One of the refrigerators at the Phoenix property has failed and of course, it comes out of my pocket to replace it.  Just not something I wanted to hear today.  But, Mark found a replacement from an appliance store that sells used appliances and has a 6 month warranty for $350 delivered with old refrigerator removed.  I guess that's a pretty good deal for a used refrigerator, certainly in this current market and inflation hitting literally everything that is for sale new or used.

We've used this appliance store in the past with good results, so I am trusting and hoping this one lasts a while. The other refrigerator I bought a decade or so ago - it broke right off the bat, but an old gentleman came, took it apart, fixed it and said this is good to go for a long time.  And it is still running.

The creek - I went over there with dog in tow and measured it.  6 feet long will cover half the span lmao.  Good thing I went to measure it.  In reality, about 14 feet will nicely cover the span.  I had no idea it was that far apart, it was hard to see with the trees in the way.  So, yeah, they want thousands of dollars for a premade version.  I'm going to have to build on myself I guess, looks like I can buy the materials for around $500.  But I'm not hand carrying all of that to the intended build site, no way.  That ATV will have to be fixed and a trailer to haul all the wood, tools and probably a generator out there to build the thing.  

I'm going to go up and get some grass seed at Lowe's in a bit and get some pricing, I already have the list, I found plans online for a basic walking bridge -- tho I might make it wider and make it heavy duty enough to handle a 4 wheeler as well.  3, 16 foot long, 4x4 beams should do it.  Planks can be thicker wood using large wood screws to hold them in place.  Install some railing and really, I hope anyway, it shouldn't be a terrible night mare of a project. It will take some time, yes, but hopefully not too difficult.  

That's all I've gotten done today.  I was sitting here starving, eating nothing today and past noon, just got up and went up to the store and bought food that has low cholesterol counts and stuff with fiber in it.  Made enough for not only today but also the trip to Brownsville and back up.  I guess I'm just going to have to watch calories so I don't turn into a 350 pound - person.  

Eating a heart-healthy diet

A heart-healthy diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, nuts and nontropical vegetable oils, while limiting red and processed meats, sodium and sugar-sweetened foods and beverages.

Becoming more physically active

A sedentary lifestyle lowers HDL cholesterol. Less HDL means there’s less good cholesterol to remove bad cholesterol from your arteries.

Physical activity is important. At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week is enough to lower both cholesterol and high blood pressure. And you have lots of options: brisk walking, swimming, bicycling or even yard work can fit the bill.

Losing weight

Being overweight or obese tends to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. But a weight loss of as little as 5% to 10% can help improve cholesterol numbers.

These are the things occupying my mind in the last two days.  If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right. Eating heart healthy, that is.  

And so it is, will be occupying my mind for weeks or months to come.  It takes a while to learn all the things you have to learn about any particular diet. Keto was a long learning curve.  Cholesterol maybe not so much because it's just cutting cholesterol, not all the other stuff that keto has involved with it.  

As for now, I'm going to get ready to go to bed and spend Sunday and Memorial Day - driving.

 So...

The lawnmower worked at least.  Did the front yard yesterday evening.

Getting the ATV over to the property, it was sluggish.  I figured out quickly that the brakes are locked up on it.  I'm not going to fool with the thing - or maybe I will I dunno yet - but likely just take it back to the shop. It isn't uncommon for brakes to lock up after a vehicle has been sitting for a while.  It was rather disappointing tho, the short, few rides we did take were fun at least.  

I'll give that dude one more chance to fix the thing correctly - brakes are something he should have checked knowing how long it's been sitting.  If he screws up again, I will move on. Just have to go two towns over I guess to find someone competent enough to fix the thing.

Now that I have to refocus my entire diet on cholesterol - well - that's a challenge.  There are a lot of foods I have been eating that I will no longer to be able to eat.  Red meats - pork and beef - will be the biggest challenge.  Foods high in soluble fiber apparently are good and a list of them didn't look too bad. I'm still going to keep sugar out of my diet.  No more off day beers and apparently coffee isn't too great for you either, at least if you are drinking too much.

No problem there, I started cutting back on coffee many months ago.  I don't smoke cigars anymore, either. Quit those last year and have had very little temptation to start back up.  They were making me feel "funny" and I didn't like that feeling. Like poison was being injected into my system. 

Exercise will also be a challenge.  I know I need more of it, but as I said yesterday, after 14 hours of work, I don't feel like exercising.  I get my exercise when I'm home, such as today I will be out at the property again, hiking around.  I've been looking for a walking bridge to put over the creek and have found several online. They aren't terrible expensive, I could have an 8 footer delivered to the house and just haul it over there on the trailer once I get the ATV (hopefully) working and pull it on the trailer to the creek in the back. I think the trailer will fit on those trails if being pulled by the ATV.  

It stands to reason that I will need a small trailer to haul things back there anyway, I may just go to harbor freight and get one of those kit trailers.  Put the trailer together, add plywood or planks and go.  I did leave the ATV over at the property - it's hiding in the woods and it is forest green, you'd number 1 have to be searching IN the woods IN that area to find it and then you'd have to really be looking hard, it's in a tuft of foliage that makes it hide quite nicely.  

I've been looking at used 4 wheelers, as with everything else, even old ones are starting out at 3 grand if they are running and 2 grand if they aren't.  Yea, I already have one that needs some work, I don't want to buy something that has issues. Just amazing that even old stuff - we're talking over 20 years old - is going that high.  So yes, it's worth fixing that thing and yes, it's 20 years old. But the motor runs great and no oil smoke coming out of it. 

And a very long conversation with the contractor. I literally blew up his phone with texts yesterday.  I don't know how many I sent, but I wasn't going to just let this thing ride.  Tell me if you can do this project or tell me no, I can't, but tell me! He finally called back.  Said he was driving, didn't even look at the texts because of it and went into a long discussion about how he is having a hard time finding people to work and that right now? "I am driving a rolloff truck because I can't find anyone to drive it for me".  He's offering $25 per hour.  Now that's starting to get closer to my minimum amount.  

I have never driven a rolloff truck - it's one of those trucks you use to haul containers to jobsites and such with, they dump trash into it, you come back with an empty whenever they call and you haul the loaded one to the landfill.  I am confident I could easily learn how to use one of those things. It's nothing more than a cable winch that pulls it up onto the truck, sliding on rails that hold it into place.  

Am I considering it right now? No, not really, the money I get from current job, even when the dispatcher screws me and gives me low paying runs, is more than that job would pay on 40 hours a week.  For example. I am going to Brownsville tomorrow - yup I'm working on another holiday - but that run with detention pay on 2 days worth of driving adds up to more than 5 days worth of 8 hour days.  

Most local jobs just don't pay anything. Now, at $25 per hour, I'd think he could find some help?  If he's giving OT, then I'd consider it. I didn't really ask him about the job, but he brings it up every time we talk and a couple of times it was obvious he was trying to get me to consider it.  The man has been in business 27 years, I think he said, he has an excellent reputation, it's not like his business is failing.  But I suspect if he doesn't find help soon enough, certain portions of his business will go under.  

Anyway, he said that the reason he hadn't come back to my property yet was because there had been forecast of rain and he thought there was 4 to 5 inches coming, hence he moved to another job that was in "sandy soil" that doesn't matter if it's wet or dry.  I really don't think he was making up stories, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy that offers petty excuses for things.  It's likely worth the wait to just let him and his crew do it on their time - but I just have to have dates, even ball park, where he's coming. He said he'd be coming next week to finish the mountain of dirt and then he'd give me a quote on the pads and gravel.  

Yeah we haven't even gotten that far. The quotes I have is for the utility installation. The other quotes came after he said he could do the entire job.  I know how much I'm going to be paying for the current dirt work, I have no idea how much the pads and gravel will cost, but I suspect it's going to be in the 15k range.  Maybe higher if the gas operator doesn't put anything down on the road.  I have not, of course, heard back from him and I will be calling him on Monday.  

And I'm tired of these jackals playing games with the gate.  The next step is going to be sending an email, one email to all 3 companies.  They are going to be informed that when I catch the person/people doing their thing, they will be trespassed from the property, replete with a visit from the county Sheriff and I'm done with asking politely, thanks.  I gave them a chance, that's all I can say.  

So what's next? Well get the quote. He said he doesn't need me to measure out the pads, he will do all of that.  Okay.  I guess I did what I need to do then, measuring out the perimeters of the lots.  I want to go to a building place and see what pricing they have on any of it. It's local and they have what I want.  As with all of them, they have no prices listed on anything. I liken it to a used car lot where they're trying pressure techniques to get you to buy.  Places that engage in that foolery? I just walk out.  There are many of those businesses in the region.  

I think today I will order the bridge. They don't have them at Lowe's, this is all custom stuff you have to have shipped to you.  I suppose I could build my own, but no thanks.  And anyway, the cost of lumber right now, the prices of these bridges I'm looking at are pretty good considering.  

In the future I may buy some heavy lumber and build a bridge separately where I can ride a 4 wheeler over it.  Lay down 3 8X8 or similar sized lumber, attach heavy planks on the top and walaah.  Yes I was looking for a bridge that could also handle a 4 wheeler but they are expensive and that's not really a priority right now.  Wish list type of thing.  Walking bridge is necessary to complete the trail that goes around the back and I can get one that is very nice looking in the $200 range.

Also, the man that is going to do the pics from above with the drone. I'm going to wait until the other trails are done so I can have a pic of all of it and then make a map out of it.  This will be available to anyone that wants one.  

I'm considering starting going back to a gym.  I'm getting serious about this cholesterol stuff, it's nothing you want to fool with.  At least I went to the trouble of finding it out.  I was at the hair stylist yesterday and she asked if they had offered an "Alzheimer's test".  Apparently if you have a history of it in your family lines - which I do, 3 of them I know of - they can give you some kind of test that will somewhat determine if you are going to also get it.  The lady said  it runs in her family and she declined, she said she'd rather not know, lol.  I would have taken it if offered, I didn't know there was such a test or what kind of testing it is.

I can't really think what else I can do at this phase of construction, much of it would be jumping the gun, getting too early a start.  Turning on the water and power would only have me paying a service fee every month for something I am not using. Internet the same, tho that is going to entail having to run a line to my property< I have no idea how far out that is to get an installation so I guess I best call the company and find out.  If it's months, then I'll order it.  If it's weeks, it can wait. 

Do I think this property is going to be done in a few months? NO.  But I am hoping they will have all of this dirt work, pad forming and utility installation done including running the power lines and installing the septic system replete with the sewer lines to each pad.  After they get that done, much of it will be on me to find the appropriate experts in appropriate fields to help me finish everything else. An accountant to set up any taxes I have to pay.  Wifi installation.  The man I already have to finish the website and do the promotion of the park.  Get the building, tho I'm thinking of doing that soon.  I'm going to need it and it's going to cost whatever it's going to cost regardless of when I acquire it - and - it will need to be finished.  Insulation, flooring, electrical, water, sewer line, drywall.  

I could do all of that myself, but my time is limited and I doubt it.  So, getting one sooner than later probably is a better idea and most of these companies will sell them for a small down payment and monthly installments.  Not interested in spending a lot of money, I need to get the dirt and utility stuff done and see what I have left - if anything.  

Anyway.  I'm just not real happy to have to start a completely new type of diet. I really don't think I can incorporate Keto with low cholesterol. I have to learn all the foods that are high in cholesterol and avoid them.  It's an amazingly long list, I am finding out.  Lots of stuff I already don't eat, but also lots of stuff I have been eating on the Keto regimen.  

I literally have no idea what to eat for breakfast today, just starting to learn this stuff, it's only been a day since I found out about the high cholesterol.  Oats, I guess. We don't have any but they say eating a bowl of oatmeal with soluble fiber is a good start to the day.  Not even close to being on a Keto diet, I will succumb to this nonsense and just try to eat small portions and keep track of my calories.

With that, I bid you a good day.

 So a few new things today.

First, I can get the guy that does the drone videoing and taking pics to come out tomorrow if I can get back early enough.  He said he is quite flexible so if tomorrow doesn't work then I'll just do it whenever I can, it's not a top priority, at all.

A place that sells those "sheds" that look like small buildings has a 10X16 for only $250 down and low monthly payments. I haven't decided on it yet, it's kind of small and I am not sure what I want to do yet.  I'd really like to have at least one bathroom with a shower in it to start with.  And at least one washer and dryer?  I dunno, that's really just up in the air right now. It's a decent looking building at least.  

My labs came back - the lady called me earlier today.  She said who she was and I blurted right out: Is there any bad news?  I want to get that over with.  She said, well yes, (instantly bracing myself for whatever was about to come out of her mouth): You have high cholesterol. Wait, is that it? Nothing else wrong?  

She went off on a long list - no HIV - which took me aback.  I didn't ask for any sexually transmitted disease checks and the only needle in me in the last couple of years was them taking blood out of my body.  I guess it's good to know I don't have some life-ending, nasty disease tho!  No Hep C - I DID want to know that tho I didn't ask the doc to do it, just slipped my mind.  In fact, the only test I asked for was cholesterol since the family genetics has a predisposal to having high version of it.

No diabetes, other things she said that I couldn't understand - too noisy in the truck - but all of it was no and I was very happy to hear all of that.  Still kind of baffled me they did an HIV test. Is this normal for them now to do that?  All I asked for beyond cholesterol was any "age appropriate checks/tests".  

I'm going to revisit high cholesterol diet, I've been through this before but it was a long, long time ago. I remembered that red meats and pork is basically out the window.  I also remember eating a lot of salads, every day, for a long time.  I also remember having to eat low-fat everything.  My keto diet is probably going to go away for a while, I will likely switch it to a low carb diet, just not as low as keto demands.  People still lose weight on low-carb, you just don't have the added benefit of being in ketosis.  

But it's going to be a serious change for me as I have adapted to the keto diet to the point I don't even think about it anymore, just do it.  I have the next doc appointment in November, they will run another cholesterol test then to determine whether they want me to go on the meds for it.  Right now, I was informed to adjust my diet and get more exercise.  Adjusting the diet, yes, more exercise?  

I just got done with a very full day's work, I am tired and I don't have any desire to go walking around a truck stop parking lot. I really just want to go to sleep, but this cholesterol news got me to wanting to start searching out diet plans and lists of foods you can and cannot have.  I am going to do some serious research and get this right and not waste a lot of time eating the wrong foods or doing something that will have either no benefit or have ill effect without even knowing it.

The other thing that happened was the ATV repair shop called and said they were done with it - tho they said it needs a new battery. Yup, I knew that, it's been sitting for a couple of years and batteries don't last that long if the vehicle isn't being used - unless you are doing maintenance charging on it, which I wasn't.  I'm going to get it tomorrow afternoon and haul it over to the property.  I will leave it at the property, albeit in the back 15 acres hidden in the woods.  I'm going to ride it around back there and make sure it's running right.  And then I'll have to get off the thing and get some exercise lmao.

After that, Taylor says the 7 year old needs a bike.  There are a bunch of families living on our street now and kids riding bikes up and down the street, the 7 year old doesn't have one and was running up and down the street with them.  I can't imagine a child hood without a bicycle, I instantly said I would buy him one (she wasn't asking me to, I just volunteered to get him one) My childhood existence was spent on bicycles, I don't know about you, but I rode mine all over the city of Pittsburgh.  At a very young age - you know, back in the days when parents weren't afraid to let their kids roam the streets?  A lot of things have changed since those days.  

I have no idea what my work schedule over the weekend is going to be, but with my luck, it will probably be all weekend long including Memorial Day.  The only thing that will really work is if I get a run for Saturday and Sunday and get back in time for Memorial Day off.  I won't lose my mind and have meltdowns if I have to work all of it, it will be nothing new.  

If we get the bikes (the 5 year old is going to want one too) I am going to get a haircut and after that, over to Lowe's and get some things for the property and after that? Well the day well be over and I will be out of desire to do anything but go home and watch reruns of old western shows lol.  

Oh, well I will also want to print out whatever type of diet plan I can find for reducing cholesterol.  Foregone conclusion the family isn't going to want to be any part of that much of a restrictive diet, I'm going to be on my own on this one.  But I'd rather try to change my diet and get whatever exercise I can get in than start taking drugs.  I'm not a pill person, not at all.  I can envision eating out at Applebee's or Chili's on days I have no energy to cook. Both establishments have a nice salmon dish.  

I've texted the contractor several times today - with no reply .He hasn't even read them.  I don't know what the deal is with this guy, but tomorrow I'm going to blow up his phone with text after text until it shows he has read it and also replies.  

Okay fatigue really hit me just now.  It's midnight and it's past my bedtime.  I just can't leave here until 9 am, hence getting out the laptop.

G'nite. 

 Lol, my last post I apparently forgot to post. 

Oh well.

I've been sleeping nicely for the last several days, which is nothing short of miraculous for me, I must have got 9 hours of sleep last night.  

Back from Brownsville yesterday, off to Oklahoma today.  2 good runs in a row plus an Oklahoma on a pay period will mean a "normal" paycheck versus the crap I'm getting this week because of the games my dispatcher has been playing.  It wasn't exactly shocking to me to hear my manager telling me last week that she was caught playing favorites with certain drivers and shafting others.

Why did she do this? I have no idea, but if she tries giving me 3 oklahomas in a row, I'm just going to say something to my manager about it.  Now, there are times when I need those short runs, don't get me wrong, but I don't tell them that.  If I get one or two when I need them, great, if I don't, I don't say anything about it.  It's just hoping for a short run when I need one.

You know, if I start asking for short runs on any given day, that lady is going to just start dumping me with them and I do not want her to get that idea, period. 

Anyway, 2 days ago I went out with the 5 year old and I measured out all the lots.  I didn't mark the pads - yet - and I need to buy a lot more string, I want them plainly, clearly marked that they have no difficulty understand where I want what.  

It was actually much worse work than I thought. Namely because I had to keep trudging back and forth the entire 300 feet, many, many times over.  Plus the lots, back and forth on them.  I'd like to get him out there soon before the weeds start growing, I want to get grass down. 

On that note, I am having another person come out and clean up the front portion of the thing so I can get all of those weeds out there and plant grass seed.  I need grass, not a field full of weeds and junk trees, please.  When I get back tomorrow, I'm highly likely going to go to Lowe's buy several 50 pound bags of grass seed and go to the property and throw it all over where the trails are.

Same thing, I don't want weeds growing back there, either.  Either way about it -weeds or grass - I was going to have to maintain it.  No word on my 4 wheeler yet, today is Thursday, I'm going to give him until Monday - again - and call back - again - that will be 2 weeks in the shop.  We need our lawnmower back if nothing else - he hadn't even looked at that.  I won't start pestering him with calls until Monday. If he has nothing done on either of them by Monday, I will start calling him several times a week.  

I really don't understand what it is with people out here, but they are definitely on their own schedule.  I've run into others that have experienced that same thing, it's not just me.  But I really, reeeeeaaaaallllly, reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy need my 4 wheeler running and on the property, I have several chores I need it to do. In fact, if he says he can't get it running, I'm likely to buy another used one. If I can find someone that doesn't want a mint for one, tho. Everything is going up with inflation, including used vehicles of all sorts.  

I'm still scratching my head why I set the alarm so early. 8 am? for a 10:30 load?  Oh well, lol.  

The dude that's coming to do the front portion isn't going to be cheap - $750 - but he's using a rake on the entire portion of it and then he's bush hogging it.  He claims He'll get enough up to plant grass.  He comes very highly recommended from a lot of different people in the community.  I was quoted $350 just to bush hog it from another guy so I don't really think that's too far out of line.  I just don't want to waste it and have weeds growing up again.

The good part is whether there is weeds or grass, it will all be smoothed out - which it isn't now - and then I can just have it bush hogged if need be instead of all of this rake work.  We call them rippers, they are metal spines that stick down off a rack all in a row and they lower it into the dirt and drag it through all of the dirt and pull up the weeds, roots, tree remains, whatever is out there.  He said he would dump all of that junk into an already existent burn pile out there, left over from the tree removal operation.  

Basically, once this operation started, it needed to get going quickly.  I'm going to have to start texting the contractor again and get a date of when he's coming out. The rain is done and over with until into next week, let's get this thing going. Whatever he needs me to do, I'll get it done quickly and I really expect him to get out there quickly before all that dirt work they did turns into a jungle again.  This concerns me because obviously, all of this work isn't exactly cheap by any stretch of the imagination.  

My newest thoughts are a group campground and extra large lots in the front where it's sloped. Maybe 4 "premium" or "diamond" lots that have wired internet and 60 feet wide and add amenities that most people wouldn't get on a lot.  A dog run, a mini playground, the wired internet, whatever I can think of to make those lots worth more to justify the expense of leveling them out.  The group campground thing only came into play when the guy that did the mulching etched out a huge, 3 space lot all connected together along the trails.  I dunno, maybe a group of people or some sort of organization will want to use it? In the fall probably, lol, I'm not thinking the hot summer.  

I'm definitely going to get water back there somehow.  I prefer using that well water if it's going to be available, but that means running electricity to that well.  I dunno how they will feel about me running a wire underground over the top of their natural gas line.  It is likely I will just buy some long 4x4's, plant them vertically in the ground on either side of the easement and run the wire over it.  Just seems the only way to get around their pipeline and not have them getting all upset about it. The water line won't have to run across the pipeline, it's on the back side of the easement.  Having water back there would be a big plus, I think, for campers,. You may not need electricity or sewer lines for camping, but everyone brings water with them.  This would save people from having to lug it all the way back in there.  

Well, I'm leaving early for work. I want to drive by the property, take a look and let the dream continue, even if only in my mind, lol.

G'day

 My HP desktop just now fires up, gets me on the net in a minute.  My laptop? Yeah, the one I have been complaining about a long time - takes 5 to 15 minutes on average.  Yup, I was going to replace it long ago, other things took precedence.  I was just amazed, walking into my bedroom and turning this thing on, how fast it got going compared to that pile of junk I was using this morning on previous entry before I hit the road. 

The amount of lunacy and stupidity on the road seems to increase at exponential rates.  I am so tired of putting up with other motorists driving like animals in a lab experiment.  

Anyway, I made it home well in time to get a good night's sleep and get out there tomorrow and get the marking done.  It dawned on me that marking the corners is not enough.  I also need to mark the pads - I don't want the pads square in the middle of the lots, I want them offset.  People don't use the driver side of the rig for anything but hookups. All of their outdoor activities are on the passenger side.  20 feet on the passenger side, 10 feet wide pad and 10 feet on the driver's side.  I wouldn't even do 10 feet on the driver's side but - think about it this way.  

The people on the lot next to them on the driver's side will have their 20 feet plus 10 more feet on the next pad over before any involvement with the next door neighbor.  People complain about small lots so much and so often and in such great quantities that that is not something I will be changing my  mind on. Well, I take that back, I was originally at 30 foot wide lots, then 35, then 40.  I'm stopped at 40.  Much more and I won't be getting 60 lots after I eventually get it all done on that land.  

The point is the utilities are on the driver's side and also I want hedges there as well.  Just need enough space for that.  My pads will be 10 feet wide and probably all 70 feet long.  Gravel costs are going to be high on this project, I don't really want to think about that right now, lol.  

I'll try to get the lots marked tomorrow and then find out what the contractor's timeline is.  I'm going to push him to get this done is what I will say right now.  I also want to find someone to come out and just flatten out the front of the property so I can have a bush hog go through and clean it up. Or - get the weeds off completely while they're flattening it and plant grass seed.  Which is a better idea, but I have to be conscious of the amount of cash I am spending  and how much I have in the bank to pay for everything and how much I want in the bank after it's all said and done.  

Tomorrow's list:

Go to property, dog and 5 year old in tow (Taylor is going for a job interview and can't be dragging a child with her) and mark out the lots.

Call the shop with my ATV and lawn mower and find out where we're at.

Haircut - yes, the important things in life.

Call the county and ask why they haven't done anything about the rotten, 75 foot tall tree

Call the gas company and find out when (not if) they are hauling gravel over there to redo the driveway-if they say they aren't going to do it, I may offer to pay half - if they still say no, I'm likely going to take them to court since they've already set the precedent that they would have a driveway made with gravel. I'm not talking about court with them until I have exhausted every other effort to get them to do it. 

Bank run - savings thing I posted about in a previous post

Write a letter to the owner of the properties next door that are along the driveway - he owns all 4 of them plus more behind them - and see if he is interested in selling any of it. In particular, 2 smaller lots, one of which is .75 acres and the other 1 acre.  

..and other more minor things but the day will be filled up and will be gone before I knew it started.  

I have been searching out deals on a small "shed" building, but I'm not pulling the trigger on that just yet. Soon, but not yet.  I haven't decided whether that thing should be at the front of the property or next to the lots.  I'm thinking the front since it's closer to electricity and internet setup.  Just a lot to think about right now, yet, there is no reason to start any of that until I see that they are starting the utility installation.  

Once I see a crew out there digging out a hole for the septic vaults and trenches for water, sewer and power lines, then it's time to start working on a host of other things.  Life will get far more busy than it already is.  

Yeah my mind has been wandering all over the place. There is a lot to consider.

 Another late night drive last night - with heavy rain thrown in.  The last 10 miles of the drive were in a construction zone with a concrete divider which was causing the water to pool up on the roadway, forcing everyone to slow down.

Everyone, that is, except an idiot truck driver who came zooming past me, got about 100 feet past and then started losing control of his truck.  Yes, it's called hydroplaning you dumb - well anyway, I watched this circus on wheels as he's slamming on his brakes and trying to regain control of his truck.

I was thankful my day was over and I was only a few miles from the exit to get to the truck stop that I normally try to make it to on the second day of this particular trip.  It leaves me with around 600 miles to go, which is nice because if I run into problems, I have extra minutes versus stopping at another place 50 miles north of here.  These are the only 2 truck stops in this entire corridor that you will find some place to park at the time of night I'm trying to find a spot.  

Parking is still and issue and I suspect with Elogs, it is a permanent problem that will likely see no relief anytime soon. Supposedly the federal government is looking into building parking lots all over the place - it was an idea that I have had and still would like to follow through with if I could find a couple of acres to use.  I don't even have to own the property, just rent it and see what happens.  If I could find a place big enough for say, 500 trucks - parking only, nothing else - and charge $6 or so per night, I am betting I could make a nice profit even with an attendant on sight.  I'm not really sure how I would handle the payments and enforcement of such without having a human sitting out there in a guard shack taking those payments.  

It's not that I would mind paying someone to do the job, it's finding someone to do the job that is at issue. Right now, in our town and surrounding area, employers are begging for people to come work for them and are raising their hourly rates to try and get people to even come apply, much more work.  

I did have to laugh - inwardly anyway - at the contractor thinking that paying $20 per hour for a driver was a "lot of money".  $160 per day X 5 is only $800 per week and that's before taxes.  I get that he has to be able to make a profit, but in the world of trucking, you are going to have to start thinking differently. People want to make enough money to not only live off of, but also to have a life beyond trucking.  This is why I think to myself, even if all I got was Oklahoma runs, I would be far better off than many of these local drivers that work all day long, yes they get to go home at night, but they are really not much better off than me.  

In reality, that contractor would have to bare minimum pay $25 per hour to attract any talent and more like $30.  Even then, it's only $1,200 per week, but that's a bit more palatable than $800 for working 5 days a week, all day long, sweating and working your butt off - he isn't just going to have that person drive a truck, no construction contractor ever does that.  You are going to be in ditches or operating equipment or whatever.

I had given thought to that job is the only reason I am going this far into it.  At least he IS - right there - in my town.  He goes out of town into surrounding communities, of course, but nothing more than probably 40 or 50 miles.  

The weather today? Well, it may play into whether I make it back to the yard tonight or not.  It looks like the worst of the red cells will disappear (radar) but it's still going to be raining. The upside is that it's Sunday and that usually means much easier traveling.  I'm going to try to make it back today, yes I am and hope that I don't get a run tomorrow so I can get out there and mark off the lots.  At least get the corners of each lot marked off and then contact the contractor and see what he does for the actual pads for the RV's to park on.  I want them offset and I may just go ahead and mark off at least one of the pads to ensure he understands how I want it done.  

I wish I were there right now so I could see if there is any standing water on the cleared off section. I really don't believe there will be because there is a slight grade and all the areas where water could pool before are now flattened out.  I'd also like to see how the water is running over the trails or if there are any spots where I need to install a drainage pipe under the ground. I don't want standing water on anything where I intend on having people staying or walking, including the tent campgrounds.  

Not too concerned about tent campgrounds right now - it's too hot for people to want to camp outdoors like that, at least in my mind.  There is no electricity back there - yet - though some day I would definitely like to get a line run back there.  

I slept great last night - for almost 6 hours than woke up this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, ugh.  It makes for a long day. Oh, my mom is hitching a ride up to the mountain property with my brother who also has a place up there.  They are staying up there 2 weeks. So, mom doesn't have to stay in the valley for the rest of her life, at least.  She is very grateful for my brother doing that for her, she can no longer legitimately drive with her vision problem and that's got to be a very hard psychological blow.  The ability to get ones' self around, mobility, is a freedom that probably most of us take for granted.  She has been driving all the way up until now, I suspect even her short trips to the grocery store are going to go by the wayside, she will either have to Uber or get someone to take her.  

This will motivate me to get my eyes checked as frequently as the eye doctor tells me to for the rest of my life.  Glaucoma can be treated successfully, from everything I have read, if caught early enough.  I still think she should sue the pants off the "eye doctor" that somehow missed the fact that she had glaucoma developing and could have prevented this situation altogether.  But, I understand at her age she doesn't want to fool with it.  

Anyway, departure time almost here, need to get ready to drive.

G'day. 

 The older I get, the less I am liking these late night drives where you're up until the wee hours of the morning attempting to get the trip over with, get the product to the customer and get home.  It was a very long day yesterday and I don't find any enjoyment fighting to stay awake, listening to music, blasting cold air, etc, in the attempts to stay awake.  

I can't even start driving until around 11:30 am today, which means another late day, at least until around 11:00 - 12 midnight.  

My manager was telling me the dispatch manager is as cold as ice after I asked him if that's the way she normally is?  Yup, there is no chit chat and she is all about business and literally nothing else.  I didn't really get that she was that way from the texts and phone calls I've had with her.  Those interactions are short and obviously don't give a real feel of how a person actually is socially.

Whatever the case, he was asking what kind of business I'm starting, of which I told him.  Starting out small, that's what I have the money for. He went right off into SBA loans.  Yes, I replied, I have the mountain of paperwork at home. I just got through - or it feels like I just got through with anyway - doing 2 separate loans and looking at all the info they want for the SBA loan, I decided to take a break from that.  I do believe I will eventually try to get an SBA loan, but I want to get the business going first and see what happens.  I'd also like to see if the property next door - just filled with trees, nothing on it - might be possible to buy. The owner has had it a long time and is doing nothing with it.  

Anyway, it's supposed to rain today and tomorrow - I have my doubts about making this a 3 day trip, but I'm sure going to try.  

Small plots of land next to my property, one is an acre the other is .75 acres and the third is 3.5 acres, all owned by the same person, all undeveloped.

I'm going to write this person - found his address on the tax rolls - and see if he's interested in selling any of them.

Meanwhile? It's time to get ready to drive.

G'day. 

 Every time something is completed, a new set of problems arises that have to be dealt with.  

In this case, maintaining the pathways that cost me short of 2k to complete. I'm not complaining about the amount of money spent, it was actually a bargain deal compared to other quotes and others advertising as high as $3,700 per day. At that rate, it would have cost me $7,400 to complete that job, which in my view, would have been outrageous.  

I'm going to have him out again.  Next time, it will be to try and have a road built to 2 of the campgrounds and a parking area near them for the other 2 campgrounds.  I will probably provide some sort of wagon at the parking area for people to transport their equipment from car/truck to destination.  

Considering at least throwing some grass seed along the trails. It may very well be that the resulting grass will only be able to survive on the sides of the trails, but that would cut down on the amount of vegetation trying to grow back.  Of course, another thought is to put down fabric they sell to restrict vegetation and cover the trails with rock - but that would be very expensive and not in the offing right now.  

Even grass seed is expensive.  Just going to do some research and see what the best cost-benefit solution is.  Interestingly, the Forest service recommends using some sort of gravel - yet I have been on many forest service trails in my youth and adulthood and have seen little in the way of gravel.  Maybe small amounts on some of them but mostly it's dirt with grass or some sort of vegetation on the side of the trail.  

No point in bugging the shop about the ATV, I'm leaving in 3 hours to go to the plant, load and drive clear over to West Virginia and likely won't be back until sometime on Monday.  Just because of the late load time, this really isn't a load they should be setting an appointment time at noon, it means I leave the plant no earlier than 2, meaning I have to drive until 1 am to get anywhere.  I bring up the ATV for at first, until I do something, it's going to have to be the method of keeping vegetation down.  

Yes, I am going to drive through the property today before going to work.  Gives me something to think about while driving.  I figure already that I will need to rent a mini-excavator to dig up the roots and portions of trees that the mulcher couldn't get out.  He tried, I watched him. The machine does what it does, wonderfully, but I knew there were going to be stumps that he just wouldn't be able to get out of the ground.  I mini excavator will dig those up quickly and now that I think of it, will remove all the vegetation and trees as the creek edge that he couldn't get to.  The creek is at least 2-1/2 feet deep, obviously he can't just run his machine over it and I wouldn't have wanted him to.  

Yeah I don't know how much it costs to rent one, but I'm guessing in the $600 - $800 range for a day's use.  Meaning I will need to mark everything out before hand that I need to get done so I can just start the operation without having to search all over the place for the stumps and such.  Meaning - a lot more orange marking paint.  There is a place that rents them locally and I hope will deliver it, it's too heavy for my trailer.  I just need to "beg" for a day off soon - well - I want to mark everything first and then ask for a day off.  Just need to have some time to walk through there and mull over everything.  Yesterday, I was walking at a brisk pace through all of it, just to see what had been accomplished.  

I could use a mini to also level out the campgrounds as well. And there is a hump at one of the trail heads that needs to be leveled out. As I said, I'm going to need time to walk through there and inspect all of it. There's a couple of places that will need a bridge, the creek at the back being the main one but also at the entrance to the trail, about 100 feet in, there is a small creek that will get your shoes nicely muddied if you don't look to step over it.  I personally don't need a bridge there, I just jump over, but for "normal" people who don't want to fool with that, they'll want a bridge.  As I said yesterday, those bridges are pre-built and relatively cheap.  

Now is definitely the time to start developing the trail while the rest of the RV project is slowly working it's way through all the processes/phases to get it done. It will take a while to get the trail to the point where I think it's ready for random people to be walking through it.  Limiting the amount of risks back there is key to keeping liability down.  I imagine an insurance company is going to want to see what kinds of protections I have taken to limit the risks of injury.

One thing for certain is there are several large, dead, rotting trees that I need to cut down back there.  We get lots of thunderstorms coming through this region and lightning strikes have killed off several trees back there.  There is one, giant, beautiful tree in the very back of the property, it is absolutely huge.  You don't see a truck that fat every day.  The limbs growing off that truck are like giant trees themselves.  I'll have to take some pics, tho I did post a video with a view of it.  I want to take a tape measure back there out of sheer curiosity to see how many feet around the trunk is.  Anyway, a few of those rotting trees could fall right over the top of the trail and of course, we can't have that.  

However, the next thing that takes precedence is marking out the RV lots.  They may be out there today digging out that hole, but there is nothing further that can be done until I do the next step.  I could have done it today, but I'm going to be driving almost 11 hours well into the night and I need to reserve my energies and alertness for the drive today.  I don't necessarily trust the contractor to lay it out the way I want it to be laid out.  I'm hoping after I get the first round of lots marked out that there will be room for a third line of them on the west side.  

This property line issue will come back to annoy me down the road. Losing 20 feet of land doesn't sound like much until you get to the point where you - need that land.  However, if I could get enough spaces in, I could simply build lots parallel to the 3rd driveway.  It's nothing I have to address now - but it likely that in the future, a court case will have to take place to determine who is right and who is wrong about the property line. The fence is the property line on one hand, a marker jutting out is the property line on another.  Actually, it's 14 feet in the front widening to 20 feet in the rear.  

I may, at some point, but enough string to run the full length of it and get a straight line from one marker to the other and see what I actually have.  

Now that I have refilled my mind with all of this stuff, I am leaving early for work to spend some time over there. No real physical exertion, I just like to see it and dream/imagine what it could become. And work out problems in my mind and looking up stuff to see what potential answers are on the internet to deal with them.

G'day.  

 Doctor visit over.  I filled out a bunch of paperwork for new patient and they got me in shortly after that.  The doc was cool, I'll give him that.  We were joking about all kinds of things non-medical related.  He stood there in front of a laptop and was inputting all kinds of info as he was asking me questions. I was quite candid about everything. 

He left and then came the part about blood. The doc had informed them I needed to lay down - that was the caveat, I'm either laying down or I'm not giving blood.  So what does the nurse do? Takes me into the "lab" and upon entrance, saw no bed.  The doc was standing right there - "are you going to be able to lay him down for that?".  Oh, the nurse replied, I forgot. 

I wouldn't have let her forget, lol, I simply and flatly would have refused.  We got back into the room I came out of and she informed me her husband passes out giving blood, lol.  I was amused that there is someone worse off than me in giving even just a couple of small tubes full of blood.  Some of us just can't handle it, what can I say.  She poked my arm which I barely felt, "Oh there's the worst of it" No ma'am, that is not the worst of it. She laughed lol I just laid there waiting for the feeling to come over me.

You're looking pretty white.  I didn't feel that bad tho.  I was in there about 25 minutes after the blood draw and then I left.  Lab results will be next week, I think. 

Back to the property, this dude had it going. The entire new trail to the right that didn't exist when i was there this morning was all but done. It was 10:30 am and the contractor doing the dirt work had already left with their dozer and dump truck, but left the excavator.  They are done with the dirt work and are - were - waiting for the underground utility locator to come and mark the underground utilities.

The new pathways were already done for the first run.  This was 10:30 am and I was amazed how much that machine could do in a short period of time. It is a big mulching machine, much bigger than they typical bobcat you might envision.  He earned his money, I'll say that.  It would have cost much more than what he charged me for several other companies I had contacted.  

The day is sort of a blur. I was at the property 5 times today.  One on of the visits, a very large grader was grading the driveway. I instantly guessed this was the gas company's contractor, the rv park contractor wasn't doing it, I was sure of that. I stopped the guy and asked him. Yes, we contract out to Sabine.  Oh, okay, are you going to have gravel dumped? Uhh, nooo, these oil and gas companies are cheapskates they won't be bringing gravel in here.

Uhh, yeah, that's not so clear-cut in my view of it, but I thanked him for the info and he continued on with several passes of it.  It looks good as far as being smooth, but there is hardly any gravel left at all now.  Just kind of plowed it under or to the side, what little was remaining.  It was that visit, which as the third one there, that I noticed that they had come back - the underground utility locator - and flagged where the pipeline is.  Yeah, that was a no brainer, the pipe comes out of the ground into some array of pipes and valves. You can plainly see what direction it is going in in both directions.

Not close to the dirt operation, they can finish that whenever they want to. I suspect they will want to get it done and get paid.  This guy finishes a phase of the operation and he wants paid - rightfully so.  I guess I'll leave a blank check here, if they finish tomorrow and he wants his money, he can either come to the house and get it or wait until Monday, cause' I'm headed to West Virginia tomorrow.  He knows I'm a truck driver and I'm in and out of town frequently.  

They never came back, tho I informed the contractor that the lines are flagged. He can't legally dig into the ground without having that done first, he didn't indicate when they are coming back.  

It is now on me, regardless of that, to mark the sites.  By the time I was in any position to do that, it was after 2 pm and it was brutally hot out there and I had already been hiking around the back of the property for a couple of hours worth.  Just no, it'll have to wait til' my next day off.  

The mulching dude had taken off around noon I guess it was to go do a CDL pre-trip test, which I found out later he had failed. I didn't give him any advice on that, I only was trying to help him with the driving part.  Anyway, I marked more areas I wanted cleared out.  I am up to 4 campgrounds out there now and that's enough.  I mean, the trees and brush and junk are cleared out. Other stuff will need to be done to make them a good tent camping site, but the hard part is over with.  

I'm going to need a bridge of some sort over the creek in the rear.  There's no other way about it.  I can't expect people to climb over a giant, felled tree as I have been doing lol.  I've found a very large number of websites with premade bridges for sale, replete with rails on each side for protection from falling off.  I need to keep the liability for people getting hurt as little as possible. Those bridges aren't that expensive starting at $100 and going up from there, many of them in the $200 range.  I just need to go out and measure the length of bridge I will need to cross the creek, really paid no attention at all to that today. I was in awe of how fast this guy has made all of these trails all over the place.  

I'm going to have him come back and do one more day's worth in a couple of areas that have no trails and have no access because of the thick undergrowth.  I want a maze of trails that can keep people busy walking for a while back in there if they so desire.  I'm going to have to get a drone service out to get some video and pics of it from the air so I can both make a map of it for hikers and have it online on the website when I get that far with this for people to see what kind of activities they can do if they come to my park. 

I've already determined to put in a sitting area - nothing huge, just maybe a large bench or something - with a cover and a curtain to keep mosquitoes out.  Maybe a few wooden benches along the trail in various places for a quiet sitting area.  These are not high dollar items but will enhance the overall allure of all of it.  

Anyway, the trails are finished.  The man is paid and I am quite happy with the results.  

Anyway, I'm really tired, this has been a long day and I'm facing 3 long days of driving ahead of me.  The heat really took it out of me.  I ended up having to go back a final time this evening and checking out the finished work and then paying the dude.  A flurry of work in just a few days time and lot of progress.  I'm pretty happy about that.  

 I woke up early this morning so I just decided to get up, get dressed, get the dog and head over to the property. There were several hours of work the mulching dude did after I had left there yesterday.  His machine and his trailer were parked in the back, out of sight.  I'm going to want electricity on the property pretty soon in order to get some video surveillance going - which I guess means also getting internet out there. 

Maybe not too soon, lol.  I just don't want to have people that don't belong back there - going back there.  

The next door neighbor's house at the front is going to be a problem as well. The garage - which is old, dilapidated and falling apart - also needs a paint job in a big way.  Or plant a hedge row and eventually the view of it will be knocked out. I'll give them credit tho, that truck is no longer parked there without my having to say anything to them and they have cleaned up that property.  I mean, they either moved the junk into the structures out there or got rid of it, either way, it's no longer an eyesore.

Makes me glad I never confronted them about that truck.  

If the gas company doesn't dump rock on that driveway, I'm going to have to.  There is no way I'm going to leave it like that for people driving 100k plus rigs in there over dirt and especially with all the rain we get, it has to have a fresh layer of gravel over it.  That's probably 10k worth of gravel right there.  When  you're talking hundreds of tons, you're talking bigger money.  Well, that should only need a couple of inches of gravel, so maybe not so much money.  

I'm going to press that gas company about doing it before I relent and have to pay for it myself.  

As for the trails......he got started on the trail I marked out yesterday after I left. He went all the way back and curved to the stream.  He's now out there making his second run and then he's going to do the other side. I tried, this morning, to weave my way through the other side - not a happening event.  It's way too thick and there is just too much thorn vines in there to even try.  I just told him to just make his way through there with his machine however he can get through there, I can't mark it for him.  

He's only there until noon today - he has to get a CDL to start pulling the equipment he wants to use for his business. I gave him several tips. He's doing the driving portion of the test today and that is something you have to be prepared for.  They'll ask you to park in front of hydrants, near driveway entrances, go over railroad tracks and try to get you to change gears going over them, make a left hand turn and not come back into the furthest left lane, drive under bridges and ask you what the height sign said and other signs as well.  

They take you on a "trick" course and see if you know what you're doing.  I told him everything I could remember, it became obvious no-one had given him this info before.  He was more stressing on the pre-trip. I just told him the basics - which the manual already tells him to do anyway.  Last time I did the pretrip test, the instructor got mad at me because I found so many things wrong with their truck, he canceled the pre-trip after I had only gotten done with the engine compartment, called me a know-it-all and defended his equipment. I promise you I was just doing a pre-trip inspection, we learn over the years what to look for, not trying to make him or his company look bad lmao.

They took down the beautiful oak tree this morning, right in front of my eyes. The dirt work people.  I thought yesterday - why didn't they just start that mountain further towards the front, then they wouldn't have had to take down my beautiful tree?  It's not like there aren't a thousand other trees on the property - literally if nor more - but that is in the RV section and the trees I selected to stay up were selected for a reason.  I'll just have to plant something else there and other places they have trampled small trees.  I'm not giving them a hard time about it, it is what it is.  I just know that they know that I don't want any trees taken down, at all. Not in the front.  The rear of the property, all kinds of small trees can come down and I won't miss them.  

20 more minutes until the nightmare of the doctor's office. I have been dreading this day for a  month.  I would literally rather be on the road driving than doing this, that's how bad my mind is making this out to be.  If they don't let me lay down for them to take blood, I'm just leaving there. I'm not going through that again with a staff that thinks they know best. I know best how my mind and body works in reaction to such things, not them.  Some people can't handle it, . Call me a wimp, call me other names, I .... don't....care.  But I'm going to face it and then go out to eat after wards and then go back to the property  The mulcher should be getting close to done by then, pay him up and then I'll take another look at what more I might want to have done there.  But, today is it for him, I don't want to pay any more for that stuff, he should have what I wanted done - done.  

I'm facing the dilemma of having to buy some kind of equipment to maintain all of the work I'm about to pay for.  Hence, I will be calling the repair shop later today and see if they've gotten to the ATV yet.  I thought about just putting a chain behind it, hooked to either end of a heavy piece of steel and dragging it over the trails to begin with. That would help smooth the trails out. But then I thought, well, there is wood shavings all over, I wonder if that will keep vegetation from growing? I might wait and see, especially the next rains that are coming.  If I even see the hint of vegetation coming up, tho, it's  a done deal. I'm going to do whatever I have to to maintain them. 

Or, pay someone at the beginning to go through it and brush hog it at the least until I decide what to do.  But I suspect a brush hog doing that much work is going to be pricey and the money may be better spent just getting the equipment right off the bat.  

Whatever the case, my departure time has arrived, off to the doctor.

G'day. 

 The alarm went off this morning and I was not feeling it.  I could have slept a couple more hours at least.  But, they needed the trailer and I wanted to get over to the property so I got hoofing it down the highway.  So, the only stop I made was fuel and that was it.  325 miles later, I was meeting the dispatchers. The dispatch manager was as cold as ice.  Not amenable at all, didn't understand that, but that's on her.  My dispatcher who is under her was very amenable and we talked for quite a while. And then the dispatcher that quit and then came back to work for them - she is no longer dispatching but they keep her busy apparently. 

 I talked with my dispatcher for about half an hour, I didn't want to be rude.  I wanted out of there tho.  2 crews of people on the property, I need to see what's going on!

Got home, got the dog, got my hiking shoes and got out there.  I passed by the dirt work crew - absolutely amazed at how much they had gotten done.  I mean, they basically have the dirt work done they just need to dig the hole to put the junk dirt in.  

But I wanted to get to the back of the property to see what the mulcher dude had gotten done. Amazing - he had done half of it and had widened it all out to be big enough to drive a pickup truck back in there.  I don't want to drive a pickup truck in there, but it is nice to have in case someone got hurt and emergency services needed to get back there or whatever, really, I just really liked the trails being widened out like that.  

There were two trails he hadn't started yet, so I took the dog and got with it on the east side.  Marked it out with paint where I wanted the trail to go - all the way to the back and curve around to the stream. Then I want him to go all the way back around and create a trail on the other side so it's a big loop - I didn't mark that out, leave that to his discretion, just don't take down big trees, please.  And don't take down any pine trees, thank you.  Well, I gave him permission to take down two pine trees that were in the way of building a campground area for tents.  They were small and I wouldn't miss a couple of them gone. 

The east side needed to be marked because it's close to the property line and there is nothing there marking the property line.  I have the property corners marked on my GPS so I just kept it about 30 feet west of the invisible property line.  

Anyway, this dude is saying that tractors are cheap and the brush hog attachment. Lol, I don't think so.  I was asking if he thought I could use a zero-turn on it as the first guy had stated and he said no, not right at first, you'll need to brush hog it for a while before you can use one of those.  

I don't own that equipment so I will just have to have someone do it for me to start with. Plenty of brush-hog people around these parts.  I still think I can keep a lot of brush down just riding my 4 wheeler on it. That's been in the shop 3 days now and have heard nothing. But, the dude may have not gotten to it yet or he may have to order parts for it. I'm not going to bug him about it, but I wouldn't mind getting a second 4 wheeler - used of course - to go along with that one so we can have fun at the property.  

Is it time to get excited? Sort of.  They can't finish the dirt work until the underground utility locator comes out.  I was going to have that done and spaced it out, he waited too long.  I figured he would - so many things to think about it just slipped my mind. No, he didn't ask me to get that done I just thought he probably would forget until the time to come out.  

However, that's just to dig a hole and put that "bad" dirt in and make good dirt available. That is not going to stop them from finishing the dirt work.  It will be done tomorrow and then I can start measuring out lots.  I have that all planned out in my mind, just going to have to go to Lower's and get a bunch more wood marking sticks.  I don't know what the contractor's schedule is, but I'm going to get done what I need to get done and he can come whenever he is available to do it.

However, it is not going to be worded that way to him. I am going to tell him it's all marked out, come take a look if you need, otherwise the rest of what needs to be done is on you, when are you coming? 

That's it for now. Tomorrow is the dreaded doctor appointment. Really, really, really don't want to do it but I made the appointment and it's a done deal.  Get it over with and get on with everything else.  I am hoping they have the dirt work done in time for me to get over there and start marking lots out immediately.  I also want to get grass growing pretty quick in the areas that are not driveways or pads so I don't have a bunch of weeds growing back up.  How many bags of grass seed will I need for that?  Uhh, I dunno, but I'm gonna look around for better pricing than Lowe's. They're expensive for grass seed, but then again, probably everyone is.

With that, I'm ending this one. 

 Got up, checked my phone, no reply from the contractor.  Moved vehicles, hooked up the trailer, tied down the lawn mower and the ATV and limped the trailer to the nearest tire shop, which is not that far away thankfully.  While getting all new tires put on that thing - and never loaning it out to that dude again - I started blowing up his phone.

He's either going to do it or he's not going to do it but I'm not going to sit around being ignored by this fellow.  One text after another after another.  After a while, I got a "read receipt", simply shows that the texts have been read.  That was a start.  He then finally responded: "Yes sir, sorry I was out of town".  

In his thinking, yes sir means he's coming this week.  He's kind of a redneck - not stupid or ignorant by any stretch, but redneckism has it's own unique characteristics.  Especially how they talk.  So, I am "assuming" equipment will either show up tomorrow or Wednesday morning and they will get this dirt work finally done and we can move on to the next phases which don't need it to be wet or dry as far as I know to do the work.  

Well I take that back, you wouldn't want it muddy out there while pouring the gravel for the driveway or the pads.  But it doesn't have to be perfectly dry.  Neither do you need it perfectly dry to dig trenches for the water, sewer and electrical lines.  Or to dig a pit for the septic tank.  Etc. Etc. Etc.  

I "assume" that you would want to do all the trenching and laying the underground stuff first before putting down any rock.  I will be asking him how they go about doing that, the only real thing that needs to be done is to mark the driveway and the lots and the pads on the lots.  The pads on the lots get the gravel, the rest of the lots are going to be grass.  Yes, it means cutting grass a couple times a month, oh well. It's what people want, it's what they're going to get.  Most people don't want a giant gravel parking lot unless they are just staying overnight on their way to somewhere else.  

I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, I'm simply hoping and praying that this dude actually gets this stuff done before it starts raining again. Cause' yes, it's going to start raining again, but if he gets out there Wednesday he should be able to get it done before the rain arrives. 

I've got another guy coming to look at the trail situation. The first guy was high in his quote and he never got back to me. I at least want to know if I'm getting 10 hours out of him per day for that much money. The other guy is $150 per hour.  

_______________

Done deal.  The man showed up at the property, I took him around, showed him what I want done, "I can have this done in a day".  Well, I thought, if it spills into 2 days I'm fine with that. $350 per day cheaper than the other guy.  I expected 2 days so I'm good with getting more work done if it's possible.  I'd like to have the bottom of the rear of the property cleared out so I can get a better idea of the possibility of a pond or small lake back there.  I added more trails as well and as the first guy I was going to have it done with, a couple of campground spots for tents.  

Tent camping isn't a priority, it really isn't the right time of year for doing that if I did, indeed get this thing done before summer is over.  It's just too hot out there, I can't imagine anyone wanting to tent camp in that kind of weather.  I guess maybe if they brought a generator and a window unit air conditioner. I'd have to allow generators back there at night time during the summer.  It's a long way from the RV park portion and it is down in a recessed area, I'd like to hope it wouldn't make so much noise as to interfere with rv campers.  

If/when they get the ATV fixed, I'm getting a cheapo trailer from Harbor Freight and I can haul a generator back there, turn it on and then go up to the front and see what kind of noise there is.  I can also haul chainsaw and leaf blower back there.  I have actual use for the ATV beyond just fun.  I could get a tow-behind brush mower for it - but they want thousands of dollars for one and that being the case, a zero turn mower would be a better investment - I think.

Once the trails are cut, I will just make sure to ride the ATV over them frequently enough to destroy any vegetation trying to grow.  I'm trying to get by with not spending too much money on any one portion of this project.  I can't afford to go all out buying this and that and everything all at once, it's just not in the budget.  The walking trails were and original part of the theme and I'm not deterring from that.  And much of what needs plowed down is simply too big for a mower of any kind to start out with, I must have the services of a mulcher machine to get the initial stuff done first.  IF it were only a day, it would cost $1,350.  This includes "backdragging it" as he called it - in other words, smoothing out the trail as he goes along.  YES, please.  I don't want people tripping, getting hurt and suing me. 

Probably going to have to have a disclaimer that needs to be signed off on. You know, all that fine legal print that most nobody reads but details how you walk on the trails at your own risk, etc etc etc? They can still sue you but it helps keep liability down.  There is always risk in such ventures, insurance is available and I will be getting it.  This includes liability for dog park, walking trails, people doing stupid stuff, etc.  The more risk activities you have, the higher the insurance. We'll keep it to a dog park and walking trails to start with

There will be so much to do after they finally get the actual parking portion of the park built.  It will still take quite a bit of time to get all of it done, but at least I won't be at the mercy of that contractor.  My soft opening will only have a small shed for putting the wifi equipment in.  I might have a couple cords of firewood brought and people can buy bundles by simply indicating how many bundles they took and have it added to charges on the credit card.  That will have to have a video surveillance camera on it. There will be video surveillance at various points in the park.  While not compromising people's desire to not be bothered by such on the lots themselves, any "public" areas will likely have surveillance on it, including the driveway, the gas operation - I don't want anyone going on there at all - any sales I might have - which would be limited to firewood and possibly ice to start with, shed for wifi equipment and on the entrance to see who's coming and going.  

It's a foregone conclusion that not everyone that takes firewood will actually pay for it, or will say they took 2 bundles when they took 5.  It can make money, of course, with regular staff and overseeing it, which may be possible to some extent if I can find a good workamper to help out. 

There will be a page on my internet site that will direct people to all of the things that are available in the nearby town - convenience stores, gas stations, propane refill, walmart, tractor supply, Lowe's, all the local restaurants and I might see if I can get some kind of perk from any restaurants for directing people their way.  A small discount or maybe a free dessert or possibly free chips or something?  I've seen a mix of RV;ers that like to eat out all the time, like to cook at their campsite all the time and a mix of both.  Nearest laundromat, can't forget that.  

AS I said, there will be plenty to do after they get the sites done.  Even with a soft opening.  The website designer contacted me the other day asking how it's going. Nowhere, I replied, stalled.  But perhaps there is a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel? 

I have what was originally a 9 am appointment time to load tomorrow now a 6 am appointment time. I really hate the 6 am appointment.  Get up at 3:45 am? And when I get to work, what can I expect to find in my truck?  Another driver was driving it.  And that guy isn't exactly the cleanest dude on the planet. 

Regardless, it's early but it's bedtime. 

 As much as I don't want to talk about this subject, I can't get it off of my mind. 

There has been no rain and very little chance of it in the forecast.  I have, of course, heard nothing back from the contractor after several text messages spread out over several days. 

I want confirmation he is coming on Wednesday.  Cause if he isn't coming, I want to see if I can find someone else to come this week.  The ground is dry, it's time to get this over with and move on already.  

I just sent him another text. If I don't hear back from him, I'm going to basically blow up his phone tomorrow.  He can try to ignore me, but if I have to I'll go to his office and ask him in person about when they plan on coming.  

I just feel like I'm being put on the backburner for larger projects.  Whatever the case, I'm ready to move on to another contractor if he isn't coming this week.  Mind you, the last thing he told me was that he had to check his schedule after first telling me that he was coming next week - midweek.  That puts him there on Wednesday.  This dirt work only takes 2 days, 3 at the most and then it's done, move on to marking out the pads and driveways.  

Meanwhile, nothing has been done to the driveway as far as maintaining it. I mean, if I have to pay for gravel on that driveway, that company is not going to be in for a good time with me.  I dunno yet, I'm just sayinjg there hasn't been anything done about it.  I'm going to wait on that one for a little bit and see what happens.  Give it another week or two and then contact him again.

So I was put off for tomorrow's run, which is yet another Oklahoma.  She should have given me a Brownsville run, not a low paying Oklahoma after having had 3 in a row.  This is getting ridiculous.  The reason the run isn't going tomorrow is there won't be any trailers available. All well and fine, but almost guaranteed there ARE Brownsville trailers in the yard and at least 2 runs going down there.  I've had these 3 days off and then 3 days on and then that dreaded doctor's appointment.

I'm really not looking forward to that, I'm not into having blood drawn, it makes me feel funny and then I have to lay down for a while.  The nurses almost never believe me and try to make me sit up and then - I start to fade.  Then they get upset that I am laying down on the floor or whatever is nearby. Then, a manager will come and ask what's going on and I will tell that manager that I specifically told these people that I must be laying down to give blood.  They didn't believe me and this is the aftermath.  That's happened more than once.  

The rest of it I don't care, it's the bloodwork that makes me nauseous.  Well I don't like the "prostrate exam", either. I'm not having prostrate problems and I don't want that checked, either.  And they are not going to be setting me up for an appointment for that damn camera nonsense to shove it up your behind and examine the inside of your guts.  Gross.  They pump air in there so they can see and then when you wake up, you are farting for a long time letting all that air back out.  

I'm going, I just don't want to lol

Tomorrow's agenda, since its' forced off, is to take the 4 wheeler and the lawn mower to a local place that repairs both.  Found them on google, went over there, yes we do that! and so now the 4 wheeler is on the trailer the only problem? It has a flat tire and we don't have an air chuck, apparently, to fill tires up.  I'm going to drag the thing to the nearest tire place and they'll just have to put a new tire on it. The tire is almost bald anyway. 

In fact....

See, I loaned that trailer to a friend of the family's here.  This dude had the thing for going on 4 months.  When he left here with it, I had just replaced 2 tires. They were used tires but they had good tread on them. While he had the thing, he called and said one of the tires had blown and needed replaced.  He being alledgedly broke, I gave him the money to replace it. But after inspecting the tires yesterday, I can say with assuredness that he didn't replace any tires or if he did, he bought the $25 special.   He lied to me about putting a new tire on it and he wore down the other tires.  He had originally said that he was only using it to haul junk to the landfill.

This is why it is hard to trust people.  You try to be nice and help people out and then in the end, they just screw you over and don't think twice about doing it. Whatever the case, I may just replace all the tires on it tomorrow and just not loan it out to anyone ever again.

I want to get the 4 wheeler fixed if possible and then take it over to the property and just keep it there.  It will serve as a method to keep brush from growing on the trails.  It has huge knobby tires that tear up vegetation, perfect for trampling down all of that junk that is currently growing back up because of all the rain we have been getting.  It has a trailer hitch on it, the thing could prove to be quite useful on the property.  Anyway, if they can fix it, I can just keep it in the woods well out of view of anything, keep it covered when not in use and not really have to worry about it.

LOTS of fresh deer tracks on the property the other day, btw.  I don't know what the state laws are here in Texas about hunting on private property, gonna have to look that up.  

Well I guess I could take the tire off the trailer and get it replaced, thinking back to earlier comment.  But the rest of the tires are so low on tread it seems only fitting to just replace all of them and not have to worry about it.

We have been working on the property for 3 days now. James and I.  It is finally starting to look decent again.  There is still lots of work to be done but the jungle effect and the leaves all over the place are mostly gone. The entire back yard now needs to be raked up and burn the rest of the junk that that comes up with.  We're pretty happy with the progress tho.  I mean, at some point it starts to get embarrassing.  It was that bad.  The back, not the front. We did the front a while back.  

The next door neighbor was looking at it the other day and just said, well are y'all going to deal with all of that?  Me?  I just got to the point I was fed up with the other neighbor's constant amount of leaves, bark, twigs, dirt and whatever other junk flowing into our back yard every single time it rains.  But, I don't mind cleaning it up if everyone is going to help clean it up and keep it that way.  

To end this, I'm hoping it's 3 days away from them coming out to do the dirt work. 

 The vehicle is done.  The gas gauge works.  I put in almost 25 gallons maybe 50 miles before I took it to the shop so a bit surprising to see the gas gauge showing a quarter tank.

Either the new setup is a bit skewed or I lost some fuel in their shop, lol.  As I had thought, the sensor is a part of the fuel pump.  As I also figured, the price tag was a bit excessive.  Whatever the case, I'll fill it up tomorrow and see what happens with the gauge.  

Anyway, there is a slight chance of rain tonight and tomorrow. After that, there really shouldn't be any rain coming up until this contractor gets over there and gets this stuff done.  Daytime temps are in the 90's even if it does rain a bit, it will be dried out before they come out there.  IF they come out there.  This is basically my last straw with this dude, if he comes and gets it done, good, if he doesn't, it's time to cut ties and move on. 

That's where I'm leaving that unless it rains and then I'll be back at square one.  

As for the reunion, I don't really think I'm missing much.  I am planning a 5 to 7 day trip over there, probably in October.  Before the holidays and the madness of flying in crowded airports.  Probably 5 days, actually, that's about as much as I want to be away from home.  I have no idea where this RV park business will be by then - if anywhere - but that is a potential consideration to take into account as well.  

My manager calls me today.  Goes into this spiel about how they are shorthanded right now - drivers off for various reasons - he made it sound like he was asking me to come back to work.  I said nothing and listened to all of it. He then got to the part about another driver's truck broken down, no trucks to replace this driver's truck that also broke down, loads that need to go out, can he use your truck?

Obviously, I don't own the truck and furthermore, in other companies, even tho it may not be slip-seating, they will just take it without your input and you can deal with it. Well, those are the old days. Now, you screw over a driver bad enough and they will pack their bag and leave.  There are always greener pastures if your work conditions are so bad that it warrants moving on.  

I was impressed he actually asked me.  I said fine, but he's going to have to deal with my stuff.  Oh, he's just going to get in and drive, I will put him up at a hotel for sleeping arrangements.  I have a great manager, if nothing else at that company beyond the pay.  It's unfortunate he's planning on leaving, tho I totally understand his reasoning as to why he would want to leave.  

The company is foolish to let him go.  That's the way this company operates.  Cut off the nose to spite the face.

Anyway, I'm going to ask for time off in October - but I'm contacting mom first to make sure there are no scheduling conflicts.  It sounds as though she isn't going to be driving up to her beloved property anymore.  This is not something I wanted to hear, because that spot of hers up in the mountains is her special place.  She's been spending summers up there for going on 3 decades now.  I'm afraid of what it may do to her psychologically, or the freedom to be able to drive around anywhere, really.  She knows how to use Uber at least, but being confined to home?  I don't think that's going to go over too well. 

I really don't know where all of this is going just yet.  She has another eye appointment soon, but can they do anything?  I don't know.  

I'm going over to the property tomorrow, to finish this one off, and survey the property.  I want to see if everything has dried up.

 I took the vehicle in to get the gas gauge issue fixed.  I mentioned replacing the brakes as an afterthought.

So what do they do? Replace the brakes and not even begin to look at the fuel gauge.  This was yesterday afternoon when I called them to find out if they had been able to fix the fuel gauge.  

I need my vehicle back, I have several things I want/need to do while on these days off.  I'll be calling them again around noon and see where we're at. 

The tragedy that we call a back yard apparently is a project we are going to start on.  I stopped working on it a while back for reasons I'll just keep to myself.  It is awesomely horrific back there now and no one has touched it in quite a long time.  I don't mind going to the trouble of cleaning it up - if - everyone else is going to be involved with that project as well - and - commit to keeping it clean after the project is done and over with. 

I'm very glad to have some days off. I'll be even happier if the contractor would finally text me back and let me know his intentions. Because if he's going to blow it off again, I'm moving on and I'd like to get someone else lined up quickly to be able to get over there and get it done before any more rain hits.  

I need to at least go to the fire department now that I think about it to get a burn permit so we can start burning all this junk in the back yard.  If I don't get the permit, someone will call the fire department, they will come over here, threaten to issue a ticket and force me to put the fire out. 

No thanks.  It's a pretty good scheme to charge $25 for a permit to burn something that the government has absolutely no involvement in.  They won't be starting the fire and they won't be putting it out.  

My 401k is down about 10k. It should be approaching the mid 70's range, it was up as high as 69k I think, now its' sitting at 57k.  Pretty disheartening to throw a bunch of money at savings like that and watch it just disappear like magic.  

So, I just changed it from 12% to 5%.  I'll figure out the 7% every paycheck and stuff it into a savings account.  Yup, I will follow through with it, just like I've been taking out cash most every paycheck and putting it aside for vacation and now going to start saving for that zero turn.  The 401k money will go towards buying a rental property.  That's approximately $700 per month. In 12 months I will have near 10k and I should be able to buy a small house providing my credit score stays in the range it is in now - or goes up even higher.  Back to 750 would be nice, I'm 12 points away from it. 

To think I had it in the 770 range......for a long time....and now battling to get it back up there.  I wouldn't really care about credit but so many things it affects nowadays. Even your car insurance is affected by your credit score.  Houses, bank loans, SBA loans, car loans, all kinds of stuff.  I've heard some employers even check it.  

Anyway, the goal will be in the next year to save up 10k with what used to be that 401k money, get a rental house and - either rent the house to a family or do the room rental thing again.  I'm not sure which. Room rentals brings in more revenue - but it's a lot more hassle. You really have to either live there or have someone living there that you can trust to take care of everything. And if you have someone else living there doing it, then you have to give them discounts or free rent altogether in exchange. Which means you really need at least a 4 bedroom house to make it worth the hassle.

Renting out the whole house is much less hassle, but also less income.  I have plenty of time to think about that, in fact, if I save up this money and get the park going, it may just get dumped back into the park, which should make a lot more money than rental houses.  Who knows, I just know that I"m going to start this plan now and get it rolling.  If the stock market comes back out of it's woes, I probably won't change the rate I'm putting into the 401k account. I'll make more money off of rentals than off of a 401k, certainly at this late stage in life.  

I'm probably spending more time than I should be reading how the rich - got rich. I don't want to be rich, I just don't want to work for anyone else anymore.  I want to work for myself, have a decent income, be able to help others, give back to God and live my life peaceably, if that's at all possible in this life.  Leave something for my heirs to have that can sustain them in life without having to spend your entire life toiling for someone else and not have much of anything to show for it.  

 So.  I get to the Oklahoma plant and after dropping the loaded trailer and getting scaled out, the dude approaches me.  "The driver in here yesterday tried to take that trailer - pointing one of our very old trailers, 45 years old to be precise - and he couldn't get the brakes to release".  He couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.

I had a 99% of being correct guess what it was, but I hooked up to it anyway and tried to release the brakes. Nothing. Air would go into the trailer for about 2 seconds and then stop.  I got out, opened the doors that give access to the pipes and valves to offload the trailer and walaah.  A broken plunger.  These trailers are equipped with a safety device that locks the brakes when the doors are opened.  A plunger releases and the brakes lock up.

The plunger was gone and the threaded portion of it was destroyed.  Right about then, my dispatcher was calling about when I will make it back tomorrow (which is now today) and I went right into this problem.  "This trailer isn't going anywhere" after describing what was wrong with it.  "Are you going to call Road Squad?".  No, lol, they won't have the part to fix this thing, we are going to have to contact our shop mechanic to figure out how to get the part up here and get it fixed.  So, I took a pic and texted both dispatch and the mechanic.  Allegedly he is having a mechanic get up there and fix it today.  You're welcome.  

Then we got into the discussion about when I'm getting back.  Not only is that trailer down, but there is another trailer down at our yard, leaving us short-handed on trailers.  And loads that need to go out.  I get that, but I don't have any control, whatsoever, on the appointment times. "Well, I got a late appointment, it's going to be late when I get back".  I gave her the amount of hours it would be before I got back - I was busy unhooking from one trailer and hooking up to the other empty that was there - and she calculated I wouldn't be back in time for the latest loading time the plant will give which is 2:30 pm.  

I knew she was wrong but I was too busy trying to get hooked up and get out of there.  It took all of my 30 minute break up to figure out what was wrong with that trailer and get pics and send them to the mechanic.  It' s "not a part of my job description" to figure out mechanical issues, but I'm not that way.  If I can figure it out, the trailer is diagnosed so they can get the right part/s and mechanic up there, versus having to send a mechanic up there to figure out what's wrong and then have to go track down the part, which I suspect isn't easy to find because most trailers do not have that safety device on them and is probably a special order.

I also assume our mechanics have those plungers in stock in their shop.  

I only made it back to the Casino truck stop.  I was going to try and get closer so they could send a tractor up to get the trailer and get it loaded, but I was battling to stay awake and I determined it was getting unsafe for me to continue driving, so I stopped.  It was 1:30 am before I went to bed to give a bit of context.  Sometimes I'm fine at that hour, many times I am not and really struggle to stay awake, even with music blaring and doing whatever I can do to keep myself concentrating on the road. At some point, it's time to say no more, safety takes precedence over a scheduling problem. Especially considering what I'm hauling, tho the trailer is empty.

Even our empty trailers pose a threat, they still have flammable vapors in it and it can still wreak havoc on the general, motoring public.  I do take safety seriously with this job just because of what we are hauling. 

Whatever the case, I returned a call to dispatch - they had called while I was sleeping but I have my ringer off at night, I don't see any reason to be awakened for a phone call that can be dealt with after I get up - and informed her that I would be able to get back in time for the driver to make it to the plant to get the 2:30 appointment slot.

Of course, I am wide awake and could have left an hour ago.  But, the FMCSA knows best about everyone's sleep habits and lumps all of us drivers together into one big pot and dictates to us when we can and cannot drive.  

2 days ago, on the way to work, my SUV ran out of gas.  Mind you, I keep track of my mileage on the odometer so I know how much fuel is in the tank.  I was at 293 miles, the tank is good until around 400.  It ran out of gas the first time at 396 miles.  So, it was perplexing why I had run out of fuel early.  I wasn't idling it anywhere - sometimes I do that when I'm sitting waiting on people or something - and I have a locking gas cap on it.  I reset the trip mileage counter every time I fill up.  

Calling Taylor to come rescue me wasn't so wonderful - she has her own schedule and deals with her family in the mornings - but I had little choice. I could have called road service but it would have taken hours for them to get out there.  I can only say that I repaid her nicely for coming out and saving me. That was a trip to Baytown hauling an empty trailer to get it inspected.

Yesterday, before going to Waffle House, I took the vehicle to a local shop that was recommended and they said they could fix it.  I borrowed her truck to go to work - I didn't ask she offered, I was going to rent a car but they didn't have anything available, not even an expensive vehicle - and so I took her up on it because I am tired of this gas gauge giving me this trouble.  I am not going to replace the vehicle until all of this supply shortage and inflation is done and over with - excuses to jack up prices of everything.  

I don't know when they are going to have it finished, but I'm hoping by this afternoon. In reality, who knows if they can get the part/s expeditiously or not.  I asked them to check the front brakes as well. They have occasionally been making a noise and tho I could easily fix them myself, I find that after driving all over creation, I really don't want to do much of anything else.  "If they are bad, do you want us to do the rotors as well?".  Yup, replace them or having them turned, whichever is cheaper.  You'd be surprised, but in many cases it's now either cheaper or the same price to get brand new rotors as it is to have the old ones turned (milled). 

I did do a last minute check on flights, it's up to almost a grand now.  Not shocking, but in the "good ole days" you might have been able to find a flight cheap if you waited. Now, they overbook flights intentionally so they guarantee the airplane is going to be 100% full, so there is no discounts for attempting to book at the last minute.  I started looking a few months ago, even then it was $833 round trip.  This is a trip I have done several times for less than $400.  

Amazingly, even looking at November to get out there the prices are still high  at $600. But that's not near as bad as what I would pay now and I can take a week off. I texted my manager to find out how much vacation hours I have left, tho in November, I get my hours renewed and I will go up from 112 hours given per year to 150.  I can swallow $600, but I will be looking at other sites for fares as well and then try to get the dates secured through work.  In fact, perhaps I should just go at Thanksgiving and "see" everyone - extended family that is. It seems like we are all getting along a bit better now - my middle brother's view of everyone and life in general has completely changed and has stayed that way after his near-death experience with Covid. 

I do believe I can get a decent price with Southwest if I'm willing to drive to Dallas.  

I texted the contractor several times - first asking if he was coming next week and then just putting dots on a text to get his attention.  10 or so hours later he finally responded. "I'm coming out tomorrow to check the dirt and see if it's ready".  Tomorrow is now today.  There is a 24% chance of rain on Saturday, but after that it's a very low chance. I want this thing done.

Alas, it's time to get ready to leave here and drive out the miles back to the yard and get this trip over with.

G'day