Wednesday - mid-morning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day.  

 And I do feel fine, at least right now! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Another day wasted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lol.

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

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

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

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

G'day

 Well if that don't beat all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day.

 This whole deal has been - strange. 

Even closing yesterday was a bit different.

Upon arrival at the title company, my realtor was standing out front of the building.  She approached my SUV and informed me they didn't want anyone coming in the building, that we would do the signing outside. 

Okay.  The lady comes out with a huge stack of papers, looks around, doesn't have a clue where to do this at. Remember, these people set the day and time for this signing, we had nothing to do with it. In fact, I had asked for Wednesday or Thursday.  I could get some stuff done over there.

So, in 97 degree heat at 83% humidity and quite hot outside, in the direct sunlight, she plops this pile of papers down on the tailgate of a pickup truck and says I need to sign every paper that has a tab sticking out of it. Unbelievable.  No table and chair set up somewhere, just let's stand up and sign away! 

I said nothing about my sentiments about this setup, one has to wonder why they didn't think of all of this in advance and have something arranged - in advance.  I signed all of the paperwork and then found out they were lacking some legal document that needed signed as well. I don't remember the name of it, my realtor was shocked when the lady told her she had forgotten to have it ready.

I asked what it was for. Basically guarantees everything you are signing here and the down payment you just gave them...... Yikes...

Then this lady asks me if I want a copy of everything? Again, bite my tongue. When on earth wouldn't I want a copy of all of the documents I just signed including receipt for the over $15,000 I just handed them? What kind of question is that.  It was obvious we were inconveniencing this person.  I just wanted to get it over with and get out of there, I replied she could email it to me if that was the easiest route.  Yes! she replies.

Well, guess what never happened? Yup.  no copy of the papers was sent to me.  As I said, this whole transaction from beginning until end has been a battle.  

I dunno, but it's - over with, I think.  

I went over there today to the property and did a guesstimate of how far it is from the edge of the street to 10 feet on the other side of the power pole/lines.  I would have measured but I forgot that I had taken the wheel measurer out last week.  50 feet beyond that I figure for any buildings I may want to have constructed in the future. The small portable building is like 8 feet wide.  I just want to leave room for a clubhouse.  It should be up front and there will be ample room for a parking lot.  

I'm supposed to go to work tomorrow - not that I want to but they are insisting on the 12 days and done.  However, being placed on leave of absence put this thing under some sort of legal garbage with the Family Leave Act.  Some lady from Ohio tried to call me yesterday, I was informed this morning - many times I was told.  I looked at my phone. She tried to call once.  I don't know why I have to talk to anyone to get back on, i didn't for them to take me off.  Anyway, tomorrow is up in the air atm as I've tried to call this person back 3 times now and have given up, letting my manager know I tried and that's that.  

If I feel like this tomorrow, I can tell ya I will have no desire to go to work.  Another Sunday work day, plus miss Labor Day holiday. I might be home Labor Day - late evening. 

I feel like I'm just whining and complaining right now.  It's probably just the way I am feeling. The closing yesterday didn't sit well with me regardless of getting it done and over with. Just unprofessional people attempting to act like professionals.  

I think I'll go take a nap.

 3 hours.

I checked my texts, email, phone messages.  

Nothing about a delay.

And with only 3 hours until the appointed time, I would like to hope we are good to go.  

I wasn't able to get to sleep until after 2:00 am, just couldn't do it.  Good thing I wasn't working today, that would have been very unpleasant.  Instead, I got up 20 minutes ago - it's after 10:00 am, took my sweet time taking a shower and shaving and thinking about what I am going to do first.  

Nothing.  I'm going to take a breather after all of this land shopping, deals gone wrong, bad properties, properties in bad locations, properties under water, properties that don't have water available.  Properties in city limits (NO thanks, maybe some day after I get money and can sit down and negotiate with these city people), restrictions up the ying yang.  

Why not fly right into this project? Oh don't worry, I didn't say I was taking a months long break. I just need a little cooling off time to collect my thoughts and get this thing rolling in the right direction.  As far as that goes, my query to a local contractor was returned this morning, it was a representative of the company saying he had forwarded it on to the owner. 

This is the construction company that apparently rents heavy earth moving equipment, has it's own fleet of end dump trucks (these are tractor trailer rigs that have a trailer that lifts way up into the sky after being filled with raw materials.  The material dumps out of the back end of the truck, it's basically a giant dump truck).  And access to various different types of gravel.  Local is key, I would like to keep it close, less travel costs for the trucks means savings in my pocket - but the price per ton has to be good as well. 

They also install septic systems.  I'll be very interested in talking with this individual since he has 3 separate things on my list that I need. Perhaps we can strike a deal, some percentage off for getting the gravel, renting the equipment and installing the septic all through that company?  

The point is that I am going to get serious - more than I have been anyway, it was tough to get overly involved in getting bids and information about getting things done without actually having that title in my name first.  Now I can start talking to people and seeing what's available out there in a real sense, not just generalizations.  

And frankly, I would have gone straight to work clearing land - I would have just gone to the place in Longview and rented the skid steer for a week - if this closing would have happened sooner. 

It didn't happen sooner for a reason. I don't know what that reason is, but it is what it is.  

Honestly I don't have the full funding to do this whole project.  Not even 20 spaces worth.  The costs will go far beyond anything I currently have in that 401k account and the money left over in my savings and checking accounts.  This is where I have to trust the Lord  and pray for His provision.  I can see needing 100k more than I currently have.  I might be able to get by with 50 to 75k more doing as much o this stuff myself as possible, but still, that's a formidable hurdle to jump over.

Yet, I didn't get into this to fail.  It might be slow going, it might take quite  a while before finished product is up and ready to roll, but I am prepared for that.  

I am going to look into a HELOC on my house. That would give me the best interest rate of anything available out there. I have looked before, but now it's going to be - gee, I'm being held up by this, let's start making a lot of phone calls and doing a lot of internet searching ......if I could drag 75k out of that I am confident I could do 20 spots to begin with.  Doesn't sound like much, but do the math.  Fill up 20 spots, $35 to $45 per night, 30 nights per month.....

Anyway, just get this over with, get it behind me and then look into the future.  Actually the step I will take today once that is over with is to pay off a personal loan.  I just don't want to pay it off before this thing closes.  Everything has always hinged on closing - as it rightly should be.  

And, of course, drive back over to the property - it isn't far from where I live - another nice feature, that I don't have a 20 or even 30 mile drive to go do work or check something on it, such as other properties were.  Or properties 11 miles away but out in the middle of Nothing, Nowhere.  Not ideal for an RV park where you are trying to appeal to people wanting to stop for the night and see your sign on the Interstate.  You've seen those signs, RV Campground. Pay to play, yes but likely worth it.  And listing it in all of the online registries - which aren't a few.  There are so many of them.  I will need the help of a web designer to have my own website and also have online registration software that will automatically take payments and assign a space to any would be campers. This is how it's done, I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel, I'm just trying to give a somewhat unique experience.

Turns out the experience will be roughly the same as something you'd find in a State Park with RV parking spaces.  But a bit more expensive.  

Interesting, just received an email from the manager at the lending organization.  They won't be there, apparently don't need to be, their end of the deal has already been couriered to the Title company. The title company is taking all of my owed monies in one check that I am giving them and distributing it accordingly.  I am assuming the lender wire transfers them the rest of the money and that's all they really need to do. I only expect to see both real estate agents there and of course the title company representative. I assume one of them must be a notary public as well. I also assume this isn't going to take long. Sign on the dotted line, here is your copy, have a nice life Mr. B., good luck in your endeavor!

Okay, I did say I was going to take a break, but.....since I have 2 hours to burn....I'm going to start looking up HELOC loans for my area.

G'day.  

Double check.

Had to do it.

Called the county again, one last time before I get my name stuck on a piece of paper and owe 20 year note on.  

Simple question: "I intend on building an RV park in the county outside of city limits, what permits do I need?".

"Can you hold on a second?" "Yes"

20 seconds later: "There are no permits required to build in unincorporated areas of Harrison County. The only thing you'll need is permitted through (whatever she said department) for septic".  "Oh, I thought septic was all done through the state?"  "No, it goes through the county" - the state doles that responsibility out to the separate counties to deal with but deal with it according to state law.

This could be a sticking point.  Or should I say this could end up costing more than anticipated, who knows.  Everyone on that street has their own septic system so not being able to get one isn't an issue. But the state is pretty strict about the rules and they don't really give much specifics beyond the need for a professional licensed contractor approved by the state.

That is something I definitely want done by the code, by the book, I don't need county or state officials coming and telling me to shut down the operation because - whatever.  Whatever it costs, it's going to be done correctly.  

But, I have the again noted sigh of relief that I have made the call twice now, this time specifically referencing an RV park and this time and again, no, there are no restrictions or permits necessary,l tho she did specify "if" for rent, without further elaboration.  I didn't bother to ask, I am not selling lots, its' definitely a rental proposition..  She is wrong in one aspect tho.  I think anyway. There is a permit required for "disturbing over one acre of land". That and the septic are the only things I have ever found in doing a lot of clicking on the internet. I forogot to ask her, but it's simply a permit designed to force you to put up those 2 foot high plastic "walls" to keep too much dirt from moving around.  

Speaking of that, I need a good, heavy rain to come.  I don't mean a light or medium rain, I need a down pout and for it to last a while.  We've got to determine what kind of water runoff drainage is going to be needed.  I envision simply trenching down a bit to ensure a defined waterway and putting rock in any ditches that need to exist.  

The real reason is to see where I may have issues with water draining across any potential pad sites. It may well be that I can only really determine that after removing all the trees and creating the pads.  Rainwater waterways can be altered, easily actually.  Got water running across a pad? Create a waterway to run the water away from it and even drainage if it's tending to pool.  

There are specific types of gravel that can be used that allow water to drain right through it instead of pooling up on top of it.  I'm nowhere near needing gravel right now, that's after all the driveways and pads are formed and all the water, sewer and electric are already installed. It's at the end of the job, in other words.  

Oh yes, another reason I called them today was because of the roads.  Do they care if there is going to be more vehicles - and heavier in nature than cars or pickups - over that particular county road? Yes, the road has a name but it also has a county number designation.  They literally don't care around here.  The reason I keep getting jolted about it is because I read of people attempting build their own parks in other states and they go through a maze of regulation they have to adhere to from the local county.  There is a county in Mississippi I kept getting directed to when doing Google searches that basically make it look impossible to build an RV park.  Tons of restrictions and codes enacted by the county. Regardless, I've seen water tankers on that road and I've seen RV's driving down it. Not many, mind you, but they do travel there.  

I think my next door neighbors are probably not going to like what's going to happen after this thing is up and going.  I don't intend on an extremely noisy operation, not at all. In fact, my rules will be along the lines of people keeping it more on the quiet side and strict enforcement of after 10:00 curfew - that's just a thing where you aren't allow to make excessive noise and yes, you define what that is.  I know they won't like the fact that I don't want that tractor-trailer rig parked over there.  Sorry guys, but you have ample room, build a driveway on the side of your house and park it over there.  

I can see how it would be easy to just park on the driveway.  No one lives there, no one to say anything unless it were parked in such a way as to block the driveway, then the gas operators would probably have a cow.  

With that information, I do not intend on asking anyone any permission to do anything.  I will show up out there with a skid steer and start clearing the front land.  I don't even think they have burn permits in the county - they do enact burn bans if it hasn't rained in a while.  

_____________

Well that's a setback.  Yes, the local rental company rents skid steers, no they don't allow it for the intended use with no explanation.  Didn't ask, if they don't allow it, no point in wasting any more time with it.  Found one over in Longview.  That's quite a bit less convenient  in being over 35 miles away versus this local company is about 2 miles from my house.  

It's really hard to consider driving that far to get the thing, pick it up, use it and return it the same day and keep doing that.  Yet, even at $225 per day rental, that's far cheaper than renting a person to do it at $75 per hour.  The difference is obvious. I do 10 hours of work at $225 or pay someone more than 3 times that amount to do it for me.  I'm into the saving money thing at the moment.  Actually the whole thing is going to be done as cheaply as possible without cutting corners.  Well, there is a construction company just outside of town that rents equipment but they don't say what they have available on their website, their primary operation is a construction company with trucks and equipment to clear land and also haul gravel. I have sent them an email query about renting equipment and how much 1,000 tons of driveway gravel, delivered, will run.  Why not? They're local, they have several different types of gravel available, might as well get a quote.  

Weird. I've been suspended for 30 days on my main account on Facebook, so I reverted to an alt account. Anymore they normally suspend that account, too, but ATM, they are allowing me to up posts on my wall and respond to everyone everywhere. Just can't put up new posts in groups.  At some point I suppose they will ban me from FB - this is all minor, petty stuff btw.  

It's raining.  Yup, I said I was going to go to the property and see where the water is running off to the next rain storm and nope, I am not going.  Don't feel like getting wet today and still haven't signed off on the property.  After tomorrow's signing, also going to pay off a personal loan that only has $1,200 left to go on it.  Free up some money for the additional monthly payments I am about to incur.  Sounds like a good idea to me, that loan would be paid off in 8 months anyway, might as well speed that up a bit.  I've never actually been sent anything showing what my monthly payments will be, I have just used a land purchase calculator to figure that out.  Kind of strange now that I think about it. But whatever. The payment calculator takes into consideration the full amount of the property, the down payment, the length of the loan and the interest rate.  So, hopefully $456.56 number is right or at least close to it.  

I doubt they will require insurance but I have put in a request to Allstate anyway.  Property taxes will add around $850 per year.  Apparently the other taxes are coming from the gas companies.  Otherwise it was around $1,250.  I do wonder how much of a loan I will be able to get after I add this land payment to it......it may be the difference between getting the thing up and running - or not.  I hate to get into debt, but atm, there is no other way to get around it if I want this venture to succeed.

I'm starting to get a wee bit excited.  It's Thursday 6:00 pm, closing is 19 hours from now.  Whatever that did to stop me from actually getting some tree clearing done, at least I will get this major hurdle behind me!

G'day.  

 The final day to contemplate what I'm about to be getting myself into tomorrow at 1:00 pm.  And yes, I did take a look through the land listings. Several more large parcels of property, well outside of my price range but great deals in terms of price per acre had been listed since I last looked. 

....watching governors on the east coast saying a bunch of ...stuff..... Kathy Hochul, the "new" governor in place of Cuomo, is allll kinds of excited about Biden working on an infrastructure bill and that she needs all kinds of money to fix all of these problems - that have existed forever but now that they have flooding - the federal government should just magically pay for everything!  I definitely feel for the people going through that living hell over there, but no catastrophe can ever be wasted on a Democrat politician to make some sort of political statement out of it, use it for their own purposes and ask for an ever expanded Federal government to - expand even more.  And now Schumer declaring that global warming is behind all of this! It must be! he's also attempting to sell not only the infrastructure deal but also the budget deal!  

NOTHING related to the tragedy going on in New York, I despise listening to these politicians.  The reconciliation along with the infrastructure "deal" amounts to almost 5 TRILLION dollars.  Now De Blasio - using people's deaths to push his agenda! They can't even let the damn storm and the carnage left behind pass before politicizing it!  This is why I have not watched much news on TV in the last - many many months now.  I didn't turn on the TV news to watch ot of control politicians use a devastating, cataclysmic event to pitch their endless desire for power and money.  

I muted it.  ENOUGH.  

Now then.  My mind is made up.  I just had to take a final look at any properties up for sale to placate the feeling that I must be bypassing a deal somewhere else in order to get this one.  No, I'm not. And even if there was some magical, fantasy land that came available at some awesome price, would I want to go through everything I've just gone through and what I've gone through before yet again? This deal is going on 11 weeks now.  11 WEEKS.  

Unless something changes between now and tomorrow afternoon, I intend on taking that cashier's check with me, sitting down at the table, signing off on whatever, handing over the check and moving on with this.  Moving on will mean leaving that meeting and heading straight over to the Road and Bridge department at the county and asking specific questions. If I need permits,, I will get them or apply for them.  I have asked on the phone and looked it up, I've seen or heard nothing, but I'm not going to get caught doing stuff on the property and then having some county official come by and tell me I'm breaking some county code and cease and desist or whatever.  

I have definitely vacillated on various decisions that will have to be made on this project.  Freely admitting that, I still haven't come to definitive conclusions on what I should do.  But it seems to me that I should leave room at the front for a large building.  And that, starting 10 feet beyond the reach of the telephone poles.  So I can see a large swath of land at the front that has nothing on it but parking. 

I was also looking at angles yesterday, 45 degrees might be a bit much, I think 55 degrees would be better. And 90% sold on offset parking pads.   55 degrees gives me less linear space from east to west, but it looks better to me.  There is 1,370 feet from the edge of the street to the back of the intended RV site.  75 to 100 feet back to start the actual pads is not going to cost me space for pads.  I need around 850 feet for the 60 pads I want in, add the 100 and 950 feet means another 420 available feet in the rear for - whatever. Dog park, septic, bathhouse, etc.  

If I have a plan, it's coming together.  Needing a blueprint may simply be determined on if the county demands one or not.  I'm simply intent on leaving room for a building at the front, actually having one built will be a future endeavor.  I will be looking at other parks again - satellite views and views from drones and views from street level to get a better understanding of how a well designed park should look.  

On a different note.  I bought a hummingbird feeder months ago. We had an old one but it was cracked, faded and not so good looking and we weren't using it.  I put the new feeder up with fresh Hummingbird nectar/juice/whatever and they - never came.  I then put it out on the rose bushes hoping they would go there instead.  They never came there. So yesterday, I brought it inside, intent on putting fresh nectar in it and trying again on the porch. 

It was filled with hundreds of dead ants, plus it had been sitting in the direct sunlight for months.  So I thoroughly cleaned it out and put a bit of fresh nectar in it, not too much since filling it up had only resulted in wasting all of that for no particular purpose.  I put the thing up yesterday and ignored it.  

James sent me a pic a few minutes ago - yes, a hummingbird has claimed it as his/her own.  It was on a  branch in a nearby tree.  I went and looked through the front window and saw two of them using it! Yayyy! and finally.  A little natural entertainment.  I think in this heat that stuff needs to be changed weekly at least.

I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I think I will go today, this afternoon and get that cashier's check.  I think I'm almost at the end of this particular tunnel, the light is very bright now.  They have all made their decision to move forward, everything is a go, I trust and hope nothing else is going to happen in the next 26 hours to stop the forward momentum.

G'day.   

 Thank you fin for that, saw the comment.

Racking my brains attempting to decide whether I really have to have a design group design the park or just wing it. 

This can't possibly be that difficult.  Clear out all the front stuff excepting a couple of giant trees, one of them very much dead.  It needs to go 10 feet beyond the telephone poles near the front.  All of that area will just be a parking space for incoming RV's.  The land isn't totally wasted and there is nothing I can do about that.  So I measure 10 feet in towards the property and then put up ribbone on the trees where you stop taking down trees.

Next. Measure the first 60 foot back in lot.  45 degree angle, 60 degree angle, whatever, get it done.  It's just the straight line part that I can't get past.  How do I know I'm going in a straight line with all those trees in the way?  Sure, a straight line would easily do it, even 800 plus feet long I could run a line, but again, those pesky trees. I don't want to take out any more trees than I have to.  Thank you fin for that, saw the comment.

And, should I leave space for an eventual bath house at the front, middle or rear of the property?  Where does the dog park go? Where does the septic system go?  

I've got a lot of the initial questions I agonized over answered.  70 foot long pull throughs. 60 foot long back in spaces along the western fence line - tho I could legitimately go 65 with all the extra space I have.  

There's two lines right there and I figured today I still have 119 feet linear feet towards the east to use up for more spaces.  I could make ridiculously long spaces.  I could do a row of 60 foot spaces and still have around 59 feet left over.  

Alas, I won't have the money to put in a huge number of spaces to begin with, I think my attention appropriately focused on about 20 spaces to start with. 

One site says it's approximately 40k to put in a septic system, gag.  I hope that's not the case for a smaller setup.  

Hmm, if I eventually put in a bath house in the middle of the park, I wonder how that plays out on the sites next to it and people having to here that noise all day long.  I'm going to have to take some more looks at other park setups. Seems like the space for that should appropriately be placed at one end or the other.  

I think it's time for some tea.  Just started drinking it in the last couple months.  A little better than coffee, I like to sip on a hot drink, especially while contemplating all of this stuff.  

OH, and any opening will still include having the walking trails cleared out and a doggy park at the very least.  Perhaps a - crude - 1 room bath house lol.  Unisex/family style lol.

The long spaces, the trees, the serenity and the walking trails will bring them in.  I can make ample money off of just 20 spaces to begin with.  

Even with only 20 spaces, the big expenses: septic, electric and gravel.  Water - not quite so much.  A bit, but not as much as the other 3.  Unless a few hundred grand falling  out of the sky/becomes available I think my plan to start with 20 spaces is about the best I can do.  

My best guesses: 20k for septic, 25k for gravel - that's just the gravel, not having it spread around,  water, maybe 3k to have a tap into the main line then a couple thousand worth of pipe and fittings, possibly more but not terrible if 2 inch pipe really works; electrical - lol - no clue.  $200 per pedestal, $4 grand right there.  No clue how much to have the power company run lines to a pole.  I've read anywhere from free to thousands of dollars.  Then the underground line, the boxes that underground line feeds into, the line going from the boxes to the pads.  These pedestals already come installed with 20, 30 and 50 amp outlets and breakers, it's just a matter of installing them into the ground and hooking up the wiring.  I could guess 20k for 20 spots and that could be close.  A thousand dollars per pad for the whole set up may be a bit more than it will actually cost.

Beyond that is clearing out the  driveways and lots.  These days off would have been nicer if it occurred after I had closed and figured all of this out and could just go straight to work.  I assume I could have had a lot of it cleared out already.  

I still think the best plan beyond approaching the power company and asking them what I need to do to get power run to the property - not just through the property - and having septic pros come out and tell me where the best location is and how much it's going to cost - is to get all of that cleared up out front, measure out the first back in lot, which would show me where the first driveway will need to be - and run with it.  

The power lines are at least 20 feet above the ground, so that won't be an issue.  I have a friend - James close friend actually - that works in the volunteer fire department that serves the county.  So, if I have any issues I can probably get some favor going there, he's studying to become some sort of assistant to the fire marshall. 

Anyway, I find out today that I am expected to go back to work on Sunday instead of Wednesday.  I have his texts, he specifically stated 14 days, now he's changed it to 12.  I thought I'd have a holiday off, I thought wrong. Labor Day is coming up, I'll apparently be out on the road.

I'm glad I found that out today while it's still several days away It's Wednesday evening, that gives me 3 full days to prepare for the inevitable eventuality of having to go back to that job.  I realized today that it wouldn't matter if I were doing a local job, I'd still hate trucking equally as much, I'd just be home every night.  

Anyway, I'm getting off of here. 

 Amazing how the days seem to fly by.  14 days off is a long time, yes? Yet I only have 6 more days until the 14 days is over and done with and back to the grind of driving - trucks.  I can tell you I needed this time off and didn't even realize it.  Not because I'm sick or anyone else is sick here, but because I was becoming increasingly unhappy doing that job unendingly with no real, lengthy off time to reset.

Yes, we went on a mini vacation recently. That was only 3 days.  I would have never chosen to take 14 days off and I doubt my company would even let me do that without special circumstances.  It was in the back of my head when I texted my manager who then called me after asking what the company policy is.  He clearly was trying to "help me out" in giving answers that would have sufficed for working and I clearly was only interested in seeing how long I could get off time for, even if unpaid.  14 days was a bit surprising.  

So, the text group I'm in with the other drivers had one of them taking a pic of one of our trucks at the loading plant. It was the day cab truck - no sleeper. Pile of junk, I have to assume my truck is being used by someone if they are going so far as to put drivers in that thing.  I'm not going to be particularly happy if whoever may be in it trashed the thing.  

Anyway, I never did get to drawing up those drawings of intended park set up yesterday. Something I intend on doing in a bit - after I go to the store and get a yardstick to make straight lines with. Yup, that's why I didn't do it and didn't feel like going anywhere.  I'd like to draw the whole thing up, not just the first few lots and then just fade off with nothing.  I also want whatever that thing is called that gives you precise angles - things I haven't used since High School, completely forgotten the names of such devices.  I can occupy myself with several hours of going to the store and then coming home and doing that today.  

As for the house - the 6 year old went back to school today, the 4 year old is still wandering around the house, coughing all over the place, I have had a mild case of a cold I guess you'd call it for several days, haven't  really said much about it because it isn't really affecting me that bad, Taylor finally slept last night and not sure about James.  We're getting through it is what I can say and that's good.  

__________________

Final closing costs were sent to me. I simply show up with one cashier's check to pay for all of it, the lender distributes it to everyone who is due any funds.  This is much further along than anything else that has happened in any of the other deals I've already attempted.  This means to me that this is actually going to happen.

And, I was pleasantly surprised that the final check I need to get will be 2 plus grand lower than I expected.  I have 2k earnest money down already, but I expected the closing costs for me to be in the 17k to 19k range.  Instead, it's $15,693.47.  That leaves me a lot more cash in my accounts than I expected.  I can get started on this project without even cashing out the 401k - tho I am considering doing that soon for the stock market is pretty volatile right now and my old 401k isn't gaining.  It goes up but then falls right back to where it was or lower.  That's been going on for quite a while now.

Well, I won't be on Facebook for another 30 days. A person in a camping group talking in lewd terms told me to shut up so I informed him to go jump off a cliff into an icy cold lake.  Facebook suspended my account for 30 days for saying that....they informed me I was bullying him. Lol.  This is why I have teetered on the edge of quitting facebook altogether, permanently.  

Anyway, off to the store.  

 Wrote this yesterday, so posting it and then adding below it:

I woke up this morning with scratchy throat.  A bit of mucous running down the back of my throat.  Come out to find out James is also feeling nasty.  So we all decided to get tested for Covid today.  Will be the 2cd time for me since this pandemic hit the world.  

An almost 2 hour wait at the healthcare facility - apparently half the town decided to show up and everyone wanted a covid test - and 2 things.

First, the last time I was in for medical purposes was my Medical Card for my CDL. That was like 2 months ago.  They took my blood pressure and told me it was 139 over 89.  I about panicked - it's never been that high at least to my knowledge!  Today? 122 over 78.  Much closer to what it normally is - which is under on both numbers.

2.  They shoved that stick with the swab on it up both nostrils - it didn't feel any better this time than last,  they really force it up in there - and it came back negative.  Yayyyy!  I've had a Covid ridden 6 year old clinging to me for 5 or 6 days now - he gets really clingy when he's sick, much more than normal - and I still don't have it.  I'll assume/hope that that means I'm not getting it.  So some good news, at least for me.

Taylor not so good. She tested positive and she is in extreme pain.  So much so I got a hold of a person that is affiliated with a doctor's practice and got some stuff to help her with the pain.  NO, it's nothing being done illegally, thanks.  I wouldn't do that, in anything I do, I definitely do not set  out starting something thinking, gee, it would be great to break the law today!  Don't need that kind of trouble.

Now, I just got word, and I mean just a minute ago, from my realtor that the seller's agent had gone down to the courthouse, pleaded with them to please process this paperwork and file it - and they did!  So now, it's back at the title company.  There should be no reasons left for them to drag this thing out.  Whenever they decide it's good, it's going to the lender who said 24-48 hours and then we can close. 

___________________________

Okay. It's Tuesday afternoon.  I just went and did a major shopping outing at Walmart. Haven't done so in quite a while and I was lacking in many basic things and so was the household.  

After putting that all up and eating lunch, I came in here, to my bedroom, sat down at my computer desk and was perusing things on the internet.  I scanned my email and saw nothing of interest.

But wait, what was that?  I get so much junk email I probably don't see important stuff sometimes.  

There was an email from the lender, but it was a different person, the manager of the place inviting me to ....... sit down and do the signing on Friday!!!!!

Wait, Friday?  Why not tomorrow or Thursday?  gag. Well whatever, we finally have a date to sit down and close! 

So that's it.  It's hot as blazes outside right now, I am not going to do any outdoor activities this afternoon.  Taylor is still suffering tho that should end soon enough when the UPS truck gets here. James is also feeling cruddy, he just isn't showing it as much.  I'm still in the clear, thankfully, hopefully it stays that way.  

Well, that's not it with the closing. I needed the amount needed to bring with me - they don't even have that yet.  Lol, this whole thing seems like it's being done by complete amateurs.  I freely admit that in my case, but these people are "professionals" and yet they seem clueless.  It's pretty surreal this whole deal and how it's gone through.  

I will be elated to finally have something actually done, regardless.  

And now.........I am going to think about the layout of this park for the next couple of days.  I bought some giant white, thin cardboard sheets.  I want to make some elaborate drawings of both of my ideas on these papers - well not to scale or anything, just drawings of what I would like to see as an end result - and then compare the two. Maybe even take pics of them and post them on my Facebook and ask for opinions.  

 I have no idea what the actual math calculation is - I wish I knew.  I can't apparently word it correctly in google to find it.

What I was trying to do is see what 65' at a 45' degree angle equates to in a straight line.

So, you start from a base point.  You go 65 straight.  You go back to that base point and head off at a 45 degree angle from the straight line.  I mean, I know it's going to be less at an angle than straight, I was trying to find out how much less.  

So, I got out the wheel measurer and figured I could come close at least.  

I went 65 feet straight, marked it with a brick.

Then I started at the same base point and went approximately at a 45 degree angle.  After hitting 65 feet, I then headed straight to come in line with the 65 foot straight brick marker.  It's somewhere in the range of 16 to 17 feet without getting out a string and actually doing it correct or getting out an angle and getting exactly 45 degrees.  

I don't know if any of that makes sense, I haven't done that kind of math since high school and quite honestly have forgotten most of it and have no idea what the actual calculation would be to get an exact number.  I don't really need to measure everything if I had the equation.  

Making conservative estimates and I have more than ample room for 3, 20 foot wide driveways, a row of 70 foot pull throughs, a row of 55 back ins and somewhere around 58.5 feet left over for the third row.  

This is far more room than I expected. 

I would like to leave enough room somewhere in the middle of the row of sites to construct a bathroom/bathhouse/laundry room building.  I have come to the conclusion that I should make the lots 40 feet wide.  This leaves room for 5 plus feet in width of trees and have 35 feet width of the actual pads.  Offset, so there's around 8 feet on the driver's side to the edge of a pad and the rest on the passenger side - the passenger side is where the doors are in and out of the trailer/coach and also where you put the picnic table, fire ring and room for the patio. A grill can be installed also, charcoal only tho, I'm not doing gas grills, Too many people forget to turn off the gas, waste the gas, possible explosion, drunk people doing stupid stuff, no thanks.  

I can see this project - if/when the land is actually acquired - is going to take a long time to develop.  My off days will be consumed with working on it and having some hired hands to help with it.  The financing is going to be an issue as well.  I can just move forward with my plan and pray and hope for the best.  This is why I thought of starting out with 20 or so spaces and adding on as finances come in.  

If that sounds pessimistic, it isn't.  Just being realistic.  God can provide in ways that I don't know, I will certainly stay open and looking for any opportunities for funding that come along.  

Anyway, for those praying people, my friend is in hell with Covid right now.  Just not good.  

 Has anyone ever heard of Scotch Eggs? I was scouring the internet last night looking for recipes and happened upon a recipe for these things, before last night I had never heard of them.  And here I thought I had pretty much had every version of eggs that exists?  Probably not even close lol.  It looks like they should taste good.  I dunno if I'm going to make them or not, I'm still trying to decide if it will be worth the effort after discarding carb laden ingredients and replacing with carb-less or low carb ingredients.  You know, instead of regular milk, almond milk, instead of regular white flour (is that racist?), almond flour and instead of Panko bread crumbs, you crumble up pork rinds instead. 

It's day 5 since the boy was diagnosed with Covid.  The other boy also has something, a cold I guess, he was tested and came back negative. The point is they are both sick.  I have been fortunate so far to have no symptoms of anything.  

Ida will not affect us at all, or if it does, it will be nothing more than a little rain.  We're off to the west of where it's going, thankfully.  So, I will likely take the dogs to the property today - I don't have any qualms going over there even if I am not the owner since I have money down on the property, under contract and the presumed owner of it - eventually.  Not to mention the owner lives nowhere near the property - Maine is a long ways off - and I have repeatedly told my realter that I have been hiking on it in case there are any issues with it.  The seller's realtor didn't mind either.  I mean, if I were to get hurt on the property, I am not the kind of person that files lawsuits against other people for the consequences of my own actions.  

I would rather be going over there to get on a piece of machinery, clearing trees and creating driveways and pads.  I will still do that on this 14 days off if enough time presents itself after closing - if/when that ever occurs.  I don't imagine it taking more than 4 days to clear the first driveway, the trees simply aren't big enough to pose that much of time wasting machine utilization.  Even just getting the west side driveway done before I have to go back to work would be a huge help in afterwards designing the property the way I want to.  There are no models that I can think of or have looked at that wouldn't include a driveway on the west side of the property.  And with pull throughs, there are no models that don't include a driveway somewhere in the center.

However, the driveway in the center will not be determined until I see what it looks like with the driveway.  I "believe" the property is fairly level at that point, I don't know that for a fact.  The reason it makes a difference is because if I'm putting in pull through sites, the land either has to be level or can be leveled without making too much of a slope at the end where the RV's would pull out.  Otherwise, they will have to be back-in spaces. If it's pull throughs then the lots will angle towards the street/front of the property. Simply drive into the pad and set up.  If they are to be back in sites, then they will have to angle towards the rear of the property.  There is no room for error on that part - not if I want to keep trees up in between sites, which I definitely do.  

My next action will be to simply print out a satellite pic of the front portion and make several copies of it and start drawing some models up.  In fact I intend on doing that after I get done with this entry.  Oh, and yesterday, we went out to the back yard and started doing a major cleaning job.  Cutting down small trees, bushes and vines, especially on the back fence.  Also cutting down limbs off of trees that were almost touching the ground.  Work that was far past overdue, we aren't done yet and may go out and continue with that - as long as my health stays good and I don't start feeling sick.  5 days is the average amount of time it takes for Covid to incubate in your body and start showing symptoms. 

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Took the saw back - finally. Get that behind me. Almost $300 worth, I didn't want to pay for something we weren't going to use.  Went over to Waffle House for a nice keto friendly breakfast and then over to PetSmart where I scored several, very cool looking Koi.  Brought those home, put them in the aquarium and then proceeded to take all the rest of the fish that were still in the aquarium to the pond out back.  There's probably something like 30 fish in the pond now.  I'm not really interested in any more goldfish, Koi are expensive but those are my favorite fish for ponds.  They're more like pets.  But it's a risky expenditure - they aren't cheap and they can be eaten right along with the goldfish for bird, raccoon or snake dinner.

I have yet to see any birds attempting to fish, I haven't seen any of the water snakes this year and raccoons aren't safe in our back yard with that scrawny shepherd mix, she will instantly kill any of them that come in the back yard. I don't wonder if she isn't the reason I am not seeing any water snakes anymore, either.  Of course, we don't have dogs out back at night, so the fish are still open prey for raccoons.  Regardless, I have several hiding spots for the fish at least.  They are medium sized sections of Flagstone placed on top of bricks. That will at least keep the birds and raccoons from getting them and yes, they definitely use those hiding places.  

Glad I went over to Longview, there were several refugees from the hurricane that had traveled there to escape.  We're out of harm's way and there isn't anything going on, the hotels should have ample rooms available.  Normal rooms available, I should say.  I've looked for rooms over there several times in the past, I've never seen any of them sold out.  It may be they are coming this far because everything before that IS sold out?  Well I was glad I went to Longview to get that thing taken back AND to get the Koi. I was blessed, this time they had just received a shipment.  This is why I was going to start my own Koi stock tank and sell them.  I had asked Maria if she wanted to do it, but she declined.  I wanted to give her a small business to start up, Koi sell out over there all the time and they aren't available in this town.  

Buy around 500 of them and put them in a 500 gallon stock tank and sell them.  Not a hard job, really. I don't do it because I am out of town all the time.  I guess I could do it and just sell them when I'm home.  I would assume at least $5 profit off of each fish, if you could sell them in a short period of time,  like maybe 2 months or so, that would be a nice haul.  

Anyway, it's nothing I want to do at this point in time.  I "will" have enough going on when this property deal closes.  I will be back to ultimatum time if it doesn't occur this coming week. There is no reason to hold this up any longer - unless the county is taking forever to do it.  But they aren't short staffed and they are operating as normal.  

Well this post has grown exceedingly long.   

 With renewed hope, I went over to the property yesterday, took some videos and pics and traipsed the front portion of it . It's mostly small trees with a few big ones mixed in. I intend on saving as many of the larger ones as possible, but if they have to come down? Down they will come.   I had not ventured into this portion of the property before, it was too densely loaded with trees and didn't feel like it. But now that we are allegedly getting "closer" to closing date, I need a solid plan.  I have one to start with.  It shouldn't be difficult for a smaller machine to take down those trees.

It was a bit comforting if nothing else is at the moment that the ground in there appears to be fairly level.  Whatever the case, the County did not adjust their entry for the property in their website with the new deed.  Whether that means nothing was done is unknown.  When I got my Sheriff's deeds back, it still took them a long, long time before they updated the website, so that may be meaningless.  The county  has to file it first before it can go back to the title company and then back to my lender and then an actual closing date.

This has been dragging on for around 2-1/2 months now.  Just a bit disconcerting that I could be over there, right now, with a skid steer and getting this operation started.  

In other news, my mom contacted me last night.  She informed me that my middle brother's son had contacted her and let her know that my middle brother "may be dying".  He has contracted Covid and apparently is not doing well at all.  Remember, this is the brother that wrote the entire family off over 2 years ago and hasn't talked to any of us since then, including mom.  My nephew - middle brother's son - is over in Germany. I don't know what he said to his dad, probably something about going to the hospital.

He was refusing to go get any kind of medical help.  Death wish?  I don't think so, he's not one to just give up.  Perhaps the nephew was just thinking out of fear and saying things out of fear.  Regardless, mother called the police in his town and asked them to go do a welfare check. They did so and found out that someone had brought him groceries and that he had stated he would seek medical attention tomorrow morning (today).  After posting a short blurp about this on my Facebook page, some old friends of his reached out to me and asked if they can do anything.  I had to inform them that we aren't on speaking terms, but that doesn't mean I don't care about him.

They asked for his address and said they would go do their own welfare check on him.  I haven't heard anything back.  We will be operating out of limited information and that's fine, for that's his choice to eliminate family out of his life.  If he passes, I will be sad but I will not be going to a funeral where he would not want me there. I might go visit his grave after the fact, but a funeral is out of the question, the only way I'd go is if his nephew specifically asked me to.  I am on speaking terms with him,he's a man now, in the US Army, going places, he was promoted to some level of authority not long ago (I don't remember what rank).  

As for me, I am so far doing fine.  With Covid, that can change overnight of course, but so far I am having no ill effects besides the normal old age junk that is slowly creeping in - what a pain that is.  I have a full contingent of hydroxyqloroquine (spelling?) sitting here ready at the go.  I bought it in advance in case I contracted this virus and so many doctors weren't prescribing it or pharmacies were refusing to fill prescriptions- because - Trump said it was effective.  Imagine that.  Controlled studies have shown it is quite effective to treat corona, yet because Trump said anything about it, the entire liberal medical world went haywire.  If I have no symptoms in the next few days I will go in and get tested around Tuesday. If I get symptoms before then I will go get tested right away.  I remain hopeful that that nasty illness I had last year was Covid and that I have some level of immunity to it.  That 6 year old is pretty clingy right now, his symptoms have worsened, tho in saying that, I don't mean life threatening, just his nose is now running like an open faucet, his voice is scratchy and he is generally not feeling normal.  

And definitely, there hasn't been any social distancing in this house. I don't know how you do that with little kids.  

And now, I have several old friends that have contracted covid and some of them are definitely not doing well at all.  I can only pray for everyone that is affected by this evil.  I can remain at least somewhat comforted that most people do not die from it.  They might end up in a hospital but many of those actually come out of there alive and kicking.  I think it's the media hyping it up for so long on a daily basis that makes it scary for many people.  If you did that with the flu and started posting every death that occurs from it, you'd have the same reaction.  There is a point to be made about turning off the news and getting off the internet. I'm not off the internet but I rarely watch the news on TV anymore.  It's all - and I mean all - negativity. Afghanistan taking the world stage since the pullout and Biden's failure as a president.  

As much as I dislike Biden, what I am about to say will probably be wildly unpopular with Biden detractors: We must pray for him.  God is in control, not some politician somewhere. This is still His earth, we are still His creation.  His plan is unfolding before us - what stage we are in I don't know and don't need to know. I only need concern myself with my walk with the Lord and my status with Him.  And possibly engaging others about Christ and salvation, repentance and living a life separated from this world yet still living in it.  My mind has been flooding with Scripture lately.  I don't even need to read the Bible to know what it says, I've only read it countless times. I've read the New Testament so many times I don't have a count for it. On a few occasions, I've read it straight through without stopping for anything but to sleep and eat.  I don't remember how long it took, like 5 days if I'm recalling correctly. 

Eternity looms for all of us. Where will we spend it? It is a thought worthy of time contemplating on it.  What if God does exist, to all of you unbelievers?  What if the Bible is all actually true?  To all of you that have spent your lives trying to discredit it and attempt to formulate discrepancies and inconsistenices within it.  I choose to believe. I have seen the hand of God moving in people's lives and I have experience the presence of God.  There is nothing like it.  You can cal it fairy tales and make believe, that's your choice.  But does it make any logical sense that this earth came into existence without a supreme Creator at the wheel, crafting it to His design?  

Preachy I guess. Just where my mind has been at lately, at lot more than "normal".  We are admonished to "return to your first love", for Christians that have lost their zeal.  The first love is something you should also contemplate for you that calls yourself a Christian. I apply that equally to myself, as I said, I have been thinking about that a lot.  I do need to open up the actual book and start reading it again. Reading it online just isn't the same, at least not for me.  My context is getting saved in the early 80's and reading the book, the internet didn't exist and we didn't have smart phones and personal computers all over the place.  

Whatever the case, there is no way, it appears anyway, that this closing is going to be done before Wednesday.  IF the papers have been filed by the County and IF the title company has it back, the title company still has to certify it and then..send it to my lender for a final review and then closing can take place.  

I do not yet understand - and I may not ever understand for that matter - why there have been so many roadblocks, to acquiring any land, not just this one.  But I don't have a stoplight appearing before my spiritual eyes and unless something drastic happens that literally stop my from physically engaging in this - I don't even want to think about those possibilities - I am moving forward.  

And with that, I am off to do - something, not sure what, but I spent a large portion of yesterday doing nothing. Don't really want to repeat that. At least take the dogs for a nice walk if nothing else.  

 I've done much of nothing in the past few days.  Hearing that I'm being forced from working for 14 days sort of took all motivation out of me. It didn't help to find out that closing won't be until next week. It just keeps getting pushed further and further out.

The only good thing that comes out of this is that on Monday, the loan has to be renewed so my lender says I will get a lower interest rate.  I mean, that's good, lol, I don't know how much lower, it's 5.1% offer at the moment. Without property taxes or insurance, the payment will be $444.55 per month. Taxes are around $1,300 per year - not cheap around here, I dunno what they are using all the money they get from it on beyond courthouses, sheriff's department, county road maintenance etc.  Normal stuff but seems to be pretty high taxes, I don't even pay that much for my house in Phoenix and it's worth far more than this land is.  

But add $108.33 per month for taxes and I have no idea how much basic liability insurance will be.  Probably not much since I won't list it as an RV park until I get the operation up and running, just private land that has no house or any structures on it at all.  See if I can bundle it with my Allstate package which already covers the boat and 2 vehicles, perhaps save some money that way. I figure the total monthly bill around $600 which isn't bad in my view for 25 acres of land.  

Whatever the payment is, it's going to be low enough to be able to afford for a while with just my job income.  It's going to take a while to get anything up and going.  But if we can get this deal done and over with early next week, I can spend a week or more out there clearing out tree and building the first driveway at least, perhaps even get some pads cleared out. Be nice to get about 20 of them cleared, do the second driveway and have something to start with.  Doing that stuff myself and probably with James help I can save a ton of money.  I have all but decided at this point I am going to do - with help but not with any contractors beyond what is required - all of this myself.  

That decision was made much easier after seeing all the information they want in order to obtain an SBA loan and the need for hiring professionals to come up with that paperwork.  No thanks, not now anyway.  Get something going, hopefully start getting some income from it, keep it going for a year and then I'll have all of that info on paper/excel and then get a loan to put in the lacking amenities. Namely, a pool.  A larger pool with a jacuzzi, the concrete decking, a good wall around it etc. More liability, but far more revenue, especially in the summer.  Get a big enough pool in there and people in the local area will come to use it, it's not like we have anything like that around here. You drive either 45 miles east or 30 plus miles west to get to anything.  Or not - lol - just depends on the occupancy and how many people I can get in there to use the facility either overnight or for several days or longer.  

I also have room for a party barn - another rent-it-out-to-the-locals type of thing or advertise it with the RV park as a get together for family reunions or gatherings where people who know each or part of a group or whatever can come to have a place to hang out with each other. The costs of a barn or a pool are obviously well out of my reach atm.  The pool would have an additional charge added to the lot rental, not much but the maintenance needs to be paid for and I don't want to eat those costs in just the lot rent. A card key for entry like a hotel room - I've seen them used at pool as well.  

That may be wishful thinking, but it's part of my goals for an RV park that stands out among the rest in the area.  There's several of them here, they are mostly all run down places excepting for a few that have a pretty good look to them.  The appeal to draw people beyond just a park, initially or whenever I can afford to get it done, will be a large pond stocked with fish.  Ask a typical RV'er what they'd like in a park and many of them are going to answer any type of fishing hole, please.  

I am cautiously optimistic at this point.  The revelation that the lady signed off on the paperwork but it was lost in the mail gave me hope that there is light at the end of this particular tunnel.  I was going to put an ultimatum down on this table of delays and demand it either get down or I'm backing out, but it doesn't appear that I will need to do that now.  Such a move could easily backfire and the seller could simply say fine, I'm not selling it to you.  I was, however, at the point where I didn't care, got very frustrated with this situation and was ready to back out of it anyway.  I had no idea this paperwork had to actually be filed with the county. But, that's right here in town and I don't see it taking forever to getit done.  In fact, I should just check the tax assessor's site, it should be adjusted on there whenever they file it, supposedly today. 

And no, it's not done yet. She lives in Maine, the title still showing the deceased name,  living in a small town 100 miles south of here in Texas.  Whatever the case, as soon as this thing is done, I'll be over there, at the property. Actually, I'm going to go take a look today.  I need to see what I need to do to be able to clear out the driveway.  There are large trees at the front that need to be cut down - but - there is power lines running right through it. Could be a bit tricky taking down trees without damaging the lines, but I don't really want to pay anyone to do it.  Way too expensive. They want thousands of dollars just to take down a single large tree around here.  Tho, if they could just cut the thing down and let it fall, it will be much cheaper. The expense is in having to cut trees down in pieces because they can't take out power lines, communication cables, etc and not taking out houses and structures.  In this case, they could simply tie ropes around them, tie them up in a direction away from the power lines, cut the trees and let them fall in the road way, hook them up to a tractor and pull them off the street.  There isn't much traffic going through there, it would mean stopping a lot of vehicles to get it done.  

There are no structures near those trees to be concerned about, maybe barbed wire fencing but that's easily fixable and cheap.  Once I get the front cleared out I can call out the water contractor and the power company.  Septic - not sure which system they would want to install or where it will go, tho I have a place I'd like it to go, out of the way and not taking up any space in the park itself.  

Not a desirable situation, but I expect that my costs will far exceed what the 401k is going to end up giving me, so that's sort of a headache I'm going to have to figure out.  Getting another loan will mean that more in monthly bills - it's the kind of thing where you want the park as close to being ready to turn the key and fire it up as possible.  I don't want to be eating another $1,500 per month payment without additional income.  It's just that I can see the septic system being very costly, probably more than electrical.  I'm guesstimating somewhere around 20k for electricity to get maybe 20 lots up and going to begin with.  And tho companies list septic systems for 3 grand, that's just for one house.  How much for 20 lots?  I've seen estimates as high as 26k.  

There will be a lot to contemplate once I get the costs of everything established and attempting to figure out how to go about doing it without sinking myself in monthly debt payments.  

That's kind of where my mind is right now - where to start and how to proceed after certain things are accomplished.  

With that, I am heading over there to take pics and video of the front and get a good idea what it will take to get all of that cleared out.  

 My reaction to the video being circulated around showing farmers who are saying the government is paying them to destroy their crops - and ensuing conspiracy theories - is always the same in such situations.  I always try to keep enough food in the house to last us quite a while in the event of an "act of God" or man made emergency.  We already have two freezers full of food. In fact, I have been asking that we clean them out, eat all the food and even give some of it away so we can put fresh stock back in them.  

We are a bit low on canned food - I was looking at that yesterday, easy fix. Go to Kroger's and deal with it.  There are lots of stories in the news right now about the supply chain for certain products being disrupted.  It also isn't anything new that the government is paying farmers not to farm for certain crops.  I think it's ludicrous to pay farmers not to farm or even worse, destroy their crops.  There are plenty of hungry people in this world that would gladly eat that food.  Of course, that opens up another discussion about how we ship relief to other nations and the food/supplies never get to the people they were intended to get to.  

Regardless, it's not a panic thing for me and this reminds me - we have a generator but I never did get the hookup installed to plug it into the house - versus having to run a bunch of extension cords. If the power goes out, you just fire it up, plug it in and the power goes into the main power panel. Well, you have to shut off the main circuit breaker first and turn on the generator circuit breaker, but that's all you have to do. You don't want the power coming back on and frying your generator is the point of that, I assume the possibility of fire as well if you don't shut off the main breaker.  A trip to Lowe's or Home Depot today and buy the pre-assembled kit.  Well I dunno about today, just saying I have plenty of off time.

Off time I'd like to be using clearing land, btw.  And so far, both realtors are pulling their hair out attempting to get this title company to do their job and get this over with.  I'm not the only one being affected by this title company's lack of due diligence to simply finish this, get it over with and be done with it. I can and will do nothing with that land until I have a piece of paper saying it's mine.  Obviously.  The deal could still fall through. I haven't been going to the property, either, I don't want to keep going over there with this hanging over my head.  I'll be back when this deal is done.  

My realtor is completely exasperated at this point.  She has dumped a lot of time into this venture and has received nothing out of it.  Oh well. The other deal is being worked on, perhaps that will go through and she can get her take out of that at least.  But, if that deal goes through, that's fine, she can have the flat fee, that's sort of a payback for going through all of this with me that she has gone through and not just with this property. After that, tho, it's back to the normal percentage she would get.  She doesn't really have to do that much to sell these properties.  

I'm not sure why there isn't a tax sale up for next month, I've been checking.  They have it every 3 months.  Doesn't matter tho, I'd rather go to the end of year sale where the properties that didn't sell earlier in the year have a starting bid of $30.  Many properties looked quite appealing as far as acreage but the price tag going with them was way too high.  

So, today, I - still - wait for any word on the land deal.  I have not had clarification of whether tomorrow is the last day I can still close without getting a fresh credit check - or tomorrow is the day when I have to have one.  My realtor apparently didn't understand my question when I asked her yesterday, she is really stressed out over this.  I'm not stressing, I just want it over with one way or the other.  It's either yes, it's mine or no, it never will be and I can move on.  

Moving on? There is a 53 acre lot for sale at $143,500.  That's cheap for land, especially around here. That would mean a much higher down payment tho, around 29 grand.  Still, it's on a high traffic volume highway and as far as I know all utilities excepting sewer are there.  Much more property, I could do a lot more with it.  It's the only property that sticks out right now and I don't know if I could get the lender to give me a loan for the total amount which would be the 143 minus the 29 grand.  

You say why are you doing this? I'm doing nothing but looking. I'm not going and looking at properties, I'm just perusing what's available.  There isn't much, I can tell ya that.  That is the only one that sticks out -both because of so much more land and because of the low price per acre.  I'd definitely have to go walk that property and find out why it's priced low.  OH, well that was easy.  They had the county ID number on one of the photos. About 1/3 of the property has been cleared of trees, a huge pond and a waterway that is apparently part of the pond, the rest trees.  

Well I'm not going to get too much into that, I've been doing that for a long time now, not really too terribly interested in more of it. But, even tho I was lamenting not long ago about giving up - the reality of trucking and my desire to get out of it is much stronger than the idea of having to start looking for properties again. 

____________

Still Thursday lol.  My lender responded to my inquiry.  They are now waiting for the county to file and record the new deed that the seller signed before they can move forward.  Then it goes to the title company for final confirmation, hopefully by the end of tomorrow.  Then the lender says it will take 24-28 hours to edit the loan documents and then we can close.  So, it sounds like Tuesday at the earliest.  

And with that, I will move on with my day.