The finer things in life is a euphemism that is often used to describe fancy houses with marble inlays, maid service and handcrafted wood appointments along with a half dozen or more bathrooms and bedrooms.  It refers to fancy, expensive sports cars, having one's own private jet or helicopter.  Perhaps dining at lavish restaurants with $1,000 bottles of wine and extraordinary wait service with the finest chefs the world has to offer.

And while that may be true for those that see it that way, there are other ways to view the finer things in life.  

The other day, the friend of Maria's came out and did some work for me - free of charge - he is basically a very lonely, older man who has no friends in this area.  He has lived a loner's life, he is also a truck driver and that is the way of many drivers who spend days, weeks, months, years, lifetimes on the road.  You see your friends and family infrequently and tho you can text them or talk on the phone, it is far from being the same as being there with them, in person.  

I've seen more than one retired driver's writings on the internet about the regrets they have in not seeing their children growing up, missing important dates for them, being away from wife, not being around friends - the things "normal" people take for granted.  

You see, I was sitting here in my office desk chair musing such things after being invited to be a part of a local Christmas parade. Participants have to be there in - 30 minutes actually. Yes, I am going, the starting point is a 5 minute drive from the house. I did donate the use of my trailer for these people's part in the event tho I did not ask to be any part of it.  They are doing all the work in dressing up the trailer to make it look Christmasy.  My small portion of simply loaning the vehicle with which they will use to partake in said event gave me no thoughts of being automatically presumed a part of it.

On the other hand, many of these people are the same people that we do card nights with rather frequently.  I'm slowly coming to know some of them, it's not like  I would have ever met such people in life if it hadn't been through Taylor/James.  I'm not at all saying these are bad people, not at all, we just wouldn't have ever met in any social circles.  

The whole circumstance with which I came to know Taylor and James is rather unique  in itself, at least as far as I'm concerned and isn't something people have happen every day. I won't be going into all of that here, that would take many paragraphs of text.  Most people that I come to meet or talk with online or wherever do not like the idea of living with other people.  That's probably more on the normal side of things.

I just happened to have lived with strangers in my teen years after getting thrown out of the house and then ending up in an evangelical missionary organization for 5 years after that with completely shared living in all aspects.  Housing, bedrooms, bathrooms, eating, everything.  No, it wasn't sexual in nature, it was just a modicum for people like-minded to come together, stay together and do what we believed the bidding of the Lord was.  

I did live with wife and son for 16 years after that with no shared living, but after that marriage ended, I was all about renting out rooms. Not out of desire but out of necessity. To have a house and actually live any kind of normal life, it was necessary to invite complete strangers in to pay a monthly rent in exchange for a room with everything included.

That went on until I moved out here, to Texas and ended up "temporarily" renting a room out at James/Taylors house which eventually led into a permanent situation.

I don't know if this arrangement will last forever. Things happen that you don't expect and circumstances change that you wouldn't have even dreamed of happening, much less actually foreseeing it. Been there done that.

But, while I'm here?  I enjoy every moment of it. Even the pouting kids crying over ridiculous nonsense, not that I enjoy that but it's an everyday part of living with a family with young kids. I get to partake in such things and for the last almost 4 months, have been living that life without spending it on the road.

I can tell you, I do not miss the road. Not even a little bit.  I am in various trucking groups and see videos all the time and I actually cringe at the thought of going back to that life.  I may very well have to, but I won't want to. I will work to have that time spent on the road as limited as possible.  6 months to a year at most, if I can get the business up and running and turning a decent profit. 

Well, it's time to leave.  I just was meditating on life and all the things that happen in it.  And not missing the trucking lifestyle.

 Sign posts in.  The 4x4 was clear at the back of the property so I cleaned most of the mess up back there while I was at it and had the trailer back there.

Of course, the trailer popped off the ball hitch - again - and it's not because I don't have the ball locked in.  It's just  bad hitch needs to be replaced.  Yeah, not right now, that thing can stay on the property for now.

Fires started.  Still smoldering.  Will have to take a chain saw, cut some stuff and repile it and relight it after it's all done smoldering.  

It's very lightly raining.  Not terribly much, but enough to cancel having to water grass seed today - thank God.

Oh, I moved all the stuff that was on the trailer into the shed before going back to the rear of the property to get the 4x4.  Just no reason to leave it out there, I have to keep it covered and it's just a pain. I am not going to be turning the shed into a laundromat until I have more money.  I'd like to get that done but it just isn't in the cards right now.

I then started on the fencing.  It's a pain, to put it mildly.  I'm probably 2/3'rds done with that setup, I'll work on it again later today.  

I had to come home, get some ice water, get some food and take a break.  I just don't have the stamina or energy I used to have before I got Covid for the - 4th time I think it was.  Something happened that time and it seems like I am slowly - ever so slowly - getting back to normal but definitely not there yet.  I just lose energy so fast now, it sucks.  

It's a really good thing I don't have to drive trucks right now, I'm not sure I could last 12-16 hour shifts.  Hopefully by January I'll have more of my energy back. I dunno.  Life offers no guarantees on anything excepting the fact that some day, you will die.

Anyway, I"m getting stuff done.  The grass seed will hopefully shoot up early next week.  If it's enough, I'm going with it.  I did buy even more seed, but I'm waiting on dumping that until all of this other stuff decides what to do.

OH, and I did find picnic tables at Lowe's today. They have 2 pallets of 10. They raised the price yet again, from $165 to $169.  Yup, they just keep raising the prices on them - and everything else.  I only want to get 2 of them for now, the rest will have to wait.  5 of the 8 fire rings have arrived, the rest are supposed to come in next week. 

Those are not preassembled and I won't be seeing what's up with them until I get the doggy park done.  I just want that doggy park over and done with, thanks. I have the second roll of wire fence out. I will hook up a strap to the 4 wheeler, strap the fencing tight and then I clamp it to the fence post.  I'll have 2 more rolls to go after I get the one I"m working on done today, with the first one over and done with.  

Well, no, it's not.  It's just temporarily hooked to the posts, I need to put a lot more clamps on all of them.  I"m getting the fencing up first and then I"ll deal with that and the proposed gate.  That's the other thing. I need all the fencing up so I can install the gate, the gate will need 2 posts cemented into the ground. Yea, I want to get that cement in and have a few days for it to dry out. 

Well whatever.  I'm take a short nap and get back out there.  

 I'm just over here doing my thing.

You know, as the country is in political turmoil and seemingly being rocked about by every piece of minutia that comes along and magnified by the media.  I read some of that this morning, then I just said to myself: Nope, not going to fill my head with all of that nonsense today, I have things to do.  

It's still early, lol.  There was a slim chance of rain and the forecast still says "rain will continue to 7:45 am".  Well, sorry folks, but it isn't raining here and the radar isn't showing its' raining here.  I want a job as  a forecaster.  I can just make things up and then portray them as fact. ...... .  ..... .  ...... and get paid for it, lol.

I am starting to force myself to get up early.  Whenever I go back to work, it is rest assured it will include early rise and being thrust back into that without giving my system a chance to "work through it" is not a wise decision, IMO.  I haven't been sleeping that well is the reason I have been sleeping in later. It seems that once it hits around 5:00 am, I can sleep like a little baby in a fantasy land of dreams and - well the dream that woke me up last night wasn't so great.  

I was being accused by a person I don't know and presumably have never seen before of taking a pickup truck that I "wasn't supposed to take". That person was angry for some reason, there was no context in the dream to understand why they were angry.  I responded that I haven't driven that pickup since I came back...came back to where, I have no idea, lol.  I just know that I became agitated with these person's insistence that I had taken the truck to the point that I, in turn, got angry and then - I woke up.  It was strange, yes.

Presuming no rain today, I am going to continue on with the doggy park fencing.  I need something to pull it tight. Well, we have tie down straps and I am going to see if putting a couple of those on the end of a roll of fencing will work to pull it tight enough to go ahead and clamp it down to the fence posts.  

Oh, and watering the grass seed, gag. That takes hours.  Literally, hours and you don't take a break from it.  You start on one side, get one positioned, then walk over to the other side, get that positioned.  By the time you get back to the first one, it's time to move it.  So and and so forth until all of the area in between and behind the pads is watered.  It's a lot of work. It's worth it, I hope anyway, but it's a lot of time and energy.  I get little of nothing else done while I'm doing that, but it takes precedence over everything right now.  

There is grass growing now, but it's not near thick enough to call it good.  All the 300 pounds of seed I put down is what is getting watered now.  If most of that will grow, I will be good to go.  No pun intended.

That's probably about all I will get done over there today.  Well, I take that back. I'm going to Lowe's before I go over there this morning to get some ether. I cannot get that 4 wheeler to start, it's totally cold blooded.  I need to use it to trample down dead weeds around one of the burn piles.  I also need to unload the tools on it included the generator and get to cleaning up all the sticks laying all over the place.  

I figure a small shot of ether should help jump it back to life. Foregone conclusion that I am going to need a newer 4 wheeler or something to pull a trailer around, but presumable an ATV.  I can't afford that right now, it isn't in the cards, I just have to try and work with the one I've got.  Whatever the case, I need to get all of this stuff done and get that park opened, my finances are running out quickly.  At least get the park paying for itself and then some. I have high hopes, at least remaining optimistic about getting it filled up and generating cash.  There is no sense in wondering if the place is going to be empty or not have that much business for "a while" while it gets up in the Google ranks and such.

So why am I sitting here at home, doing nothing? I got up early today, I'm still trying to adjust to that and I'm drinking my morning coffee. If you don't have any coffee, you might as well just go back to bed lmao.

What else is there to do? Well, I could go into the list, but it's just not a good time for that.  It's days and days worth of work I still need to do.  The guy came out yesterday and dug out a big hole for a fire pit, at least that got done.  I'll finish that as soon as I get the doggy park fencing and gate up.  I'm still reeling at the costs of just a plain old gate. $89 for something that cost in the 50's range a year ago? What the Hercules helpings is that all about?  

I bet if I could have started building this park say...2 years ago, I would have spent a little more than half of what I have spent now buying the same exact things.  I'm very much motivated, even pressured, to get all of this done quickly and get this thing rolling, that is what I can say. 

With that, off to the races!

G'day

  This inflation stuff is eating me alive. It is unbelievable the prices or literally everything now compared to even just a year ago!  Water hoses and sprinklers not off that list!  It's just absolutely astounding. The one thing I did find for "cheap" is more of that grass seed, at the same place I bought it last time for $37 per bag, now it's $35!  Yayyy! I bought 3 more, 50 pound bags.  

It's taken me all day to get materials, go to the bank, unload the trailer, drop it off at a daycare center (they want to use it for a Christmas parade on Saturday and I think I won't need it before then, but if I do, I'll just hook up the smaller one) and everything else.

I'm debating whether to go back out to the property today or just get an early start tomorrow.  

The grass seed planted last week is coming up over there.  That's 2 seedings now that are growing. The latest seeding - no of course not, that was just done 2 days ago.  I need to get it watered and get it to start germinating.  To that end, yes, I probably will head back over there but...

I met a friend at Kroger's when I was done with everything else who said she has a friend living with her (she rents out rooms) that is bored, has nothing to do, has no friends in this area and has offered to help me out there.  He is retired and independently wealthy, this isn't about money, or so I'm told anyway.  So I sent him a text message a while ago and if he doesn't respond to that, I'll actually call him.

Some of the older community don't like text messaging, they want an actual phone call. I get that, it took me quite a while to warm up to the idea of texting over talking to people on the phone, but it really is much easier to text when you are busy. Send a text, when they reply, you reply, but you don't have to sit on the phone for 5, 10, 15 - longer minutes talking to someone. I've got the materials - I think anyway - to finish the doggy park, build the fire pit and water the grass seed.  The fire pit rings are showing up within the next week - allegedly anyway.  

Get all of that done, get the grass growing thick and get the weeds cut done and I will open the park.  Ok, it makes no sense to waste daylight, I'm back off to the property. Think I'll take Addler with me this time....: )

 Tomorrow was intended opening day.  I do  have a lot of what I need done, done, in order to do so. But that pesky grass?

Well, the weather didn't help yesterday. Instead of hours and hours worth of rain, we barely got a light sprinkle. I'm not even sure it was enough to wet the seed.  I have no choice but to go up to Lowe's and buy 2, 100 foot long garden hoses and the fan sprinklers - if they even have that stuff this time of year.  I'll be spending days out there just watering grass seed until all of  that stuff starts growing. 

I don't want to know how much that stuff is going to cost, I just have to eat it, grow the grass and move on.  

I got all of the fence posts in yesterday.  I need to buy the gates while at Lowe's, might as well get all of that stuff while I'm there.  Which means I have to go to the property first and get the trailer.  I guess while I'm there I should buy the block to build the large fire pit.  There isn't any good reason to go Lowe's and not get everything I need from there, save me trips, gasoline and time.  

I have no idea when the fire pit rings are coming. I just know that I ordered them. I also know that you don't have to do anything special to "install" them. You can do stuff with blocks, sand and other materials but it isn't required. I literally don't have the time or even the desire at the moment to build a fancy setup for each ring. It's going to be put on the ground where I want them and that will be that.  

My sleep hasn't been the greatest lately and I find myself waking up much later than I should be.  It's now 9:00 am and I should have been out there by now. Instead, I just got out of the shower, writing this post and drinking a hot cup of coffee.  It's going to be cool out today, but I will be working so that isn't going to bother me.  I think I'm going to start going to bed at a set time and get up at a set time regardless of how good or bad the sleep was.  

I'm just going to keep plugging away at this park until it's ready to go.  When it's ready, it's ready. I'm not going to stress over it. I'll hope in 2 weeks enough grass has grown that it looks presentable and I can move forward.  And then, it's going to be close to Christmas - really close to Christmas - so I'm not even sure I'll get any guests to start with.

The web designer/expert finally got over this ridiculous nonsense about the campground software and moved on.  I mean, seriously.  I'm the customer, I am paying him, I don't need this kind of attitude from him.  As much as I didn't want to do it, I was definitely ready to fire him and find someone else!  

Now, there is the next situation.  This involves the oil and gas company.  This guy told me that "no one is allowed on the production area".  Lmao.  I'm just going to shy away from these people and do my thing. They have already reneged on their offer to pay for half the gravel - note I didn't ask for the concession, they offered it.  Shrugs shoulders, moves on.  Pour 2 inches of gravel along the part of the driveway I need it for - about 850 feet and forget about tent camping and boondocking for now.  It would be 15 loads of gravel to do the entire driveway, I can probably get away with 7 to do the portion I need.  

Getting to the walking trails doesn't need gravel, I'm not concerned about that. But there is a good portion of the driveway beyond my park area that just turns into mud when it rains and a much thicker base will be needed there. I just don't have the money for that right now and I will just put all of that other stuff on hold.  I will put up my signs pointing hikers to the trailhead but that will be the extent of it.

But this guy telling me that I can't drive over the production area? That didn't even stick with me.  I don't care what he thinks at this point, not after he engaged in the unprofessional behavior that he did the other day.  I don't care if they don't want me on the production area.  I don't know what the contract says, I only have a copy of a contract that is 60 years old.  He sent  that last year and stated that was the contract they are operating from.

I am no lawyer, but that thing says it's good for 5 years.  There must be a new contract along the way there, dude.  At some point I would think there is a 100 year  contract since that is apparently the norm in the industry. Even if the now-60-year-old contract is a 100 year contract, it won't end in my lifetime so I'm stuck with it.  When the contract ends and if there is still gas flowing, then I could get royalties. Now, how long will that well pump out gas? I have no idea - maybe there's enough down there to last 100 years, maybe there's enough for another 10, I have no way of knowing. If it dries up, they'll close it down and abandon it. 

Then I wouldn't have to deal with them.  For now? I am going to enforce a 10 MPH speed limit.  I followed one out not long ago to clock him, he was going 21 mph.  

I am going to have to find out what the contract says about the production area.  There was a conversation I had with the gas guy on the phone last year where he was commenting on a land owner that was driving right through the production area on his land.  The gas guy was not happy about it but apparently his hands were tied.  

I doubt they can stop me from driving on MY property, whatever portion of it that I'm on.  They are only leasing the land. Obviously I can't interfere with their operation or mess around with their equipment. That's a granted.  But that production area would cut me off from the rear 15 acres of my land and that is not a happening event.  I can see them trying to install a locked gate to keep me from going through there. That's  how arrogant and crass that company is.

I would just cut the lock. I already have a padlock cutter from the last time we went through this. THAT gate has been taken down, thank you very much. The gas workers weren't even closing it, much more locking it shut.  That went on for over 6 months before I had all of that taken out of there.  

I don't need or want contention with those people.  It doesn't serve any good purpose. But, they are the party that acts out, makes outrageous demands and attempts to dictate the conversation. HOWEVER. They have FAR more money than I do and going to court isn't really a great idea.  Lawyers cost a lot of money and I don't have tens of thousands of dollars to waste on that 

What I do know, is that they cannot touch my RV park. It is not in any easement area, excepting using the main driveway.  I have written permission from them to do that. At first they said no, but then they relented and said okkkkkkk. Lol. It is in writing, that's all I need.  

Well, enough of that. It's time to get out of here, get the supplies and get to the property.  Hook up the hoses, get that going and then start working on the fencing part of the doggy park.

G'day

 To say that I slept poorly last night would be an understatement.  It's a hellish feeling trying to get out of bed after a night like that, even if I do not actually have to get out of bed for any pressing reasons.  I do have pressing reasons but not enough to overcome feeling like this. 

I watch with amusement as Elon Musk tears up the woke world in his alleged attempts to herald free speech on the Twitter platform.  The White House is now saying they are "keeping an eye on Twitter", as if anyone in the federal government making such a statement is somehow a good thing.  

The left can no longer control the platform, the narrative or attempt to manipulate outcomes of elections through Twitter without having the "opposition", ie: Republicans and Conservatives, coming back and giving their full version of what is actually going on without being censored by what amounts to Communist management at Twitter dictating the narrative. 

The White House is allegedly concerned about Twitter becoming a "vector for misinformation".  Twitter is a social media outlet, not a government platform.  Twitter is a landscape - or should be anyway - of anyone and everyone giving their opinions and ideas whether they are correct or wayyyyyy off.  Twitter instead became the right hand of progressive/left politicians, media pundits, commentators, the ABC media outlets - etc ad-infinitum - and I definitely believe they had a hand in the outcome of the 2020 election in suppressing the Hunter Biden story.

Remember, there were polls were taken after the election that indicated that enough of a percentage of voters didn't know about the Hunter story and if they had, they would have voted differently and who knows who would have been elected?  The government has no business interfering with free speech.  There are few exceptions - but threatening with physical harm would be one of them. But people saying aliens landed on planet Earth and went to the voting polls? Who cares what anyone else thinks?

I just stand in awe of such a gullible voting public that doesn't inform itself to vote based on facts that are created through doing actual research on any given item on a ballot, whether voting for a politician, a referendum or some action that the governments at whatever level want to take that need voter approval. 

People don't even know who are what they are voting for, they just know that someone on a TV ad told them that they shouldn't vote for the other side because of "dire consequences". Such as Pelosi and her ilk constantly saying that Republicans want to gut Social Security and Medicare.  Find a single Republican running for the House that has said that in this current election cycle.  I'll wait. If there IS one, I haven't heard about it and I do try to keep up with this stuff.  They make these outrageous claims, using fear tactics to try and drive voters to vote for them over their opponent.  

Not because of facts, but simply out of sheer emotional response.  It isn't shocking that the PACs spend so much money on advertising.  They know that most people don't spend 2 seconds looking into any of the initiatives or politicians on the ballot. If they can get their message out over the airwaves and social media, they win the election.

It is astounding and appalling at the same time.  

Well that woke me up.  Musk is all over the news and has been for weeks now.  It's amazing how a few, leftist voices can dictate the narrative for the entire nation.  The left doesn't really believe in free speech, that is the takeaway for me from all of this nonsense.

So now that I'm awake and at least partially motivated, what am I doing today?  I'm going to the property, of course. If it's not too wet and if it's not raining, I am going to work on putting the rest of those fence posts in.  That really needs to get done and over with and behind me.  

Which reminds me, I need a dog waste station.  Actually, I just want a plastic bag dispenser - those kind you use to pick up the dog dung and then chuck it in a trash can.  I don't need a $300 setup, that's ridiculous. It's just a metal stand with a dispenser and a small garbage can built onto it.  I saw a dispenser only on a stand that is $52 and that's what I'm getting.  Put a plastic trash can out there and done.  

I guess that's my goal today, get a lot of that done if the ground isn't so wet that my boots sink into it with every step.  Just another reason I need that grass to grow out there, to eliminate that problem.  

Well enough of this, off to the races.  

4 hours out of me. That's all I could muster. After walking all of that land pushing that seed spreader? I was toast.  My legs are hurting. They aren't just sore, they are in pain. Well, not so much now that I'm sitting down.

I'm resting the rest of today and if the rain doesn't start early tomorrow, I'll go back out there and start pounding in fence posts.  I dunno, maybe if my legs stop giving me the "don't even try to do anything else today" message, I'll go out back and start cutting the pieces of the benches.  

I doubt it tho. 

As it stands, I did end up going to 2 rock places to get quotes on crushed concrete.  The end story is - it isn't worth it.  The first place - which is the place that sold the gravel to my contractor - doesn't even carry it, but, he will sell some other stuff, which is much better quality, for $550 per truckload delivered.  

Now look, I just spent 28k on gravel, I'm none too keen on having to spend another 4k plus on even more of that stuff. He said there was only one place in town that sells crushed concrete, named off the place and then said he had some "stuff" in the back that he got from a concrete plant that he would sell me for $250 per load, delivered.  

It was weird, sticky stuff.  He said there was some kind of "oil" in it but said he didn't know the deal about it. Yea, I believe that, not.  Whatever it is, I don't want it.  It stuck all over my shoes and plastered itself to my rubber floor mat in my SUV. I said thank you and left.

Went to the other place.  They want $503 per truckload for crushed concrete, delivered.  That's very high for material that they don't produce. Crushed concrete is made from old concrete that has been removed from wherever, taken to a crushing operation, put in a giant machine, crushed and out comes the product. They don't have to mine it like everything else.  

Everything else they have to mine it and still have to put it in a crusher and all the rest of it.  I was pretty appalled at that quote.

I then called another place that only does crushed concrete.  The guy told me $900 per 25 ton load, delivered.  But if you do the math, that's $36 per ton. I mean, I am getting the shaft regardless and since that's the case, I might as well just go with the guy that supplied the SB2 and get that iron ore stuff he will sell for $550 per load.  It's much better material and is actually the stuff that's already on that driveway.

It's just the stuff already on the driveway? Has been there so long it's no longer gravel. It's just fine powder that is getting worse and worse as each day passes and their pickups drive back there and mine as well.  

So kiss another $4,400 goodbye.  I have NO choice. It's not "I have very little choice". It's a big no at this point.  I either do that or have some pretty pissed off customers driving in over dirt and mud, getting their rigs dirty and getting their tires all muddy every time it rains.  

There's some places in Shreveport and Longview that sell, but even if they are selling it cheaper, the shipping costs will negate any savings.  

Oh well. Just eat it I guess and move on. 

I dunno, but I'll wait on that until closer to opening day for that. I mean, opening day was supposed to be in 3 days, but there is no way that is happening.  Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and I surely hope it does, but at the same time, I hope it's just a light sprinkle, nothing heavy.  

 

 This is today's agenda. I feel that if I write it out first, I will get more of it done than if I just haphazardly go over there and start a little here and little there.  This stuff needs to be done and I'm in between rain days. The only thing that will slow me down is if the ground is still muddy/overly wet.  

But, I need to put in the rest of the fence posts.  Dump the next 300 pounds of grass seed.  Cut the 4X4X8 in half and quickcrete into ground out front for the ENTRANCE sign.  That should be enough for one day's work. If time permits, go see the gravel guy and ask him about his price for crushed concrete, if he even sells that stuff.

He doesn't have a website and I don't remember one way or the other whether there was any out there when I was over there a few months ago. I was looking at his giant pile of SB2.  

Not sure when I'm going to make the benches, grass seed and other things take priority, but especially the grass seed.  

That's it. Not going to get overly ambitious and try to get too much done or sit here wishfully thinking I'm going to get it all done.  I just know that the 1st for an opening day was stretching it and now I have no idea when I'm opening.  When the grass is done growing lol  

I really need the next rain day to be a light rain, not a gully washer.  Gully washers just send the seed floating away to the other side of the property.  I'm sure the grass will be very nice over there! lmao

G'day.  

 Today's plans went out the window. I completely forgot about family picture day.  We are going out to a local establishment that apparently has a nice picture taking area and having a professional photographer take photos of the family.  Yup, I've been around here long enough to be treated as family - for the better and the worse lol.

Why does it throw everything out the window? Just going to take up the day, I suspect.  

BTW, I have pretty much learned most of what I need to know about the campground software stuff. I have inputted everything that needs to be done - that I know of anyway.  I've also paid for it. This coming week, the man is going to install it on the website and off we go.  Nope, it won't be accepting reservations right off the bat, that option will be turned off until I'm ready to start.  Since it is highly unlikely the grass will be grown enough in the next 4 days, opening day is being put off.

It's not really the greatest thing, it just is what it is.  

I mean, I could take guests in on the first - that's when the insurance begins, but to what end.  There will be nothing but parking spaces and dirt. Well, okay, the grass is growing, it just taking it's time.  Longer than I hoped for, I can tell ya that.  I'm looking at mid December.  And getting close to Christmas, who knows what kind of business I might get?  Maybe travelers passing through.  Locals wanting long- term - maybe.  

Which reminds me, I need to find out what site this insurance company wants me to use to do background checks. That's for long term only, not short term guests.  They require it and I don't mind doing it as long as I have a site that is already identified and payment option on the website. I am not paying for someone to have their background checked. If they don't want to pay for that, then they can go somewhere else.

Okay, that is done, request sent to insurance company. When I remember things I need to do and I can do it right now, I get it done. 

It turns out there are lots of places offering crushed concrete in this area. It was the SB2 that had limited supply chain here.  I will be contacting literally all of them for pricing per ton including delivery which includes a must-have of using 10-wheeler dump trucks that can chain the dump door open and dump the gravel while it's moving.  Non-negotiable on that part, I can rent a tractor with a box attachment to spread it if need be but I don't want to have to do too much work. If the driver is good, he/she can dump it nicely while moving along and minimal spreading need be done. 

If anything I am seeing is correct, crushed concrete is far cheaper than SB2 and it will cost more for delivery than the material itself. This would be good news if true.  SB2 was $37 per ton, Crushed concrete is being listed as "averaging" $14 per ton in this area.  We'll see.  I'll do the entire driveway if it's cheap enough.  Why wouldn't I have used crushed concrete on the new driveway and pads? Crushed concrete doesn't last as long and doesn't compact near as well. It's inferior product. 

But, on a fully established driveway that is already compacted, it will work well enough.  

I am still a bit shocked that the contractor didn't charge me anything for the dozer work or the trackhoe work for reinstalling 3 sections of storm drainage pipe and spreading the gravel.  

I thanked him profusely, I will say that.  

Anyway, it's time to get offa here. 

 Sunday - Morning

Much of what I have been writing about for quite a while is related to the business/property and all of the things that have to come together to make it happen.

Is that all I do with my time? Absolutely not.  It's on my mind a lot - probably too much - but it's certainly not all that I do.  The other day, we went up to the square to watch the official light ceremony that starts the season for the "Wonderland of Lights" in this town.  They dress the old courthouse up - pretty large building - with lights all over it and then we all do a countdown standing around it and walaah!  They flip the switch, the lights go on and Christmas season has officially begun!

We had card night 2 nights ago. That was at one of the other people's house.  It didn't go very late, half the people there had started at 3 am to go to Black Friday events.  Around 10:30 it was time to leave.  No problem for me, I tend to start getting sleepy around 10:00 pm on any given night and I'm ready to go to bed.  But we had fun.  It was a wonder that they had wanted to do card night tho, after being out literally all day long and having had started that early in the day!

I take the dog to the property frequently enough on non-business related hiking ventures.  Addler loves it and I enjoy it as well.  

I used to go out to eat probably more than I should. I have curtailed that greatly. It's expensive and it is not necessarily the healthiest food, shows up on the belly.  I've got a pretty good sized belly going right now, lol, I determined last night I would be going back on the diet.  About the time I start inching closer to the 230 pound range, I'm done, it's time to get back on the diet and at least get back down into the 2-teens range.  I haven't been below 200 in quite a while.

I also watch reruns of old shows at night.  Star Trek The Next Generation, Bonanza and The Big Valley to name a few.  There is a new show out called "Scary People" that goes into the lives and the minds  of people that have gone around killing innocents.  It's interesting because most of the names are names anyone that has been around for a while have heard of and probably lived through the reigns of terror. Such as John Wayne Gacey. It's also interesting because they often times have the people that worked those cases trying to solve them commenting on the different phases of the investigations throughout the show.

I also go to church here and there.  Last week was an interesting sermon that touched home. I usually only go if the kids want to go -which they do but on days such as today where they aren't even out of bed yet and it's 10:00 am? Probably not.  This is their last day of Thanksgiving break, they will be back in school tomorrow.  It's good, I suppose, that the oldest had the time off, he got very sick, feverish, head/chest cold, lots of coughing, etc.  He's still coughing and runny nose.  I've been taking zinc to try and ward off any sickness. So far, I actually feel no symptoms whatsoever!  Will it continue that way? I have no idea.  It was bad that the oldest got sick during his break as well. He didn't get to do very much but sit at home and rest.  Not exactly a fun vacation for a child.

I think about the Lord a lot.  I feel like I'm not really where I'm supposed to be to some extent.  But if I weren't here, where should I be?  Maybe that's not it. Perhaps it's more I'm not doing what I should be doing, especially in context of my missionary years.  I still help people - frequently - but I am not going around preaching and telling people about Jesus like I used to.  I dunno, there seems to be so much hate and anger among the citizenry of this great land of ours right now, I believe God is the only thing that is going to change anything.  Most of the people that are being broadcast over the airwaves and the big names in the media and in social media are atheists or agnostic. They do not speak for the majority of the citizens in this nation, IMO.  But people are led  to believe they are speaking for everyone.  

God is greater!

But, I always get back to the business of getting this business - going.  I feel like if I can get it done and going,  a lot of pressure will be taken off of me and I can focus on other things. Such as getting another trucking job and getting some income flowing back in.  Will the RV park succeed? Well I certainly hope so! I've got a lot of money riding on this one!  I think a worst-case scenario with it is that it becomes a park full of long term tenants and I will be making far less on it than I am hoping with having more short term guests coming and going.  

All long-term tenancy would equal gross receipts of $7,350 per month at the rate I am going to charge.  That includes electricity. So you take out electric, water, insurance... all the expenses plus taxes before you get to any profit. From the profit, I have to "pay myself" and pay federal income tax out of that.  Imagine that. I make money that is taxed only to be taxed again to actually get the profits.  This wouldn't bother me so much if the rate of the taxation wasn't so high. 

However.  I intend on charging rate taxes back to the guests.  Most places do not just absorb taxes, you will see on your receipt the cost of an item or service and then the cost of the taxes related to it.  So, now that I think of it, the $7,350 per month wouldn't include any taxes, those would be paid for on every reservation. 

Now, if I had ALL short term and I had the place filled 100% of the time, we are looking at almost 15 grand per month.  It isn't impossible to predict 80% occupancy, many parks are reporting 80% to 100% occupancy at all times. But, this is a new park, number one and it's also going into winter. Snow birds coming from northern states might be traveling through to south Texas or over to Florida, but is there that much of a market right now? I can only find out by opening up the park.

I've already paid up the insurance for an entire year.  I paid up everything related to construction costs, I owe nothing to the contractor/s.  The power is on, the water is on. The power company sent me the first bills. There are 2 bills because of 2 services, which is what I was afraid of.  However, since no power is being used yet? Each bill was only $3.50. I can tell ya I was holding my breath opening up that envelope!

The septic system isn't turned on - but it doesn't need to be yet.  It isn't being used, lol.

So what's left? Grass, install more signs, get some more gravel on the old driveway.  Install wifi system - even if a marginal, cheap system to start with.  I can't really afford a high dollar system right now and it's not a huge priority. Lots of RV'ers have their own internet they take with them everywhere. Starlink, Verizon, ATT, etc.  

I need a riding mower, finish the doggy park fencing and also cutting out roots sticking up.  I will be finishing up the doggy park this week.  I have all the fencing already, I just need to get a couple of gates.  I have to number the lots - easy-peasy and I just bought the numbers, they will be going on the electrical pedestals.  

I'll be talking with the gravel man this week. Going over to his place and seeing what they have. SB2 is nice - but it's expensive and I don't want to pay for it for a shared-use driveway. Shared with the Gas company that refuses to pay for any of it after initially offering it.  I finally got out of the guy a few days ago that he had been "overridden" by higher ups and that is why he canceled the deal.  I have gone over all of their heads since they don't want to discuss anything and have contacted their mother company.  I'm not saying the mother company will actually do anything, but it is the last resort.  

I'm having gravel installed regardless, I can't have a driveway that turns into mud every time it rains.  From the street to the entrance to my park is over 800 feet.  Hence the idea that its' going to be cheap gravel that will serve the purpose. That entire driveway actually needs to be done tho.  I can't have boondocking further back, that idea is off the table as well as tent camping.  Well, I can have those things, just not when it rains.

Yeah, that doesn't work.  I can't say on the website: "Tent camping and boondocking available during dry days only. Any rain in the forecast will implement a cancellation of your reservation, sorry for the inconvenience, have a nice day!".  How much will it cost to run the entire driveway? I have no idea, as I said, I will use cheaper material, but I don't yet know the cost per ton.  It's likely going to be crushed concrete.  That stuff is much cheaper than SB2.  I informed the gas company I would be dumping gravel and sending them a bill for half of it, lol.  

I also need to get the weeds cut down.  Whether I find a place that rents a brush hog setup or have to pay someone to do it, it has to be done.  

There's plenty left to do, is what I'm saying and I'm definitely going to get with it starting tomorrow. Today? I am going to see about building those benches.  Today and tomorrow are supposed to be sunny, so if it dries up enough, I will be dumping grass seed over top of where I have already dumped it.  More rain coming this week.  I will also put in 2 4x4's for the other sign and likely install the rest of the small signs, including the walking trail signs.  

Oh, the gas company. Had the gall to tell me that no one is allowed on the production site.  Lmao.  Sure, buddy, and tell me how I access the rest of the property?  These people have taken hostile tones with me, that's all.  I complained about some of their employee demeanor and they got defensive.  Yeah, whatever. I've been putting up with it for a while now, I'm done with it.  The part I am really not liking is the speeding down the driveway part.  

I really need to get some help with some of this stuff, but I dismissed the 2 boys after they ran the trailer into the new shed and didn't bother to say anything about it. Bye!  I don't know if they thought they were going to get away with it or what, but I'm stuck with the bill if I want to get it fixed.  It's not bad enough that it is causing any leaks and the wood framing on the inside wasn't damaged, so it's not going to be fixed right now.  

I also need to get the 4 wheeler fired up and take the trailer along the trails and clean up.  That shouldn't take but a few hours.  I need those walking trails ready to go!  Oh, and I want to take a video after cleaning up of the trails while walking them so potential visitors can see what they will be getting if they stay at my place and they do, indeed, like walking.  

Now, that all sounds like a lot, and indeed it is.  But, I'll get it done. Not like I have a choice in the matter. I've dumped the money into this venture, it's time to finish it up and get it rolling..

Happy Sunday. 

 Well. 

It's raining and has been raining all day long.  No surprise there, but I went over to the property anyway to take some pics.  I had posted a question for RV'ers on an RV forum, the angle of the pic I posted made it look like the lots were very small.  Fortunately, I didn't post the name of the park or even where it's located, tho I did reply to a few comments from people who like it and wondered where it was.  

Anyway, a good pic can generate business. A bad pic can turn people away.  It was a good to see all the negative comments - it was probably 65% positive and the rest were negative to varying degrees, including people engaging in name calling and insults for unknown reasons.  

Even more fortunately, the group is pretty well moderated and without my asking, those comments were deleted.  I definitely remain civil and upbeat on posts like that, these are potential, future customers. Or people that might direct others to my place in the future if they saw it, liked it and said, wow, this is great!  

To that end, I want to clean up the walking trails and take a video while walking it. Probably just a "quiet" video where I'm not really saying much of anything, but people can get an idea of what these trails are like  Because if you looked at the RV park portion pictures and didn't see the walking trails, you'd be left thinking it all looks like that.  There will definitely be a page on the site devoted to a video and pictures of the trails.  I kind of think I need an actual camera for that, my iphone camera really doesn't do pics or videos justice, I just use it because it's what I have.  

In fact, cyber monday is coming up, I bet I could score a decent camera for a good price.  Nothing fancy, just something that puts out quality photos and videos.  I'm really trying not to spend money on things right now, but this seems something that would be worth spending the money on.  

I posted the new pics on that forum but I haven't had anyone respond to it.  People tend to see what they want to see.  It's ok, I know the park won't be appealing to everyone, that's fine. I just need enough people to like what they see and fortunately, a good number of people on that post said it looks nice and they would stop if they are ever coming through there.  Yes, please do!  

From that post, I decided that all the west side lots will have fire rings at the rear of the lot instead of in the middle and some of the lots will have picnic tables - but definitely not all of them.  The reason not all of them is finances.  I don't need to be spending close to 2 grand on picnic tables right now.  I'll probably get 7 of them and call it a day.  I won't be putting fire rings on all of the pull through lots - not because of finances but because there probably isn't enough room to keep away from neighboring lots.

What I really want to do is get 2 rv trailers out there parked on lots next to each other and take a gazillion photos of it so I can have posted online what it's going to look like.  After the grass grows, I will be posting local facebook groups to see if there is anyone who could pull their rig out there for a bit of money - not too much but enough to say okay, this is worth the 2 hours it's going to take me to do this - and get some "real" pics up.  

So, I'm going to order the fire rings now that I know how many I need and I'm going to go to Lowe's and see if they'll cut me a deal for their picnic tables that are currently boxed, sitting out in the rain and potentially warping.  Wood tends to warp when it's not all fastened together, lol.  They actually raised the price of those tables that have been sitting out there forever - so inflation affects purchases that were made before the inflation hit? lol

I'm thinking I will build the bigger firepit with blocks for the social area (versus buying a premade steel setup).   I need to get really busy here, now that December is approaching and I am not ready to open.  However, I have determined that it's just not going to happen what with the grass and how long it takes to grow.  I'm going to plan the next coming days and get as much done as I can.  Monday I'll be out there dumping a lot more grass seed. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and clear as well as Monday. By Monday, hopefully I can walk on the soil without sinking into it!  There is a chance of rain the rest of the week - really hoping it will rain. Even tho that will hamper getting much of anything else done, it needs to happen.  

Well, back to campground software. I have run into a glitch that I need help with from the owner.  

 Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a wonderful day!

It really is, even tho I had a bit of a mishap today, lol.

Yeah, I went over to the property as is my want on any given day - but it's raining. It's been raining.

The first sign was driving to the back of the property in order to drop the trailer. When trying to back out beside the trailer, the SUV slid sideways and came very close to hitting the trailer.

I pulled forward and angled the SUV much farther away and made it out of there - at least.

After that? Well, I was trying to get out of the rear of the property and yes, the thing sank in the very soft ground and I was stuck. It was raining and I was getting wet and muddy attempting to dig the thing out and giving "rocking room" to go back and forth.

The ground just laughed at me. Oh? You think you are going somewhere? I really tried, lol, for quite a while before I caved.  Taylor sent me a photo of our adventure last night - the photo she got from the Longview News Journal.  My face and the 7 year old's were on top of the front page! I had the boy on my shoulders so he could see better - the lighting ceremony at the town square. 

They put unknown amounts of lights on that building - a LOT of them - and then they have an official lighting ceremony. Lots of people out there! It was fun.  Well, I'm standing there with this boy on my shoulders and Taylor comes up and taps me on the shoulder.  This guy wants to get a pic of y'all. 

Okay? After he took his pic, I asked who he was? 

Anyway, I mean, that's the "premiere" news outlet for this entire area - there is on over in Shreveport that covers our town as well - but that was great.  

It's been great being off the road. Yes, I know I groan and complain about stuff related to the business, but that's really coming to a close.  Well I hope anyway. Regardless of getting stuck, I saw alot of that seed I planted 2 weeks ago popped up! Yes!! For the win!  It isn't suppose to rain tomorrow, I'm going to go out there and reseed over top of all of it, all 14 lots.  

I might do it a third time, especially now that I've found that seed for $37 per bag! I'm so happy. It's getting close. I spent quite a while yesterday with the campground software dude on the phone, he took over my computer and we set up a good chunk of it. He left me with more to go, yes, but hopefully I can figure it out. Well, I'm going to have to figure it out, lol, it's my campground I need to know how this stuff works! 

Looks folks, I can't make excuses for my behavior, I was really getting irritated, down and out with this business proposition. I've spent a  lot of money on it and I still have nothing to show for it.  I still have more money to spend on it!  Fire pits, a couple of picnic tables, wifi and definitely going to have to spend the money on that old driveway to rehab it with fresh gravel. 

We're probably talking 5 grand worth of stuff left to go, maybe a little more? I dunno, but it's down to the wire.  Insurance kicks in on the 1st and if I ain't going on the first, I want it as close as possible! Let's do this!  

I'm doing nothing with anything related to the property today, sans the visit I took over there to see about the grass seed growing - and getting stuck lol.  It's a good day.

 Well that wasn't easy. I don't even know how to input stuff on half of that website. 

I'm going to need some help tomorrow with the setup, for I have no idea how you get some of the fields to allow you to input info in them.

I can tell ya, I tried lol. That's the campsite software and it's got some quirks.  I'll learn it eventually. There are seemingly endless videos one can watch to learn the stuff. All well and fine, but I want the initial setup up and running tomorrow. I don't want people to be able to use it - yet - I am not open.  I won't even allow future reservations. I definitely intend on opening up, but I really don't know if we're doing a December 1 start.

The reason being - and it's really all down to this right now - is the lack of grass.  It's all just gravel and dirt with a bit of grass thrown in.  I don't wonder if it'll take a month to get a nice covering of it.  I mean, I could open up with dirt, but I suspect people wouldn't much care for it and since it's the rainy season, it's going to get muddy. 

There are some things I won't have for the start up, but I think grass and first impressions are pretty important.  It's why I want all of those weeds mowed down regardless of what I have to do to make that happen.  

I'm working on this stuff, one day at a time and usually more than one project at a time.  

I'm going to set a date for finishing the doggy park and get it done - on that date.  Tomorrow won't be it, I'm supposed to be on the phone at 9:00 am and then the developer is going to link into my computer - he can actually go through my computer and set it all up.  It's cloud based so I am allegedly able to access what's on this computer from other devices. 

We shall find out.  

I think I will get everything situated in the back of the house including moving the boat and attempt to start on those benches tomorrow.  The kid is still sick - tho mommy only has one appointment in the morning tomorrow and that's it.  

Anyway, I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit today in reality.

G'day

 So, yesterday, the boy was sick with fever and hacking his lungs out.

Now, his fever has subsided but now he's puking and hasn't eaten a thing all day long.  This is some nasty stuff, whatever it is.  I'm wondering if he has RSV.  Hmm, well the symptoms don't include throwing up, so I dunno.  Whatever it is, he is not a happy camper and wants me to sit with him. He always wants me to sit with him, but I have 2 problems with that.  

1.  I am currently awaiting a call from the campground software guy to do the install.  I'm going to get this over and done with. I've been watching instructional videos on how to use the software - this is a lot to it.

2.  I don't want to get sick. This would be and incredibly bad time for me to get sick.  I have a lot left to do and my health is too important to me, especially right now, to be getting too close to him. It is possible I already have it and it's doing it's number incubating and about to explode, who knows, but I am not knowingly doing things to get myself into the situation he is in.

I am also taking zinc, vitamin c, multivitamins and other stuff to combat this thing before it even starts.  

I got the lumber to build the benches.  I still have a lot to do, folks, it's not like getting the gravel was easy-street to opening. It was just the primer to get my @$$ even more in gear and continue working until I have everything I can get done? Done.  

I was correct about the pad length of the west side pads.  They are all shorter than 65 feet.  Hindsight, I should have marked the sites again.  What I ended up with is the east side, pull-through sites at well over the 70 foot length, up to 80 feet (there is literally no use for a site that long, there are very few rigs that are pulling trains around, what I like to call them anyway, super long rigs pulling big trailers), but I can market it I guess. Might as well, if it's available, put it to use. Not many places have the super-long sites.  

So I lost footage on the west side lots to the over-long east side sites. 

Yes, this problem can be remedied. I have plenty of room to put even more gravel behind what is already there on the west side sites.  Could easily add 10 feet to them, most of them I could add 30 feet.  Some have trees behind them but who cares.  Look, most of them are 55 feet - that is plenty long enough for most regular sized rigs.  

++++++++++++++++++++

They are building my campground software site and will have it completed this afternoon. This is, of course, good news. He will go over it with me tomorrow to sort out the details.  

I have the lumber.  I want to get busy with that, but I have to move the boat.  It's kind of in the way of doing any work like that. There is a shed out back, but it's full of stuff and I can't do anything in there. 

Tomorrow I will likely go to the property and start putting up the doggy park fencing. And installing the posts for the "RV Park Entrance" with the arrow for the front near the main sign.  

That is, if I don't get sick. These boys get sick, I almost always get whatever they have. It sucks, I don't like it, it really affects me quite negatively.  

So here we go. The owner of the software company is sending me the link, I get it started, I try to set it up, whatever I can't do he finishes it up for me tomorrow.  

 I didn't hear any rain last night.  But looking out the window this morning, everything was wet.  Having no idea whether they were out there doing the gravel install or not, I went and woke the boys up, they got dressed, I got ready to go. 

It's Thanksgiving holiday week, they are off school the entire week.  It didn't sound too good with the older boy coughing pretty good and telling me he didn't feel good, but I at least needed to get out there and see if the contractor's crew was out there.  

I just didn't know what I would see when I got there, but it didn't appear as if it had rained too much. Sure enough, turning onto the driveway to my property, there they were.  The large dozer was sitting in the driveway and a Bobcat was brought out as well.  

There were two guys, one was the operator the other a foreman.  The operator is a real nice guy, really laid back. The other guy I've seen a few times before, my word for him would be unfriendly.  But whatever, I don't need them to be my best friends, I just need the work done. I was chatting with the operator when a truck pulled in the driveway.  10 wheeler - bobtail truck, regular old dump truck.  

He came down, dumped the load and left, when another one and then another came in.  3 trucks were running back and forth all day long from my property to the place where they were getting the rock.  Something like 6 miles away.  Maybe 7.  

I asked the dozer operator if he would push down all of those posts that used to hold up the gate.  The gate, as previously mentioned, is useless now and the gas company knew it would be useless after seeing how my new driveway bypassed the gate. That wasn't my design, actually, it was the contractor's.  I had laid out the stakes for all of the lots and the width of the driveway, but the ends of the driveway?  "I'll leave at your discretion" was my comment to the contractor who said sure.

Well, I was very pleased, actually, with the end result and how he had made the driveway but I also figured the gas operator wouldn't be real happy with it - and they weren't, hence they put those panels all the way around their tanks and their wellhead.  

I had to take videos and pics.  I wanted this day to be memorialized if you will. Something I can look at in the future and say, yes, this is the day when everything actually started to materialize into a real, running business.  

We left.  Boys were hungry, took them to IHOP for breakfast.  They wanted to go back to the property, but I wanted to go home and get my computer, I planned on staying out at the property longer and I wanted my computer with me in case I decided to install the new campground software.  But I realized I would have to do that on the phone with the company rep and that wouldn't be possible with those boys around.  Canned that idea. The boys insisted on going for a hike in the back of the property, so I obliged them.

Back to the front to watch more of the operation going on, the oldest was coughing now.  Well, coughing more now.  We had been out there several hours at that point, I decided I best get him home and take his temp and get him out of the cold.  We no more got into the house and he basically was toast.  He got very warm, very quickly and was up to 100.6 temp.  20 minutes later he was almost to 102 and hacking - very unpleasant sounding hacking.  Like, really not so much fun stuff.  

We just got past this last sickness and here we are again. Now? There is some RSV I think it's called cold going around that is basically a normal cold but it's sending kids and older people to the hospital.  I can only hope this doesn't happen with him or his brother, who probably will come down with it as well. And me?  I tried to keep my distance from him as much as possible today. And downing zinc, Vitamin C and other stuff.  

I hung out the rest of the afternoon at home, I wasn't about to take him back out the way he was looking and feeling. But, when mom got home I did go back to the property and it looked pretty well finished. My only thought was about the west side, back-in lots. They don't look like they are 65 feet long.  I'm going to have to measure it tomorrow. My 300 foot tape measure finally gave up the ghost.  I got almost 2 years of use out of it, I can't really complain.  I don't know if I need another one that long, but I do need something at least 100 feet long.  

I feel like a big weight has been taken off of my shoulders today.  Yes, there is still plenty to do before opening day, quite a lot actually, but it's all "small" stuff.  Ok, the campground software might be a pain, I don't know but I will work through it - probably tomorrow - and get it done.  Putting up the rest of the signs.  Working more on Quick books.  

I am going to wait on buying several hoses, it's supposed to rain 3 days in a row this week, if that happens, that should be enough to get all of that seed sprouting.  Well I don't know.  I can't afford to wait for grass to grow, I need it growing now.  I may just go ahead and get a couple of hoses and just have to go through the pain of moving them 7 times to get everything watered. It's not supposed to rain until Thursday and I don't want to wait that long.  

I may very well have to postpone opening day from the 1st until whenever - soon - but until the grass is going well enough to have everything green and looking decent.  Well, take that back.  I can't be going out there tomorrow with a sick boy, I'll just wait until Thursday - Thanksgiving Day is showing a 98% chance of rain. I hope so because I don't think I'm going to spend Thanksgiving at the property watering the ground.  

If nothing else, tho, I can go to Lowe's quick tomorrow and get the materials to build those benches.  I can do that work at the house and just transport them over to the property when I'm done.  James has a miter saw and I want to use that for nice, clean, straight cuts.  Which means I best be looking at a video again tonight to watch again how to build these simple but nice-enough benches.  Nothing fancy here, folks, just a place to sit around a fire. If people want to socialize, there it will be.  I'll have a cord of wood delivered and have it stacked near where the fire is going to be.  This will be a freebie, at least to start with.  Cornhole is also a freebie and wouldn't mind getting some horseshoe pits going.  

And whatever else I can find that is outdoorsy in nature and appealing.  I think the larger fire pit would be nice just because it's getting into winter and the temps have definitely dipped.

Anyway, the dozer operator did, indeed, remove all of those posts.  I put the panel in the back next to the gas operation tanks - if they want it back, they can have it.  I have no need for it but even if I did, it's not really mine and I don't want to be accused of stealing something.  This saved me a lot of work - I would have had to cut those posts down with a chainsaw and there would be a bit sticking out of the ground. The dozer just removed them entirely, lol.

Oh, and they dumped gravel into that area along the old driveway that was a mud pit. I would have preferred they dump dirt in there first and then gravel.  I think that would have worked better.  I do think I will need a small machine out there when I get the gravel dumped for the old driveway.  I watched them doing it today and tho the truck can dump it while driving, it's far from and exacting science.  The operator today did agree 2 inches would be enough, at least.  Let's try to keep the costs down at this point.  It will be hard to part with 28k for that gravel, but what was I supposed to do?  

There was nothing else.  I couldn't get the gravel as cheap as the contractor did and I know I would have gotten higher bids from everyone else around.  That's just the nature of this contractor, he's fair and probably the best around. He just doesn't like to communicate.  Apparently his phone rings constantly all day long.  I mean, non stop and then the texts.  Seems like he needs to delegate some responsibility and have someone else help him handling that stuff?  

Don't know, I do know that the only thing really left is to get the septic system running. It's all hooked up, it just needs to be turned on once - stuff - starts getting dumped into it lol.  

Well that's it. It's been a long day and there are many more long days ahead of me before I can open up this thing and get it going. 

But, it's all good!

 So. The boys wanted to go to church this morning.

I started this by asking the oldest quite a while back if he wanted to go with.  The first visit he didn't much care for. Well, not until we got home and he had a couple of days to process it.  Then he decided he wanted to go again.  Which we never found time for or getting out of bed late on Sundays. 

Today, he wanted to go again and the youngest wanted to go as well.  They have this giant, indoor playland thing like you would find at McDonalds with those tubes you crawl through - but this tube setup is far larger than the thing you would see at McDonalds (or do they still have those?).  

From floor to very high ceiling and from one side of the building to the other.  Anyway, that is pretty much why they like to go. Anyway, we went - but they had changed the start time from 10:30 to 11:00 am.  

I decided to go take a look at the property.  I normally go everyday, but I missed yesterday as we were busy all day long.  It is nice to take a break from all of that stuff and even thinking about it, which is what happened yesterday.  The property is a 3 minute drive from the church and we were 40 minutes early for church.

When we got over there, I was surprised to see a bulldozer sitting there. It's 500 feet back to where it was sitting from the roadway but it was quite easily seen from the street.  We drove back and I was even more surprised that they had already realigned the 3 pipes that needed moved and had graded the driveway and the pads once again.  

It was looking nice.  the only thing I disagree with is the one that was sitting up too high.  They only needed lower it, not move the position from where it was at.  I can see how they came to the conclusion of where to place the end where the water goes through. The water overflows right there and in reality, there needed to be 2 openings.  

I'm going to have to fix that, I can guarantee there will be a small lake over where the pipe used to end. It really only needed to be lowered maybe 2 or 3 inches.....

Oh well. It doesn't have to be done to put in the gravel.  I can work around the gravel and would have done so anyway.  Looks like they just cut off longer pieces of pipe I had sticking out on other pads to compensate for the repositioning.  I purposely left the pipes laying well into the intended grass areas to be sure that wherever they wanted to put gravel, the ends of my pipes would not end up being covered up.

Come back and cut them to size after they are done and put in these small, pre-made concrete pads they make to put under where water drips - it keeps the soil from eroding.  I am going to put those under the water outlets for the RV's as well.  It's all of this little stuff that I didn't know I would need that keeps adding up to a lot of money.  I don't know how much he is going to charge to realign those 3 pipes, he didn't quote me on that.  It needed to be done, that's all I know.  

It appears as though I am going to have to buy several garden hoses with the lawn sprinklers. It's not raining enough to grow the grass seed. It's going to be a pain to move hoses around from one site to another, I need the grass, yes, but I don't need 14 hoses.  Like everything else nowadays, garden hoses aren't cheap and I can see getting maybe 4 of them and just having to spend a lot of time out there dealing with it.  

The grass is a dealbreaker, I have to have it and I will do whatever I have to do to get it in there.  

I guess they left the dozer to spread the gravel - tomorrow.  Yes, since they got all of that dirt stuff done, they should be having a lot of truckloads of material brought out tomorrow and spreading it.  This is the last major expense and major item on the checklist that needs to be done. The rest is small stuff comparatively speaking, tho this software business is for the birds.  If I could afford it, I would just have an accountant take care of my books.

I identified a lot more stuff I need to do so tomorrow, whether they are out there or not, I'm definitely going to be out there.  I've got alot of roots sticking up out of the ground I need to cut out.  I'm going to have to order the material to cover the old driveway.  I will need extra truckloads for the boondocking sites and the portion of the driveway that needs repaired.  I need to install 2 4x4's for the other sign for the front.  I'll hopefully see the finished product tomorrow with the gravel in place and see if there is room for picnic tables and fire rings. Fire rings will definitely be put in place, picnic tables may take the backseat for now.  

The reason is the price of those things keeps going up and I don't necessarily think I have to have them out there. Fire rings, yes and much cheaper, picnic tables no and no worries.  

I am also going to buy the wood to build 3 or 4, 8 foot long bench seats and build a fire ring with stones for the socializing area.  I haven't quite definitely decided where to put it.  I thought I knew but I changed my mind because I want to allow the 2 boondocking sites and the fire pit would have created a conflict.  They both need to go in the back. Boondockers will be making noise with generators and people using the social area will be making noise having their fun.

I'm referring to after the 10:00 pm noise curfew.  Quiet hours exist at every RV park I've looked at and they are already on my website posted from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am.  

I've got a lot to do, to end this.  I've had a lot to do all along, just taking one step at a time.  We got the sign up today and I don't think I'm going to do anything else out there today.  A day of rest will be nice.

Happy Sunday

 Friday - morning

I cold day in northeast texas, it's 8:30 am and it's still only 32 degrees outside.

Now, I'm not complaining.  It's sunny, the temp will come up over the next few hours and goodbye to that drastic, hot summer. It's funny how we complain how hot it is and then we complain how freezing cold it is!  Yup, I've done it too, just not today. I guess the only complaint today was the temperature of my room when I got out of bed this morning. If it was 50 degrees in here I wouldn't believe it.  More like in the 40's.

This bedroom is an add-on - used to be a carport.  Whoever added it on did a poor job of getting the central AC and heat in here. There is hardly any flow coming out of the vent and if I want it warm in here, I have to turn on my large space heater and even then, it takes a couple of hours to bring it to warm feeling in here. 

Well, as I learned growing up, you can always add layers of clothing.  I just don't like to waste electricity all night long on heat that I don't need when considering the fact that I am covered up with blankets in bed. 

Anyway, we are shooting for Monday to do the rest of the work out there and - well I don't know if he's including the gravel in that equation.  I certainly hope so - they get out there early, they can have that work done in a couple of hours at most and then have the trucks bring in the gravel.  But, that's the way I think, this dude? Who knows.  

I'm going out there early Monday, that's what I can say.  See if they are out there and make sure they are doing everything I wanted to get done.  

In other news, there are numerous other RV parks in this area.  One of them always comes to the top of the list when Googling Rv parks and I checked on them yesterday. I busted out laughing. They had stolen my web designer's ideas and implemented them on THEIR page!  All of a sudden, they have a motorcoach and a travel trailer on the front page and a group of 4 people - 2 couples - that are sitting out there having a BBQ.  They also put in the exact same google search map showing where their park is as my web designer put on mine.  

I'd like to send them a bill for half the costs of the ideas, lmao.  My site jumped up to page 3 of search results overnight.  Remember, it started out on page 7, I think it was.  It's also jumped up on the first page where it shows all the RV parks listed.  This competitor stealing ideas also posted their pricing on the front page, an apparent attempt to show they are going to be cheaper than mine.  Yes, well I am not going to be operating a junky park with dirt roads and overgrown grass with cement slabs that look like they needed cleaned years ago.

Or have them so crammed together you can hear your neighbors eating dinner inside their rig with their doors closed.  

I do wonder about opening in what will be getting close to the dead of winter, but I'm not going to just wait  until Spring.  It costs me nothing more to open and I have already paid the insurance up for a year, which starts on December 1st.  I figure there might be the adventurous crowd that will want to go camping as well. 

I've gone snow camping and extreme cold camping. The part about camping like that that isn't so precious is when it's time to get up in the morning, it's 20 degrees outside and you know you aren't going to be able to warm up until you get a solid campfire going.  

Maria came over yesterday with her new roommate.  He apparently has money as he's retired and staying with her until he finds a property to buy that he can build a house on.  He has a dog, Maria has 2 dogs and Addler was out there as well. Addler and her dogs used to live together, to it wasn't surprising after all that time that they hit it right up and no real fussing.  The new dog wasn't particularly hostile either.  

We walked the entire circumference of the trail.  She had never been and just wanted to take a look.  She was impressed and complimented the entire layout.  Thank you! I think it's pretty nice and I am hoping the trails well help sell the place as a quasi-destination spot.  I'd love to be able to buy some of the land behind my property at the rear.  It's undeveloped land, forest I should say.  An extra 10 acres would be very nice back there.  No, the land isn't for sale and even if it were, I don't have the money for it.  

Some day, tho, I would love to be able to expand in one direction or another.  Another 10 acres back there would open up huge possibilities for a lake and cabins.  

Anyway, sticking to the here and now- today? I always go over there whether I intend on doing anything or not.  I will be checking the grass seed I planted, I have no intention of planting the seed I just bought until I can see there are several days or even a week worth of rain coming. I'm just hoping what I have done - takes - because it's basically the entire RV park section that I dumped seed on.  

Today, I am hoping to get a demo of the campground software - but really - I just want to upgrade to the real thing and get this ball rolling.

With that?

G'day.  

Thursday, morning. 

I got up early to see Taylor and the kids off. Taylor got a new espresso machine and wasn't sure last night if she would have time to make a cup since she deals with the boys in the morning.  But, she had it going and had her own cuppa before she left.  

Yesterday.  Getting frustrated with this rye grass seed situation and not being able to find any.  I went to Tractor Supply to see for myself if they had any that came in with their weekly shipment. No, the emphatic answer.  Lowe's - nothing but way over-priced 25 pound bags.  I wasn't going to pay that much for grass seed, sorry, but no thanks. 

I had already checked around.  Buchanan's - call them, the thought came into my head. It says it's a "Seed and Feed" store, but what you see going in and out of there are ranchers and farmers.  Stuff related mostly to horses and cows.  There are a lot of horses and cows in this area, lol.

The dude on the other end of the phone said yes, we have 50 pound bags for $37.  What? Did I just hear you wrong? $37 per 50 pound bag?  Yes, but we only have 5 or 6 bags left right now, we're waiting on another shipment.  Yup.  Got the trailer, went over there and bought 6 bags. By the time I got there -several hours later - they had already received their shipment and a lot more of it.

The amazing part? This is the exact same brand and seed that Tractor Supply is selling for $54.95.  The man was shocked.  I agreed, it's just grass seed!  Just another example of corporate greed. When another company can sell it $17 less and still make a profit, there is greed going on there. Lowe's even worse at $65, tho a different brand. 

Well, I've got that going this morning, just taking it  over to the property, putting it in the shed and dropping the trailer.  I've got to go to the other's kid's school this morning.  He also wants McDonald's Happy Meal (versus the tragedy they call a Thanksgiving dinner served at the school), so I will oblige him since I did the same for his older brother on Tuesday.  

Their lunch time is 10:00 am. I asked him this morning, is this your normal lunch time? Yes!  That's early!  That's more like late breakfast or brunch!  

I dunno, but I'm going to check the soil again over there this morning.  It rained a long time on Monday and it really saturated the soil.  I'm afraid that nothing is going to get done until next week - and there is a chance of rain every day next week.  This is going to seriously jeopardize any notion of opening on December 1st.  

No worries, I guess, it will start up when it starts up.  I was originally hoping to get going the middle of this month, but that obviously isn't happening.  I mean, it may actually be that it will not happen until well into December and tho it isn't what I want, it will just have to do.  

I think I am going to make this blog "public", ie: create an actual website for it and drive a few more visitors.  I wouldn't mind getting some minds commenting on some of this stuff, perhaps people that are in business could give some advice.  

G'day. 

It's 9:00 am and it's 40 degrees outside. Winter is officially here? 

I dunno but I just spent an hour doing "card compliance" - because I am going to be able to accept credit card payments on-site (either for a spot or for firewood or whatever) - I had to go through a very extensive list of questions specifically pointed at security and what I will do with any information once it's used. Get rid of it, frankly. I don't want to keep people's credit card information and it will only be input through the system - if Cardpointe stores it, that's on them.  

What a pain.  I get that they want users to do specific things when manually taking a card but my goodness.  Well, anyway, that is over with.  I don't know what the next step is.  The campground software person didn't really specify that- yet.  I'll be sending an email today asking when/how we are going to upload the actual software to the website.  I think that rep has to work with my web designer to get that done.  I know I will have nothing to do with it - because I know nothing about how that works and frankly, I don't want to learn.  It's a one-time deal.

I have the contractor nailed down to call or text me when he's (allegedly) heading over there today.  Specific things I would like them to do that I just don't want to continue to fool with. I did my best job, saved a ton of money and will pay for the rest.  I could probably fix the things that need fixing, but I feel like at $400 per day to rent the machine, I'm better off having an expert do it and it won't cost much more than that. Maybe a grand I'm thinking to do what I need done, which really isn't that much for an expert using a machine.  A couple of hours and they would be finished.  This way, the job is done right, we don't put down 28k worth of rock and then find out we have to move some of it to facilitate a repair that should have been done in the first place.

I have an electrician coming next week to see about hooking the shed up with power.  I'm not going to fool with high voltage under ground lines.  I'm good with circuit breaker panels and running line in the shed itself, but I have no experience with these much larger lines and how to attach to them, I'll leave that to an expert.  Of course, the expert isn't going to be cheap considering he'll have to dig down to the line and dig a trench to the shed. 

BUT, from where the line ends to the shed is maybe 40 feet.  It'll still cost a couple thousand dollars I'm guessing.  Once I get a quote I can decide what to do.  A couple of washers and dryers would really help getting people in there.  People don't want to go sit at a laundromat.  They'd rather take it to your place, load the machines, come back in an hour, repeat process.  I just should have had this included in the cost of running the line - but - I didn't know when I was going to get a shed or where I was going to place it.  

Future reference? Yes, figure out where it's going to go and just have a line run to that vicinity with a box sticking up out of the ground, same for sewer and water.  

Right now? Well, after this, I'm heading over there.  See how it is drying up and cut down that big tree and whatever else I can get done over there.  Oh and see if any of that seed I put down last week is sprouting.  The seed I just put down 2 days ago obviously isn't going to be sprouting quite yet. OH! And go to Tractor supply this afternoon to see if they did, indeed, get in a pallet of grass seed.

Off to the races. 

 3 draft blog entries just sitting there lol.

It rained all afternoon yesterday. I went over there twice, identified more problems - mostly it's just leveling the ground so the water can flow downhill without pooling up.  I was thinking of renting the roller they have at the local rental place.  It would flatten/smooth out the ground and eliminate most of those problems.  

The contractor says I need to fix a storm drain issue before they dump gravel. Great, but that's a quick fix and it won't hold them up.  It will be a couple of days drying before they are going to come out. In fact, I would suspect if they are coming this week, it will be Friday.  That gives 3 full days to dry including today.  Very low percentage chance of rain, I'm hoping this time it's a go. 

Wednesday/tomorrow afternoon Tractor Supply allegedly getting a truckload in and on that truck a pallet of grass seed. Yup, I'll be over there getting at least 4, 50-pound bags.  Maybe 5 since seed is in short supply in this entire region - and I don't just mean at Tractor Supply. Yes, I looked up all the Tractor Supplies in a - 70 mile? - radius, only one said they had it but after calling them? "We don't have any grass seed here".  A 40 mile drive for nothing would have been a bit frustrating.  

I got the stands to hold up my new signs - but I don't think I'll put those in until after the gravel install. Won't take half an hour to do it and there is no sense in risking having new signs run over by a Bobcat. 

I have also determined to have the driveway done.  I don't know when yet.  Before the 1st, obviously, but I want everything to dry out first.  Actually, since it's an existing driveway and there is already a thin layer of gravel down - dirt tho in some spots - it shouldn't have to completely dry out.  I could have it dumped and hope that it will spread nicely - and if not, just go ahead and rent a small tractor with a box grader attachment on the rear.  

It isn't a Bobcat but it is $150 per day cheaper and I don't have to have a bobcat to effectively spread the gravel.  

I'm going to send a bill to the oil and gas company.  They will probably laugh, but whatever.  There will be record of me doing something about "their" driveway that they refuse to maintain beyond having a giant bush hog coming through attempting to do work that only chainsaws or perhaps a trackhoe could do. 

The 25 year old I had out for a couple of weeks ran the trailer into my brand new shed.  There is no other explanation.  One of the fenders on the trailer has been ripped out and the damage on the shed is that same height - and the fact there is no reason for any "intruder" to have been driving on that portion of the property. 

It was no wonder when he came the final time to our house to get his pay that he gave me a look and literally ran off.  It will probably cost a thousand dollars to fix that damage.  I can leave it for now - it's not open to the elements and it's not visible from the driveway, I just don't want to leave it like that.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to get done today.  I could get busy with the chain saw, there isn't anything I can do in the wet mud of the driveway.  The 7 year old's school is having Thanksgiving dinner today and I'm going to that per the kid' request.  He reminded me last night. "Are you still going to come tomorrow?"  Well of course I am, I wouldn't intentionally let him down like that.  After that, I may very well go over there and cut down a large tree on the driveway that's been needing to come down and maybe do some raking.  

I wouldn't mind going and getting some hard rubber boots to be able to walk in mud and water without getting my feet wet.  Not sure who in town might sell those, but Walmart and Tractor Supply would be good starts.

And - the web designer went to town on my website over the weekend.  He added as much stuff as we can right now without having the campground software in place.  I did the phone interview for card processing yesterday, they said up to 5 business days.   So I have to wait on that approval before movin on to having the software released and having the web designer install it on the site.  

To date, a Google search on a desktop shows my park on the 5th page now instead of the 6th.  The effect of what the web designer should move it well up in the next coming days.  

So wifi.  Gag.  Well, there are 2 relatively cheap options, at least for regular customers, I don't know about business. I'll be going to both places to see if there is anyone there that is knowledgeable about setting up wifi for 14 spots.  I don't need it, I have Verizon and it works ine over there.  I don't want to spend a lot of money on it because really, most people should have their own wifi they take with them.  Still, too many people complain about a park not having wifi - but they complain even more bitterly about a park that has wifi but poor reception or not enough bandwidth. 

It's kind of a no win situation as far as I can see it, but I will provide a cheaper alternative.  Waiting til a week before opening day, I see no reason to start up a service I won't be using for 3 weeks.  Well, 2 weeks? lol I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but that's what I'm working towards.  It's between T-Mobile and Boost.  Boost is 2 towns over to go talk to anyone, tho, T-Mobile is in town.

I'm doing the work that needs to be done in a time frame that I'm hoping will get this thing going soon. 

That's about it.