of heavy duty electrical cable I'll need.  Ok, I may only go 29 or 28 on each side.  I'll need room at the end.  I'm hoping the septic system can go at the very far end of the setup.  

It also - could - mean  that I won't even need to use the existing driveway at all.  Just have a turnaround at the end that does not connect into the main existing driveway.  I'm not saying I will never use that driveway- adding more lots would invariably mean using it and putting the 3rd row of lots along there.  I just don't feel the need to have 90 lots.  Let me get the thing up and going and see what kind of usage I can get after advertising it everywhere possible and if interest grows, I'll think about doing that - in the future, when I hopefully have more money.  

The land was officially mine as of yesterday. Yes, I signed all of that paperwork on Friday, but they handed out the money and filed the paperwork yesterday.  They sent me 66 pages of paperwork today via email.  I'm going to print the whole lot of it out and carefully read every bit of it.  

Anyways, it's almost 11:00 pm and it's time to go to bed.  

G'nite. 

 Wednesday - mid-morning.

The first night in quite a while that I didn't spend most of the night coughing. 

I did cough, but not all night long.  So I feel rested and ready to go to work, right?!!

Lol.  Not hardly but I could definitely be feeling much worse.  It's a good day to go earn a paycheck, because honey, what I'm getting this week after taxes? No, ma'am, that's not going to work.  If I could get this run over with in 2 days and get an Oklahoma - and get it done in the same day, I could at least have something for next week. 

Okay. Well, James is going to see how much it will cost to get the angle iron through work - that's to build heavy duty ramps for the trailer.  Save a bit of money.

I expect but not guaranteed to go right back out after this run.  

I also expect that starting after the trailer is ready to go, to use any full days that I have to go rent a machine and start clearing land.  I can get the trees knocked out, James can go over any days he feels like earning some extra money and cutting the trees up, putting them in a pile and start burning them. That is, of course, unless that stuff appears to be sellable.  It might actually work for use in fire rings.  

You can sell them when you get your operation up and running!  I wish, by the time that happens, those trees will be beyond their useable limit and starting on the rotting side. It rains too much around here for it to not.  It is likely that whenever I do get the operation up and running, there will be several cords of wood at the front of the operation.  Firewood will be sold by - large bundles.  These little bundles they sell at places like Kroger's and other retail outlets are laughable.

You can't even get an hour's worth of a fire out of those things.  I'm looking to make some money, I'm not looking to rip people off.  I have always looked in disgust at those puny little bundles and the price tag they have with them, I don't think it such a great idea to get greedy and say, oh, well, now that I think of it, that's the perfect size!  We'll see, it all depends on the price of a cord of wood, obviously.

Admittedly getting a much slower start to this than I originally anticipated.  But I didn't expect to get sick and feeling like crud, either.  

I can't remember the last time I had fully 2 weeks off.  I can remember coming back to work after being off a week. Lol.

I'm starting back up on Keto today. It's much easier on the road.  

I'm not going to try and get any estimates until I get at least the front of the lot cleared out.  I don't just want estimates at that point, I want the stuff done.  Well, I am going to call a few places and try to get ball park on a septic system.  

Anyway, I must be offa here, time to get moving.  

G'day.  

 And I do feel fine, at least right now! 

The payroll department of my company just called asking about how I feel and asking me if I still have Covid?

I never had Covid, I replied, at least not according to the test I got.  

Look, as much as I despise the thought of getting back into a truck after having 14 days off, my bank account is hollering at me.  "GET BACK TO WORK!!!"

I'm not receiving a dime of any kind of stimulus from the federal government for this off time.  I'm not getting paid by my company, I only have what little comp time I have left.  This week will be a thousand dollar gross paycheck on 25 hours of comp time.

Next week, I just have maybe 20 hours left of comp time and that's the end of it until November.  So at least two months before I get a fresh refill of vacation hours.  

I can definitely say I feel better than I did last night - I was awakened out of deep sleep by incessant coughing that went on so long I eventually got out of bed and spent an hour and a half figuring out what had happened to my phone.

Like an idiot, I clicked on a link a friend had sent me in Facebook messenger, not knowing it's a phishing bug that installs onto your phone.  So I sat here at the computer desk looking this thing up until I found a remedy that didn't include having to restore the phone to factory default. Doing that would mean losing all of my text messages, photos, videos and most importantly, my notes.  I would have had to try and take screen shots of everything and then upload it to my computer to store it there.

I was in the "no thank you" territory with that idea.  What alerted me to the idea that something was amiss was the fact that there were the letters "VPN" next to where it says "Verizon LTE" at the top of the phone.  When I saw that I instantly thought, this thing somehow got into my phone.  I went through the entire settings - there's a lot there - I saw something strange but I didn't know it was the culprit until later on, after I was reading through countless sites trying to find someone that knew what was going on and now to fix it.  

Settings>General>VPN>and on that screen, there it was. It had picked up a ride on an existing app, in this case my Avast anti-virus app.  Even now it's still asking me to reconfigure it, that's easy, delete the damn app. I don't even remember how I even figured out that that was doing anything, somehow I clicked on something and it said the app was busy uploading - to who, what and where completely unknown.  It took quite a while for all of this to unravel, I then started getting notices that my passwords had been compromised on a large number of apps so then I had to start changing passwords on almost everything. 

Now I'm going to have to go through the - apps with money on them, you know, like credit cards, paypal, the bank?  And make sure the password changes went through and also make sure there are no new charges or deductions on any of it.  I hope it didn't happen to anyone else on my friend's list, I did let the person that "sent" me the link know about it. Turns out he knew about it but didn't say anything to anyone, which in turn pissed me off.  Dude, do you know what I just went through trying to get this s*** off of my phone? At least I went through the trouble of telling people on my Facebook page - through someone else since I'm in FB jail another 30 days and I can't post on my wall from my other account either.  

I've started a third, completely unrelated account and going to try to post a post today telling everyone what happened.  That phishing link was sent to every single person on my friend's list.....

The annoyance of my bank requiring a text be sent to my phone and input that text in order to access my account from an "unknown device" becomes a bit less annoying when you think about what they might have possibly been able to do with my money.  You might be able to get your money back if a hacker can somehow steal it, but from what I've read that can take a while. 

Anyway, hopefully that debacle is over with....

And "hopefully" I'm going back to work tomorrow.  I'm a bit surprised this lady from corporate didn't ask about my voice, it ain't right lol.  Crackling, scratchy, hoarse is the real word I suppose.  Especially from coughing for several hours last night.....it's been 14 days, I can't just keep taking time off. I need a good 70 hours worth of work and then get a day off.  

No, I am not going to get a machine to rent today.  I woke up too late this morning. It would be a waste of money not to be able to get a full day's worth of use out of it before having to turn it back in.  It means getting up around 5:45 am, taking a shower, getting dressed, a cuppa, etc, get over to Longview at 7:00 am to get the thing rented and then get over there to spend a full day working. Not, get upat 9:00 am, do all of that and get back to the property at noon or something to get 4 or 5 hours in before getting it back to the rental store.  

I will be doing that in the near future, rest assured, but today just wasn't the day for it. I need to get a bit better before going out and doing manual labor. Yes, it's machinery but there is a certain amount of getting out and moving stuff around that goes with it.  

I probably could go get the materials to build the ramps for my trailer.  James figured it out, 40 feet of angle iron to build it.  I can't use the ramps I have for a skid steer, they aren't heavy duty enough. I bought those for use for getting 4 wheelers up onto the trailer, not a larger piece of earth moving equipment.  

So, what, exactly, did I get done in 14 days off? Not much, I can readily admit.  Besides finally getting the closing done on the property, I didn't do much of anything beyond normal household stuff.  Whether I get that angle iron or not, the rest of today will be spent resting. I have everything I need for a trip to just about anywhere right now, tho a 2 day trip is what I really want, if I get stuck out on the road and find out - gee, this was a really bad idea - I want to be no more than a day's drive back home Brownsville does that for me and gives me decent money...

And I'm not doing Keto right now either.  I don't care about diets when I'm under the weather. 

9/11.  Time to get a certain, very close person their birthday gift.  She only wants flowers. She's spent years - literally - getting her estate to a manageable size and she doesn't want any fluff/extras to start filling spaces back up.  She really likes flowers so that's what she's going to get on her birthday, which coincides with the remembrance of one of the worst days in American history when it comes to a foreign actor enacting chaos and destruction on our own American soil.

Most of us can still remember what we were doing when it happened. Most of us were glued to TV sets watching live footage. We all wondered at first whether this was a terrorist event or somehow a commercial airliner just happened to stray off course and find it's way into the side of a giant building that is visible for many miles away.  We all remember them discussing this, live, on air and then seeing that second jet crash into the second tower. The narrative went straight to "yes, folks, this is a terrorist attack". There was no doubting it at that point and it forever changed the way we look at security in this nation. 

It's 20 year anniversary, "experts" are warning of a potential attempt at a hostile invasion of some sort.  Well, that may be true, but I can't live my life in that fear just like I can't fear an airborne illness that infects you and sits you down for a while, namely Covid.  the mu variant - newest one of concern, went from "gee it's over in Colombia" a few days ago to a headline I read this morning saying that the mu variant is detected in 49 states.  Oh?  In 2 days it came from Colombia and just swept over the nation like a giant storm, falling out of the sky and infecting people in 49 states?

This is the fodder conspiracies are made of.  People are going to look at that and say no, that's not what happened. We don't know what did happen but we don't trust the government to tell us the truth.  And in my case, I sure as heck don't trust an unelected bureaucrat, namely Dr Anthony Fauci, to say anything truthful or less than convoluted about what's going on.  

Well whatever.  I think I'll get some comfort food today and have at it.  

 A search through Google found that it's widely accepted that Swepco has a 30 foot easement for it's power lines. A bit ridiculous on much of the application where it's just power lines supported by power poles. I went over there with the measurer this time and came up with approximately 60 feet into the property before any structures or lots could be placed.  

It's not that much, in reality.  A large parking lot in the front will assure campers have a place to park to come in and get their paperwork at the office building when they first pull in.  I'll clear out approximately 110 feet from the edge of the road back, the width of the property for the parking lot and building/s and then the sites can be constructed beyond that.  

In the density of the woods, at the front, didn't seem like so much trees and a lot of ugly shrubbery that would need to come down. It's also sloped so it's not really that desirable to put lots there anyway. I will probably be dealing with a slight slop further back but nothing like what's near the front.  So that works out regardless.  

Oh, and the giant, dead tree? Looks like it's far enough from the power lines that I can cut it so it falls towards the west with a wee bit of angling towards the north.  I don't want to pay anyone to take that giant tree down, they charge a fortune for that around here.  I can tie a rope up to it to keep it from falling into the lines in case my cuts are - off.  In fact, I can rent a telescoping forklift and cut the limbs off of it first and that way I'm not only assured that it won't hit the power lines, it also won't be going on the roadway.  

Some of those trees near the front can stay up tho.  In fact, all of the bigger ones on the front line will stay up initially to see if I can incorporate them into the design instead of wasting nice trees.  If some of them have to come down after getting the shrubbery cut out of there and seeing what's left, then so beit.  

Interestingly, while I was stuck in the woods area and no fast way out, a person in a pickup truck went roaring down the driveway entrance.  It sounded like he opened up the gate and want to the back.  By the time I got back out, he was roaring back out of the driveway, glared at me on the side of the road and continued on without slowing down. There were no company names on the side of the pickup which had me wondering who this person is and what they were doing there.  

All the pickups I have seen going back there have the name of the company on the side of the truck.  Could it be they think I was the one that left that gate open the other day? I can assure them I did not and have no idea who did, but no one has asked me.  At some point down the line there will be security cameras on the front of the property including all 3 driveways and then, anything that happens will be recorded.  

In fact, the Nest system we have at the house is nice and its cheap at $5 per month per camera with 24 hour recording.  

Taylor went to the store.  I dunno if she's clear of Covid but her friend, that lives a block away, who told Taylor she would help us out anytime considering the sick state of the house - wouldn't actually do that today.  Lol. Ok, if you're going to make an offer, make sure it's genuine and that you actually mean it.  If you don't, just don't say anything. 

Well that was the extent of my energies being exerted today. It's time for a Sunday afternoon nap.  

 Another day wasted.

Labor Day, the rental places are closed. Closed yesterday and today, two days of clearing that could have been accomplished. I'm pretty sure I could have that whole front cleaned out by now.  I know I'm not going to be going to work tomorrow - well I don't know that for certain but that's what the information was that was relayed to me, so perhaps I could get one day's work done over there.  

If I had the financing I'd just quit my job and go full time over there, 7 days a week until it was done.  

This year the experts estimate 550,000 ish new RV's will be pushed off the lots into new RV'er's hands and next year over 600,000.  Now is the time to get established in this business, not years from now.  

Oh well, just wishing and dreaming I had more off time to get more done than what I have. But it will come here and there and I will take advantage of it. It's gonna take a few years to get this thing going tho, at the rate I will be able to get it done with the time off that I have. 

I guess I figured it would be that way I just don't want it to be that way.  

If you can't tell, I'm still sick.  Cough cough cough, runny nose, general miserable feeling.  I would have gone over there and operated machinery anyway, don't care how I feel.  I would have gone to work as well but they keep saying nooooo.

I've driven while sick many times over.  It isn't fun but I get a paycheck in the end.  I can't even talk to the payroll department right now. My voice sounds like I'm croaking.  They'll just say no, not ready for at least several more days, c'ya.  I really need to go back to work.  

Well, I'm going to call the local company today and see what they have available, providing the man answers his phone. They may very well have today off as well, it IS a national holiday.  

No copies of the paperwork sent to me yet and I have no idea what the monthly bill is going to be, I am only surmising what it should be by using land loan calculators.  It's ALL going to become unaffordable if my work doesn't let me go back to work. 

On a nicer note, I found the medicine I used last time I had a bad coughing cold - still had plenty left in the bottle - it stopped the sniffles completely and slowed the coughing down quite a lot.  It's got a weird medical name to it, but I'm keeping that bottle for future reference. one of the few things that actually works for me whenever this  kind of thing gets this - horrible.

Lol.

My plans today since I can't do any machinery work? Probably nothing.  Our company is shut down - at least the corporate office - for the holiday so calling them to get inserted back into the system is a waste of time.  Which means definitely can't work tomorrow and now I see why Wednesday is the earliest I can go back to work.  

Maybe I'll just tell them I'm still sick - certainly won't be a lie - so I can rent a machine for 3 or 4 days and get some work down on the property.  I'm not exactly going broke atm.  I have ample funds left over even after giving out the down payment money.  I'd really like to get the front done and get a start on a driveway and maybe even some of the lots to get a visual of what I am attempting to do instead of just looking at a bunch of trees and underbrush every time I go over there.   

If I could get that much done I could probably get James to get over there on his off time even if I'm not there.  It's not free, I'll be paying him, but I can get more done.  Just if I can give a visual of what I want to do instead of just on paper.  Plus get everything staked and ribbon-ed out that would do wonders.  It would also help the psyche - got something done, it actually looks like the beginnings of an RV campsite!  

Well, I"m not feeling all that great so getting offa here.

G'day

 Well if that don't beat all.

I'm contacted yesterday by this "person" in Ohio about coming back to work.  She called "many, many times" I'm informed by my manager. No, the smart phone doesn't lie. She called ONE single time, left NO message and I have no idea who was calling me.

I get so many spam calls, several of them a day at least, I don't answer the phone anymore to numbers I don't recognize.  Or if I do, I don't say anything and I like the kids giggle and laugh because they know it's a person trying to sell something and they know I don't want ot talk to them, they think it's funny and that's all the spammer hears on the phone, lol.  BTW, that little trick is working wonders!  I am having fewer and fewer spam calls after I started doing that lol.

Anyway, I can't go back to work today.  My manager never informed me of that. I contacted him yesterday and he did not reply after he initially contacted me and I got back to him.  I got up this morning, texted him again, still no reply. Took a shower and shaved, texted yet again and finally got a reply.  Told me it wouldn't be until Wednesday that at the earliest that I can come back to work, that I can't show any symptoms for 48 hours, yada yada yada.  

I do not have Covid, I replied, according to the test I got.  In fact, I replied 4 separate times to him after that and he hasn't replied once.  This is not unusual for him to not respond, they have him way overloaded with drivers, some of which contact him every day and he's burnt out on it.  Never-the-less, I rarely contact him, he initiated this contact in the first place, I don't fill his text messaging  up with useless banter and I don't really even want to talk to him unless I have to, because I know how he is.  He simply won't reply.

48 hours.  No symptoms. You know how long a head and chest cold lasts? I have had them last for literally months.  To sit here and think I should be completely, 100% healthy to go back to work only means to me that I best start looking for a new job, because I'm not going to be in that 100% condition for a while to come and I only have 25 hours of comp time left.  This job gets less and less appealing every time something happens that shouldn't be a big deal but this company - makes it into one. 

Meanwhile, if I'm really not going back to work until "Wednesday at the earliest", I'm renting equipment tomorrow.  I'd rent it today but they're all closed on Sundays. This ain't the big city, everything but restaurants and supermarkets shuts down in this region on Sundays. Probably the way it should be, really, but I could get so much work done today.  

I really don't even know if I can rent equipment, they told me on the phone I could but who knows what that equates to in real life, going there, showing up and not even remembering how to operate the thing to get it on the trailer, lol.  They might not like that part.  Tho, it will only take me a minute to look at the controls and figure out how to move the thing and run it up on there.  We'll see, I'm definitely going to try anyway.

So, Sunday and Labor Day off after all. I'll be heading to the property again this morning. I just want to get a feel for  what I might be able to get done if I can get the machinery.  I'm pretty sure I can get the whole front of it cleared off in a day or less. Then what? Well I've definitely decided that back in lots will go on the west side and I've also definitely - well in the range of - decided to go 55 to 60 degree angles instead of 45.  I don't need 45 and 55 will look better.  

In fact, I'm going to take the dogs so they can get a quick run in and see if I can measure off the first pad. No, I won't need to do that, I forgot, I'm going well beyond the easement of the telephone poles/lines to leave room for a small building at first and then something much larger in the future. I think I figured an extra 50 feet.  That will eat up 2 days at least trying to clear all of that out of there.  Then I can think about measuring out pads.  

So, let's hope I can get that skid steer tomorrow without any weird stuff from the renter.  I'm sure they must have insurance you can buy additionally, I'll be getting that.  I don't need to buy them a new skid steer. There really is nothing that should happen, it's just small trees excepting at the front of the property there are several larger trees - I won't be tackling them with the skid steer. Those I will probably cut down with a chain saw and then get a stump grinder to get rid of the tree stumps.  

I need to find someplace that sells that pink ribbon stuff. Maybe Harbor Freight has it.  Just want to mark off 50 feet from the power line easement edge.  I'm kind of a perfectionist in that sense, it needs to be done right from the start. You can't make a decision about these lots and how it's going to be set up and then change your mind - if you want the trees.  If you don't care about trees, then mow them all down and be down with it.  

People opt to go to state parks instead of RV parks because these parks have no or very few trees.  They all have this idea that they should all look the same - ie: same layout - and that is the only way to do it.  yet you read endless posts on Facebook and all over the internet really of people that won't even consider going to RV parks because they are just parking lots.  My design may not be unique, but the amount of trees all crammed in there may very well be a bit different.  

I guess I can spend today looking at state park layouts as well.  They have more money tho.  They make these huge spots with all kinds of room and charge less for them.  It's kind of hard to compete with state parks, but the upside is they fill up and people can't get into them. Only if there is a registration system and they can book it online months or even a year in advance can they guarantee themselves a spot at a state park.  There are a few of them around here with RV spots.  Again, I can't compete with the government and deep pockets, yet most of them do not offer 50 amp hook ups or sewer drains. 

And frankly, I'm still wondering if I will even be able to get a big enough system for septic in there without spending a fortune on it.  I've done much more reading about it now - it doesn't look promising.  It's highly likely that I will only be able to offer a dump station - which is far better than nothing.  That's just where you pull up with the RV, connect your hose and let it rip.  

Whatever the case, having 2 more full days off plus today means I really should take advantage of the time off.  I will feel much better if I get something done over there.  I might be able to get James to go over and work while I'm working, I dunno what his schedule is, but he has full blown Covid right now and his work ain't having it.  I don't know when he's going back to work, tbh.  

Anyway, I want to get over there before it gets too hot.

G'day.