It dawned on me that with the right numbers, this RV park even as it currently will stand, could keep me out of trucks for the rest of my life.  

There's a lot of ifs involved, however. If the power and septic are installed within the next month.  If I can get it up and running in the next few months.  If I can keep it at at least 80% occupancy.  If I can make the tent campgrounds work as well.  I'm thinking to look locally for that venue.  Advertise it in a couple of the local facebook groups that everyone in town and in the county uses as more of a gossip board than anything else.

Those gossip boards are extremely effective in getting the word out.  There's lots of land in this area, but all or most all of it is privately owned.  People the don't own land? Come to my park and enjoy a beautiful Fall night under the stars! I wonder how much the demand is for tent camping anymore tho.  People probably want electricity and wifi now.  They aren't getting wifi, if they want access to the internet, they best bring their phones with them. I have enough service in most areas in the back of the property to be able to stream live video.  Some locations it cuts out, but just a few.  

Electricity? I don't think so, not to start.  It would cost a fortune to have electricity brought all the way back there.  Now, if people wanted to bring quiet generators, I could possibly allow that.  Actually, I guess it's not going to cost me anything to have the power company install those poles and bring the power to the meter stand.  Or if it is going to cost me something, they haven't told me about it and I ain't asking. It must be the same deal as the first one.  They install, you start using electricity, they eventually get their money back.  

However.  I wouldn't want the power company to run poles back to the back. That's a 30 foot easement they demand and they get it.  I'm losing 30 feet to the RV park - but it's land that I have determined I can only use for say, a swimming pool or the doggy park.  Too much of a grade for me to consider putting rv pads there.  I could also put tiny homes there -  a thing I'd love to do but there is quite the investment to just put up one of them.  But you get me a tiny home at the front and that thing will be rented out on a month to month basis, not an overnight situation.  I'd rent the thing out, fully furnished, for $700 a month plus electricity and that's that. They'd have their own fenced in yard and parking area.  NO access to any RV facilities that may be coming in the future, however.  

Anyway, I have plenty of room for spaces going towards the back of the property for future expansion. The front of the property is just an undetermined space of land about 450 deep by 200 usable feet wide.  90,000 square feet minus the 30 foot wide easement for the power poles.  Still plenty of room for a pool, doggy park, clubhouse, whatever I want to put up really.  I do have some lofty goals, admittedly, but if you're going to dream, dream big.  This can be done with the SBA loan.  I'm definitely going for it after the park is running for a little bit and hopefully show some decent ROI, profit margins and net income.  

I really need to take a business course.  In an attempt to bypass that, I am going to see an accountant Monday afternoon.  He is all of a block away from me, lol.  I need help to set up the books, show me what to do and direct me to whatever learning information I may need and take it from there. Need to get that started now, I have no idea about any of that.  Collecting taxes? Keeping books? I'm a truck driver, not a CPA.  I know, people learn this stuff for their small businesses. I get that, I have no idea where to even start.  I guess an expense ledger would be a good start. I am keeping all the receipts from all of my expenditures and have decided that I need to get an app where you  can scan the receipts in so they aren't lost.

Receipts? They fade over time and then they are useless.  I am going to spend tomorrow (Sunday) writing down a list of questions for the accountant and hopefully this guy can help me out. He comes highly recommended by the GM of a national restaurant chain that has an operation here in town.  She went to this guy for whatever purpose, not really sure since I would assume a national chain would already have accounting procedures in place?  

Well, anyway, I'm starting to feel better.  Not all there yet and definitely not ready to start the heavy lifting, but I'm on the road to recovery.  I've wasted so much time this week laying in bed doing nothing.  Time is of the essence right now and sitting around doing nothing - well I'm doing what I can towards the business end of things - doesn't set well with me when I know I have so much work to do over there.  

There is simply no way I can start working again today.  The most I did this morning was unload the dishwasher and that was enough.  Just forcing myself to get up and walk around and start feeling human again.  

But yes, I will at least keep the idea in mind that if I can get the park going soon enough, I will forget trucking and focus entirely on the business.  If not?  Well, you know what that means. Go around filling out applications and find something to tide me over til' the park can be my sole income.          

I'm highly motivated to get the park up and running regardless of whether I have to work another job - or not.  I am spending a lot of money and getting nothing in return.  That's to be expected but no one would want that situation going on forever.  The loss of employment just happened to occur at a time when I am starting to get close to an opening day.  If it was 6 months ago? I would have already started looking for another job.  Now? I can take the time I need to get everything done that I am not going to pay other people to do.  I dont' want to spend 5 or 6 k on a basic bridge.  I've spent $800 on materials and that should be it.  

There is a trailer at harbor freight I am considering buying for the ATV. It's like $400, much smaller than my other trailer and much lighter.  It's a thing where you have to buy the wood and install it yourself.  I have to get a lighter trailer.  I burned up the drive belt on the ATV using the other one. The ATV will still move but it takes a minute and it will get worse.  New belt ordered and yes I do know how to install it, fortunately. Pain in the @$$ but I can get it done.  I just don't want to have to keep doing that.  

Anyway, I'm doing better but far from whole.  Time to get offa here. 

 Day 5.

Sick. Corona going around here again, I didn't bother to find out.  This particular run in is extreme body pains, headaches, sore throat, coughing but not incessant, weakness, loss of appetite. The ability to lay in bed and that's about it.

I'm finally starting to feel a little better.  Sick of laying in bed, I went out to the property today to spread a bag of grass seed I bought previously.  A couple of the pads are small lakes.  I'll be getting pipe and renting a mini trackhoe when I get better. I just have no energy right now. I lasted out there about 15 minutes, just long enough to spread the seed and leave.  I need about 4 more bags to finish everything out. Perfect time to do it, everything is wet and there is rain in the forecast.  

I also found another place to rent me a dozer for 24 hours - that's about all I want to spend on it. Pricey, having it delivered, using it and having it picked back up.  Necessary, but pricey.  I see no good reason to pay someone else 3 or 4 times what I'll pay, however, for the same work. It's nothing more than going back and forth along the entire 7 acres and leveling the ground.  

I have far too much to do and really don't have time to be sick.  Lol, that's funny I guess but it's true.  Get this stuff done so I can find another job and get back to work.  

I really need to get that bridge done before the wood starts warping.  And it would be great if I had the energy right now to go ahead and pound those fence posts into the ground, the ground is super wet and would be easy. Not to mention the temps have been much nicer since the rain came.  And here I am, stuck at home, doing nothing.  I sort of resolved myself a while back that living around kids that are going to public school and daycare? I'm going to get sick more often.  

Yeah, no, I haven't looked for a job beyond perusing online applications and driving around town seeing what's here.  

The elimination of employment has closed the need for another loan to finish the portion of the project I need done in order to open the park.  Really, the time line is closing in on me.  The electrical lines will be installed in less than a month.

The septic, however, has not been installed yet.  First it was the  manufacturer not having the tanks done in time, then it is this rain and the fact that if they try to drive the truck over to the intended site, it will get stuck.  I texted him earlier asking about next week. 

It's the middle of the day and I'm laying here yawning as if it's 11:00 pm.

Time for a nap.  

 Rainy day.

Been raining most of the night.  About a medium level amount of water coming down, I decided even tho I am not feeling all that great, I needed to go to the property and take a look at water issues in real time versus looking at patterns from streams and running over trails and such after the fact.

Foregone conclusion there would be large pools of water on the RV pads next to the driveway. There is no place for the water to go, except to pool up and wash over the new driveway.  Completely unacceptable, the water quickly erode the dirt and the next thing you have is a channel running through your driveway.

Pipe is amazingly expensive right now, it was almost shocking to look up the pricing of it.  I don't know what the contractors are getting - they usually get better pricing since they are buying in volume year round, but whatever the cost, it has to be addressed. 

Anyway, I went to Walmart to get full suit rain gear, waterproof (a lot of what they sell is "water resistant"], went to the property and was met at the other end with a set of headlights staring back at me.  I'm telling  you, these oil and gas companies really need to have their trucks labeled with signage on them to ensure the property owner and other interested parties know who they are.  

At least the dude waved at me this time.  A spirited, hearty wave at that.  I waved back, this is really all that these people need to do: be nice and act sociable and I will be nice back. Giving me glares every time I drive up on them doesn't work in my world, especially since it's my property and even more so that they are there consuming natural gas which is transiting through my property yet I am getting nothing out of it.  This is why I have been pretty straight forward with my desires that whatever portions of the property they are using, they maintain it and maintain it well.  

Well, as I said, it's been raining most of the night and into the morning, it's now 9:00 am with no let up in sight.  I got the 4 wheeler running and started slowly riding all over the walking trails, looking for any areas where I might need to address it if I have campers back there.  Amazingly, there were very few glitches back there. One intended camp sit had a very small stream of water running straight down - I'm not sure I'll do anything about it.  I might just not use it as a campground and save myself the hassle.

The "group" campground had no water issues. I mean, yes, there is water running over all of it, as expected.  But running  evenly and just wet ground, no pooling anywhere. That was good news for me. Another intended, large campground on the other side the same thing. Just wet ground, but no water streams or  pooling water.  Yet another one in a naturally grassy area in a stand of pines was fine as well.

The new road where it drops off and I figured from looking at it that there would be water issues? Yeah, not that much and I still have my 4 inch sewer pipe I can run a couple of stick across it and then build up the dirt to get rid of the drop off and get rid of the drop off.  I haven't really determined how I am going to do that, but they rent bobcats at the local rental place, the only issue being having to run 500 feet back and forth to the dirt pile.  I could use it to smooth out some of the trail areas that need a bit of leveling.  

That isn't going to be today.  I am not working out in the rain like this, number 1 and number 2, I have a really bad sore throat going right now that is just telling me to stay home, relax, listen to the rain pattering on the windows and get better.  The boys had it first and they got over the worst of it in a bout 3 days. Taylor has had it longer and has been feeling really cruddy. I don't know, but when the sore throat goes away, I'm going to have to get back at it.  I'm figuring I'll have to spend nearly what I have left in the bank for the septic install and the gravel, I'll have to cash out the other 401k to have operating money.  

The only other "issue" for running water beyond the stream that runs through the property and should have water running through it is the trail that the mulching man cleared back out.  There is a plateau where the gas operation sits and it's a large swatch of land. All the rain water runs to the southeast side of the plateau and runs down the hill in a pretty good stream.  It goes right across that trail. I see no reason to address that situation.  If you want to hike when it's raining, be my guest but you'll obviously encounter water!

No, I'm not looking for jobs yet.  Just not there.  I'm sick, as I figured I would get after being in close contact with other sick individuals and I have a lot of work on the property I need to get done.  My other 401k will save me from having to go back to work right away.  Once I ever get this thing rolling, I won't need an OTR or regional job.  I will look for local only and something that is flexible.  It doesn't have to pay a lot of money with park income coming in.  It's a gamble, sure.  I have people interested in moving into the park already. They want to live there, tho and I'm not sure I want to go that route yet.  

Regardless, I am going to contact the media dude and tell him to go ahead and start putting that website together and do whatever he's going to do to get my park on the first page of any rv search for my area.  I was given a ballpark of around $500 for the sign, ok, let's get it done, please and thank you.  Wifi - going to wait until the telephone poles are installed, they won't be able to do anything before then.  And I need the electrical contractor to come out and install a meter and run a line to the "shed" I want power in it and I want power accessible beyond the RV pedestals.  I asked him about this a while back, didn't get  a reply, will be asking him again today.  

Well I'll be!  My park is showing up on Google search.  Like, if you put in rv parks and the name of the town and state I live in, it comes up on that listing that Google does whenever you input such a request and it attempts to come up with every such business in the area and shown on a map.  That was quick.  But, the separate listing of the park doesn't show up until page 6.  Not a big deal for right now, at least it's on page one of the google search for all parks in the area.  

And, as always, the idea of applying for an SBA loan still lurking around in my head.  But, I'm unemployed at the moment and that probably wouldn't look good on paper.  I think the park would have to be up and running and bringing in decent revenues before I could get a serious look at a loan that large.  I'd be going for 400k or more. They'll want the property on that loan as well as the park sitting on the property.  A row of tiny homes, another 60 spaces or so, a pool, clubhouse and whatever else lacking.  Yes, the tiny homes sounds really good.  They could be short term rentals, or, they could be month to month rentals and separate them from the rest of the park with fence and gating. 

I won't need a down payment, everything I've spent on the property is the down payment, at least according to the guy that is in the SBA loan center who helps you put these applications together and make them look as good as possible on paper.  I'm going to pull out all of that application stuff today and just look at it and think about it.   

Oh, and a trip to Lowe's - again - is in order. This time for some kind of pruning shears to start cutting down those annoying vines that are sticking down all over the place.  They hit you in the face while you're riding the 4 wheeler and they are in your face while walking.  That stuff needs to go.  It will be quite the effect to have those vines coming down from high up the trees, yes, but cut high enough they aren't going to bother anyone.  I figure to pull the trailer through, stand on it and cut vines on top of the trailer. Or I could even stand on the back of the 4 wheeler to access enough height to make it a non-issue.  

So much cleanup to do.  

Anyway, I'm offa here. Gonna get busy with the things I can do from the house.

G'day.

 Another long, hot day in the books. As stated, I will be working every day or pretty much every day until I get some of these major projects completed or at least close to done.  I only got one side of the bridge ground work done today. Too many distractions, too many roots to dig through.  In fact, some of the roots were so thick I ended up using the chain saw to cut through them. 

I get the other side foundation done and the rest of the project will be - easier.  Not easy, but easier.  

I'm told if I'm out on a certain street at 6 am, there are a bunch of illegals that hang out there that I can hire for a day's work.  I have done that before.  The problem is understanding how much they expect to be paid.  If you ask them, they ask for an unreasonable amount of money per hour.  But right now? I need the help.  A crew of 10 could work on the trails all day long for days picking up the sticks and logs and piling them up in areas predetermined for burn piles if the burn ban is ever lifted. 

I don't wonder if a day's worth of a small Bobcat would do the trick and help build up the areas that need some extra dirt dumped on them.  

I dunno, not tomorrow, lol, tomorrow is Sunday and the local rental store is closed on Sundays.  

3 out of 5 people in the house are sick. 2 kids and Taylor.  I would like to wish I wasn't going to get what they have, but I've been around the kids too much.  Coughing and spreading germs everywhere, I popped vitamin C, multi-vitamin and zinc earlier.  Feeling no symptoms - yet - but if I get hit with it, I'll be out for a bit.  Getting nothing done : (

Oh well. Supposedly Wednesday they are coming "again" to install the septic.  A  month away on the electric and who knows about the sign. Supposedly they found the board for it, now they are coming up with a price.  They tout their work well - too well I do suppose for it sounds like they want a small fortune.  They claimed that some of their signs they put up in another town have been around for over 20 years.  I don't guess they have any reason to lie, I just need to understand how much they want for this high-quality project.  If we're talking hundreds of dollars, fine. If we're talking $500, maybe, anything more than that and I'll find something else, somewhere else.  

I am not committed to them yet for any work.  Price is everything.  

I did drive around the southern portion of town yesterday and took notes of every yard that has trucks in it. Surprisingly, there are a lot of them.  If I'm going to get a local job, I want a local job, one that starts in town and ends in town every day.  If I have to drive to Longview every day, that's 60 plus miles of driving and a lot of gas just getting to and from work. Same with Shreveport/Bossier City.  I'm not ready to start filling out apps just yet.  Besides wanting to get a lot of work done, it's possible I'm going to get sick and if that happens, well, a new job would be a disaster.  Uhh, sorry, I know you just hired me? But I'm sick and can't come in today.

Well, company is here and we are playing some sort of games again tonight. They are doing this every Saturday now, or at least every Saturday it's feasible.  

Work tomorrow? I might now that I think about it. If I'm still feeling good I really want to get that other side done, then it won't be near as much energy to finish the rest of the project. 

G'day. 

 Officially unemployed. 

For a post put on a YouTube channel - mine - which has no views on most of the videos I put up on there - my company somehow found it and said I had to "go home" after I showed up for work.  This was - Tuesday.  I already knew what was going to happen, regardless. The manager told me I wasn't being fired but that safety department had to do an "investigation".

The video said nothing about my company, had nothing to do with the company and showed nothing about the company.  As I have said repeatedly over the last several years, this company fires people for petty stuff and goes out of it's way to make people's lives miserable. 

The "termination of employment" was done over the phone.  This is how lame that company is.  Not enough balls, apparently, to do it to my face.  I laughed at them - there was more than one person on the phone.  

I may miss the income but I most certainly do not miss that company, whatsoever, not even a little bit.  And the only way they could have found that YouTube site is to be stalking employees over social media.  There is literally no other way they could have found it.  Well, there MIGHT be other ways, I dunno, but it's not like the video went viral.  

Anyway, I really don't care about that job or losing it, I had the thought from day one that I wouldn't last very long there, making it near 5 years was a pretty good run.  

Meanwhile, I am still in the driver's group.  It's not a company operated group.  They were b******* and complaining about the dispatcher for hours.  I said nothing, I am not sure they even know I no longer work there.  I was working on the bridge area on the property and watching these texts coming through.  I just shook my head.  A company that makes people miserable is not a company worth working for and I had seriously contemplated finding another job after the last pay cut.  

I got a paycheck today and I'll get one next week and that will be the end of it. 

I haven't started looking for another job.  

I've been spending every day out at the property working on the bridge and getting other things done, I have more time to get stuff done now than I did before and I am taking advantage of it.  If I go looking for a job and find something I like, they will want me to start immediately. That's the way trucking works and I would rather get these projects done first.  

And frankly, I am also contemplating a quick trip back to AZ to see mom. If I start a new job, I won't have any time off any time soon.  I have enough points on one of my rewards cards to fly to AZ and back out of the local airport and still have points left over, the trip would cost nothing to get there and back.  I would stay at mom's house and she would give me the use of one of her vehicles, the trip would cost next to nothing.  

I don't know, but it will be weeks at least before I start looking for a new job, that's what I can say about that. Not because I am sitting around the house doing nothing. I have too much to do over there and it's obviously going to take quite a bit of work to get everything ready for a soft opening.  

Now that I am unemployed, I want to get the thing up and running ASAP. 

The water is now on over there. After turning it on yesterday and having a 30 foot geyser coming out of a pipe, I shut it back off and contacted the contractor.  He sent a couple of guys over today to fix that and turn everything on, bleed the air out of the system and they sat there quite a while to make sure nothing else would happen.  

Before that, the power company engineer came out, I was not expecting him.  He called me - he didn't know I was at the back of the property clearing trees and brush to get started on that bridge project.  I told him I was there, at the property and would be up there in a few minutes.  

He laid out a proposal for a path for the power poles.  He wanted to be out further from the property line than I would have liked, but he wanted away from the huge trees. I didn't fuss with him, it's whatever to me at this point, let's get this rolling.  So, he told me about 4 weeks before they will be able to come out. I said thank you, have a great day and proceeded - to eat lunch actually lol.

When I showed up at the property, before everything else, today>?  There was a large crew of people in the back with numerous trucks sitting back there.  

I had no idea what they were doing until I got back there. They were surrounding the tanks and the well with cattle panels.  I was amused.  They had originally wanted me to put up fencing around their operation, apparently the idea of me driving around there with my vehicle, ATV and the fact that the park was obviously going to be a go, well, I guess they don't want people messing with their stuff.

I had no idea they were going to do that, nothing was ever mentioned.  I am definitely not opposed to them doing that - I am very happy I don't have to worry about that now and I don't have to pay for it.  It must have been the email I sent several days ago about a hiking trail going off to the left of the operation and a driveway to the right.  I have no access to the rear of my property except through their operation.  They have sucked untold millions of dollars worth of natural gas out of that property for almost 6 decades now, not like I'm feeling sorry that they have to spend a few bucks to upgrade it.

The back breaker tho, was all of the work it's taking just to even get to the bridge-building portion of that operation in the rear of the property.  I mean, I'm just now far enough along where I can dig out the post holes, put the 4x4's in and quick crete them into place. I am hoping to get that done tomorrow.  The rest of the project is drilling holes, cutting boards and putting in bolts.  In fact, the first part is the hardest - trying to make sure you have everything set right so it doesn't turn out funky.  

As I said on my Facebook page, I am very, very happy that I have a running 4 wheeler to get me around.  I can't do that much walking, it's far too much and would take too long. I just don't have that much energy and that thing is saving me right now. 

Definitely worth the money it cost to get it running.  

Oh, well reading my last entry, yes, I got the ATV back there with the trailer. Unloaded it and then? the ATV wouldn't back up.  I ended up having to get my SUV back in there the next day to pull the thing out of there.  Yes, the SUV made it back up the hill - this time I was going forward instead of trying to back up that thing.  The ATV pulled the empty trailer out of there as well.

I also went to Longview and got most of the materials needed to build the doggy park.  I haven't even started on that yet, the bridge needs to be done first.  

I have so much to do.  I mean, there is a lot.  The trails need cleaned up - there is a lot of twigs, branches and small logs that need to be picked up.  There are vines hanging down everywhere that need to be cut up as high as you can reach. They hang down from way up high on those trees.  

I still need to figure out a bush hog and the office building needs done.  

This is why I don't care that I'm not working right now. I AM working, just not at a paying job.  I'll be back out there again tomorrow - and every day - really, until I get some real progress and get some stuff done and over with.  

As for now? It's almost 10 pm and I'm going to bed.  

Editing: kids are sick. I can’t afford to get sick right now! 

 A dog barking - I think it was their dog barking at someone at the front door - woke me up out of a deep sleep this morning.  I tried to get back to sleep for an hour and a half to no avail.  I finally just got up, got the dog and went over to the property.  My trucking life.  I often times don't know which day of the week it is. I know the date, yes, but the day? Not always.

So, I thought today is Wednesday, which it obviously is not.  The septic install is Wednesday, which is tomorrow lol.  

It's fine.  I fired up the ATV, drove it with the trailer down the steep hill, loaded all that stuff back up on it and tried to get the trailer to the back.  I made it around 5 turns, I think, until I got to 2 tall trees.  I figured when we were out there the other day I wouldn't be able to make it between them and I figured right.  

I just parked the ATV there and will come back to it the next day off.  It's just not prudent to start getting into all kinds of heavy labor and then have to go to work.  AS it stands, I may try to go back to sleep for a while now that I am a bit worn out from loading all that stuff and walking around the property.  Or not, who knows. I do believe I'm not going to wait until noon to eat, I am going to be out far too late and just need some energy. That is in reference to the intermittent fasting I have been doing to try and lose some weight.  

Besides the work I need to get done that I can do myself - or with help if I can find any, people really do not want to work even for good money right now - I am sort of in limbo. The sign, the power, the water, the septic, fresh gravel on the main driveway are all waiting on other parties to do what they're going to do.  

Still need to discuss everything with a lawyer and an accountant and get the accountant to set up software for me or give me the software to set up to have proper taxes taken out upon any fees I may take in - or sales for that matter, firewood being the only real thing that I can see I will have to be able to charge an on-file credit card for.  Also need to get the interior of the shed done, but that's going to be put on hold for now until I get everything else done and see what kind of funds I have left over.  

The point is that there is still quite a lot of stuff left to do.  But, it's only August.  The first day of fall is September 22, pretty much guaranteed I won't be in any position to open up the park by then unless I'm just going to do RV parking only and nothing else to start with.  I might do that with reduced rates, just try to start getting some finances coming in from this venture.  

I'm not real in love with the fact that a couple of giant piles of ash were left after the tree burning that I apparently am going to have to deal with. They could have hauled that stuff to that giant hole they dug and buried it there along with everything else.  

Anyway, that's it for today and probably the next couple of days since I'll be on the road and likely not going to make it back until Thursday, depending on if I can drive straight through today or if I'm going to have to call it quits and just get there tomorrow morning, Brownsville that is.

Have a great day!

 Another long day in the books.  Drive from Brownsville back to the yard was uneventful. Well, uneventful if you don't call getting cut off 100 times per day - at least and that is no exaggeration whatsoever - uneventful.  I didn't see any major accidents for once, that was a good thing!  

Tomorrow, they are allegedly coming to install the septic system.  I say allegedly because who knows for sure?  The underground utilities company called me today asking me about an address that isn't mine. Uhh, no, that's not my property. Well, are you having a septic system installed tomorrow?

Why yes, yes I am!  After giving him the correct address, he found the place and presumably he did his job and left.  I forwarded that information to the contractor and also forwarded the information that the city had installed the water meter, he can come and hook it up, please and thank (this work has already been paid for, they just couldn't hook it up because there was no meter to hook it up to).  

I do have to work tomorrow, but the load time isn't until 2:30 pm (ugh).  So, I will go over to the property in the morning and see what they are doing. It's still quite hot out, I assume they will be there early and try to get done before the heat of the afternoon hits.  I will also try loading the trailer and seeing if I can make it back to the bridge construction site.  Well, I dunno if I'll do that or not - it's going to be a very long day and I will have to drive until well after midnight if I want to make it down there tomorrow - well the wee hours of the next day.  

The senior manager of the oil and gas company responded to a recent email I sent. I'm kind of getting tired of them ignoring my requests.  I demanded they fix the road, it's on my property and they are subject to my rules for above ground operations.  Well, I say that, I'm not sure that would hold up in court, who knows.  The man again went into "you bought the property as-is" and talking down to me, as if he sold me the property.

Uh, no, if they wanted unfettered access to the well site, they could have bought the property when it was for sale. Of course, that isn't the way these oil and gas companies operate. They are well-known as cheapskates who won't spend any more money than they possibly have to, all the while sucking out millions of dollars worth of product out of the ground that lies underneath your property.  I am, however, a very persistent person. They are coming on to my property on a daily basis, and tho they have the right to do so, they aren't going to just get away with tearing up the driveway every time it rains because they are too damn cheap to bring in fresh gravel.  

He did make an offer: We will pay for half the gravel if you pay for the other half. We will spread the rock and do all the work.  I thought about that for a minute and thought, that is probably the best offer I am going to get from these people.  I chose to ignore his condescending attitude and replied, ok, please send me a number, how much is this going to cost?  

If my calculations are correct - I use an online gravel calculator - and if it costs $25 per ton, just averaging it between the various prices I have seen - then my part of it would be 5 grand.  If that is true, then it's a go.  Do the entire driveway, be sure that the entryway is a bit thicker and let's get it done.  Even if it were a bit more I'd still send them a check.  In fact, if they get decent pricing, I'd ask them to have all of it hauled out there, not only for the existing driveway, but for the rest of my project and I'd pay the difference. I don't want different types of rock on the driveway and the RV site, I want all of it the same.  Of course, they may not be interested in doing that, but I will find out if, again, my calculations are correct.  

I think my RV site will cost more tho.  They will probably want to put larger base rock down first and then cover it with the smaller gravel.  

I really can't go there too much more right now.  It just starts getting to the point where I'm getting a bit exasperated over things I have no control over.  The fact of the matter is, however, that I am almost there.  You see, I never have received a quote on gravel, but that's because we didn't know how long the driveway would end up being after it was all said and done.  

I will be calling the local supplier of gravel tomorrow and getting a price per ton. There's only one supplier in the county that handles large orders, the rest is either in Shreveport or Longview.   It's the only way I can make a good guesstimate of what all of this will cost me and at least give me the peace of having a number in my head instead of sitting here doing guess work.  The oil and gas company manager hasn't responded, tho I suspect it will be a while before I get a price.  

I think I'll wait on doing the interior of the new shed until I see how much it's going to cost for the septic and the gravel.  It can wait if necessary.  It WILL wait if necessary.  It's not a priority and if it comes down to it, it will just have a couple of vending machines in it, perhaps a washer and dryer and the wifi equipment.  The bathroom can wait.  I don't have any utilities priced to run power to it and it will need a separate meter, I guess.  This electrician is doing things differently than what I had envisioned.  

I have nothing else.  I'm getting worn out. Drive, drive, drive and while doing that, talking on the phone with various people about this and that and the other thing concerning the property.  I'm not 20/30 years old.  This stuff wears me out.  I think I'd like  a vacation about now that just sits in a very nice hotel, in peace and quiet, alone and just relaxing and reading.  I love vacations with the folks here, don't get me wrong, but they are go go go vacations.  I haven't been in a hotel in a while, I think the next Brownsville run that they are telling me no empties until the next afternoon? I will go to my favorite - the Marriott Residence Inn - and enjoy an overnight there.  It isn't a vacation, but it is a nice time to just sit alone, think about things and no interruptions.  I really like Marriott Residence Inns!  

I guess bedtime is calling. Not particularly late but I want to get up relatively early and get out to the property and talk to the contractor.  He's next to impossible to get a hold of and you really don't get any idea of what's going on unless you are there, in front of him, asking questions and getting his thoughts.  I'm small potatoes stuff, not big contracts, he works me in.  I'm thankful for that and the quality of the work, but I need more info.  

Nite. 

 Haven't been through a day like that in a long time.

Two nights ago, we all went over to one of their group house' to play cards.  

Got home late - around midnight - got to bed even later - but then I got up at 10 am while everyone else still asleep, took Addler and went over to the property.  Unloaded all of that lumber on that trailer and walaah. 

The 4 wheeler pulled it up that steep hill with relative ease.  

But, after all of that, I wanted to take the dog home and get some cold water.  I had only brought a small cup of ice water with me, figuring I was only going to be out there for a little while with the dog. He was getting over heated as well, time to take him home.  

Well, when I got home, I saw that James truck was gone. Curious, I pulled up Life 360 and saw that he was - heading to my property.  It might have been the live video I had posted with an excerpt in it titled: I really could use some help out here! - that did it, lol, I dunno, but I got my ice water and headed straight back over there.

For close to 5 hours, we worked on clearing enough trees out of the way to get that trailer back in  there.  It was over 100 degrees and it wasn't light work by any stretch of the imagination.  Cutting down trees and then dragging them into whatever holes in the woods we could find for them.  They'll have to be dragged back out at some later date - when the burn ban is lifted  - put them on a pile and burn them up.  That will be another one of "those" days.  

It's just so hot out and I'm not in particularly great shape.  Keep doing stuff like this and eventually I might get back to good shape, right now, it's just not all that good.  While all of these experts tell you that cardio workouts aren't going to cause you to lose weight - and mostly they won't - they ignore the fact the doing such workouts do for the internal portions of your body.  Your cardiovascular system specifically and this kind of stuff will help bring down my cholesterol, along with being careful about what I eat and drink and doing the intermittent fasting, which has been scientifically proven not only to help lose weight, but also bring cholesterol levels down.

However, I don't feel so bad knowing that James was also out there with me and he was also feeling it by the end of the day.  In fact, he disappeared into his bedroom for pretty much the rest of the day and night. I did the same, taking a shower and laying in bed all the way from yesterday late afternoon until - now.  

So now what? Well, it's Sunday and I"ll be headed out in half an hour. But, the next day off, I will head straight back over there, load all that lumber up on the trailer and hopefully make it back to the bridge site.  Getting that trailer out of there is going to be a wonder as it will have to be backed all the way out, unless I decide to cut down a bunch of trees right there where the bridge goes so I can back into a hole and pull out.

It's not out of the question, as I want a trailer made through there anyway.  And it's only small trees, nothing like what we were doing yesterday.  Some big, tall trees had to come down, unfortunately, but necessary.  Now, a pickup could make it back in there and that's a good thing. I did call the mulcher guy yesterday in vain hopes of him coming out to knock all the rest of what I want done, out, but he's busy.  

He's always busy, his rates are very good and he does good work.  There is some touch up work to be done on existing trails, a road to be built, an old trail that needs cleared out and another trail that needs to be made.  None of the above involves taking out any large or even medium sized trees. Well, there might be one medium sized tree that needs come down, the rest are nothing but small trees that need cleared anyway.  

Anyway, I've done all of this work up til now - days worth - just trying to get the materials back in there. No work on the bridge site or bridge itself has been accomplished.  But, it's getting there, just far more work involved than I could have possibly imagined to make it happen.  

Get the materials out there and then start cutting down more trees. These are the trees next to the creek on both sides that the machine couldn't get at, the hill was too steep and he was afraid of rolling over.  I don't blame him, but I have a new chainsaw to deal with it.  After that, I can dig out the post hole, put the posts in, and then dump the cement in there.  I'll have to bring those bags of that stuff down on the back of the 4 wheeler.  No trailer, just make 3 or 4 trips. Yes, I need a good, solid, small utility trailer that the 4 wheeler can better handle, but that's just not in the budget right now and I am very happy to hopefully be able to get that trailer up in there, get the stuff back there and finally get this portion of it over with!

Oh, and I had two offers for help out of that video beyond James.  Hey, I'll take whatever help I can get.  Even a person that really can't do much? I can give them a pair of large clippers and they can start cutting down all of these hanging vines all over the place.  Just get them cut as far as they can reach up, that will be fine. It's more like a jungle back in there with all of those thick vines all over the place.  Plus, they can pick up the small sticks and debris off of the trails and just pile it up for me to come later and haul off to a burn area and get rid of it.  

There's a lot of minutia that pretty much anyway that wants to help out can do. The other guy? Well, he could probably help me put that bridge together.  Plus I have a dog park to put together, however.....

I don't see myself putting a dog park up until I get the land flat and level.  It's all little hilly stuff right now and I really want it nice and flat so I can plant grass in it.  That's something I'd like to get done soon, so renting that dozer may not be too far off into the future. It will include an entire day of flattening the entire front 7 acres minus what they already did for the RV pads/site. It will get rid of all of those weeds and then I can plant grass seed - well - if it's going to rain anyway.  

Mom wants to help pay for the materials for the dog park, I ain't turning anything down.  Her name will have a spot on any list of people that helped build the park, she put in a substantial amount of money, all spent on the property and building.  I've wasted none of it, mother would not approve of that, lol.  It helped me get through this idea of more steps to the preparation of the RV park than I knew about.  Without those extra steps, I'd have another 23 grand sitting in the bank right now.  I figure the materials are going to cost around $1,000 - ball park. Fencing, posts, gates, grass, a dog clean up station.

You've seen them. Just a post with a trash can and plastic bags you slip your hand into to pick up dog poop. YOUR dog's poop. I'll had a small shovel to it to people that cant fathom the idea of doing that by hand.  

What's left? A lot.  The sign is being held up by the supply chain issues, they can't find the special board they use to paint the sign with.  Their normal supplier is out.  I didn't know until I pressed them what was holding that up.  I may spend $30 and have a temporary sign put out there that I can move up to the highway when they get the sign finished.  Insurance, doing whatever i'm going to do with the interior of the new shed-building, plant grass on the RV sites, install drainage pipe, etc, long list.  Walking trails are not far from done, but certainly still work left to do.

Anyway, it's about time to head out.

Happy Sunday. 

 Yeah. This dude texts me after 7:00 am telling me they are "loading the trailer".  Okay.  The lunacy with this seller went on literally all day long. The terms, in his mind, on every call, kept changing.  I kept having to bring him back to what we had agreed on.  He kept forgetting - every....single.....time....it got to the ridiculous realm.  

After 6 of these calls? I was aghast.  He wanted me to go up to the bank to get him cash.  He originally wanted the first month's payment but said any payment including check would be fine, so I gave the workers a check for $220 this morning - after they handed me a bill for $4,400.  They didn't speak much English and tho I can speak some Spanish.  

But he called me at the end of the day saying he couldn't possibly take a check? What the Hercules Wonder Woman Sniffing Crack S*** is this?!! I kept my cool, I'm getting a great deal and the end product was very good.  This was several phone calls while he figured out what he was doing.  He didn't actually figure out what he was doing after he made the final call on that round, he thought he had figured it out.  

"Well, they will follow you up to the bank to get cash".  I'm just done with this, succumbed to the idea that this dude has no clue what he is doing on the financial end and agreed to it.  We drove all the way to the bank - 5 miles the wrong direction for that crew - we were still at the property dealing with stuff, lots of stuff to deal with atm - so I didn't have far to go to get to them.  I have left out a LOT of stuff here with this dude and his antics, just way too much to go into.  

So these guys follow me to the bank. I get out $220, they hand me a piece of paper that says "Paid in full" with the description of the work they had done and the amount it cost, the ENTIRE amount, lmao.  Yup, I just paid that sucker in full! LOL! No, I wouldn't try to do that but I thought it was funny. I handed them the cash and left, quickly, because they were counting it as I was leaving and I knew they were going to be like, wait, bruh, there's only $220 here. 

That's because it became obvious these workers had no clue that this was a credit deal and that I didn't have to pay them the full amount.  

I immediately called this guy after I left the parking lot, I figured I would try a "different" approach: Umm, I gave them the cash, $220, I don't think they understand that this deal is on credit.

The man on the other end, this same dude with this ridiculousness going on ALL... DAY....LONG....just start profusely apologizing.  I mean, like 50 times, he just apologized over and over and over.  I'm soooo sorry. I'm sorrrrrrrry.  Yeah, I didn't need to give them anything. No money, just "thanks for the great work!".  They did great work as far as I can see.  I just replied "I have no idea how you are working this".  Because at that point, I didn't.  He apologized - profusely I might add - many more times after that.  I didn't ask him for an apology, but I can tell ya, this dude needs someone with a bit better mind for that kind of stuff to run his operation. He can go catch alligators and bullfrogs.  

I mean, it's done.  That's all I can say. He texted me a pic of a check he's sending me to replace the money I gave those workers.  Just, wow, lol.  

Anyway.

I went over there this morning before they arrived with the boys and the dog in tow. We went for a good walk, they wanted to go and Addler has been cooped up in this house and back yard.  I took the 5 year old back home and then we were going to go back to spend the day working there.  This 7 year old.  Gag.  He not only broke two controllers for game systems, he also used his Nintendo Switch to purchase $50 worth of junk - on my account - yesterday.  Anyway, it started pouring rain.  I knew it was a high chance of rain today. So, I headed to the City water department instead.  

I ended up giving them $2,175 to get water service started. Yes, you read that right: TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS.  A $675 "water tap fee".  So, they charge you to tap into their system even tho they had nothing to do with the contractor who actually did the work.  Then, because it's a "Commercial" operation, they want $1,500 deposit. I'll never get that money back, unless I sell the park and get out of it.  Astonishing, they never said anything about that when I had originally gone in there. The things you find out -because you didn't know and you didn't know and they aren't volunteering any information.  

I just want the water on to check the lines for leaks!  I may have it shut right back off after it's pressured up and left on for a few weeks.  I don't need water over there right now and I don't need a service for something I'm not using.  Just the leaks, folks, just the leaks! I want a secure line that has no issues and the only way to find that out is to pressurize it with water.  

Anyway, after that, I went to the contractor's office and wrote 2 checks that amounted to 43 grand and left there, went to a truckstop that has food, got the boy something and some drinks, back to the property and then started working on this trailer situation. 

That was an hours long ordeal.  

I first took the tarp I had over everything, put that on the ground and then carried all 12 bags of the quickcrete off the trailer, put it on the tarp and then covered it up.  Rain, don't need to lose money on damaged product.  I figured getting rid of 960 pounds of weight off of that trailer would help?  Yeah, the 4 wheeler still struggled with it.  

I then got out a very heavy-duty tow strap, it comes replete with a hitch that goes into your receiver on your vehicle.  You hook the hook end up to your vehicle and you figure out how to loop it around whatever you're pulling.  I was going to pull that entire thing out of there, trailer attached to 4 wheeler - with the front brake set on the 4 wheeler.  Why the brake? Cause the trailer locking cap wouldn't come down on the ball on the 4 wheeler.  Yes, the 4 wheeler has a ball hitch on it.  Without it locked, that trailer could pop off of that 4 wheeler and the 4 wheeler would go careening down that hill and probably be destroyed.  

So I put the SUV in gear and it pulled the whole mess without any problems.  Unfortunately, the trailer was heading towards some small trees. So, I cranked the steering wheel hard left and headed 90 degrees off.  Yeah, it's a heavy duty trailer, it just laughed at me.  You think YOU are going to pull ME sideways? Yes, I DO! We had this argument, back and forth, as I was getting out of the SUV, going to the 4 wheeler, pulling up, back to the SUV - I did this many, many times over.  I finally gave up. Cut down all 5 trees.  Yup.  The property has thousands more, a few small trees isn't going to hurt me.  

Well, it kinda did, that 10 foot tall pine tree was so beautiful.  I got that thing pulled up on level ground, dropped the trailer, pulled the ATV out, pulled the SUV back and hooked up and yes, I drove it down the steep hill. Then the fun really began. 

Why? Because this SUV has some feature - maybe ABS system tho it never showed up on the screen - that shuts off the power to the rear wheels after it starts spinning too much.  Well, first things' first.  I hooked the trailer back up to the ATV and attempted to pull it through the trail way.  Didn't get very far and gave up.  I had exhausted several hours just getting to that point and I was ready to quit.  It became obvious I need a much smaller trailer to do my business around the property with the ATV. Just was hoping I didn't have to spend even more money on another piece of equipment.  

I left the ATV hooked to the trailer - it's not stuck or anything, I just was done with it - got in the SUV, told the boy to hold on and started reversing up the hill - no room to turn around down there.  This was 15 minutes of getting up to whatever point and then having the wheels stop turning - extremely irritating.  I don't know if there's a way to shut that garbage off, but I will definitely be researching it.  I like to thought I'd never get out of there and really thought I'd end up having to have help come and pull me up out of there. 

But, eventually, I got out of it.  We left, noting the progress on the shed and taking another pic of it. I went to both Harbor Freight and Lowe's and found nothing that would work for what I need.  This isn't a want, it's a need. I need something that an SUV can pull, a utility trailer for a utility vehicle.  

There's more, but it's getting late and my full time job calls me.  Another Oklahoma run tomorrow.  I have only been getting sent to Brownsville and Oklahoma for - 2 months now?  I dunno.  There is good and bad here. Good is I am not on the road 3 or more days at a time. Bad is the paychecks aren't as good.  Right now? I'm saying nothing about it.  This bridge thing - okay it's a lot more than I expected to even get the materials to the jobsite.  Literally I could have quite a bit of progress on actually building the bridge by now!  

But I also have a doggy park to build.  The materials are about $600 plus whatever entry way I'm going to put in plus dog cleanup station.  Yes, I'm building that one myself.  It's pretty simple affair - time permitting.  Time is everything.  I have been spending a lot more of my free time working over there and it's going to stay that way for as long as I can see into the future. There is a lot to do.  The weeds out there are irritating me to no end.  I have nothing, yet, to deal with it.  You look at the pics I just posted on my Facebook, for those that have access anyway, there are weeds everywhere. 

Frustrating, I need to deal with it, yet I need a solid answer to it, not a patchwork of paying exorbitant fees to have someone come out and do it for me.  I have no problem doing it myself, I just don't have the machinery to do it with.  I'm thinking rent the bulldozer for a couple of days - ask for 2 days off here in the near future - level all of that ground while destroying all of that vegetation and then plant a lot of grass seed. 

Yup, that's going to wait until fall.  I think anyway, that idea could change, but fall is when I can plant rye grass and rye grass grows easily . I won't have this park going before fall, folks, that's a fact. There is just too much to do and just waiting on the power company will take us into October - probably, my crystal ball is also a bit rusty - as well.  

Anyway, it's bed time and I still haven't found the trailer I need. I want that ordered and on it's way.   I guess not tonight, so I will stop at Home Depot in Longview after this next trip - so on Friday - and see if they have anything.  And try Facebook marketplace, maybe someone has something for sale.  It's a recession, people tend to sell off stuff during a recession.  

G'nite. 

 Although it isn't really going to change anything at this point, I do wish this contractor would have told me all the things he has to do in order to build a park, for I didn't know about a couple of these phases that cost a boatload of money.  I'm at 43 grand owed for what they have done up until now, which doesn't include the 12 grand already paid to clear the trees, 5 grand for the pedestals and whatever else I'm forgetting.  Oh, $3,200 for the water tap.  

I might have thought twice about even doing all of this or would have at least thought about alternate methods of funding if I had known these extra costs.  I'm not upset or anything, it just would have been good to know.  This contractor knows what he's doing but he's not a real good communicator.  He's pretty much full blooded redneck and in some ways that's good and in others, a bit lacking.  

Anyway.  They are allegedly coming tomorrow morning - which isn't that long from now lol, I just got home from Brownsville and it's almost 11:00 pm - to build the office building. I say allegedly because there is a 54% chance of rain tomorrow and tho we really do need the rain? I don't need it to happen tomorrow.  This dude asked me for information to get a loan on this project - I didn't want to spend even more of my cash that needs to go to finishing up the septic and gravel - and he didn't expect me to get the loan because I am "from out of state".  He is based in Louisiana, I'm in Texas.  

I wondered what difference that would make, who cares what state I'm in and he's in?  Maybe some obscure rules I don't know about.  So, about half and hour later he calls back and says I'm the first one that he was ever able to get through a loan for out of state/Texas.  I had informed him I have good credit?  What's the big deal?  Anyway, the only down payment is the first month's payment and that's only $219.  

I hope they don't report it to the credit bureaus, I don't need it and it may actually hurt my chances for getting another personal loan of the size I may end up needing.  It's only a year's worth of payments and it's over and done with.  This is a far cry from anything else I found anywhere.  Rest assured, I made lots of phone calls, texts and facebook inquiries plus visiting places that sell them.  I held out so long because I balked at the cost of a shell of a building with nothing but flooring installed inside. I'll have to add electric, water and sewer plus drywall, fixtures and whatever I want in there.  

Is that a do it yourself project, you ask? It could be if I had the time for it, I know how to do all of that stuff.  I may not be an expert but I can put out a decent end-result.  Well, I've never laid granite tile on floors, that's what I would like for the bathroom/shower.  The problem? All the spare time - I don't have! 

Yet, to pay someone will be in the thousands of dollars range just for the labor.  So I dunno yet.  I just want it there and get that portion of it out of the way.  I want one bathroom with a decent shower, a washer-dryer set, a soda machine and probably a candy/junk food vending machine.  And a locked room for the wifi equipment.  I will put a cord or two of pre-packaged firewood out front of it with a camera on it and guests can buy it on the credit card they will have on file.  I wouldn't mind putting an ice machine in there, but I think that a bit much for only 14 lots worth of people.  There will be cameras with a view of the entrance and anything outside. I dunno if it's kosher to put a camera inside, but I'd like to be able to see the vending machines and the door to the locked room for the equipment.  The laundry room will be enclosed and have a key pad lock.  Guests that want to use it will simply pay an extra fee at the registration online and get the code.  

It's a thing of convenience more than a thing of money making. I just want, for now, the machines to be able to pay for themselves.  Vending machines may or may not be a good idea, who knows, but I will buy them outright and stock them myself.  

The advice coming to me from a few sides is to rent out to long term.  I may do that if it looks as tho my hope of having overnighters and several-dayer's coming and going doesn't work out.  It may be that the only way to work it without having a full time staff is to have long term until I can expand the park and be able to quit my job.  Then I can be there daily and run the place.  Right now? I'm trying to automate most of this, hence the reason I want security cameras wherever it's prudent to have them.  You go into a Walmart and you'll see more cameras on the ceiling than you do at a casino.  Convenience stores - really all kinds of places both public and private have cameras everywhere.  

I'm just saying that for the people that think that is a bad thing.  It's not a bad thing when you aren't there. I want to be able to see what's going on in "public" areas. I don't want a view of the lots and the people on them, that would be freaky. But I do want a view of the driveway and whoever is coming and going.  

Anyway, I guess I best be off to bed.  I don't know what time they are going to call telling me they are coming. The guy said "around 10".  What if it rains? I wondered, he knows about the rain but that's not stopping him?  I need to get that trailer and 4 wheeler off that hill. I'm going to try to drag the whole setup out of there with my SUV.  I really need some help with it, but James will be at work and a few other people are also going to be at work. Other than calling a tow truck to winch it out of there (which is a possibility), I have to try to do it myself.  My SUV is large and heavy, I have no concerns about that trailer pulling that thing down the hill, but I need to be able to see what's going on behind me.  

I guess my bad, but I haven't really spent a lot of energy trying to make new friends in this area.  I know a few people but not that many, really.  I have lots of friends, they just don't live anywhere near here.  Even more of them dying off : (  People I have known for decades, just going away. I know it's the normal cycle of life, but it seems odd so many of them in such a short period of time?  Yet, one of my best friends is almost 90, you couldn't tell it by listening to him.  His mind is sharp and he's still pretty agile for his age.  

I only threw that in there because if I had invested the time and energy to make more friends, I could just call someone to come help me.  I mean, the 7 year old isn't going to be able to help me with any of that. He loves going over there, but yea, the best he's going to be able to do is record it on video.  I'm home so late I don't even know what's going on with anyone tomorrow. But, rest assured, with cooler temps, Addler is going over there with me : )  

Regardless, I'm going to hook the strap to the trailer and to the hitch on my SUV and try to pull it straight back.  The 4 wheeler is the loose goose here, what will it do? Stay straight or try to stray sideways?  It doesn't have to go a long way to get to a level area where I can drop the trailer and pull the 4 wheeler off of it and hook the SUV back up to it. 

If it's raining or the ground is wet, I am not taking it down that hill. It will have to wait until  the ground dries up.  It's pretty steep and my SUV is not a 4 wheel drive.  I can just see the tow bill of having to pull the thing out from the bottom of that hill. It's at least 200 feet down.  Oh! Well the other thought I had was to take that quick crete off of the trailer - it's 800 pounds worth - and see if the 4 wheeler will back it up without all that weight on there.  It was trying to push it back, it just couldn't do it.  No wait, it's almost 1,000 pounds worth.  I bet if I took that stuff off of there the 4 wheeler could get back up or even go down the hill without my feeling like I'm risking my life lol.

Anyway, g'nite. 

 Sometimes I write a post, get distracted and then never hit the "publish" button. Such is the case with the last entry that is just going to sit there in draft form for infinity and beyond! Lmao.

Anyway, I did go to Lowe's get all the stuff (most of it anyway) needed for the bridge project yesterday (Sunday).  It was then that I realized just how terribly out of shape I am. Lifting 12, 80-pound bags of quickrete about killed me.  Lifting a cartload of 14 and 16 foot long boards was also no small feat.  And then, loading it onto the trailer....but....a young dude came out - huge, with rippling arm muscles and said don't worry about it, I'll get this.  

I replied simply, thank you! You are way better shape than I!  But I still ended up loading the 80 pound bags onto the trailer while he was loading the wood.  

Over to McDonald's, a place I almost never eat at but my tag-along wanted to eat and it was what he wanted so I just said fine and got a Big Mac.  Over to the property.  My "plan" was a stupid one, now that I look back on it.  A bit more thinking about that and I would have never gotten myself into that mess.  

The plan was too hook the trailer up to the 4-wheeler - which it did, it has a ball hitch on it - and then drive it down the road into the basin to the bridge project site.  The problem? That 4 wheeler is definitely no match for that trailer!  That trailer is made out of heavy duty angle stock and it heavy enough empty,  but loaded? I barely started down that hill and realized this was a huge mistake.  The trailer started pushing the 4 wheeler down the hill even with the front brake on.  I mashed the rear brake down as well and it barely stopped it from moving forward.

It dawned on me that if I try to drive that thing down the hill? It's going to end up killing or severly injuring me, that 4 wheeler is no match for the weight of that trailer.  I was starting to sh** bricks, to be honest, when it kept moving even with the front brake on. That's disk brakes on that thing.  

Getting the thing stopped with the rear brakes was fine, but how was I going to get off the thing? I can't hold the rear brakes forever......

I turned the front wheels sideways, set the front parking brake and that did it.  Got 4X4's off the trailer and blocked all 4 wheels on the trailer and then.....figured I could drop the trailer and pull my SUV down there.  But no, after attempting to drop the trailer and seeing that I wouldn't be able to get it hooked to the SUV, I decided to leave the landing gear on the ground but still hooked to the 4 wheeler and then I would have to get James and come back with his 4X4 truck and a chain and pull the trailer backwards out of there.  

Then, use either his truck or my SUV to take it down the hill. After that, hook it back up to the 4 wheeler and tote it back to the bridge site.  I planned on leaving the trailer with all the materials on it there.  Well, anyway, for those that know me and have my Facebook as a friend, the kid made a video of this fiasco while it was unfolding. He had no idea how serious the situation was.  I had him standing behind everything before I even started down the hill as a precaution.  He was never in danger, thankfully.  

We went home after that. I was exhausted and burnt out. Seriously fatigued.  The heat and all that lifting did me in. I did not ask James to go back yesterday, I was too out of it.  I'll see if he will come out there the next time I'm off and he's home. He'll do it, it's a challenge if nothing else and his 4 wheel drive truck would be better suited to taking it down that hill than my SUV/. But oh yea, if it comes down to it, I will drive that trailer down there with my SUV. I"m not concerned about that, it's getting back up the hill I have my doubts about lol.  It's a pretty steep hill.  

There is another way back there on another trail, but the trail isn't wide enough in some areas for a trailer that wide to fit.  The hill is not as steep getting to the trail and not as long.  

Fortunately, the trailer and 4 wheeler are far enough down in the back of the property that no one drive around the top can see it.  There is some money sitting on that trailer worth of wood and new construction tools that I didn't have that I will need to be able to do that project.  

Ok, enough of that.  The shed building - they call them sheds but they are buildings - said he wanted to come out today and build it.  I can't, I replied - much to my dismay I had to turn it down because I was coming down here today, Brownsville.  I said I would probably be back on Wednesday and he said he would call me on Tuesday - tomorrow.

Yeah, well there aren't any empties down here so I don't know if I'll be home tomorrow and if I do make it back, I have no idea whether they are sending me out the next day or not.  This is the huge drawback to having to continue to work a very-much full time job while trying to put this project together.  They want me there before starting the project.  They will have it done the same day.  

I absent-mindedly scratch this ridiculous nonsense all over my body from these sand fleas that bit my entire torso, arms and back and they instantly start bleeding.  I have it going now in the sleeper, sitting here wiping it off trying to get it to stop.

Anyway, I contacted the sign maker once again today. They just didn't do what they said they were going to so I just wrote them off.  If you weren't interested in doing my project, why lead me on? Just say so and I would have moved on.  I have been trying to support local business here while putting this project together. Obviously, I had to find someone local to do the dirtwork and install, but signs? I can have those made anywhere.  Same with buildings.  They wrote back and said they had just finished the same project they had been working on when I contacted them 23 days ago.  A stained glass work, it took them awhile. According to her, anyway.  I just replied, well, you said you were going to send me a pic of the proposed sign over 3 weeks ago. 

I want my sign out there, soon.  Now, actually, but whatever, let's get it done! There is a sign company in my town, I will go there.  I'm giving them one more chance.  They said they wanted the work so I'll just see what happens. 

I'm waiting on the address maker to get back to me.  I hope it doesn't really take 10 days to do that, but it probably will, lol.  

The entire front portion of the property needs bush hogged.  I don't want to pay someone the high fee it will cost to do 7 acres.  I've got to figure something out.  My resistance to getting into any more debt is stopping me, at least for now, from buying something on credit and payments.  A riding mower would at least cut down the 500 linear feet that was cut out by the dozer, I will be getting one of those. But the rest of it?  Really need a farm tractor with the bush hog attachment.  

I dunno, it's a real headache for me.  They'll charge at least $500 to bush hog it - a contractor/side hustle person.  

There's so much to do and think about.  It just kind of fries my mind at times.  

I need rest.

G'nite. 

Been a minute since I last posted.  I didn't realize I hadn't in so long, lol.  Vacation long over - we were in the middle of it the last post I put up, I got sand fleas, apparently, while on the beach and I have at least 100 welts all over my arms, torso, back and a little on my legs.  Yea, that stuff hit and I was so itchy, it was crazy.  Today it's starting to wear down, benedryl has helped that immensely.  Sleeplessness was the norm for a few nights tho, only last night did I finally sleep well.

There's been some activity at the property. They finished all the utility set up at the pads.  They also put in this funny looking setup for the meters, big thing looked like something out of the Minecraft game. The waiting game is on for that, it will be a while before the power company does their thing and gets power strung to it.

I called the address company-  they give addresses to properties that don't have one - and got that rolling. They said up to 10 business days.  I would have done it sooner but their restrictions dictated a building or a power meter setup plus a driveway before they will give one.  Well, I have the meter setup- they told me I didn't have to have power to it yet.

After all the calling around, I was going to pull the trigger on a building and get that going.  Just need it on the property and need to get the interior set up on it and get whatever I want in it.  But, this morning I was looking again on Facebook Marketplace.  I contacted a person over in Louisiana - the state line isn't that far from me even tho I'm in Texas.  

The man contacted me back later on and we talked on the phone for quite a while. He does not order pre made buildings from a factory. I builds them on site.  With much heavier duty materials, much longer lasting setup.  He says they build 5 of them per day.  Those things really aren't that much, which is why I balked at the pricing and hence, the reason I kept on looking.  I was at  $6,500 ish range for a 12X16 with another company, the cheapest I had found and what I was going to just eat it and get it. 

This dude? 12X20 for $4,100. The cheapest 12X20's I saw were in the 10 to 12k range.  I did a lot of looking, this stuff isn't cheap even tho there isn't that much materials involved with it.  

I was immediately sold on this guy's product.  He was the first one that could go down a list of things that are wrong with the factory build stuff and the cheap materials they are using and he knew outright those lots selling manufactured stuff were far more expensive than his setups.  Look, at that price? I'm good. No down payment and low monthly payments.  I'm trying to keep as much cash as possible, but a building was not an option, I have to have one.  

Oh, and the water department at the city told me they wouldn't turn on the water without an address.  Period.  It was the day after the contractor got the electrical done and got that meter setup going. Hence the fact that I am finally getting a street address, much needed, has been much needed and there was little I could do about it. I was holding out on a building because I really didn't want to pay that much money for one.  I could have put a building up to get an address without any power setup.

Next, I found online a "thing" you attach to the back of your 4 wheeler that you drag behind it. It has tines on it and it digs up the roots of weeds.  I want to try that before I go pulling the trigger on some expensive piece of machinery that I really don't want to get into payments on right now.

Tractor Supply in town supposedly has one, I'm going over there tomorrow to see. I have the rest of today - Saturday - off and all of tomorrow off.  I intend on hooking up the trailer and going to Lowe's and getting the materials for the bridge.

OH!!! My AC on my vehicle!  I took the SUV over to a garage after trying 2 other places to take it to - they were booked up for a week and called others.  This guy put a vacuum on the system, got the air out and then filled it with freon. Walaaaah.  It works! NO $1,700 worth of labor to fix it. The other shop? Were they lying to me? I don't know.  The charge was $181 with this guy and so far, I have ice cold air on both air conditioners in the vehicle. It's a Ford Expedition EL - it's the long version, it has to have 2 AC systems to cool it.  

Anyway, I'm being called by family to do something, I'll write more later.  

 I guess tehcnically it's day 3 of vacation. It was only going to be day 2, but we left Wednesday evening so we could get here and be here early for a day full of fun for yesterday.

It was a late night, not getting to be until 1:30 am.  

Yesterday, we didn't even go to the beach, lol.  We ended up at Moody Gardens. We had come here last time we came to Galveston and it was fun then. This time, with the kids, it was even more fun.  Well, backtracking, at first the kids were extremely pouty and mom was not having it. "Next vacation there will be NO kids".  She regretted almost instantly having had brought them.

Fortunately, the kids mood got much better as the day wore on.  I think it was just that we had been out so late the night before. We didn't get up particularly early, but still.

Mood Gardens is really a fascinating place.  My favorite is the Rainforest Pyramid.  This is a glass pyramid - well probably plastic but whatever - and it's full of exotic animals and the typical type of things you would see in a real rainforest. It's not a cheap imitation, they really do a great job of it.  It was hot in there, yes, well more like muggy, I made the mistake of spending the day in blue jeans.

Anyway, we spent the whole day there and then ended up at the Rainforest Cafe - I hadn't been in ages. They gave us one of the better seats in the house - not by request it just happened that way - with 2 giant primates making gestures and noises above us and occasionally going off on rants lol.  

After that? Yea, it was getting late enough, it was a long day and we decided to go home and call it a day.  

Today we are spending the whole day at the beach.  The older child was very unhappy with our decision to go to Moody Gardens instead of the beach yesterday - tho he got over it after seeing how much fun the place was - but today? Yea we couldn't do that again and don't want to anyway.  That was a bit of a pricey day yesterday, today is just eat at Denny's and spend the rest of the day at the beach.  We need to get there before the crowds hit - it's Friday and I'm sure there are going to be hoards of people heading over here from Houston if nothing else.  

I'll tell ya, if I lived anywhere near here, I would definitely want to do an Air BNB house as well.  Any destination spot is a cash cow.  And the beach is definitely a destination spot.  I know, I'm always thinking about ways to make some money, but hey, it's part of life. I'm not obsessed with money, I'm just wanting to get retirement set up . 

Speaking of that, the pedestals and the power, water and sewer lines are all in.  The septic system - not yet and apparently the contractor wants paid for this portion of the project before moving on to the next.  Ok. I get it, make sure you aren't doing the work for nothing, a lot of construction projects are "pay as you go" stuff. Contractors have to pay their employees, etc.  But, I'm not there and told him I would be back Monday.  "Have fun!".  Yes, we are!

My SUV? I took it to another shop before we left.  This dude at the other place was really playing me on and I was tired of it and very tired of driving a very hot vehicle.  I normally get into my SUV to cool down, not heat up.  Driving to or from work when it's in the heat of the day has gotten very old.  I can do it, especially with a nice big cup of ice water, yes, but it's certainly not my first choice. 

That's about it for now.  The animules are being watched by some of their friends that live in town, Addler is being well taken care of. I'm sure he's not happy we are gone for 4 days but oh well.  At least they'll show him some attention when they show up.

Time for Denny's and then the beach.

G'day

 I really don't want to sit down here for however long - tomorrow mid-afternoon I'm being told - waiting on an empty trailer. I'd rather go home and get my vacation started.  Detention pay being almost nothing compared to what it was before this new and improved change - basically screwing drivers, my way or the highway attitude, I don't mind coming down here, drop and hook, but waiting? No thanks.  I don't have a choice unless I rebel and just tell them I'm bob-tailing back up. 

Tho I won't do that for the first 24 hours, after that, I will probably push the issue.  For now, they are saying you are only getting the first day's worth of detention, that after 10 hours is up and after that? You are screwed, you can wait down here however long it takes and you aren't getting any more money.  Nope. I won't sit here for nothing at all.  The company shouldn't expect me to, either.  

A bill that I really didn't want to start incurring this early in the game will now have to start coming in on a monthly basis.  I have to have the water turned on at the property in order to test the lines.  You can't install all of that water line and just say ho-dee-ho, if it's works, it's a go if it doesn't, so so soooo!  It has to be under pressure to test everything and make sure there are no leaks and that all the hydrants work.  

That is what they're calling the outlets at the RV pads, hydrants.  I really want to be back there to see what they have done, document it with pictures and get it recorded for history's sake. 1, because I want to have it documented where, exactly, all of these lines are running and 2, to try and understand if this is something I could do myself in the future.  The water and sewer lines, yes, easily. The power line, I don't know. But I took a pic of the huge roll this morning now I know what size and kind of wire is needed to run along the driveway, I assume also to each individual pedestal, but see, I don't know that for sure. 

It will really suck if they get that all done and cover it up before I get back.  But, I'm hopeful the ditches will remain open, the hope based on the fact that they really need to be able to visually inspect the entire water line from the street to every single outlet to ensure there are no leaks anywhere.  It's time to get some insurance protection in case of any damage either weather or man caused.  I can't get RV park insurance yet, they will want to see pics of everything they are insuring and then they give a quote.  

It's also time to think about getting the building out there.  That's going to be a down payment and a monthly payment for at least 36 months. I really would rather wait a while, but I also can't get a street address until I get that building on there.  I need a street address for the park to start showing in Google searches. I can find the park in the specific name search, but it doesn't show up in a general search of the town.  

It just seems too early to be doing that.  Maybe I will wait, I dunno.  Hard to judge all of this.  The power poles will hold everything up and it seems a waste of money to be paying for a building knowing it's at least months before the park can even be opened for a soft opening.  I'm just going to have to think about this for a while, because the building is just a shell and will need the insulation, flooring, electrical .... everything - done inside of it after it's placed. OK, thinking about that little detail makes me think I need to get it there sooner than later.  

But then, how big of a building do I need?  Do I want room for at least one bathroom with a shower, plus a laundry room with at least one of each machine, plus an area for vending machines, plus the necessary, but admittedly very small space needed for wifi equipment? And speaking of wifi, when do I decide to have that installed?  These decisions will be forced down my throat soon enough and I will have to make them, one by one.  But yes, I think I need to get that building out there soon so I can get someone to start the process of building the interior.  Or, I can do some or all of the work myself.  

Yes, I have so much time to do stuff like that! lol.  

I think the family is fixing to see far less of me than it already is-n't.  I don't have unlimited funds and it will costs thousands of dollars to pay someone to do the work for me.  Right about now, I'm wishing I had kept that breaker panel and all of the breakers it had in it that I acquired at my old job for free. I don't really have anyone to help me with any of this. I can probably find people to pay as helpers - maybe. The town is suffering from "I-don't-want-to-work-itis" and local business practically begging people to work for them.  This first version of a park is going to have to be mostly automated.  I just can't be there all the time and if I can't find any paid help, it's going to be a tough sell to get people in there without any oversight beyond video surveillance.  

The whole thing is a dilemma I haven't fully figured out yet.  But there is definitely going to be 24 hour, recorded video surveillance out there, it's the only way I can have peace of mind that if anything goes wrong - thieves, vandals, problems with guests, I have some way of seeing what is happening or what happened and at least know what's going on.  There isn't a lot of theft in the area, fortunately, hopefully it stays that way.  

I'm kind of lost right now with all of this.  I guess the size of the building will be determined by the size of the monthly payment.  For I will be covering it out of paychecks for quite a while. I don't see much other options besides an even much-softer opening with no electricity.  Most rigs have generators, but they are noisy and most rv parks don't allow them. However, if I see too much money going out the window without any income being generated, I will see about opening the park without electricity and just charge a reduced rate.  A greatly reduced rate, just try to cover expenses until the power poles are installed.  Like, $15-$20 per night. People won't like the idea of not having power, the rate will have to be low enough that they can see running a generator with $4 per gallon fuel all night long.  

Cancel that idea. Gasoline is so expensive right now, I'd have to be charging $10 per day for it to be worth it for anyone to come stay.  No, the park won't open until the electricity is available.  

Well it's getting late. I didn't get out of the loading plant until 12:32 this afternoon.  I just don't have to worry about getting up early, there are no empties, the driver that loaded earlier than me got the only empty that was available.  

Ugh, my mind is just wandering around all over the place with this park setup business. 

Well anyway, I'll be going into the water department on Wednesday - if I get home early enough, again, I have no idea when I'm going to be leaving here tomorrow - and get the water service started.  I mean, maybe I can start it up and then shut it off again until I need it?  Depends on start up fees.  Of course, who knows if it's a good idea to charge up the lines with water and then have the water pressure removed from them.  I don't know.  

Well, I think I'll lay down and ponder this stuff. Long day, lots of driving, ready for bed.

G'nite

 It dawned on me a few minutes ago that after this run today - Brownsville - I will be off work for quite a while.  This was planned.  I need to check with this wonderful dispatcher to make sure she didn't somehow "forget".  I do have all of the text messages pertaining to this vacation in case the selective memory hits.  She has been starting trouble with and having meltdowns with several other drivers.

I try to avoid such nonsense with her.  The closest thing I've had lately is her attempting to tell me DOT rules and regulations and my telling her she has no clue what she is talking about - which she literally doesn't. Besides not being a particularly good dispatcher, she also has only fragments of knowledge about trucking and the rules pertaining to trucking and that because I and other drivers have taken the time to attempt to educate her.  

This is why I believe all dispatchers should have previously had "driver" as one of their job titles. To understand the complexities and nuances of driving trucks, you have to have been exposed to it in such a way that you are directly affected by it and the only way that happens is if you have been a driver yourself.  To these know-nothings, it's all magical fairy-dust that falls from the sky.  They tell you where to go and you push a button and it mysteriously happens. If these people were to spend just a week sitting in the passenger seat of a truck with a busy driver, their whole attitude towards us would undoubtedly change.  

Anyway, they are allegedly starting that installation of the utilities today.  Which, in my mind, would mean they are out there right now. It's daylights, it's 7:40 am and it's still relatively cool outside.  It's summer in east Texas and like most other places in the south/southwest, it gets hot during the day.  High 90's/low 100's slated for the next 15 days.  That translates into higher heat indexes/real-feel.  I'm leaving for work early to see if they're out there and discuss with the electrician adding an outlet for my small building I'm going to have to get.  That was not previously discussed.  I'll need 220 outlet capability in case I want to install a washer/dryer setup.  

I definitely want to put in a soda machine and possibly a candy/chips vending machine.  These are money makers with fairly small amount of effort. The products have to be purchased at the Sam's club 2 towns over, but since I go there all the time for work anyway, that's not going to add anything to the slate of financial outlets in fuel expenditure, just the cost of purchasing the soda.  The caveat for a vending machines is that it must have a cooling unit in it.  There will be no air conditioning for the contents to remain cool and not melting or otherwise being exposed to extreme heat.  I dunno if those machines come with cooling or not?  No research on that has been done, it's kind of low on the priority list right now. 

A nice visit from Taylor's folks that ended yesterday morning. I was there for one whole day of it, 2 nights ago and all of yesterday morning.  Nice people. I let them use my room/bed and i stayed on a fold down couch in the boy's bedroom. I was gone the first night and decided to just let them stay in there. Much easier than having them at a hotel and much cheaper.  I know well the costs of lodging, just paid off the Air BNB house we are using for Galveston.  It made more sense and actually much cheaper than local hotels which at this time of year are running near $300 per night range for even mediocre accommodations.  I know this because we stayed there 3 years ago and the hotel we stayed at was not a 3 plus star hotel but yes, it was near $300 per night if I recall correctly.  The house is much cheaper, has 3 bedrooms, looks really nice inside from the pics and is close to the beach.  We are going for the beach, not for the place to stay.  

We can also cook there which reduces the amount of restaurant expenditures.  

Looking forward to some time off. Yes, I know, I had 12 days off last month, but that was all sickness and there was certainly  no fun, joy or entertainment in that.  I really like Galveston beach, the water is not freezing cold and it's just plain fun.  At least it was last time.  

I just need some time off, not sick and extra days not on vacation that I can spend at the property to get some work done.  I will be buying the bridge materials and at least start the construction.  It will probably take a while to finish that. Days off here and there and whether I'm even motivated depending on if I can get out there in the morning time and get work done before the extreme heat hits.  Oh, I "think" my utility trailer will fit back there.  If it doesn't, get out the chain saw! lol 

Purchase of a piece of equipment to hack down the weeds will wait until I pay the bill for utility installation.  I really don't want to spend any money until I get the final bill for that.  See what's left over, what I can afford to do without a loan and get that done and then, if absolutely necessary, which it probably will be, get a loan just before opening the park up - like within 2 months at most - get the final items on the list done and get some revenue (hopefully) coming in.  That's the current plan which is subject to change!  If you were to go back to where I started this venture and my thoughts, ideas and plans then and compare them with what is actually happening now? Yea, 2 different animals. Not completely different, but definitely some substantial differences.  

I went back and forth about using the existing driveway. I didn't want to at first, but after seeing how much everything else was going to cost? It became a no-brainer within the last few months that I would have to use it to be able to afford everything else.  I was going to build the park close to the road. But, after all the trees came down, that became problematic. Way too much of a grade/slope and far too much money to haul dirt in to level it out, the project is now about 450 from the roadway.  And other things that have changed.  The things that have remained the same are the walking trails, the desire to install a doggy running area, tent camp grounds and wifi.  I think a bathroom is going to have to wait.  

It will be a drawback for some campers that want access to a regular bathroom and full sized shower, but I don't think it's in the cards right now.  The only way I can do that is if the building I get is big enough to install one along with everything else.  I mean, it isn't completely off the list, it just is something I have determined that can wait if finances for it become an issue.  We'll see.  What I'm figuring at this point is that when I pay off the utility installation, I'll have just enough to install the gravel and possibly do the dog park and after that? It's all going to have to be another loan.  

Of course, there is really nothing stopping me from opening up a park without wifi, dog park, etc. If the utilities are in and the pads are done, I am wondering aloud, why not?  Google reviews be damned, the park has some offerings that are rather unique and the walking trails are the biggest thing in that department.  I still have some work to do but it's about the cheapest thing I've had done and it's benefited me, personally, as I love to walk my dog back there and the occasional accompanying children. It's been hot and they get over heated too fast so I haven't been taking them that much.  I get hot, too, but living in AZ for most of my life has at least taught me how to mitigate the heat and keep cool enough as to not enter into heat exhaustion territory.  Even Addler gets overheated and I don't really like to have him exposed to it too long.  

Anyway, it's about time to leave the house, go over there and hopefully....see them out there working!

G'day