Long day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day

 I dunno what to tell ya. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With that? I"m offa here. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Sat at the property for a long time. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay. 

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

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

Yeah, well one step at a time, please. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Ditched a rather lengthy post.  Just didn't feel the vibe with it. Vibing, btw, for my Christian friends, isn't some demonic force that I'm attempting to invoke.  The vibe is simply your gut instinct.  Now, I was called god the other day by a person.  That really sent chills to my bones.  Uhh, no, I'm definitely not god.  You're my god.  Why? What on earth? NO.  Why this person was saying this was totally unknown to me. I've been called a lot of things in this life, but god? That was the first time.  And hopefully the last time.  I humbly bow before the Creator God and fully understand that He IS God and there is none other likened unto Him!  

It was cold this morning and it was cold all day long. The high was 37 degrees.  Yes, I went to the property, I almost always go there.  I didn't stay long. Checked out the septic, looked at the tenants trailers, everything seemingly in order, I had to answer one question: Go a few miles away to get the pipe or drive over to Longview? I started heading to Longview before I realized that I am not wanting to have to deal with a water heater and enclosure in this cold, both putting it on the trailer and taking it off. 

I was still on my road, I just turned around and went and spent the money on the pipe.  

Dumped that off by the shed and then made the mistake of taking the trailer back to it's normal parking place. Yea, the mud.  Seriously? I could use about 14 truckloads of gravel.  Backing out of the spot, my SUV started sliding sideways. I stopped immediately - sliding sideways within inches of the trailer I just unhooked.  

I got out of there but regretted dropping it there. I need it to go get the water heater and the enclosure. It can wait, I'm not going back there again until it dries up some.  

After that, I drove to the park portion and sat there looking and musing about things. The other guy that wanted to move in - never called me back. I ended that thought, oh well.  I'm not going to get upset about people no showing - it's just the way it goes with renting out much of anything.  

I went home and started working on the Dunn and Bradstreet setup. It's basically Credit Karma for business. If you want a business credit score, D&B is the place to start. It already had my information, I just had to complete it for an account. It showed my business a very bad risk for credit purposes of any kind.  Very bad rating. I guess that's where they start every business? I don't know because it also showed no late pays or any bad info. For credit purposes, it didn't have any info, as it should be.

No biggies. I started applying for business credit cards.  Rejected by 2 - Capital One was a bit surprising, my bank wasn't.  Well, I take that back. My bank is "reviewing it" - they didn't actually say no.  I don't know what that means.  The one I found amazing that did give me a credit card is American Express.

Maybe they've lowered their standards but they typically don't give credit to no credit situations.  

It's a couple thousand worth of credit. I'm going to buy some stuff from Lowe's online with it tomorrow - namely electrical components for the shed - pick them up at Lowe's and then I will pay it down to zero with business checking account.  Actually I think you are supposed to leave it for 15 days and then pay it down.  Hey, I don't make this stuff up, I read it from various "authoritative" sources.  Lots of advice out there.  My experience in the past with AmEx is that they don't want you to carry balances.  They want you to buy and pay it off before or at the due date.  

It's a start - buy, pay, buy, pay.  I don't know how long it takes to get a decent score, but probably a while.  

I then called the lady that pays for this new tenant's existence at my park. Again, these oil field workers get lots of perks.  That guy isn't paying for his lot rent. But it probably is a per-diem thing and that's why he showed up at my place.  The more he saves on per diem, the more he gets back. That is my projection, I've had per-diem - tho it can work in a myriad of ways.  Just depends on the company.  

Anyway, we had a pleasant exchange - she's a really nice lady - and then I told her the other guy didn't call back so I'll just take the payment for the guy that showed up.  She offered that the other guy may have been called out - this happens constantly with these workers - and may not have had time to come.  I sort of thought of it, but the fact he didn't call me back kind of gave me the idea he wasn't interested.  But think about it - coworkers on the same crew. They can go to work together and come home together, saving a ton of fuel costs getting to and from work.  

The only thing I really know about these guys are that they are welders - that's what they do with steel pipe, they just weld it together - and they are making bank.  

She wanted to contact him and see what he wants to do? Sure, I can wait.  

30 minutes later, she calls back.  The man told her he had chosen lot 9 and that he was moving in tomorrow.  Lmao.  These people.  Ok!  I took the company credit card info and charged them 2 lot rent's worth and the credit card fee. Yup, I don't feel compelled to pay that at those rates.  I offered to her that she could pay by check if she so desired, to save the fee money? I don't really care as long as I get the money.  The agreement was pay by card this month and begin check payments next month.  

That's it. Right now, the only people I know of potentially coming are the ones held up by weather - and bad weather the DFW has had and IS having now.  The couple never showed up and haven't contacted me.  People are driving through the property frequently, apparently. Not just apparently, when I was there with the railroad dude the other day,  an economy car came driving slowly through. I thought they wanted to discuss moving in? or what they were doing there? 

Well, whatever the reason they were there, they just waved as they slowly drove past and left, lol.  Ok!

I'm up to 5 long term, I'd like 2 more. After that, I am totally undecided at this point and I will just have to make that decision when I get there. But - I think when I get to 7  I'm going to take "long term" off of everything and see what happens.  It dawned on me that my substantial reading on this subject has a "party" of interests, much like politics. One side wants guests/overnight travelers only. They have a disdain for long term tenants and they very vocally tell everyone about it. It's not a small sector of RV'ers, either.  The other side - long term, have a different view but it's not a view opposed to short term guests.  

I don't know, but it's just yet another thing I want to explore in terms of getting the over night people in there.  I'll get my 7 long term first.  How long will it take to get 2 more? I have no clue. They mostly show up out of nowhere. The railroad family was one of those, showed up on Sunday and they haven't been back since - their rig is there of course.  

Oh, I am going to try just once for a business loan.  See if I can get the 7 plus k to get the wired internet in there.  What choice do I have? I can't do this Verizon stuff - it's going to clean me out.  These people want their free internet, I have to give them something. Verizon will sit there until I can get something affordable in there.  Some of these things just give me headaches thinking about it.  

I just have to shut that off. It just revolves around in circular thinking that I can't resolve.  If there is something else, I haven't found it. 

Well anyway, that's today.  

Guess I should have done this a long time ago.  Dun & Bradstreet number and account.  It's basically a Credti Karma for your business. Credit Karma doesn't do business accounts, unfortunately . I have a horrible rating atm, of course.  It shows me well in the potential for being at risk to default on loan, have over 91 business days for late payments and high risk of bankruptcy.  I am assuming everyone starts there because it also shows the business has no delinquencies, late pays or bankruptcies.  

American Express has been sending me offers forever.  I really hate American Express, not my favorite credit card, but I will get one if they will give me one just to be able to start to get credit going.  I dunno, I'm going to put out applications and see what happens. One of them approved me a while back but I can't for the life of me remember which it was.  They wanted information I didn't have to be able to open the account.  

Today. Not sure yet, it's been raining this morning, finally stopped but who knows for how long.  There is nasty looking weather to the west of us that is heading northeast. It looks like a mix of sleet and hail.  However, watching the radar, it moves to a certain position and then stops, turns into rain.  I will hope we don't get any of that, it starts between Tyler and Dallas,  starting maybe 80-90 miles west of us. It's a no brainer that people do not want to drive RV's through that, especially bigger rigs. 

I need to go 2 towns over and pick up stuff for the shed. But I also need to go 3 miles and pick up the pipe.  I really want to go see this new RV park near the state line. I mean, railroad tracks, interstate and a garbage refuse service next door.  I know it's full because of oil field workers, I just wonder how any of them can stand all of that noise?  Or the view? Or the potential stench from the operation next door? 

I dunno, but I've got the 4 minimum I wanted in there before raising my rates back up. Not up too much, but where I had them before I lowered them to try and get people in there.  I'm going to set at the current level for a while and see what, if anything, happens.  I wasn't getting people in for overnight stuff at $25 per night, there isn't any good reason to leave it there in my mind. If I'm just getting a very rare overflow, then I don't see the profit in leaving those pull through sites open.  Once I get the back ins filled up and still nothing on the nightly spots?  Yup, I'll just try to fill them with long term.  Some money is better than none.  

The info I'm getting online is that the concrete starts curing quickly and perhaps I can just go ahead and put the top crossbeam on there now?  I'm going to have to lug that generator up there to do that.  

This couple said they were moving in today - I've heard nothing from them about that.  They may have changed their minds.  I am finding, however, that these people just think if they already talked to you, they can just show up, choose a site without asking and get on it.  It's happened 3 times now.  I'll be heading over there soon. It's cold out today, my version of it anyway. It's 37 degrees now and only going up on more degree for the high today.

Gag!  

I need to get one of the other done. Either get to Longview to Home Depot or go to the local supply house for the pipe.  I'm leaning towards Longview and getting that misery over with. 

Anyway, another cup of hot coffee and I'm out of here. 

 So.  The couple that said they were coming in on Thursday are stranded somewhere north of the DFW area.  Ice/sleet - crappy road conditions, accidents everywhere. I encouraged them to hole in somewhere and not even try to navigate through the disaster this storm is leaving behind.  That sleet passed maybe 80 miles west of us, I can't say I am saddened that it didn't hit us. Snow I would have liked, but sleet? No thank you. They said they would be coming in Friday, which is fine by me.  They said they had sought shelter on their brother's farm.  I dunno folks, I just report it as I hear it. I hate to get too inquisitive into people's personal details, as much as it fascinates me, some people or even many are not inclined to be giving out that info. If they are chatty and want to divulge personal info, great!  

The other guy? Coming from Oklahoma? Well there's kind of a story going here. 

I went over there this morning and got busy with cutting the railroad ties with the circular saw - I did all 4 sides of the 9 foot long tie and will have to finish it with a long sawzall blade.  I heard a high pitched, continuous - whining - noise.  It wouldn't stop. I looked around, what is making that noise?!! It got highly annoying after hearing it a while.  Well, anyway, freezing cold outside, I still decided to go up and dig out the post holes for the posts for the highway sign. 

I don't really know if I'm supposed to be asking some person or entity for permission to do that, I just know that there are 2 permanent signs and I'm sandwiching mine in between them. I've had my small sign up in between those 2 for a few months now, no one has said anything and no one tried to take it down. That was my sign to put up a permanent sign. Just a bit leery because that sign I'm putting up? $250. That's just the sign, doesn't include the lumber, paint, concrete, connectors, screws, gas, and use of generator (mine, but still, in the business world everything is a write-off), not to mention my time, to install it. 

I dunno, but if someone really wanted to get a hold of me, they could simply look it up on the internet, the phone number is right there. Or email.  

Whatever the case, getting the holes dug out, I decided to move forward.  Back to the property, hook up the trailer, load the boards, concrete, bucket of water and level back on there and back up there.  This dog. There was a dog - must live around there somewhere - it was barking at me. I mean, it was non-stop barking. I ignored it for a while, but the dog kept getting closer and closer.  Then, it did a sudden move towards me as if it were going to bite me. I threw my hands up in the air and yelled at the dog. GO AWAY!!  I had to do that several times before it disappeared.  

I did my thing with the boards, measuring, leveling, measuring again, pouring in the concrete, tamping it down, pouring water and then final check for level both ways, plus running a loose board across the bottom to make sure they were lined up. It's there, but it won't dry up for days. If not a week or longer.  It's raining again - as forecast. And again tomorrow. And the next day....and the next day... 90% chance of rain range.  

I do want to put the sign up after a couple of days regardless. It's just that I don't want anyone saying gee! Looky there! Boards! or even worse, put up a sign on it using my boards!

I get that done and Taylor is like, I'm going to see RJ. He works at Chili's. I went over there, needed some white out for paperwork anyway. Actually need a lot more than that, but that was Walmart.  So I'm sitting at Chili's and this guy that said he was coming calls.  "I'm over here at the park, I'm on lot 8". I mean...

You know...I specifically asked him to call me when he gets there - that was days ago - not pick and choose a lot and then hope I am ok with it. Crazy.  The trans couple were supposed to take that lot but I haven't heard from them so I just let it go. These is a permanent setup. I left Chili's later on and went over there.  He wasn't there, as he stated he wouldn't be, his travel trailer - a late model thing that looks nice anyway - was all set up. 

And that high pitched whining noise - I noticed that noise again. It's very high-pitched and after you hear it for a while, it starts to get annoying. On purpose, of course. It just sounded like it was coming from everywhere.  Luckily, I glanced over at the septic system and saw the red light on - meaning the system isn't working. 

WHAT?!!! I ran over there and sure enough it was also where that noise was coming from. I hadn't heard that noise before so I didn't know to correlate it with the septic system. I contacted the contractor, rather long, drawn out texting conversation. But he sent someone over there.  Turns out some wiring wasn't set up right. Apparently the unit was never working. There are 4 concrete vaults in that system. He sent a dude over, he fixed it, gave me some instructions and that was that.  I don't touch that system, I know nothing about septic systems beyond what I have read and it's under warranty. If something goes wrong, I'm just calling them. It's not like that system was free.....

Back to the new dude.  I called him after everything else and he said, yes, a company actually wants to pay for the lot rent for me.  Oil field workers get lots of perks - they are gone from home for lengthy periods of time. One of the perks is -usually - to have their living situation paid for.  He asked if it would be okay if the lady called me to use a credit card?  Sure. Well, but I have a co-worker that might want to move there as well? Okay! 

That guy calls me saying he wants to come take a look. Another call back from the lady to pay the bill, she knew nothing about this intended setup.  I haven't heard back from that guy, if he doesn't call back by tomorrow, I will get the credit card info from the lady, charge the one lot and be done with it. He can come if he likes, but I'm not waiting forever to get paid for the dude that already moved in.

That's 4 long term in there now, I had my ad changed.  $30, $175 and $450 - daily/weekly/monthly rates. Still below the average around these parts.  Remember, I just wanted 4 in at that rate to get my monthly bills taken care of to start with. After that, long term is going to pay more and short term a bit more as well.  

It was a long day.  I'm good with it, just the weather is dreary, gloomy, yuck. I have a full slate tomorrow.  If the trans couple shows up, I hope they aren't pissed, I didn't ask that person to take that spot - but I did ask them to keep me apprised of their intent to move over here. Regardless, I am heading 2 towns over for more stuff for the washer/dryer setup Water heater, water heater enclosure, breaker box, breakers, wiring, outlets - I'm going to be over there quite a while. 

Only if I get a call to get yet someone else in there will I change those plans. Even then, there is pipe to be bought over in my town. 

I don't think I will try to place that sign up tomorrow. It's just too wet out, that concrete is going to set that fast.  

The guy doing the 2 week stay paid for the next week today without having to ask him. 

My greatest conundrum right now? Isn't washer/dryer setup, it's internet. It's going to cost me far too much money with this Verizon setup.  I need starlink to give me access or I need to do something else. With  12 days left on the billing cycle,75% of the data has already been used up. I need unlimited wifi. I can't currently justify paying over 7 grand for fidelity to install the line. And I don't want to get into debt for that. Starlink is coming "sometime" this year.  I don't know what else I can do?  

I'm going to be doing even more research, I have to find a solution for this.  I'll eat whatever until I find that solution.  

And then there's trash. Do I get a dumpster?  So far?  No.  

This thing has gone far beyond anything I imagined in expenses.  

Whatever the case, no new short terms coming in.  I don't really expect that in horrid driving conditions.  But you never know, I'm ready to run over there any time if such things occur, just the same with these last minute people saying "I want to move in today".  There was yet another call from some people over in Tyler this afternoon saying they needed somewhere to stay long term today.  They said they would "get back to me", which indicated to me I would never hear from them again. 

Yup, never heard back. I'm ok waiting however long to get people in at higher rate.  I'm not trying to get rich off of these people, I want to pay the bills and make some money per lot. Not greed type of money. 

I can tell ya, after seeing the setup for the pedestals?  If I had the money I'd be planning on 5 more spots.  

Enough.

 Are any of these people showing up today?

I have no idea.  

But, I intend on getting another box of fire starter logs and going over there and doing some light clean up work.  First a trip to Lowe's - for the logs lol I used the last box up - and possibly a breaker box.  Get that thing installed or at least see where I'm going to put it and what it's going to take to install it and get with the program.  Get that thing in, I can map out where I'm going to put the machines and then run indoor lines through the walls to the locations, install some outlets and be done with that part of it.  That will take some time.

Then the plumbing and drain for the washer.  I don't know if I"m going to buy a quarter vending machine right off the bat.  I suppose I could just carry rolls of quarters with me and sell them to tenants if they so desire.  I'm just not going to give out free laundry, not at the monthly rates I'm giving.  They'll have to pay extra for it.  $3.00 per load - that's wash and dry - sounds reasonable and not attempting to take advantage of anyone.  It will pay for the electricity and water usage and also to build up a fund to fix/replace said machines at whatever point it needs it.  Basically, they are paying for the machines to pay for themselves.  Not sure about any profit in that situation. 

I'll just go to a local coin op - there is a chain of them in this town that has like 5 locations around the city - and see what they're charging.  Whatever it is, that much or less.   

Why am I sitting here at home? Because I just got out of bed, 1, drinking my morning coffee, 2 and looking at the weather, 3.  Real feel of 29 degrees, yuck.  And the likelihood of more rain today! Gag. I knew they had 5 days in a row forecast for rain, but you know, around here?  They get it wrong so often, you just don't believe them, you wait until the day comes and see what happens.  

Oops, I need to cut up boards to take over there before I leave here. Forgot about that.  I used all the boards I cut up yesterday getting those new tenants in. 

It's mid morning, guess I best get moving! 

 I'm thinking I need to take a quick trip to AZ. I have enough points on various credit cards to take as many trips as I want, so what's wrong with just going a couple of days and coming right back? See mom, see my son, a few friends, the house, leave. 

Yes, I have a lot to do at the park. I haven't seen my son or mom since before Covid started in 2019.  

That pretty much says it all.  $408 round trip leaving from a small airport 2 towns over (versus going to 
Dallas or Fort Worth, gag).  I'll end up in DFW anyway, just won't have to drive there to save a few dollars.  It seems what you save you lose in parking fees.  

Mid month February. Seems reasonable to me?  I'll be thinking about that tomorrow. 

 Church then to the property. It's been raining so hard for so long, I was kind of hoping the dirt layer on top of the driveway would just sort of wash away.  As I said in a previous entry, digging down just a little bit into the driveway, you hit SB2 gravel.  A thick, compressed layer of it.  I can say I was pleasantly surprised to see the entry way had the appearance of finely crushed gravel - the way it used to look before that giant grader came in and just made it all disappear. 

Does that fix the driveway? Of course not, but perhaps less of the driveway is going to be so bad. There is a literal stream of water - I mean a good sized stream - running down the side of the driveway and then over the top of it.  Driving over it didn't make it all muddy and screwing things up - of course if a tractor trailer rig showed up again? No thanks.  Unlikely they'll be back any time soon tho.  

A man called me a few minutes ago. Do you have any long term spots available? Yes. I don't know how the rain is affecting your facility, but would it be possible to come today?  Yes, I just drove over there. The parking pads for the RV's are elevated well above the ground, you really don't have to worry about water. 

He is - allegedly - coming today.  This is yet a different person than the others I have spoken with that are also - allegedly - coming tomorrow and Tuesday.  

_________

Allegedly turned into a done deal.  Took a while to get them set up - they don't have leveling jacks on their trailer, it's a weird set up that is only designed to stabilize the trailer.  So I had to get my boards for him to back up on. 2on top of each other was fine - until the boards sank.  Uncompressed gravel. So we had to pull off and put another set of boards.  The thing is perfectly level now.  

I'm going to cut up more boards in case I need them tomorrow and try to get those railroad ties cut into blocks.  I'll make it as easy as possible now that I have a better idea what I'm doing for people to pull in, run the trailer up on the boards and level it.  If a trailer has leveling jacks, then they really just need them for the jacks, that's where the railroad ties come in handy. 

It turns out that park charging high rates? Is full - solid - every day.  They said as soon as one pulls out, another one pulls in.  This is the one that was advertising that I had my doubts about.  But, it's all oil field stuff. And that park is 20 miles closer to where they are doing that work than me.  Plus, it turns out, those oil field workers get a substantial per-diem to pay for a place to stay. However - some of them don't want to spend that per diem on living expenses and hence they are moving further away - my place is definitely further away.  

There are major drawbacks to that park, however. 1, it is 100 feet away from a set of railroad tracks and it blares it's horn going across the road right there. 2. The noisy Interstate is right there.  3. It is located right next to a garbage terminal for garbage trucks. But, they manage to stay busy and they are raking in the bucks.  I didn't and still don't want anything that close to the Interstate and certainly not near railroad tracks, gag.  However, it does work for overnighters who may not care that much as long as they can easy in- easy out.  Many of these RV'ers are loaded with money.  Oh, forgot the well water, they said it's brown and when you flush the toilet, the water that comes into replace it? Looks like you just took a piss in it, lol. 

Regardless, I want this place full of whatever I can get in here, for now. I'm raising my rates as of today.  If these other people show up tomorrow and Tuesday, I don't need the cut throat rates and I will be happy to take more money - mostly to cover utility expenses. 

But really, I do think I will be able to fill the place up, just taking a little longer than I would have liked. 

I've got to focus on getting the park built out larger.  I want the place at least doubled in size by the time they start construction on the new Interstate loop - 440 million dollar project that will take years to build out.  There will definitely by RV'ers in that crowd. No, I"m not starting construction today, lol, I'm barely making it as it is, But there is light at the end of the tunnel and I believe I'm getting closer to that light.  

Even 1 extra lot at a time will be great.  I'll need another septic system, but I can go with a smaller one to increase by maybe 5 lots.  It's goal making time - I  really get nothing done without goals.  As for this laundry setup? The dude looked at me and said, well don't expect to dig out a trench for at least 2 weeks!  High chance of rain the next 4 days, then low 4 days after that, then moderate 6 days after that.  There is no way to dig out dirt that is wet, you just don't do it.  But, if it's going to be that long, I think I will be looking at videos about how to dig out trenches in the rain.  

Wait. I wouldn't mind trying a small version of an automated RV park right off an Interstate Exit.  But, I really would rather find a plot of land for lease or rent and have truck parking. I haven't been able to find anything beyond 2 parcels of land in a great location - but they want $100k per acre.  Lol.  Truck parking only requires very little effort. Find someone to work 5 hours a day collecting fees, give them a level parking lot, that's it. I could make a ton of money off of it - maybe depending on demand - by simply charging a reasonable fee - I could eventually get a reputation, get on the Trucker Path app and have a full lot every night.  I've been looking - really if the ground is good even if dirt, I can use it.  

I dunno, but I have my work cut out for me.  

Water draining nicely all but the new pipe I put across the old driveway. Need to make some adjustments and that tractor-trailer that came through didn't help any. Kind of blocked the pipe in with a wall of mud. The only thing that will really fix it is fresh gravel.  If all these people do show up, some of that money is going to gravel instead of more credit card debt. 2 loads on the worst of it and see what happens.  No, no machinery. I can't wait weeks to put down gravel, if I have to get out there with a shovel and do it by hand, then that's what it is.  I'm not spending almost $500 on a machine just for that. If I can get a good driver, I can get the gravel spread pretty well just by him dumping while driving.  

Today was encouraging, to say the least.  These people will be there for a while - but - they won't be there all the time, which is great.  They go home on the weekends.  Weekends are when everyone is home and using up electricity and gobbling up data for wifi.  I think that's what they said, anyway, I was really focusing on getting their rig level for them and we got it perfect. It took 3 tries, actually.  Now I know what I need to do with boards for people to back or pull up their trailers on.  

Basically, a 4-1/2 foot long board, another one a couple inches shorter and then 2 8X6 pads on the top.  This will level it or come close enough that even stabilizers will be able to level it out.  

Enough. I need to relax, chill and get all of this out of my mind for a while.  It's kind of hard to do, but if enough people get in there, I won't feel so pressured.  And I will be able to push off further my return to trucking - there is too much to do.  Tomorrow I will be getting as much of the indoor stuff and hopefully the breaker box and can at least get started on that stuff.  Well, I dunno. If I can get the breaker box in without getting soaking wet - you have to start there first and run the lines from it to your electrical outlets. 

___________

Yes, I chilled and just kicked back.  I was glad to get all of that junk out of my head. Unfortunately, I had all of these tabs up on my computer looking for washer/dryer sets and my mind clicked back on that stuff instantaneously. Yikes. 

Tomorrow? I dunno. Likely go get the pipe.  And I did look up digging out trenches in the rain/wet soil. Not impossible. Not sure it's a thing for a novice to be trying, I'll be looking at more videos. It looks any rain tomorrow is going to be late afternoon.  I could actually go out there and pull out more weeds.  All of this rain? Those things will slip out of the ground.  Why would I do this instead of work on the laundry stuff? Because the front looks like hell and is equally as important in priority.  Appearance is everything.  

All I can say? I've got my hands full.  I need to be there tomorrow anyway if these people are showing up as they said they were and the caller said he'd like to come in the morning. Wherever home is, it apparently isn't anywhere near here.  Well of course it isn't, if he has to have 2 separate places to live.

Would there be any difference between paying with a credit card and paying on account with a loan? The loan is 12 months. Not forever and low payments.  I didn't even know such a thing was available.  $207 per month, coin operated set, we're done with that.  It will be a while before they arrive, apparently.  Next? Water heater.  Water heater enclosure.  Pipe.  Electrical components for the shed. I just saved myself 2 grand worth of credit card debt that would have taken much longer to pay off at minimum payments. Will this be worth the cost? Yes.  I expect the machines to get used. 

Whatever. I'm getting mind fogged with all of this.  It's time to get off of here, watch some reruns of some old show, get drowsy and go to sleep.  

 It rained all night long.  For probably an hour or longer, it was pouring rain, like someone opened a fire hydrant all the way and just let'er rip.  I can't even imagine what that driveway must look like right now. I'll go over today to find out, rest assured, while there's still rain coming later on. It either stopped or it's a light rain, I can't hear it now. If the radar is correct, it will start raining in an hour and a half and then rain for the rest of the day. 

Well, not that I have the ball rolling on the shed, I'm not going to stop.  So, I'll just have to take a look at my credit cards and see if there's a couple that can "withstand" having another $1,500 or so put onto them for at least 3 loads of gravel.  Tomorrow I'll head over to either Home Depot 2 towns over or the local pipe supply place and get the pipe I need.  If I go to Home Depot I can get the water heater and the enclosure for it and possibly the breaker box. 

I haven't decided what kind of pipe to use yet for the interior.  I don't think they use schedule 40 for the interior of homes - but this isn't a home and a busted line wouldn't do much of anything to anything.  

And honestly? I'm not even going to put any flooring in there to start with.  People that need laundry will just have to deal with it.  I care - but only to the extent of making that particular amenity available.  If they don't like bare wood floors, shrugs shoulders.  Tomorrow will tell the tale of whether I have new tenants coming in or not.  If there were 3 of them I could just pay for the gravel with that money - cash instead of credit.  I've got enough money in there right now to cover the bills I have attached to that account. And the electric bill came up online, it's less than $100.  The water bill was also quite low.  It's the time of year you get away with lower utility bills.  

However.  IF 3 more people show up, I'll have to get garbage service started out there. It's inevitable.  So far, I only find a bag or 2 full of garbage here and there in the 55 gallon container.  It would have been a waste of money to start a garbage service.  I just take the giant plastic bag home and dump it into one of our containers. We have an extra one - it only costs $5 extra per month - that doesn't get used that much.  For now, it works. 

I dunno, but this coming week, rain or shine, I'm going to be working on that setup.  I just need to get a breaker box installed and the water heater and then I can get started on all the interior stuff.  I figure washer and dryer are 50 amp service, water heater the same, the outlets for them and a couple of regular outlets.  I'd like to be able to plug in while I'm over there as well.  Also an outlet for the window AC unit - maybe 30 amp.  Plus running the plumbing, this will take some time.  

One dude said the coin op is better, even tho it's $250 per machine more expensive.  Home Depot and Lowe's both sell them.  I think they have to be ordered.  I guess I'll have to make up my mind soon on that situation. It's either regular machines with a keyed entry or coin op.  Coin op admittedly sounds far better than fooling with giving people a code and then hoping that other people that aren't paying for it get in there somehow anyway. I'd really like the machines to pay for themselves and then some.  The quandary is the money to put them in there. Plus you - well you don't have to - but it's good to get a quarter vending machine.  But, people go out all the time, they can grab quarters while they are running around town?

The reason I say this is because those quarter vending machines aren't cheap.  

Oh well.  We're -- probably -- going to church today which means we leave in 20 minutes.

 It is a bit unnerving to drive over there when it's raining - such as it is today - and see a muddy driveway.  It didn't help that a tanker tractor-trailer rig came through today.  They always seem to pick the worst days to go in there.  I need almost 3 grand worth of gravel.  Couple that with spending around $3,500 on getting laundry in and I've got serious debt going.  

Is it worth it? I dunno, but I have to say that the driveway is going to be a major turn off for anyone driving in and out of there.  And it's supposed to rain the next 4 or 5 days.....

I've got a cash problem and I just don't know what to do besides going back to work or taking out another loan.  Or using credit cards - the same as taking out loans but higher interest rate.  

It's a quandary.  A real pickle.  A backed-into-a-corner feeling. Almost futile - dump the money into it and the what?  I'll be real happy, tho, if all of these people show up Monday and Tuesday. It would be 4 long term renters - which would be a nice cash infusion that I seriously need right now. Pay for as much gravel as I can afford out of the business account while still being able to pay bills and then move on with the laundry setup on credit.  

Even 3 loads of gravel would help immensely.  Still $1,700 delivered.  I think they had some cheaper stuff but only by $50 per load cheaper.   Not really a big savings to take lessor quality product.  I was definitely going to have one load of the gravel brought over, but looking at that driveway today, it's pretty  much mandatory I get that situation fixed - somehow. 

_____________

A hazmat gig that keeps getting put up that is located in the town at the border just off the Interstate.  When it's time, I'm going to apply there and see if I can snag something decent. It's daywork and it's local. And I think they pay pretty well.  There's a couple of places that have caught my eye that are larger operations, are local and have ongoing driver needs. They don't post their wages so that is a mystery.  It isn't worth applying until I'm ready to get back to trucking.  

_____________

I'm a bit off today.  It's just going over there and seeing that driveway like that.  And it's still raining. The rain is supposed to stop at 1 am but then pick up again early morning and rain all day long, yet again. In fact, we have days and days worth of rain coming - if the forecasters are right.  So I'm sitting here wondering how I am going to pay for all of this. Put another 7 grand on credit cards? Yikes.  I mean, I'm really struggling with what to do here.  These oil workers probably don't care as much about a driveway - they are all driving duallys with 4 wheel drive in already dirty pickups, that's their lifestyle.  

But that doesn't excuse a miserable driveway. It's not complicated what happened. They brought in a grader that graded what was left of original top layer of gravel? Right out of existence. Ever since that monstrosity did that, the driveway has degraded immensely. I think they were actually going to put down a new layer of gravel with me paying half of it - before they sold the well and who knows what the new people want.  Nothing, I'm sure.  I don't know about this particular company, but they all have a reputation for not giving a damn about driveways. If equipment gets stuck, they'll send over earth-moving equipment to unstick it - which will cause immeasurably MORE damage.

I'm not a multi-million dollar company with it's own legal department as these gas companies are.  But I do think I will send them a professional letter, laying out what the previous company was going to do, promised to do.  The worst - I think anyway - if it's a non-confrontational message is they can say no thanks.  

I'm just going to go to bed. It's almost 11:00 pm.  

 So, just like that, a man calls saying he wants to bring his RV over for long term.  A bit of a discussion later, he says he's got a couple of others that he can bring with him. IF that actually happens, I"m cutting off monthly stays at intro rates. I really don't want any more monthly stays, I really want the transients.  But, if all I can really get is long term, anyone else coming  is going to pay $50 more per month. I'm going to be eating some serious electric bills with these current folks, I don't want anymore at that rate.  Profits go down.  

Once I figure out this pedestal stuff and wiring - well the wiring is pretty easy. But once I get it down, I can build my own lots. I can run to the other side of the doggy fence and the shed and install more lots.  Now, that doesn't mean it's free, it just will cost a lot less doing one at a time.  But - it will also mean another septic system.  I can get one big enough for 5 more lots at around $3,000. I think. The contractor charged me a lot more because he was also digging the trenches with a 5 man crew and installing everything.  

However. The contractor apparently raped me on the pedestal cost.  Well, probably not.  I don't know if it's still a thing, but at the time, supply chain nonsense was making things hard to get, some things next to impossible.  Pedestals were in the latter category.  I don't know, I'm sure he made money off the pedestals regardless. The cost is $250 online.  He charged me over $500 per pedestal.  Did I get ripped off on anything else? Well, I don't know if you call it getting ripped off. You are paying for expertise, experience and a lengthy guarantee.  Peace of mind, in other words.  Doing it myself was out of the question because I didn't know how to do it myself.  And some of it I would still stand there scratching my head, but could probably figure it out now that I have examples of it sitting there in front of me to examine.  

Am I looking to add more spots? No, not right now, but I'll be taking notes on everything, especially how those pedestals are installed.  I'll have to dig down to whatever access panels are on them to feed the line through to get to the lugs inside of the thing.  I do know I won't need to run the ground wire from the pedestal to the shed. You simply put in a grounding rod into the ground below the breaker box and attach a ground wire to it - we're talking 5 feet instead of 140 plus feet.  

___________

That was last night.  Friday -  morning. My sleep is all over the place. One night I sleep quite well, the next I can't sleep at all. Last night was a mix.  I don't plan on using it as any kind of excuse to get nothing done today, much like yesterday when I felt like hell - but after using that pickaxe for a while, i started feeling better. 

Keto - My idea of results are not just the scale. It went back down to 11 pounds this morning, which is great! It's only been 11 days and I'm keeping that initial weight I dumped off, I can't really complain about that.  I hope the trend continues. But another measure of success I use is the belt.  When I can go back a notch, I  know it's working.  There's been a few rough spots where I really wanted something sweet to eat - or yesterday, I made a crockpot roast and used up the red potatoes we had that were going to go bad if I didn't use them.

Yeah, I can't eat potatoes on Keto.  I resisted, but it was hard.  Considering for quite a while, I haven't been doing Keto and eating whatever I wanted - which is why I gained back so much fat and weight.  Even if you never got into Ketosis, low carb simply means cutting out sugars, and that is going to cause you to lose weight regardless.  

Today. Well, I need to go to Lowe's for another stick of the schedule 40 1-1/2 inch pipe to finish the crossover on the driveway.  I have no idea whether this is going to work, there is still some digging to do on the fence line side. Namely, I want a pooling area right where the opening to the pipe is so the water will "naturally" collect there. There is another pool of water next to the one I'm working on that I need to dig a small channel from there to the pipe.  Nothing too serious, I'm just going to do a channel and see what happens. If it works, I'll do something permanent.  Otherwise, I'm going to have to take the contractor's suggestion and cut a deep channel along the fence line side of the driveway and just have a 500 foot area where the water can drain.  

The only other thing I can do is dig a trench with a machine from the fence line side of the driveway clear over to the other side of the new driveway and put in a much larger piece of pipe, with a channel on the fence line side that goes deeper until it pools where the larger - probably 6 inch - pipe is. That is a much larger project and something I want to try to avoid. I don't want to cut through the new driveway if I don't have to.

As I said, there's still a bit of work to do just for what I'm trying to accomplish right now.  Minimum money has been spent, a lot of energy, yes but money, just 3 sticks of small diameter pipe and a few couplers.  

So, while at Lowe's I will be pricing out the 4-4-4-(-02) electrical line.  Need to get with the program on that quickly.  These large chains used to be the go to for lower prices on stuff - not so much anymore.  I just go to Lowe's because it's the only thing in town that has what I need.  There are no hardware stores in our town, which is strange.  Apparently there used to be an Ace hardware, no more.  Otherwise, I would have to drive 30 miles west, 30 miles south or 40 miles east to get to anything that might be cheaper.  Umm, so you lose a few hours worth of time - at least - driving there and back to save a few pennies - and spend a lot of gas doing so as well. No thanks.

Anyway, I'm going to the property first and get the trailer.  I want to drive over to the other property and see if I can snag a couple of railroad ties off the old, collapsed house that is unusable and can never be fixed. The entire roof is caved in.  It's literally a house made out of railroad ties excepting the roof. The walls look like they just gave out - the walls are ties - fell sideways and the entire house came down.  I don't expect anyone was living in it when it happened.  I don't remember if there were any loose ties - a lot of the walls were still held together by whatever they used to connect them together.  I don't want to go to a lot of trouble and time for this, this is solely for the convenience of customers to have blocks available if they have none, which is the case with one particular couple that came in and had nothing but the little plastic pads for the levelers to press down on.

The latest oil field worker came in prepared - he has railroad ties and those look like the best option.  Cut them about 8 inches high and walaah.  

Ohh, don't forget the gloves while at Lowe's. I've used all of the last supply up - they don't last incredibly long when doing "hard labor" I'll call it.  

Anyway, nothing is getting done with me sitting here!

G'day

 I got 3 hours of grueling work in, actually 3-1/2.  It was all trying to dig out by hand using a pick-axe the trench for the pipe.  I now understand that the driveway may not look that great on top, but it's solid SB2 underneath the dirt layer.  It was hard work, fighting against large, lodged gravel pieces trying to get them out.  It was also fun that there was a giant pool of water I was working in.  Yup, I got covered in watery mud.  

Another day of my legs feeling like lead weights by the time I was done with as far as I could go with it.  The trench is some 35 feet long, I had not choice but to dig it much longer than expected so I could end the pipe down lower than the level of the driveway. It means I need 2 more sticks of pipe - a thing I am not doing today.  I'll get them tomorrow and try to wrap that up.  Well, at least the portion I am doing.  There is another pool next to it which needs a trench dug on the fence line side to bring the water to the drainage pipe.  I'm going to fill in those caverns with dirt and then it can have a layer of gravel dumped on it.  So another day of work on that project, really, because I'm going to have to shovel dirt onto my trailer from the pile in the back, bring it up there and shovel it off. 

Oh what a fun thing that will be to do!

I haven't even gone to Lowe's yet. What with a sleepless night and getting up late, my focus was getting something done at the park versus pricing things. There are rain days coming, I can go to stores on those days when I can't do anything outside.  The driveway has to be dealt with first anyway, at least on my plan.  Fix the driveway, hand dig out behind lot 14 pedestal, rent the trackhoe and have the gravel brought same day to be able to spread it.  I don't want to spread it by hand, thanks.  1 truckload should deal with that entire area.  I really need about 6 or 7 truckloads in there, not in the coffers at the moment.  

I want to buy all the pipe and line for the trench before I do the trench work.  I also want the breaker box on the shed installed.  That and other projects? I have plenty to keep me busy.  My time is running out, I can say that.  I've been getting my mind into trucking mode even if it's still weeks before I attempt to get back into it.  I just want my laundry room to be finished before I start trucking again, if at all possible.  Once I get that done, I'm going to take a new approach to all of this.  I'll jack my prices up $5 per night for short stays.  I'll raise the price of monthly stays after I get 4 long term in there.  The weekly rate, I dunno.

And now, I'm going to change the wording to my website.  We are conveniently located- however far, I need to do an odometer run from the middle of the bridge over I-20 to the park, I'm thinking around 3 miles  - 3 miles from I-20 and X miles from Highway 59 off of Highway 43.  We intentionally built the park far enough away from the freeway to cut out highway noise, I-20 is a heavily used highway corridor and generates a lot of noise all day long.  I'm going to have to drive over to that new park near the state line.  They are claiming they are full all the time. 

The first long term tenants said some dually pickups have driven through looking at the park. That's unfortunate, I haven't received any phone calls.  Most people say when they see the park, they are in love with it.  It's definitely no the prices stopping people, so what is it? Well, you run down the entire list of things in your mind, but it's the lack of amenities that I believe is the problem.  I will find out in a couple of weeks or 3 or however long this project takes me - hopefully not too long if I stick with it - and am able to list laundry. And further down the line, a shower/bathroom. I think to start it's going to be a no frills bathroom with a shower stall. A nice shower stall, but a performed one. And something easy to put down for flooring. 

I've never installed plumbing for a toilet, but I'm going to find out how! lol

Enough. I got home, took a shower, finished laundry including folding everything, put the muddy clothes in the washer and now to go get the boys from the bus stop. 

 Ugh.  I couldn't sleep last night.  It was almost 1:00 am before I finally got to sleep and then woke up again 3 hours later.  I'm messed up today.  Even taking a hot shower didn't help.  It's already almost 10:00 am and I haven't done anything more than take a shower and drink a bit of coffee. And sit here feeling like ... well not so good. 

It doesn't mean I'm not going to get out there and get stuff done, but it does mean I'm taking my time about it.  I don't have eternity to get this stuff done....I don't really know what I'm going to do but the driveway is in bad shape where the pools of water are.  It's getting worse by each rainfall.  

I'm going to go to Lowe's and see what they have for wire pricing, but I doubt they're going to beat an actual wire company that I found online.  They're around $250 for the wire, I think Lowe's is more than double that.  I don't suspect it would take long for them to ship the wire and I will take extreme savings over convenience.  I'm still waiting on my business debit card as it stands.  I'd rather charge it to the business account than my personal account, I have sufficient funds in there to deal with monthly bills and at least buy that much. 

Yes, I want to get this stuff done, but it's gonna be a minute before I'm even to the point I need the wire.  Fix the driveway, dig the trench, install the sewer and water line first, the wiring will be put in there last.  The load of gravel will be brought out the same day I have the machine.  The shed will need the breaker box installed on it before I really have to have the wire as well. In fact, I probably should just get the breaker box and get it mounted up there before doing much of anything else. That way, I have an exact measurement of how much wire I need. The stuff is too expensive to "just buy more than I need".  Sure, you buy an extra foot on each end to work with it and have play room, but not any thing more than that.

I'll also have to go get the water line and sewer from - somewhere - I have another place in town I want to contact about pipe pricing before buying it from Lowe's.  I suspect this other place will have better prices.  They did when I was buying the pipe for the drainage culverts.  

As you can see, this isn't a one day job.  It will take weeks and you can drag that out even further because there is 5 days of rain forecast coming in  few days.  I may as well just see if the wiring company also sells breaker boxes, I do not work in the rain.

There is so much to do, last night's sleeplessness isn't helpful. I also need to go over to the other property and get some of those railroad ties.  Lowe's selling them for $28 a piece, I'll take them for free even if it's an ordeal getting them out of there - which it will be.  I can't drive the truck and trailer over the railroad tracks, there is no place to park it on the other side. It will mean dragging those ties probably 200 feet.  I don't know how much they weight, but I will be getting a workout on that one.  I have half a mind to drive over there today as well and see what I'm getting myself into, I haven't been to that property in at least a year.  The 25 acre property became the new place to go, much better than that place.

I have too much stuff swirling around in my mind, probably why I didn't get to sleep last night.  After making the decision to just go for it and start the process of finishing out that shed, it opened up a slew of thought processes that needed to be gone through in order to understand everything I need to do. I tend to try to think things through to the end.  Sometimes that's impossible, but most of the time, it is prudent because there are lots of times that when you don't do something at first that you initially thought can wait, you find you are adding headaches and problems to whatever it is you're trying to do.

The breaker box is an example. "I can just lay the line and get that after".  No, not really, if I want to keep precise measurements for wire, I need to know exactly where the breaker box is going to be located.  One thing is for certain, with a window unit ac, a vending machine, a washer, dryer, water heater?  It going to need a high capacity breaker box.  Ok, it just means I need numerous 220 volt outlets available.  Tho, I think a soda vending machine is just a regular outlet and so is a washing machine.  But you know an electric dryer is 220 and so is electric water heaters.  

Oh, and the water heater is going to need a special water heater shed. I'm not installing that thing inside, it will take up too much room. I'm hoping to put everything in there and  a desk with chair to basically have an all-in-one building to start with.  The only goal for now is to get laundry in there. Then a shower.  I may just go with a larger, pre-formed stall instead of having one custom made.  Seems like if I can get a nice one that has room in it, that's going to cost a lot less than a person coming out laying florentine style tile. I"ll get to that when I .. get to that. 

One shower, room for 4 laundry machines, a soda vending machine and a desk.  I think I can get all of that in a 12X16 structure.  It's not going to be the prettiest setup in the world, but it will have functionality.  Pretty can come later, the ability to advertise I have this stuff needs to come now.  

I'm just sitting here trying to wake up. I'll get stuff done if I can just get my head right this morning and get out there.  I can sit here and write endlessly now that I have a new plan. I should have just done this months ago - I just hate debt and it's a hurdle that I have to get over with great internal conflict.  

Speaking of money, there is a local job that looked great! Only8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  That would be wonderful! Until they contacted me back and said "$18 per hour".  In my little world, and having had spent the amount of time I have driving trucks - AND -knowing what the going rates are? That's like poverty wages.  I would have to be very desperate to take a job paying that low of wages.  I think I'd go OTR before doing that, honestly.  At least it's 100k per year.  I replied to them I wouldn't even consider a driving job under $25 (and that is going cheap as it stands).  These companies trying to undercut drivers in pay are probably having a hard time filling those positions. There are too many high paying jobs out there. I'm not seriously looking - I have all of this stuff to do first.  I'm starting to run out of time, yes, but it needs to get done.  Hence, regardless of how I feel this morning, I'm outta here.