Tuesday - afternoon

Rain, rain, don't go away, we are now appreciating your presence today!

It's pouring rain. Not just a little drizzle or even moderate, it's pouring down rain replete with lightning and thunder.  I know, people say thunder and lightning, but doesn't the lightning come first? Why yes, yes it does!  I met up with Taylor at applebee's for a bit of lunch. When we left there, the downpour had begun and yes, we both got wet just running to our vehicles.

There will be no visit to the lawnmower dealership today, thank you.  I found a place that fixes commercial dryers - 30 miles away.  To save a $130 service call, I have to take it there. Yes, I'm going to put the thing on a trailer and haul it down there. There is nothing else in the area that fixes these things and I hope they can!  It will save me buying a new one - at least for now.

I have found a device that you hook the washer and dryer up to and you pay it instead of a coin op thing.  That means you can just buy regular washers and dryers for half the price (or less) and they pay a machine that turns the power on and off to the machines.  The devices cost $179 a piece, but if they last a long time, they will be worth it.  

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So many hours later.  Swepco. Southwestern Electric Power Company, otherwise known as AEP. You don't just call them once, or expect that you are going to resolve an issue with the first person you talk to. No, you know that you will be approached the 7th circle of hell before you are through with attempting to even get something started, much more trying to get it  completed. 

The worst part, actually, is trying to get past their automated system.  It doesn't understand anything you are saying and starts asking you for your account number. Are you serious?  I just run around with that in my brain all day long.  They certainly don't ask you for that when you are talking to a live human being.

I eventually got through to the right person after many calls and on the final call, being transferring to fully 4 people.  And when I did finally get to that dude, I was asked a lot of questions.  The end result is that it's going to land on the desk of the lady that called me before all of this and she will direct it to an engineer who will determine whether the system is sufficient for another 200 amp setup.  

The meter stand isn't even set up yet. It's been raining, James hasn't had the time and even if he did, the rain would have stopped it.  Hurry up and wait? Patience.  I have patience.  I knew what I was getting into starting this stuff up all over again and I will face it again when I get to the last 7 lots and will have to have yet another 200 amp meter installed, albeit off of a different transformer.  That transformer is still up there on the front pole, not being used as I was going to start building at the front of the property. 

I have since reconsidered the grade and angles.  I have seen so many parks with people living on steep angles and this one not near as bad as any of those, that I am content to install lots in that area and just let people know in advance.  The trade off is that they will be getting a cheaper rate and a very good location.  If you need to be near town, my park is where it's at.  

I'm slowly getting there.  

If I can't mow grass tomorrow - don't know until the day is started, I get the mowers over there and see how wet the grass is - I will be working on measuring out lots.  I may do the lots regardless.  I'm going to try to get 3 going initially, but 2 is ok to start with as well.  

I've got another animal I'm going to have to tackle down and put in a cage: another laundry, bath and shower room. 

I really don't want to spend a lot of money on it for at some point, I want a main building - a large thing that isn't made  out of tin - that has a men's and women's bathroom replete with separate showers, a laundry room with at least 4 washers and dryers and other things that amount to amenities. A game room, maybe a sandwich shop/coffee bar, things that make people happy and they don't mind paying for.  I'd still like to get a pool in there at some point, just not a  priority right now.  

When I talk about that big building, that would be after or during phase 3 and adding 25 final lots.  I don't want to go too far down that rabbit trail right now, I just want to get this phase 2 expansion going and I've taken the steps necessary to get it going.  But, we're talking a significant investment once we're talking about a large building with all kinds of amenities/upgrades.  A couple of hotel rooms wouldn't be bad.  

Why? People come to visit their loved ones.  They could be luxury rooms that rent to locals.  It could be anything, but I have a vision and I would love to see it through before this life is over and then, hand it over to my people that might want to enjoy not working for large corporations and taking things on by themselves.  

As I have said before, I started a bit late in life on this project.  So, I dunno how far I will get before life says no, you can stop here, it's too late. There isn't enough energy, or perhaps health, or just desire.  Well, the desire is definitely there.  I don't want to live off of SS monthly payments, it's a pittance of what I get now.  I'd like to be able to say screw living off the government altogether, yet, I paid into that system for many decades.  

No, the goal is simply to have enough income from it to pay the bills, pay for health insurance and have money left over to enjoy the little things in life that cost money. I'm not looking to get rich tho the man telling me the place will be worth 2 million when I'm done was intriguing. Still, I'd like to leave something for people that will carry on with it.  I dunno if my son would want to do that.  I don't even know if the folks here would want it or just sell it off after I leave this earthly world?  

The only thing I've heard is the 10 year old wants to work there when he is of working age.  I'm teaching him some stuff, just the lawn care for now, but it will expand if he's serious.  He's going to learn how to operate the riding mower.  He's doing pretty well with the push mower.

Tomorrow is, indeed, off.  It's just weird to have a middle-of-the-week day off after working 6 days a week for many weeks in a row.  

And finally, we have the political world. I am watching and reading it.  I am not doing a lot of commenting on it for there is a lot  going on and you really won't know the outcomes of many of these issues until it runs through the court system.  Dems are fighting Trump's agenda through the courts with endless legal battles.  But, as Trump does, he's trolling them. Do you really think Trump just decided to revive Alcatraz because nothing?  

 Monday - evening

Started out ridiculous.  I couldn't find the Elog tablet last night, I searched high and low.  I finally gave up and decided I must have left it over at the truck at the park.  But, I remembered having it with me in the pickup when I went home?!  Regardless, I went over there and it was nowhere to be found.  Got in the semi and just drove it home, no sense in driving the pickup back only to have to turn around and go back to the park again.  

I finally found the thing - behind the bed on the floor.  It wasn't a huge setback. I had to sit down and think for several minutes because I had torn the place upside down looking for it.  "Where could it be that I haven't searched? What impossible place could it have gone that I wouldn't think of because...not possible?" And that's when the Eureka! light when on and I found it.

Got back, went to Lowe's to search for a mower. I didn't like any of their selection. Just the same old junky mowers that don't last more than a year or much less and then they're toast.  Over to Chili's - across the street - to visit a friend that works there, hadn't been in a while and my reasoning for not going anymore became glaringly evident once I saw the menu: very high prices.  I just don't think I need to pay Texas Roadhouse prices for a local bar and grill restaurant type of thing.  Been trying to stay away from restaurants besides the Sunday Applebee's outing anyway.  

Over to Target and found one I liked. A bit pricey but a solid workhouse with a big engine.  The park looks like hell right now, btw, the grass is very tall.  I asked them - at Target that is - if I could have the display model? I don't want to build it, I just want it put together. "Well, no but we can put it together for you". Yes, thank you.

Go to the register and pay and then we will have it put together.  Sure thing. She grabs some dude to go over there and put it on a cart, he starts wheeling it to the register.  She got hold of him before I could speak, for she guaranteed me that they would put it together.  No, he wants it built first.  Oh. Is he going to wait? He's on the other side at another line of people waiting and didn't know who was buying it.  I spoke up, yes, but can I just come tomorrow and get it, would that be ok?

He got a look of relief over his face, YES! Ok! lol.  

Home, took the oldest to his guitar class, waited outside playing what else? Fortnite on the Switch tethered to my Iphone.  

I also finally heard back from SWEPCO (power company).  A long conversation finally clarifying the steps I need to take to get the power turned on. The call was to find out if the transformer is going to be big enough to supply everything. The lady explained that yes, she understands what I want to find out but the way to go about it is to start a ticket to turn on the power to the meter.

But I'm not ready yet.  No problem, we still need to get a ticket going first.  I wasn't going to argue with her, let's get this going.  She further explained to call a number she provided, open up a ticket and then it ends up on her desk anyway, which is when she will forward it to an engineer.  Ok.  Whatever hoops I have to jump through, I'll do it just to get it over with. James should have that thing up and ready to hook the line to sometime this week, tho it might be raining a good portion of this week.

I knew this power thing would turn out to be an ordeal, hence getting started on it right away.  Still waiting on the state to hopefully approve another septic system.  I'm not in a rush - yet.  But once that septic system is set in the ground and ready to go, I'm going to want everything to fall into place quickly and get at least a couple lots up and ready to rent out.  I could have rented out 3 lots in the last 3 days. Yup.  Calls keep coming in, I just hope that happens once I have a couple ready to go.  

I'm going to take a different approach to the lots than what the contractor did. I don't have the equipment they have.  A dozer, mostly.  I think it's just going to be a 4 inch thick pad.  I'm not there yet, just thinking ahead.  I do need to have the lots formed before I install the utilities to them tho.  

One of the kids is getting sick and was coughing all over me.  I'm like, dude.  I fear it too late and I'll be getting sick for the third time in a rather short period of time.  I hope not, that's all I can say.

I need a couple days off. This 6 days a week thing is getting to me.  I have to deliver tomorrow and then who knows what, preferably load wednesday and friday and then get sunday and monday off. Or something like that.

Sunday - morning

I didn't finish yesterday's post but published it a few minutes ago anyway, lol. Completely forgot about it.  

But, to finish out the last post since there is a bit of new info....I got up to the plant yesterday in Arkansas and had to call security to come weigh the truck. The logging portion of the operation is typically closed on weekends, tho occasionally opened on Saturdays.

The lady gets there and says she is confused.  Huh?  What's up?  I don't think you are the same driver that just left here?  Huh?  Well I guess he didn't weigh out before he left, she continued It came to pass that she thought I was the truck that was off-loading and was leaving.  Nope, just got here, how long ago did he leave?

10 minutes ago. Well I timed that pretty darn good, I thought.  I had wondered on Friday when I should be leaving to get up there considering dispatch had called me and informed me that yes, he plans to be up there at 10.  It also turns out the driver didn't weigh in either. 

I don't know if this driver was trained poorly or if he wasn't listening during his training or he doesn't care. I contacted the manager, the plant wants everyone to use their scales. Yes, we scale in and out at the loading plant, that doesn't stop this plant from wanting their own scale in-out  as well. 

It's Sunday and I'm feeling highly unmotivated. Just worked another 6 days in a row and sleeping in this morning was a luxury.  I actually slept and that was beyond a luxury, that was purely amazing.  But, as unmotivated as I feel right now, I threw in a pile of laundry a few minutes ago realizing I have no clean clothes for church at 11. 

One of the college students is moving out on the 25th. I already have 2 people wanting the space.  But, they are needing a space sooner than the 25th so I just hope by the time they leave, there is someone to move right back into it. 

The other one that said he has a family emergency and was leaving this weekend? Isn't leaving at all now.  I don't start advertising empty lots until they are actually empty. I don't even have an ad running right now and I still get plenty of calls. A marked difference from last year when fully 6 spaces were empty for an elongated period of time.  Anyway, the point being people say they're going to leave and often times end up staying longer.  

Tomorrow, I intend on going to the dealer and getting a new riding mower.  That is, if they have the model I want.  There are some Bad Boy mowers that have pretty negative reviews. This dealer also sells Kubota which has been around a long, long time and has pretty good reputation. I might go with Kubota instead. I'll be looking at more reviews today.  I'd buy in town here, but the only real player in town is John Deere and I'm not impressed. They are over priced and there is a lot of negativity surrounding their products, at least from what I have read. 

I could buy one from Lowe's, but I think not.  That would mean a bunch of credit card debt all over again, the thing from the dealer is an installment loan at good rates, credit cards do not offer good interest rates. Tractor Supply also has credit terms but I'm not familiar with Club Cadet mowers and know nothing about their reputation.  I guess I could spend even more time looking at reviews...

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Sunday - night

The day went well - until the kids found out they couldn't play games today.  They literally played video games all day yesterday and Friday night, way more than they are usually allowed, but today?  That was completely forgotten. The oldest went into a pouting fit that just never ended.  He ended up getting into bed at 6:00 pm and I had to force him out of bed to go feed the animals.  

Seriously tho. We went to church, they were good. We went out to eat as we always do after church, they were good. But get home? Good grief.  I just washed my hands of it.  They simply aren't allowed to play video games endlessly and this is a good reason why - they just get pissy and pouty when you don't let them.  Now? They are highly likely going to be seeing a lot less video game time because of it. Instead of being thankful, they just get snotty.

Someday, maybe they'll learn.  We haven't arrived at that point yet.  Not even remotely close.  The problem is that many of their friends can play those games endlessly. The parents don't care and that's a problem, IMO.  

Speaking of that, a bunch of kids came into my party.  The game works in parties and when they join, you are all standing in a lobby.  Anyway, one of them started cussing out another kid.  No rhyme or reason for it. A few minutes of this and the kid getting cussed out's dad go on there.  This is one of those situations where the reaction is far worse than the offender's actions.  This "man" cussed this kid out, up down and all around. It was really bad to the point I started saying something to this "dad".  What the heck dude?  You are cussing out a 13 year old.  Are you really going to stoop that low? 

If you are that concerned about what your kid is being exposed to - which realistically parents should be - set the controls to your liking. You can mute the microphone and they can't talk to anyone. You can set it so you can't play with anyone but friends and you, the parent, can control who the friends are going to be.  They put so much parental controls available nowadays, it's inexcusable to act out like this dad did.  

I shut off the game. I don't need it at all. I just play for fun, not to hear a bunch of people cussing each other out and you would be surprised how often that happens. You can report them and yes, the game will mute their microphones if they agree with the assessment, but still.  People need to get lives. I don't sit on Fortnite 24 hours a day.  

Anyway, the dryer went out again at the Park. I don't remember if I wrote about that yet or not, I've been pretty distracted with a lot of thinking about things.  It's like, let's get this party rolling - referring to expanding the park. To that end, James went out there today and sunk the posts into the ground to set up the meter rack. Im happy to have a bit of help, regardless of whether it costs me money.  He won't try to ream me, he'll charge a reasonable price and he does good work.

That electrical panel will be set up soon and ready to get connected. Not that I want it connected, I still need to hear back from the power company about whether the transformer is going to be able to supply the extra power. I have no idea, just looking at the thing up there, if it can handle more, a lot more, endless more, no more, what? I'm not an electrical engineer, thanks. I'm guessing that big thing can handle a lot more, but that's just a wild guess. 

If you can't guess, I'm not just waiting on the permit for septic and to get it installed. I'm starting up everything.  Power supply takes as long as septic, get that going. Now I need to get a new 300 foot tape measure - the old one fell apart - and start measuring out lots.  I have some decisions to make about grass or no grass - I'm thinking no grass next to the parking pads if I can find some landscaping rock - otherwise known as decorative rock.  

I kind of think laying down plastic and putting down rock is a better idea than having grass.  I've had a lot of problems with grass between the trailers and kind of tired of it.  I'll think about that and look up any local suppliers, I think the nearest one is 30 miles away so trucking is going to be costly.  There are other things I'd like to do now that I have a better idea what I'm doing.  

Regardless, it's not going to do away with the need for mowers for all the other grass I already have everywhere and if I get done early enough tomorrow, I'm heading 2 towns over when I get back and see about getting a zero turn mower. 

I have a lot to do.  It isn't a good time to be asking for time off of work, but I need a weekend off here.  I'll need a weekday off to rent a mini-ex. Looks like around $500 for metered pedestals. It's $6 or so per foot for electrical wire. 

We're getting there.  Marking out the lots might be difficult as I really need to figure out how I will set it up when I end up with 14 lots over there.  And whether I will want to add even more lots in the future? There will be room, but how much room? Enough to justify yet another septic system?  I dunno, I haven't gotten that far yet but it's always good to look at the whole picture and what you might want to do down the road.

It's getting late and I have early load tomorrow and tomorrow is Monday.  Hoping for a good Monday....

 Saturday - 8:10 am

Leaving soon.  I have the second load, which really is an unpleasant thought on a Saturday. I'd much rather get the second load run on a weekday ending on a weekday.

Anyway, I got to the washout yesterday and the first load guy was still there. ???  I wrote to the manager, this dude is here at the washout, he should have been at the loading plant 30 minutes ago? 

A new driver, just doing whatever he pleases I guess.  The manager made him wait until I was done loading before he started to load. Which put him late in the day, for when I got done loading, the plant operator put a truck in place right next to and in front of where we load, making it impossible for our driver to back in there. 

The driver hadn't shown up anyway.  I eventually informed the manager I am done, let the other guy know he can come in here.  I also asked if this dude was going to show up late to deliver today (Saturday)?  I got a phone call 30 minutes later from the dispatch lady. Yes, he's going to be there at 10:00 am.  I dunno about that, I thought, why isn't he going to show up at 8:30 or 9?  But, if he's there by the appointment time there isn't much I can say about it.

The only other thing I could have done is get up at 4 am and get unloaded before he even showed up.  No thanks.  

The power company told me they won't locate the lines because it isn't their responsibility, it's mine.  Oh?  I've never heard any utility say they won't locate a line because it's on the person's property before.  Am I supposed to go out and buy the expensive equipment to do the locate?  

 Friday - morning

Second load today, but woke up early anyway for there was a lot of noise going on out in the kitchen. A hub of activity both positive and negative going on, I wanted to wish Taylor a good trip.

She's going to work today and then her friend is picking her up at work and they are heading to Dallas for a girl's retreat over the weekend.  She likes her time away from the kids, probably all of us lol. The negativity wasn't coming from her, in fact she was addressing it but I won't go into details, that's more of a private matter.

I can't do anything about the mower this morning, not enough time.  I wanted it for this weekend but unless I can get back early enough from work, I won't be able to get it today.  But who knows, maybe.  They are only open until noon tomorrow so that's not going to work at all.  Really I guess it all depends what time I get back today.

The 10 year old could operate that thing. I was speaking with a person a few days ago about that, he has a 10 year old and said that those machines have so much safety built into them now, there isn't any real concern about them getting hurt on them.  However, crashing into things would be a different story.  I think if the machine is big enough - which it will be - I can ride along with him and he can get the feel for it. He can earn some money and I can turn my attention to other things, such as expanding the park. 

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Ok, the new season of Fortnite is out and it's totally Star Wars themed out! The skins (what you are dressed in) and all the weapons I found so far are all star wars stuff. They even have a light saber tho I couldn't find one - yet.  Unlimited "ammo" you don't have to worry about finding ammo all over the map. Haven't been to the black market yet to see what's for sale down there, I'm guessing some pretty cool stuff.

Ok, just before I have to leave, I got on and found the light saber right off!  I think there's only 2 of them in any given game and darth vader is standing there, not moving.  You go up to him, hit the pick up button and he goes through this little ceremony to give it to you. I was blasting people all over the map.

Back to earth.  I need to leave, lol.

G'day

 Thursday - night

I might as well go for - not broke, lol.

I've been qualified for a zero turn mower.  In my mind, this is debt I don't mind having. If I'm cutting my own grass - which I will, just work on it here and there and don't try to get it all done at once - I am saving money over paying someone from the outside to do it or giving away free lot rent.  Either one of those options is twice as much as the monthly payment for a brand new mower.  I'm talking a riding mower, not a push mower. Push mowers aren't that much money, I'm getting another one of those as well. The last one was greatly abused.  

People don't seem to care about equipment if they don't have to pay for it.  

No, I haven't heard anything back about the septic permit, not going to stress over that, it will happen sooner or later.  

I forgot to check if they had marked the underground lines today, gag.  They emailed me that they had, I want to lay eyeballs on it.  The engineer never called me back from the power company, just want to ensure the setup is enough to cover more lots. Because of the lag time between when you make an order and they actually show up to do it, I must know now that the power company is either ok with the current setup or put an order in to upgrade. 

It's a very large transformer up there, I"d like to think it's enough for whatever I want to throw at it.  But who knows, I'm not going to leave it until the last thing and then...find out...it's not enough and they have to replace it and that will be 2 months.  No thank you.

As for work today, I went up to Gurdon, delivered, over to Texarcana and - spent almost 3 hours getting 6 new tires on the truck.  I knew today wasn't going to go fast and I wasn't disappointed.  Whatever, the tires are all good on the tractor and trailer - for now anyway - we're good to go. 

Late/second load tomorrow, no getting up uber-early, I'm down for that. Too many mornings I'm awakened by the alarm clock that went off long before I would have otherwise awakened on my own without it.  I think this is the 5th straight week I'll have worked 6 days in a row, off Sunday, back to work on Monday.  I very much don't like it, all I can say is I'm working towards the day when I won't have to do that anymore.  Either through a much larger park or just retire on SS and sell the park and have the income to live off of.

Yea - no.  I am not going to the trouble of building this park to just end up selling it off.  It can end up being a hands off thing that I don't really have to be present for, eventually, if that's what I want to do with it. Reap the benefits with little work involved.  

I paid off the cards yesterday that had the highest balances on them and the bigger loan.  I'm waiting for all of that to go through the bank and see what's left. There's still more to pay off, I just don't need to leave myself high and dry.  Right now, I have dumped the same amount or more than what the loan payment will be.  

The plan is simple. Get rid of most credit card debt, pay the monthly payments for a year or so, hope interest rates come down, even if they don't my credit score will skyrocket, get a better rate and pay off the current loan with another at a much better rate.  Set myself up for the opportunity to get an SB loan and get all of this over and done with.  

A high 700's score coupled with a property with a 25 space rv park that has very little owed on it should be good enough to score a decent loan with acceptable interest rate. 

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Had to play some Fortnite, lol.  Won a crown and then lost it the next game, then we came close to winning again but got blown away by sweats near the end.  They have a new season to download tonight.  

Anyway, it's bed time.  

 Wednesday - afternoon

So there are some bad tires on the truck - again. Doesn't seem to take long.  I go over to the Love's and they're telling me at least an hour and a half, so more like 2 plus hours.  No thanks.  Mechanic at our shop is saying 'well you'll just have to wait there then".

No, I flatly replied, I'm not waiting.  

It took a while for him to reply to that.  I don't care, these tires are low on tread, they aren't about to blow out.  So, tomorrow I am taking it to a place in Texarcana.  Or am I? I wrote him a text a while ago and said "well since this company doesn't have a problem with service calls, you can have them come out to my property to replace them".  

I didn't get a reply on that one at all, lmao.  I don't see why I should have to spend my time dealing with their truck's issues? They don't pay us for wait time for this stuff....unless it's a  breakdown.  Highly unmotivated to help them with anything the way they run this organization.  At the same time, I don't want a dangerous condition on the truck or risk getting tickets by DPS.  

A man calls me, he specializes in brokerage of mobile home parks and rv parks.  We chat for awhile, he's from California and the conversation ended up in politics since I figured he's conservative from the way he was speaking.  Anyway, he said after I get 50 lots in - that's somewhere around my end game goal - and get all the lots metered, the park should be worth roughly around 2 million.  

I was aghast.  2 MILLION?!!  I figured maybe getting close to a million?  I kind of had to think about that for a minute.  

Meanwhile, since I'm going to be getting this loan to pay off my credit card debt, I'm also applying for a loan for a new riding mower.  I'd far rather pay for a nice mower than paying some person doing a half-assed job $400 per month.  I'm going to get that app in today, actually.  I may also get a larger shed loan going.  The riding mower payments are very low, not even a factor, really and will save me money over paying someone to do it.  I don't really want to mow grass but I just balk at the idea of paying ridiculous amounts of money for some outside person/company to do it and getting a piss-poor job in return.   

I'm going to need another shed and this time, I want a much larger one that can accommodate a laundromat, a couple of showers, a bathroom, an office and possibly a living quarters and also offer some storage space.  At the same time, I could convert that motor coach into a laundry room with a shower and bathroom. Any way about it, I'll need another unit, I can't have 14 more lots worth of people going to that single shed for everything, it will be overloaded and people will be getting upset about it.

I'm not there yet.  I need to get this preliminary stuff done first.  

It seems like it was a long day.  It wasn't really, I'm just tired. I did sleep pretty well last night for once, but I've lost a lot of sleep previous nights and really the only way to feel better again is to get several nights of good sleep in a row.  

___________________

Many hours later. 

The loan deposit appeared in my bank account.  It's a lot of money but it's going to disappear within the next 24-48 hours paying off credit cards.  There is no way I can afford to keep that money, ie: use it for the park, make those payments and all the credit card stuff at the same time..

In fact, I think I'll pay off the highest balance right now, lol.  

There, just paid 23k worth of credit card debt in less than a few minutes, lmao.  It was not just one card.  

30k now. It was a loan I took out a few years ago to fund me while I was still working on the park. I kind of think now that it was a bad idea.  Too late, but I had paid it down by half anyway.  

That went far quicker than I thought it would. Thanks to this new computer, I can fly through the internet, I wish I would have upgraded long ago!  Anyway, the 4 biggest cards and the loan are paid off. There is another loan but it doesn't have much left on it.  I am going to wait until all of that clears the bank before I move forward with paying off more debt.  I'd like to get CareCredit paid off and then use it again to fix my front teeth - 3 of the crowns are gone and it doesn't look very good.

The power company allegedly came out today to mark where the underground lines are. They weren't marked when I was there earlier but that was early afternoon.  I called the engineer at the power company who forwarded me to the local engineer to ensure that there is enough power available out of that transformer to add 7 - 8 more lots and a small laundry.  

Anyway, the idea here is that paying off these cards will skyrocket my credit score, I can see it going up 70 or more points in the next few months after all of these credit card debt is gone - or most of it anyway. Once/if/when the fed reduces the interest rate and loan rates come down, I will refinance it.  

It is highly likely I will ramp up the Lowe's card again to build out another shed or the camper or whatever I'm going to use to create another laundry and shower room.  

Well, I'm glad to get those high level debt cards down to zero before the new month began.  I don't think any of them hit on the first, but still, I don't want to pay them anything so that money can stay in my account and be there when the first auto-pay hits.  

And with that, I'm off to bed. It's a little past my bedtime (only 20 minutes) and I am going to Gurdon tomorrow.

But what's really cool is it's raining and it's therapeutic. The thunder? Not so much.  Might not be able to go to sleep until the thunder passes, it's been going on for many hours now.

G'nite.  

 Tuesday - early

I woke up early, tried to get back to sleep, knew that wasn't going to happen after 30 minutes of trying and just decided to get up.  

The project has started, sort of.  The permit is paid for and now we are in a holding pattern, waiting for that to hopefully go through.  Meanwhile, I went to the electrical supply store today and got the new panel with meter.  I've asked James to help me out with doing some of this since he no longer has a side hustle going, those people are leaving town for extended vacation.  

I decided I best get the electrical part going, I need to call the power company and ask them if there are any requirements I need to know about before they will go ahead and approve another metered outlet.  Mainly, does the setup they have installed, ie: the transformer, capable of handling another 7 lots and probably another small bathroom with laundry?  I want that assurance because if it isn't, they're going to have to come out and upgrade it and that could and will take months.  

They aren't in a big hurry. You get on their docket and it's a month and a half to 2 month waiting list.  Get this stuff done and out of the way now so there aren't any surprises when I want them to come out and turn on the power.  I've spent a little over $1,200 on electrical and permits so far.  I knew the beginning portion of this would be one of the most expensive parts.  

Water, fortunately, is much easier.  I don't need to do anything but tap into the 2 inch line I'll T off of the main, put a valve on it and then I don't have to have the water off for too long and can take my time with the rest of it.  

Today, I'm calling 811 to have them stake out where the line is running underground, James requested that so he doesn't accidently dig down and attempt to put a post in the ground where there is a high voltage line.  I don't blame him at all and I am not in a big rush for this. I knew it would take time, it's just something that took a bit to get into my head: get this thing rolling or it's never going to happen and do it now while I'm still physically capable of handling such projects.  

So that's that for now. I'm going to be out there staking out the lots here pretty soon.  I need to figure that out so I can take down a few trees and get that tractor out there and see if I can smooth out lots with the box blade on it.  That would save a ton of money if I could do that.  You have to know where your lots are going to be first so you know where you are going to dig your trenches.  I like the setup the contractor did for the electrical and water/sewer outlets, I'm going to mimic that the same as I am mimicking their power meter setup. 

I think I will try to get 3 power pedestals in advance as well. I want to try to get 3 lots going at first.  i was going to do just 1, then 2, but 3 sounds about right.  The money coming in from those lots once I get them rented out will go straight back into the project to create more lots. Remember, I will be installing 14, maybe more, lots on this phase.  I have 16 on the first phase plus laundry, so I may up it to 15 anyway. 

It's just that phase 2 will necessitate building another driveway and that will be costly.  Dozer work and then having endless truckloads of gravel brought out.  I can see 5 grand worth of dozer work and 20 grand worth of gravel, unfortunately.  I know where I want the driveway to be installed, it's going to have to be about 400 feet long, that's where the cost comes in.  So, the sooner I start saving for it - by getting new lots rented out - the sooner I can get the other 7 lots installed.  That's down the road, yes, but you have to plan for that in the beginning stages.  I just feel fortunate that I can use existing driveways to facilitate the first part of this expansion, it will save a lot of money.  

________________

Wednesday - afternoon

Never finished yesterday's post so just adding on to it here.  

Work was easy enough. 6-1/2 hours going up to Gurdon, unloading and driving back isn't bad at all.  It's not even 2 o'clock and I've been home 20 minutes.  

Just got off the phone with 811. That's the underground line detection, they're going to come out and mark everything where I need it marked to ensure we aren't going to accidently dig into high voltage lines.  

I also got approved for a credit card consolidation loan today. I mean, to the point it's been approved and the funds are being transferred.  It's not at the interest rate I wanted, but it's 10% or more less than going rates right now on credit cards.  I am going to spend some time writing down all the payments on all of them, figure out what I will be able to get rid of but I am sure I can free up at least $700 per month.  

I've been going the rounds with looking for a loan for several weeks now, this one was a new one that had popped up on CreditKarma and I was surprised how fast and easy it was.  Upstart is the loan company in case anyone is wondering.  I'm going to pay off the highest balance credit cards and the 2 small loans that are sitting out there gobbling up my money.  Freeing up that kind of money is almost liberating in and of itself, it can go right back into the expansion project.  

Anyway, I figure I can pay on that for a year and then hopefully find another loan to replace it and get a better interest rate.  I mean, if the Fed brings the interest rate down by then?  And hopefully, I might be able to pay on it for half a year or something and get the loan to do the 25 lots at the rear of the Park area.  

Anyway, I'm really tired right now, didn't sleep well yet again and I need a nap.  

 Thursday - night

Uhh, it's a little past my bedtime, just sitting here waiting to recover so I can finish my pushups. I finally got back into the habit of it again, didn't want to lose what I had worked so hard to gain.  Don't use em', you lose em'.  Just 15 more to go but I stopped doing them for several weeks so it's kind of a push to get back into it.

I am reading that it can take up to 30 days for the state of Texas to approve or deny a septic system permit request.  These people doing it have been in the business for decades, kind of hard to imagine they would not approve it. That would entail plan B - install one myself. Not actually a septic system install guy here, but there is a YouTube video for everything, right? Nah, I'm confident it will get approved, just didn't figure in the time it will take to get that permit approved and get that system installed.  Might be a bit.  I could get the electrical panel ready to go at least?

That might take a minute as well. I dunno if the power company has to approve that, the last time they just left the box open for the contractor to do the install. I didn't even look at it today, the panel where the other 2 panels are, kind of spaced it.  I was tired and just wanted to go home.  Some nights I sleep ok, many nights I don't. Not often that I can say I slept "well". 

If nothing else, there are 5,000 gallon underground septic tanks - they cost around 5 grand.  I don't know how many days one of those can handle before it needs pumped out.  

I've worked 4 days this week with 2 more to go.  3rd week I think that they have had me working 6 days in a row with Sunday off. It's sort of ok, I need 2 days off at least here and there, just need the rest sometimes.  Or time to get other things done.  

And the alternate lot where I've filled it several times and the people that moved in were ridiculous? Well this time, I think I have a winner.  Middle aged lady, older 5th wheel but in good condition, has a dude coming over here and there, quiet, keeps to herself.  She works locally and said she just needs a place to "hang out".  Whatever floats her boat, I'm happy to get the money every month and not a lot of hassle doing it. 

Anyway, I guess I better take a look at that setup tomorrow, get the brand and model number of the existing panels and order another one.  Installing it is simply bolting it to the framework.  After that, it's the contractor that will have to do the line from the bottom of the telephone pole over to that panel.  I'm going to work on getting that done.  And I will start measuring out the lots, but I need to get the layout good first.  

Meaning, where I'm going to put each lot and how long and wide I want them. I'm not going to go 40 feet like I did these other ones.  I'll probably go 30 feet wide instead.  Just need to back up the truck into position and sit on the tailgate and think about how I am going to get 14 lots in there but also for the future, if I want to dump 14 more in there. There is room for 28 lots up there, but adding 14 more up there after these first 14 is going to be more costly.

Mostly because I'll need to build another driveway.  It'll start at the main entrance, head west for about 75 feet and then curve around towards the south.  The back in lots will be turned into pull throughs and then the new lots - if this ever even happens - will all be back ins.  

I'm pretty tired right now.  I"ve been working, thinking, watching the news and yes, still playing some Fortnite (online interactive video game).  

So with that, I'm going to do my last 15 pushups and go to bed. 

 Wednesday - mid afternoon

The loading plant has not 1, not 2 but 3 new-hires learning how to load trucks.  So, it's taking longer to get loaded, a lot longer.  The flip side to that is when these individuals are fully trained - if they stick around that is - there should be no  "shortage" of loaders to deal with the sometimes larger amount of trucks coming in all at once.  I was here 2-1/2 hours today, ridiculous for sure, but there were fully 4 trucks waiting to get loaded and 1 just started getting loaded when I left.  

Yesterday, I was approaching the septic service place north of the town I live in and thought, it would be good to just stop on the side of the highway, go in, fill out the paperwork and get that over with versus driving all the way back to my Park, get in vehicle and drive all the way back up there.  So I did.  I couldn't have been in there 5 minutes. The man just handed me forms to sign, said he'd fill in the rest, took a copy of my debit card to pay the $650 fee and that was that. It's sent to the sent for approval and then they can come out and install another system. 

So far, I've only found one person charging me $3,500 for 2 days worth of dozer application.  I just need to figure out a way to get it done without all of that expense.  It is likely that I could smooth out the new lots enough with the box blade on the tractor and just  ensure there is enough gravel to smooth out any rough spots.  Leave the rest of the area untouched for now, I just don't want to spend that kind of money on it.  I can't really afford to spend that much money on dozer work right now.  And I really think I can get away with that box blade set up.  The first 3 lots would be on already graded terrain anyway from the first install.  

Which reminds me, I need to find a 200 amp metered panel and a stand for it.  I know where to get the underground piping, there is a place that sells it maybe 2 miles from the park.  I also need to think about getting 3 pedestals.  I'm just sort of waiting for the approval for the septic first before I take any more monetary moves.  Let's not get the cart before the horse, but for stuff I don't know where to get from, I can at least get that accomplished by finding suppliers and getting pricing. So I will be working on that the next few days.  

Actually, I should be able to just find the part number and model of the main breaker boxes out there already on those boxes and get that going easily.  The stand I have no clue about, a trip to the local Elliot electric should help with that.  No, wait.  I don't need another stand for the first 200 amp breaker setup. I already have one that has room for another box on it.  That will save some money and time.  A breaker box with meter will probably be around $300.  Pipe and fittings for the first 3 lots will probably be around a grand. Make that 2 grand.  Pedestals are around $500 each, metered.  3 truck loads of gravel at $850 per load.  Rent a min ex for around $450 for one day's use.  $1,500 to have power line hooked to meter box.  

See how that all adds up? Quickly?  But the meter box and getting power to it is just one time, not for each lot.  It's still going to cost, regardless. 

_________

Very long interlude.  Got busy with stuff. Night time and bed time are here...

 Tuesday - early

Yesterday, I was supposed to go fill out the forms to get the septic system process started. Instead, I was stuck at that plant for 3-1/2 hours, waiting.  "I have to load a truck it'll take an hour" ended up taking 1-1/2 hours, then load then another hour to do paperwork.  Why? Because their system wasn't loading required information properly.  

Anyway, that's where that is stuck.  I have to go to Gurdon today but usually I'm home relatively early for that.  Right now, I am trying to find someone to do dozer work, I am going to get a quote from my contractor when he comes out to look at where to place the septic tanks.  

I've been finding it hard to get back into the pushup routine ever since I got sick - twice in a row.  I'm slowly getting back into it, but the idea of doing them somehow isn't that great.  Yet, the outcome wasn't bad at all, that's what will motivate me to get full fledged back into it again.  I just want to start doing them earlier which will make it more appealing. 

There isn't a lot else in my mind right now.  The idea of expanding the property has been occupying my mind since I decided I was going to go for it, do it as much by myself as possible and get this thing going the direction I want and need it to.  When you read about SS and it's alleged fate if Congress does nothing about it, there is a likelihood that it's going to run out of funding and then it's completely reliant on workers paying into it.

The problem is that there is a large number of baby boomers in the system, more than there are workers to fund it, according to the data I have read anyway.. So, you start looking at losing 25% of your payments every month.  I don't know how much I would get in payments, but whatever it is, I'm guessing it's not even enough in and of itself to pay for everything much less taking 25% off of it. This was the motivation to get into a business from the get-go.  

Get the operation up to around 50 or more lots, get them filled up, stop the trucking nonsense and just focus on the business from that point forth.  These 14 lots will get me up to 28.  14 more would get me close.  I guess the goal would be 56 with 4 septic systems.  That would probably be the end of it.  56 would be plenty of money after all expenses, employees and taxes.  I think, anyway, I'd need an accountant to review all of that, not there yet and no need for it - yet. 

Anyway, time to get ready to leave for work. Trucking work, that is.  Hopefully back early enough to get over to the contractor's office.

G'day. 

 Thursday - afternoon

Well that was a bit of a let down. 18 hours after I submitted the loan request, they rejected it.  I figured since it was taking them so long that that was a good sign. Apparently not.  I don't know if I want to try another loan company for I don't want a lot of hard hits on the credit score inquiries.  Doesn't look good, they say anyway, because they think you are desperate if you have too many of them.  I may have been asking for too much money for unsecured loan tho.  I'm thinking of going through the company that gave me a much smaller loan, at least I have a history with them.

I think, however, that that is almost meaningless to these loan companies.  

I'll think about that for awhile.

Meanwhile, the septic dude hasn't called back and I am getting nowhere with mowing companies that will do the work without charging a fortune.  

______________

Many hours later.  I texted the septic guy again. This time, if he wasn't going to respond, I'm going to start soliciting bids from elsewhere. This guy has the best reputation in the entire county, he's just so inundated daily with texts and phone calls he can't keep up with it.  It's good to be busy, but at the same time, you can piss your customers off to the point they go elsewhere. 

Well, he replied and said he'd give me the same system I already have at the same price.  Now, I got that system before all of this inflation crap hit everyone. I'm like wow!  I wasted 2 seconds and replied "let's do it".  That leaves me enough money to get the dozer work done, however that's going to happen....I figure when I get him out there to look at where this is going to go, I'm going to ask him what he'll charge me to level - well flatten - out the area. It isn't large by construction standards and shouldn't cost more than half a day, a day at most. 

If some dude is going to charge me $3,500 to do that work for a "couple of days", I might as well go with a trusted contractor who knows what the Hercules he's doing and with one of the best dozer operators I've ever seen in my life and I can tell ya, I've been to lots of construction sites and watched a lot of them doing their jobs.  The $3,500 dude is the one who gave me that quote a few days ago. I just balked at that.  

So, I think I have the  septic down.  Meaning, it's the first step and we're taking it.  Now let's add some spice to the dish.  James says the people that use him all the time for his handyman services are going on extended vacation this summer and he's going to need to find some extra work. I've got just the thing for him: ME!  James wants his money, of course, but he won't try to ream my with ridiculously high prices.  He's very fair, he's very efficient and he does a good job.  I don't need perfection but if I did, I'd pretty much turn to him. I don't really need the knowledge in this affair, I know what I'm doing, I need the extra hands. 

So I have determined, at least preliminary stage, that I can just line the main driveway with back in spots.  That could change, but right now? I doubt it.  Building another driveway would be costly.  Just the gravel alone is very expensive nowadays, it's absolutely amazing how much money they want for rocks.  

If you can't tell, I'm getting myself fired back up for the vision. The goal. The means to an end, the thing I need to get done before it's too late for me and I'm all worn out, can't do much of anything, age gets the grip and you are just sitting there wondering why you didn't do this, that and the other thing when you could have done it. I don't want to rely on social security. I don't trust the government to pay me every month and be totally dependent on it.  I'll take the damn money if it's available, I've worked many decades for it, but I want to be prepared for not government "handouts".  

There is a certain element of conservatives that call SS an entitlement, and so it may be..... on paper.  In a computer data base.  But in reality, you and I - well I am guessing you anyway - paid into that system for many, many decades and you sure as Hondon Hondurans want something back out of that stuff. Especially with the government spending trillions  of dollars on what amounts to more fraud, waste and abuse than it does helping anyone do much of anything! I want some of my money back just for the fact that the government is just doling out money for bulls***.  Make a contract, give it to some "company" and they do little or even nothing to "earn" their pay.  

Anyway, I'm kind of stoked right now about getting this party started. The Park that is.  That tractor is still there, I give the kid a monthly discount for the use of it. I'll be needing it for spreading rock.  It isn't enough to smooth out the land, it's just not a big enough blade and not enough weight to force the blade to stick with the same plane.  

Enough. Now that a quarter day has passed - I started this entry 9 hours ago and just stopped and kept coming back to it - I feel better. Yes, I was denied the loan, I looked into a few others. The best I could get was 19.99%.  That's ridiculous.  It's better than CC rates but it's still high. I mean, it would save me some money.  Sofi rejected me, I guess I should take a look and see why. Prosper rejected me because I already have a loan with them.  Accredited said yes - but to that 19.99% interest rate. I'm not through looking, as long as I don't get a hard hit to get an initial offer.  To my credit score that is.  I figured that since CreditKarma said my approval odds were outstanding and offering a $50 guarantee if rejected, I should get the loan.

Every time I've tried that with acquiring credit cards and personal loans in the past, it always worked.  Oh, I think Upstart offered me a loan, but it's not near enough and the outcome isn't worth it.  

I just realized I have second load tomorrow, I don't have to get up early!  I'll take the sleeping in when I can get it, I never ask for it tho. I'll take the early load just to get the day over with and have free time galore.  

 Wednesday- mid afternoon

So I was asking this dude off of Facebook Marketplace a price to go ahead and do the dozer work on my property.  I figure half a day will do it easily.  It's almost entirely just smoothing it out, we're not talking moving or bringing truckloads of dirt or anything beyond taking down a couple of burn piles and smoothing out the rest.  For a dozer, this will be an easy job.

I sent him pics of everything and then said it's approximately 1-1/2 acres.  His price? $3,500.  

He wants to drag it out several days and just milk the cow.  Well honey, my cow isn't completely full of milk at the moment, I'm just trying to expand my operation so I can get some  more money flowing in, save some of it so I can expand it further - etc.  I'm not paying that much money for such a small amount of work. I figured more like $1,500. So, my quest to either find a dozer to rent or one with an operator at a more reasonable price continues.  

Meanwhile, the septic contractor finally got back to me - just a few minutes ago actually. He's been out of town, he'll get me a quote tomorrow morning.  I intend on moving on this quickly. I want to try and get 3 lots in right off the bat - well within a month or two time anyway.  Everything takes time.

Getting the septic installed - time.  Finding a dozer - or a blade - time.  Getting a contractor out to install the meters - time.  Then me doing the trenching and installing pipe and wire - time.  It's the initial stuff that takes up the time, after you start trenching and running your lines/pipe, it goes much faster, the basic stuff is out of the way.  But as far as I'm concerned? I'm full tilt into this.  My "let's gooooo!" gear has been engaged, let's get this moving along.  A lot of this is going to start with how much they want for another septic. The same size/system I got 2 plus years ago is going to cost more today.  That was before inflation took off and pricing of everything skyrocketed.  

That's what is occupying my mind at this point.  I don't want a half-@$$ed setup, I want it right but it doesn't need to be fancy.  

_______________

I've got that kid at the park asking what size I need? Dozer that is.  Umm, I dunno, not a huge one.

The application for a loan to pay off credit card debt is in. It's through CreditKarma and I get $50 if it's denied.  That's their guarantee. I really want this loan, dunno if I"ll get it. They asked for a lot of documents, all of which I sent to them immediately.  The interest rate is ok, good enough, the payment would dump almost $900 per month in outgoing payments and I would be in a much better place financially, plus my credit score would sky rocket.  

This is NOT debt relief. That is almost scammish in nature, a thing I have delved into on this blog previously. Basically, you don't make any credit card payments to any of your creditors, the money instead goes into an account where after it's built up enough, the debt reduction company makes an offer to a cc company for half or less of what is owed in exchange for cash. 

But meanwhile, your creditors are breathing down your back.  They try to tell you that all calls will go to them. All well and fine if that's true, but the fact is: you are screwing your creditors and your credit score will tank drastically and probably stay down there for a long time to come. 

No, this is just a flat out loan.  It's 5 years, yes, but I would be paying off those cards indefinitely.  I mean, who knows how long it would take at skyrocketed interest rates?  I won't go too much more into this now, I don't know if I'll be approved. 

Enough. Time for bed. 

 Tuesday - early afternoon

First off, the unload went faster than it has in a quite a long time. 46 minutes and that trailer was emptied out of 45,000 pounds of liquid resin (glue).  The drive home was a bit longer for I-30 had construction going on that had the lanes showing red on both Google and the other map I have on my phone. I took the scenic route which saved a lot of time but still took longer.

At this point in time, I have almost convinced myself to say screw the giant loan, get the septic system and start installing lots one at a time until I have 14 more in there, however long that takes. And yes, it would take quite some time, but I wouldn't be in a huge amount of debt doing it.  I'd say give it a year to finish it since I don't have all the money up front anyway.  I have enough for that septic system and then I'd have to come up with enough to install 2, 200 amp meters on the existing panel and have it wired into the wires coming off of the telephone pole.

I can't and wouldn't think of doing that part myself.  The rest of it isn't exactly easy, per-se, just not as technical. More time consuming. Do one lot at a time as I can afford it.  But, trench out the trench for say, 5 lots at a time. Those mini ex machines are costly to rent and I could actually dig out the trench for the entire 14 lots in one day.  Just don't want to do that since it will be quite a while until I can get them all done.  

I haven't fully convinced myself of this plan for it would entail me doing all of the work beyond installing the septic system and installing the line from the telephone pole to the panel - it's only like 15 feet, but they charged me $1,500 for that last time.  From there to the lots I would be doing the rest. That's the electrical, water and sewer line.  

_____________________________

Many, many hours later.  I basically procrastinated on taxes.  Just something I didn't want to do. Quickbooks didn't exactly make it easy, but it did make it easier.  I had to go through an entire year's worth of bank statements, power bill statements, etc etc etc.  When I thought I was done with everything, it told me I owed 8 thousand dollars!  I didn't take that much out of the business last year, I was keeping the cashapp payments and the paypal which amounted to maybe 15k.  It was showing me getting paid 44k.  

I figured out what was going on and re-did what needed attention and then I came out with me being owed almost 3k.  Yes, I reported the cashapp and paypal, I really need to get a business version of it going so it goes straight to my business bank account.  Anyway, I think I have it right.  I paid and obscene amount of taxes off of my trucking job which is basically what saved me from owing anything.  I celebrated with a glass of iced tea replete with fake sugar (monkfruit).  

That ate up many hours but I figured if I set my mind to it I could get it done in one day.  I didn't want to have to pay a penalty on top of any potential taxes.  

Taxes superseded everything today.  I played a few games, we watched a movie that ended a few minutes ago and that's that.  

Tomorrow I intend on looking at the front of the property to see what it would take to install 14 lots up there.  It looks like an entire truckload of gravel per lot.  It's just short of 14k pounds from a calculator I was using.  $450 meter pedestal, $850 worth of rock, at least a grand worth of underground wire to get from the meter stand to the first lot, Probably $500 worth of sewer pipe to do the same and $200 worth of water line.  That's it, you've got rock, wiring, piping and a pedestal.  

But that's not really it, lol. Mini-ex rental, dozer rental, whatever else I'm not thinking of.  Oh, yes, there will have to be another trash dumpster, more internet - however that is going to happen, another bathroom and laundry room.  However, I don't have to have a laundry room or a bathroom in order to get it all started.  I just want to get a few lots in to start with.  I turned more people away today.  This isn't as risky doing it this way as it is with taking out a loan.  You have the risk that you can't fill the lots and you have all this money you owe on a monthly basis.....

I won't get a second dumpster tho. I'll just get a much larger one.  

Anyway, that's where my thoughts are at atm. At least as far as the business goes.  

There's other things on my mind, of course, but securing my financial future - well part 2 would be nice to get started at least.  I basically need part 2 - 14 more lots and then part 3 - 14 more after that - to be able to afford the park, everything it will need with that many lots (paid employee), and my personal bills/lifestyle/health insurance, etc.  14 more after that would be the icing on the cake.  But then it's a lot more work and more amenities - at the same time, you are bringing in some serious cash. Anyway, let's just think about part 2, shall we? lol

Sunday

I"ve got several entries in past many days that were never input. 

I was sick for 7 days to the point that I missed 6 days of work and regretted it - not at all.  I'm finally getting better, just a bit of a cough, went to work on Friday, they gave my Sunday off for whatever reason, I didn't ask for it and they had asked me to work the entire weekend.  They did, however, call this morning early and I did not answer that call.

Mainly because I was sleeping and the ringer was off.  I don't care, we have had a busy day today and it's not over yet. In 45 minutes we're leaving for a restaurant to meet with the group and then going to a Passion play at a different church than what we normally go to. This was a suggestion from a member of the group, I initially said yes while the rest of the family said no. 

We are all going now, lol.  

Considerable thought to my current dilemma.  

The dilemma is getting endless phone calls for long term and having nothing available.  To the point I finally contacted the contractor and asked what just installing the septic would cost. I can't do that myself and wouldn't want to, frankly.  Out of my expertise, I'm not even a novice with such things.  My idea atm is to install it near the other one and build on the other end, towards the main road.  This is not optimal but that's what I am thinking, so that I can eventually expand the back portion. I was looking and I think I can dump 14 lots up near the front without too much grade problems. Even if it's a bit more than what I have on other lots now, I am looking for long term. They can block one side of the trailer up as high as they need to, this bothers me not. 

It's really where I am thinking of going with this right now.  It's less than 10 grand to install that septic system and then probably - $1,500 per lot if I'm doing it myself, that's less the mini-ex rental. I think that covers everything else. We're talking sewer line, water line, power lines and pedestals.  And rock.  Maybe a little more than that, 2 grand per lot? I don't have to build all the lots all at once.  I can do whatever I can afford and do-it-as-you-can-afford-it type of deal. 

What I really need to do now, if I can qualify, is to get a credit card loan to pay off all existing high interest debt and get that taken care of, plus a barn loan and a new riding mower.  I'm tired of that old thing I have, it's worked well enough but I keep needing to dump money into it and when I want to use it and it's not working? Not good. 

I'm going to have to pay someone now to mow everything again, the grass is getting long. 

Trust me when I say I don't want to do lot installs myself.  I don't have the energy I used to, I'm looking into that. Not that I think I can de-age or something, but certain supplements and drinks you can take and losing weight that will at least increase energy levels to the point I can do the trucking, come back and do everything else.  

I think the point here is that I am not going to go through all of that loan process to have them potentially deny me the loan.  I won't need a loan to get the septic system installed and then I will have to find a way to get a dozer to level everything out.  

I wouldn't mind installing a couple of 100 amp outlets as well this time around for mini homes or even small mobiles. Well, mobiles might need a bit bigger amperage. We're not talking old junkie garbage, we're talking new rental units, job required, proof of income, sizeable down payment, back ground checks, the whole 9 yards. Industry standard, in other words, people know that landlords want to know about the people they are letting into their rental units. 

How are you going to do that? Let me work one thing out at a time, please.  

Credit is basically the key to running most businesses.  I have been looking into that.  I don't have the reputation with any local banks I need to basically get what I want when I need it.  When I say I've been looking into all of this, I mean I've spent time trying to figure this all out. If there's anything that is true, it's the fact that I freely admit I have waded into unknown waters and at times it feels like it's been full of predatory sharks waiting to pounce at a moment's notice.  

Whatever the case, work and life plods on.  I am unhappy with my current situation and I am slowly growing motivated to change that, permanently.  14 more lots probably wouldn't eradicate the need to keep working a regular job but it would come pretty close to it.  It's the health insurance that I worry about, it is costly.  65 is still years off for Medicare.  Caid? I can never remember, or even know the difference.

Anyway, don't be shocked if in the near future I post pics on my Facebook wall showing yet another septic install.  It's that or a large tank and for the cost of large tanks, you might as well just get a septic system for only a bit more money.  

There are many other things going on, of course, I haven't written in quite a while. Guess I really just got burnt out on writing blog entries when it's the same old stuff, day in and day out. Just seems extremely repetitive and monotonous - read: boring.  

We went to church today, of course, I always do that if I am off on a Sunday.  We are so busy today that I don't have time to work on taxes, they aren't done yet and I really don't know if they will be in time.  It is what it is.  I'm not going to stress over the IRS and their threats. I haven't received any threats, it's just this existential state of continuous dark mode over the country with the IRS looming over anyone they want to target and subsequently, ruin their lives if they desire to do so.  

The government can ruin your life without legitimate cause, that's a fact and I dare anyone to attempt to contradict that statement. I try to do nothing to upset the government, taxes are a thing out of my league, at least when you're talking about a business and a full time job.  Paying a CPA is extremely expensive.  I prepared my taxes last year and received nothing back from the IRS either negative or good.  You don't really want to hear from them at all, if you do you can expect that day to be a "Monday" type of day.  

I'm sort of all over the place with this post.  I wrote in a previous post that I want to be with my mom at her 90th, I don't think I posted that entry.  That's in September and Lord willing, I want to be there for that event.  

I don't know about you, but I've been watching the news quite a bit lately. More than I have been for a while.  Trump is going at a lightning-speed pace with everything he is doing with the southern border, tariffs, etc, lots of stuff, lots and lots of it. DOGE uncovering unbelievable amounts of waste, abuse and fraud. I just read this stuff in awe. I am not surprised that there's fraud, but the level of it is unreal!  150 year old people on SS?  Checks being written by computer generated nothingness with no accountability?  Endless nonsense! Yes, let's fire a bunch of people that aren't serving any useful purpose and well beyond the need that the federal government has to keep it's doors open. MAKE IT MORE EFFICIENT. I remember the days when a government job wasn't highly desirable because it didn't pay that much and you really weren't going to make a career out of it.

Now?  

I'm going to end this and post this one before we have to leave, in a few minutes.  

 Saturday - mid morning

Yesterday was probably the most miserable day I've had in a long time.  This was the day to go to the yard in El Dorado, pick up an empty to take to the washout in Crossett, pick up a washed out empty  and take it to a chemical plant in Bastrop, LA, load, take it back to the yard and then go home.

The reason it was so bad is because I got sick again.  That night I slept very poorly because of it and maybe was operating on 4 hours of sleep.  I was just fighting fatigue and feeling yucky all day long and it was a long day at 13 hours.  It didn't help that it took longer than necessary at the yard for the manager to get the necessary paperwork - that should have been ready when I arrived and then it took forever at the plant to load.  Top that with ridiculously slow speed limits in both Arkansas and LA and you have a long, long day.  

In fact, after leaving the yard in Eldo on the way back, I had to stop and take a 20 minute nap. 

I have the entire weekend off and I needed it.  I got 2 days worth of pay for yesterday so it's basically the same as having worked 6 days this week.  That's good enough and the only thing I am doing this weekend is going to an IHOP breakfast this morning for one of the kids in our group - we celebrate all of their birthdays - have breakfast, come home and rest.  Tomorrow the same, church, home, rest.  

Credit score raised 21 points for unknown reasons, looked at it and just thought, well that's nice.  I have numerous loans offers to pay off credit card debt that are becoming much more attractive now with much lower interest rates than it was only a few months ago.  I may take one of them.  I've become quite good now at not using credit cards for much of anything. I've cut back eating out to the point I am no longer bleeding money out of my checking account, if I took one of those offers and if they actually give it to me, I could cut expenditures probably around $800 or more per month.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Plus, the loan has an end date. 

Credit card debt can go on for a very long time depending on the amount of money you owe on each individual account.  The goal I had was to keep my expenditures in line with amount of money coming in and I  have finally accomplished that.  I also have a loan to keep me afloat while I was taking time off of a regular job to get the park built.  I could pay that off and pay off most of my card debit and lose a lot of outgoing payments in exchange for a bigger monthly payment - but still far less than what I am paying now.

It is going to rain all day long.  Thunder/lightning right now, we were under tornado watch for 3 days in a row and today they are saying still a strong possibility of tornadoes.  Not a fan, thanks.  I am a fan of the rain noise when I can stay home and do nothing.  Note that I am making a caveat to previous statement: I will probably sit here today and start going through paperwork.  For taxes, that is.  

So what about a park expansion loan? Definitely a real possibility I will go for it after I get taxes done.  They will want the tax return for documentation.  No rush here, interest rates have come down which is what I was waiting on, the dream is to build the park big enough to live off of the income with no outside jobs.  The reality is: No clue if I can get a loan that big or not.

I need amenities to go with a bigger park. A large building with an office, a C-store, a small gaming room, a couple of bathrooms with showers, more laundry capacity.  My laundry is getting used every day.  I don't much care for it for it fills up my septic system quickly.  The aerator sprinklers spray it out but still.  I have no choice, it's septic or nothing and you certainly can't have people living their with nothing. The only alternative is a large tank, say 10,000 gallons, buried and the waste goes into it and then you have trucks coming regularly to pump it out.  

Every 6 days, I would have to have it pumped by my calculations and with that much liquid, it would cost a lot of money per month.  I actually want a larger septic put in this time if I do get a loan than what they are recommending.  

I am facing untold hours worth of work to get my taxes done, that's a fact. 

And then, there's politics.  Maybe later.  I need to shower before we go to the IHOP event. 

G'day.  

 Thursday - early

Couldn't sleep so just got up, got out of bed, took my shower, etc.

Yesterday, I get a call from the manager.  Do you know what happened up at Gurdon?  After a bit of conversation, yes I had seen someone had made a spill, no I didn't know who did it and I didn't alert anyone because it looked like it had been there a while and the plant already knew about it.

Well, the plant didn't know about it until they found it, meaning the driver that caused the spill didn't report it.  He sent me pics to verify that it looked like the pics he sent? Yes.\

I then sent 4 suggestions to eliminate this issue of a driver spilling glue all over the place and not reporting it to the plant.  One of which was implemented immediately by the plant manager.  Drivers will now have to report to the manager on duty to have them verify that that delivery area is ok. 

This will cause the driver/s who are doing this stuff to pay more attention to what they are doing so they don't cause the spills in the first place or, one would hope, ask for help in determining what they are doing wrong that is causing it in the first place.                                                                                                  

I was in the mindset that although I am creating more work for myself - finding someone to come out and look could be a problem at times - I am also creating a stop for the plant to say yes, we have implemented a plan and we are dealing with it.  Otherwise? Our company could easily lose the contract next time it comes up for potential chopping block. 

Meanwhile, I'm watching Trump imposing a 25% tariff on all imported automobiles.  And other tariffs I do believe on goods being shipped to our country from nations all over the place.  The left is, of course, having a meltdown over this, the same as they claimed Trump is eliminating SS.  BTW, the price of eggs is coming back down.....

What Trump pointed out is past Presidents allowing the world to walk all over us, basically, charging tariffs on goods coming from our country to their but not getting the same treatment in return. He is forcing their hands and I applaud it.  Canada says they are going to fight it - yet Canada charges us some of the biggest tariffs that exist on the planet for different goods. Plus, we cannot compete in many markets around the globe.  I've known this about China for decades, I didn't know the problem was persistent in so many other countries.  They either make it impossible or near impossible for US business to do business in their countries while they are free to do whatever here?

The imbalance is obvious, the correction will hopefully work.  

We have rain forecast for most of the day, hasn't started yet.  It did rain for a few seconds yesterday, but the real threat were the tornado watches.  Not warnings per se, but still the conditions existed to for tornadoes to form. There is still a tornado advisory - be prepared! the caption states. Be prepared to do what, exactly?  Meet your Maker, perhaps.  

About out of time here.  The water billing at the AZ property is still and issue and I just paid an almost $800 bill for the last 2 months.  You read that correctly.  It appears they are reading the meter wrong, they have drastically cut the water usage in order to try and mitigate this situation. If the electronic gadget that sends out the info to the truck in the neighborhood is wrong, it doesn't matter how much water you stop using, you are still going to have a huge water bill if that's what that gadget is sending out.  So, I'm calling the city yet again today to get this problem resolved. I still have it in the back of my head that there is a water leak somewhere that they aren't finding, but first I want to ensure they are sending someone out to read the meter in person, not rely on a digital readout on a computer display.   I can't and won't afford those kinds of water bills, that  is completely outrageous. 

Well, out of here.

G'day

 Tuesday  - night

The manager calls me on my back from Gurdon this afternoon.  I've got a really big favor to ask you.

When a company says that to you, you just steel yourself and hope it isn't terrible.  I was thinking maybe he wants me to go down today and load for whatever reason. But, I thought, the tanks up there are almost full, there is no need for that.  I had no clue.

We have a tanker that needs preloaded for an OTR driver and it has to go out. Now, don't take it the wrong way, he doesn't come off forceful, demanding or anything like that. It's more like a desperate plea.  Ok, I replied....  Well, it needs to be loaded on Friday.  You'll come up here, hook to a trailer, go to a plant that's about an hour and 15 minutes away, load, bring it back to the yard and then drop it and go home.  

I was thinking, that's going to be a long day.  It's 2 hours and 45 minutes to the yard, so there's 5-1/2 hours of driving to and from the yard alone.  2-1/2 hours of driving back and forth to the plant, hook and drop plus pre-trips, and then at least an hour to load if not more.  There's at least 10 hours right there.  

But then he threw in the gravy: 2 days worth of pay for 1 day's work if you'll do it. In other words, the pay I get for doing a full run which takes 2 days.  Didn't hesitate, sign me up!  Give me that 3 days a week and I'm good, lol.  That will never happen, of course, but it would be wonderful.  I worked 6 days last week, Sunday off and now looking at minimum 5 days this week.  It won't be surprising if I am loading this weekend as  well, one of the drivers on our dedicated run is starting chemo therapy for prostate cancer. 

So, late run tomorrow to Lufkin, usually a late run the next day after to Gurdon but the driver that is doing the first run will be leaving by the time I normally show up for the first load, so I'll just leave at normal time for that.  Thursday night go to bed a bit early and hope I can get some good sleep for the busy Friday. 

There really isn't much else going on worth talking about.  The house in AZ has $400 water bills all of a sudden and I am now going to find a plumber to go over there and find out what's going on..  Mark thinks they are reading the meters wrong, I doubt that, especially since I called the city and they came out and checked it.  He's getting up there in age, I think there's a leak somewhere he just isn't finding. I just asked Mark to shut off all the faucets and any water outlets and then look at the meter.  If that thing is still showing numbers moving, there is a leak.  I can't afford those water bills, that's what I know.  It needs to be dealt with and soon.  

I have had no complaints at the park besides the overnighters that bombed my Google business with a pretty horrible review. I'm still fighting with Google about having it removed since most of it is completely false.  I haven't even started on taxes yet, I figure if I get a day off this weekend or the entire weekend off, I'll use that time to sift through endless paperwork, organize it and get the taxes at least started.  I procrastinate on it because I hate doing it.  

Anyway, just an update on things going on around here. 

 Tuesday - early

In the latest of the piles of trash Musk and his crew has been digging up, we find out that millions of social security numbers had been given to illegal aliens during the Biden administration.  A museum that in terms of numbers and context given to the amount of money spent on it (some woke green thing that no one wanted to see, basically), wasted millions of dollars in its construction and a lot more in yearly expenses.  They shut that sucker down.  

And a lot more has been unearthed.  We watch an unending field of judges blocking a lot of the actions the Trump team wants to take to get rid of this woke ideology and the waste, fraud and abuse of our system called the federal government.  Musk's own livelihood is at stake with the shunning of his electric vehicles, yet he plods on.  I have been watching all of this with great fascination, for I never thought such an endeavor would be taken in my lifetime. One thinks that democrats are so hell bent on destroying our society as we once knew it that there is no way the federal government could basically be audited. 

And then we hear that people's ss benefits are being stripped away.  That is completely and utterly false, but the media fills people's brains with it, the propaganda machines never stop churning out their machinations to deceive as many American citizens as they possibly can. I watch some of these democrat senators and house members saying things that are completely false and I wonder: do they even believe what they are saying? In the end? I don't think they do. 

The irony is that all of their endless accusations and yelling and screaming ended up with a major lost election and possibly more in upcoming elections.  Their message doesn't work and it doesn't work because people are sick of the character assassinations, they want a message that helps them personally, not a message that assails some person sitting in a fancy building in Washington DC.  Even the staunchest progressives are coming out against this idea that democrats should just keep moving forward with this nonsense.  

Regardless, I spent the weekend working on Saturday and relaxing on Sunday.  Church, Applebees and home, to be more precise. And thinking about my life and where it's going. Seemingly nowhere.  Sure, I have a small business. It's great, I guess.  It's not really meaningful in the Kingdom of Heaven excepting I'm helping people with "low cost housing" as it's identified on the County roles.  And then there's this character that basically did a hit job on my business through the Google community by posting a review that is mostly false.  And posting pictures. One of which is a dilapidated old house next door that has nothing to do with the RV park.  I have disputed that and one other pic he posted.  

The first pic you see when you google my business is of this old house.  I guess I just need to take some pics and upload them so that that disappears? I think that's how it works, I'll be doing that soon.  

But in the grand scheme of things, that enterprise is rather meaningless. It's just a means to an end: some sort of financial security in my old age.  That's all it was ever intended to be.  I wonder if I could change the scope of the business and add something that actually has it pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ? 

The kids must be having issues this morning, it's 6:00 am and I haven't seen them yet.  Meaning, they are dragging.  I assume when I see them some pouty and unhappy faces. 

Not a bad day, really.  I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up around 4:15 am.  Couldn't get back to sleep so just got up early.   

I'm just thinking of what I can do to change the direction of my life.

And with that, the day has started, the kids are present and I am about to leave for work.

G'day. 

s

 Thursday - night

Some person left a pretty foul review on my Google.  Much of it was completely false, a few things were correct and the rest exaggerated. Like someone out to get me for reason I have no idea.  It was an overnighter, they were treated very well.  The guy took pictures of the house next door and posted them as if they are on my property.  They also took a pic of the damage on the side of the semi trailer parked in the back - out of the RV park (the truck I drive).  

They went on about a homeless encampment in the back (there is no homeless encampment back there and never has been), said there were no cameras anywhere (3 cameras on the property atm), said the shed looked like it was bought from Home Depot, continue with the fact that the shed couldn't have been up to code, seemingly disparaged the people staying in the park, totally trashed the street the park is located on and the nearby city.  I think the only thing that was true was the cigarette butts, a thing I have been trying to get under control with certain people.  

Oh, and "wild dogs roaming everywhere". There are zero "wild dogs", there are some dogs that wander on the property from nearby residences.  I'm not talking about the Rotties that were causing problems, one of them is dead the other hasn't been seen in a while.  This person referred to an American Bulldog as  pitbull and exclaimed that the park isn't safe and don't walk your dogs at all!  

I left a lengthy reply.  I had a friend review it for I cannot possibly be unbiased in such a situation, I am going to defend my park regardless. Oh yes, a little doggy park with a small patch of grass. Now that was a total lie. The doggie park is 85X90 feet in dimension and is much larger than most dog parks I see at RV parks anywhere online or in real life.  It is completely covered in grass.  I have already protested this review but that probably won't work, there is a 2cd route you can try that gives you the opportunity to contest it. At the very least, take those ridiculous pics down, especially of the house next door. That is totally unrelated to the park and it is hardly visible to people in the park.  

I mean, I knew sooner or later someone would leave a negative review, I had no idea I was going to be assailed with such a bad review that it left me seething with anger.  Yes, I got angry because much of it was false.  I'm over that now, had to regain my composure and just get over the emotional reaction and deal with it.  That was yesterday.

Today, I get a text from one of the kids in the park (18 year old) saying "there is no water!!". OH NOOOO! I didn't think, I just asked questions, I was on the road at the time.  After that conversation, I asked someone in texting whether their water is working? Yes, it's fine.  No idea, I had visions of water spouting all over the place or possibly and underground leak.  When I got back from Gurdon today, it took me all of 30 seconds to figure it out.  He had taken the hose off of the spigot, but there was a brass fitting someone had attached to the spigot.  It is apparently some sort of pressure reducer or one way valve. 

Whatever it is, it was preventing water from coming out.  I removed that and walaah! emergency over, contacted him, told him the problem and moved on.  

I have late load tomorrow, which sucks but whatever.  It usually doesn't mean a lot on the loading day, it normally means getting back pretty late on the delivery day.  So tomorrow, I will probably be back by around 3:30 pm, Saturday around 5 at the latest. Going to miss some sort of expo they are going to (the folks here) but I have been pretty lucky with weekends the last 2 of them so I won't be too disappointed, plus I have Sunday off, back to work Monday on first load and then another load on Wednesday that is also second load.  

I think the manager is holding a grudge for me telling him I wasn't going to work a few Sundays ago because we were going to the zoo.  Boo hoo. 

Back to the park, I: know it is lacking of any major amenities, it's one of the reasons I have to lower my pricing than most other places nearby.  Location is always everything.  Oh, this dude also said the neighborhood is SCARY!!! LMAO.  I'm going to need to aggressively ask for reviews now to bury that one.  I don't get them often, it will be the first one people see if I don't get it down the list.  In reality, the worst thing that has happened is people living in the park and those people are gone. That and people dumping trash in my dumpster that don't live there.

From my understanding - now anyway - if they dig under your property, they have to have the mineral rights to be allowed to do so.  This is referring to an energy company wanting to do horizontal drilling underneath 2 of my properties acquired through tax lien sales.  I don't know what you think, but a company that is going to make untold millions of dollars off of the energy released under the ground should be able to pay more than a few hundred dollars to have their drilling operation going underneath my properties.  I asked one guy I thought would have an idea, he didn't know at all.  He just knew that it pays nothing like it used to.  Note that the drilling isn't taking place on either property, just going underneath it.  

Providing she makes it that long (I certainly hope she does) - she doesn't have any huge medical problems atm, but life is weird sometimes - I want to be at mom's house for her 90th birthday. That's in September.  It's not a great time of year to go to AZ for it's still warm, but time doesn't stop for any of us and all of our days are numbered. When you start talking about being in your 90's, well anyway.  It will be a double whammy going there and no vehicles to drive, Uber and Lyft are plenteous out there and plan the budget accordingly.  Probably won't do a lot of visiting anyway (other people that is).  

I'm just throwing out random thoughts here. I think an ice machine is a great idea for the park, it's the part about how to force people to pay for it that is stopping me. I don't see it as a money maker, I see it as a machine paying for itself.  Electricity and water.  

I'm still playing the Fortnite game, but I try to be on at times when all the kids are at school so I don't have to hear all of that nonsense.  Ridiculous.  They argue and fight with each other when you're playing on teams on who gets what out of a vault or kills or looting chests and such. They'll grab someone else's stuff and then they start getting angry with each other. The only other game I can think of that induces such anger in these kids is Monopoly.  The 8 year old here was temporarily banned from the game for his anger issues.  

 They start bragging how good they are and then others will start arguing who is the best.  I am not interested in hearing all of that s*** and I don't care if they play with me or not.  Mostly not, thank you. I do not seek anyone out at all.  They come to me, all the time.  My "party" frequently fills up with 8, 9, 10 plus people.  If I got on there right now, the party would fill up with people and the lobby would be full. And then I would hear things like "why does this always happen with you?!".  

I HAVE NO IDEA.  Ok, probably 75% of them don't even have microphones, but the ones that do? Annoying.  The game is fun;, yes, but it's fun playing by myself.  Once the lobby is full of people, I tend to just press the power button now and get off of the game.  

Umm, what else.... there is something I am not remembering.  Well while I'm searching my brain for the forgotten shelf, I am slowly bringing myself up to trying to get this SBA loan for expansion.  I  think I'm ready for the risk, I'm not mentally prepared yet for the rigor of having constant questions.  Weeks of unending emails, texts and phone calls asking about this, wanting that, etc ad-infinitum.  I don't k now how else I'll go forward without a loan, I certainly don't have that kind of money sitting in my bank accounts.  The other thing I think is holding me back from trying is my credit score.  I wonder if, at the end of the day, they will reject it for a low credit score.

BTW, I now firmly believe credit scores are a scam.  Some of it is warranted for assessing risk for people that clearly have financial issues, the rest of it is bs.  If you pay your bills on time, all the time and have no late pays for many years, you should have a decent score regardless of how much debt you're in. You have established that you believe in making your payments all the time and on-time.  There is no way that your score should take a 20 plus hit just because you paid off a loan in full. I don't care what their reasoning is, in my view, as of now, it's just a way for banks to charge higher interest.  It's all about greed and we all know banks are full of that. 

I continue to watch these judges trying to stop Trump from deporting illegal aliens. Or stopping dismantling USAIDS.  Or shutting down the Education department.  Etc. I just think that Trump is going to get the job done one way or the other.  They're not going to be able to impeach these judges, too many votes are needed and they don't have it. I don't really think that's the way to go about it anyway.  

I think I'm done here. It's getting late and tho I don't have to get up super early, I still don't want to be getting to be too late.