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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Long day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day

 I dunno what to tell ya. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With that? I"m offa here. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Sat at the property for a long time. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay. 

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

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

Yeah, well one step at a time, please. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 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.