Up early, drinking my coffee.

Get over there by 8 am, get another 3 hours on the machine and then take it back.  I was particularly pleased at how fast the trenching went yesterday, even with tons of thick roots, that machine just cut right through them.  There were no hard spots, there are hardly any rocks in the soil at all. It's thick clay after you get down so far, to, that's what really gets difficult when digging out by hand.  

Anyway, it allowed me to do other things of which i didn't know i would have time to do.  

People just indiscriminately throwing bags of trash all over the place. The trash cans - they are small - are filling up quickly now so instead of people stacking up overflow neatly? They just chuck a bag in the vicinity of the can.  This problem will be eliminated as soon as they get the regular cans there - but that could be weeks down the road.  I dunno, but if I catch the people doing it, I will most certainly say something to them about it.  It's not like the trash is sitting there like that for days and days.

It's overnight at most - by the time I get back over there in other words.  A lot of these guys are young.  They probably have a good work ethic considering the type of work they are doing and the hours theyput in, but that apparently doesn't always translate over into tidiness and respecting other people's property.  

Oh well, the price to pay to get these people in there, I guess, I just pick it up and move along.  Not much else you can do about it.  

Well, I best get this entry done and get over there. I have more than doubled the size of the HipCamp lot I want to make - simply because I have the time with the machine to do so. I think I'll put either 4 or 6 spots in there and call it a day.  I just haven't quite figured out how I want to arrange it, but that's okay, I don't have to figure that out today, I just need to get the area cleared.  Money left on the table is how I'm looking at it, with the only real thing I have to run out there being electricity, I see no downside to trying this.  It'll just motivate me more to get the shed done.  And I'd like to get some of the piping done today, at least, it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  

We're in the 60% range of thunderstorms early tomorrow morning.  I hope it doesn't happen, working in a wet trench won't be fun. I can't leave those open forever, it's a hazard even with the yellow caution tape, I want to get most of it done, at least to the shed. The shed itself can have some open areas around the rear of it, but the idea of having 140 feet of open trench like that? No thanks.  I'll need to take a look at the fittings I bought last week and see if there are the right ones. 

I know I'll need an adapter at the very least. I don't know why they ran PVC SCH40 underground for the sewer in the rear portion.  It's far enough underground that any weight going over top of it is negligible in terms of risk of collapse.  They put the pipe I am putting in place of it in the streets all the time, I know this for a fact for I delivered the stuff for almost 12 years. Sch40 is expensive pipe is what I am referring to, much more expensive than the actual, designated sewer pipe.  I guess it will last a long time! But so will the SDR35, they also run the stuff to your house. 

Well, make another cup of joe and go.

G'day.

 Long day.  

I wasn't sure about doing the trenching today, but it seemed like the time to get it done.  I have a couple coming on Friday to use the lot and I have nowhere else to put them. The other 2 overnight spots are booked.  Well, Friday's a coming and I ain't go not time for this, I went and got the machine and started trenching.  I got all of the trenching done including the driveway mess.  I might go over the driveway portion one more time to get it looking a little better. 

The driveway angles up before going back down and I believe I have it trenched all the way to the down portion. I'll have to look again, I was getting my money's worth out of that machine and I still have 3 hours worth I can use on it.  

After that, I went over to where I want to install HipCamp setups and started clearing land with the machine.  We're not talking a huge chunk of land, but since I have so much time left to use the mini-ex, I'm going to clear out a larger swatch.  Get enough room for 5 vehicles in there at once.  It might be a bit optimistic to think I will need that many spaced - but we're talking dirt and an electrical hookup and that's it.  If it becomes popular, I'll install gravel.  

Now, the trench may not be perfect angle, but I know I can just shovel in dirt from the sides as needed.  You have to have a downward slope - obviously - for waste water to travel down hill.  Some sewer operations have pumps, this is definitely gravity drain to the septic tank.  

I can probably at least clear out the first burn pile to the north with that thing as well. It'll take it awhile -it's not a dozer but it  does have a blade.  It just can't push too much dirt at one time.  30 minutes on that pile tho? I bet i can level it off.  Take away one eyesore at least.  The man bush hogging showed up - he did almost all of the back portion before he sheared a pin that the driveshaft operates on.  

It's to save the engine/transmission from destruction if the blades get caught up on something.  He flat told me I need a dozer out there. Yup, I know that, I thought but didn't say,  it's been needing one but it's not in the budget right now.  I didn't tell him that either. I just want the da** weeds down and just have a bit nicer looking entrance.  

Dozer work is not even on the priority list atm.  I think the dirt work on the driveway should work fine, but I won't be able to tell until the next rain gets here which is allegedly Wednesday - and what also drove me to go ahead and get the machine today. I can have it til noon tomorrow, after that I can get busy installing the sewer pipe first.  Get all the stuff in as fast as possible - I have a big trench all over the place and I don't need people falling into it.  I put yellow caution tape all around to identify danger, what else do you do?  

The garbage is coming in fast and furious now, to the point I'm going to need a dumpster.  They called back and said they can't get me dumpster service to that area, it's too far out.  So, I ordered a second regular can instead.  It's not perfect, but it will work for now. I think I can get by with 2 of them, if I need 3 I'll get 3. They only add $10 and tax for each additional container.  If I ever go back on the road, it's going to need a dumpster - automated.  Whereas you have to put the cans on the street every week for pickup (it's 800 feet back to the shed where I keep the trash at), they have to drive in to a dumpster to unload it. 

I cancelled Verizon - it's good til the end of the month. No one is complaining about the T-Mobile set up so that's where I'm leaving it for now.  It's $50.  I got the "extra blocks of data" bill for Verion - $310.  No thank you.  

Anyway, I"m excited about getting some more setups for HipCampers and also generally about the park itself.  Money is coming in and tho it's not enough to live off of, it's certainly in the profit range. Hence the HipCampers and hoping that will get some of those people coming in. 

The local real estate guy called today as well. I had put in a request for an appraisal, they do those besides listing and selling properties, at least according to their website.  The guy said, well it says here there is or used to be a 14 space RV park there? Yes, it's brand new, still here, lol.  He said he needed to come by and take a look.  Cool.  He's going to call me next chance he gets.  

That's it for this entry. Just a synopsis of what's going on. I'll use the machine til noon tomorrow and then get back there and start laying pipe - or trying to anyway.  I have no idea if I'm going to get lucky and the PVC sch40 will just plug into the sewer pipe - or do I need to go on a wild goose chase to find a fitting? If I need a fitting, I won't waste a lot of time, I'll just go to a waterworks store, I think the nearest is in Longview. They always sell the relevant adapters for pipe like that ....

>>well I answered that question. Yes, you have to use an adapter and supposedly, Lowe's has them.  It's a small fraction of an inch between SDR35 and PVC SC40 but apparently enough that if you don't have the adapter? You will have raw sewage leaking : ) No thank you!  

I've got 6 reservations in the system for the short term lots, only one of them is lot 11.  I haven't turned down any requests for long term.  I won't, either, I want 11 filled. I just want one pull through and one back in for short term and that's it -for now. If it picks up, I'll just have to wait until one of the long term leaves. None of those people are permanent.  They work here - they live somewhere else and mostly, they live a long, long ways off. The earliest I know of is around 2-3 months.  After that? No clue.  

I've made up my mind, in other words. I need one more long term and that will work for now.  

I've got plenty on my plate atm.  Trying to keep up with all of this.....it's actually more mind-boggling than one would expect.  I have to write everything down of any importance to ensure I remember whatever it is.  Driveway, trenches, clear out lots for hipcampers, dig another trench for hipcampers electric (nothing too deep, just a direct bury line that can go to the outlets I want to put in, 2 or 3 of them).  Inspect the bush hogger' work,  make an appointment for accountant, go to Lowe's and get the adapter and a couple of caps and at least one emergency setup for anyone who might run over the water spigots at each lot - and on, and on...and onnnn.......and really, more at Lowe's.  

Find a shower stall, install the outlets I have and then figure out what is left that I need.  Can I install PVC schedule 40 in the walls of the shed, or do they absolutely recommend that I need copper or some other "inner" style piping?  It's not a house.....PVC would just be easier. I'll have to look into that.  

__________________________After having some time  to think about it, no reason why not continue down the line with the HipCamp stuff. Heck, even boondocking for $10 - that's an RV that is parking without any amenities, no power, water or sewage hookups.  Why? Because I have the machine and turning it in early makes no sense.  Use it til you lose it.  At the rate I was going, I could go 100 feet by 50 feet worth of space and still have time left over.  

In fact, now that I think of it, I need to come up with a plan for parking spaces since I'm going to expand the thing.  I have the space, if/when I want to expand the RV park itself, they can simply disappear and I can move them elsewhere on the property.  Just that for right now? They are close to the shed, able to get some power and if they really want to, can walk to the nearest water spigot.  Which is 400 feet away, but who's counting. 

I fully intend on having a water outlet by the shed.  For my use if no one else.  

Yea, nothing else atm.  

 Pulled up the tarp over the hole I dug around the utilities at lot 14, run a string and then painted the intended trench line.  Called the rental store to reserve a machine for Monday morning. IF the forecast is correct, it will be dry clear til monday and potential storms tuesday, but well after I will be finished with the use of the machine.  This gives some time for everything to dry up.  

So, the big thing today? They cut down several pine trees next to the pipeline easement.  These were absolutely gorgeous trees and i was given no notice that they were going to cut them down.  

AS normal, it is a lengthy ordeal to find out who, exactly, is responsible for what back there. There are 3 gas companies and those companies have all of their own contractors that they send out there to do work.  They don't care about property owners - at all - and don't even let property owners know about their intentions to alter the property in ways that diminishes the beauty of it.  I made unknown amount of phone calls today, left email messages, etc until I found the right contractor.

They just called me back.  Oh,well those trees were on the pipeline easement.  I understand that.  I didn't cut those trees down and I am not going to tolerate them being left on the property like that. Oh, well they are supposed to leave them on "our property" - meaning the easement.  He was talking as if he owns that land.  No sir, that is not your property, I own the entire land that the project is on, you are not going to leave those trees sitting on MY property.  Period.  If you don't get stern with these people, they will try to walk all over you.  

He just grumbled on the phone after I shot right back at him.  I will start out with a basic level of respect I give to anyone that I have just met and then it either goes up or down from there, depending on their attitude towards me.  

He then said he would have a crew come out today and remove them.  It's fine if it doesn't happen today, I replied, within the next week is ok as long as I have your assurances that it will be removed.

Folks, I have enough to deal with right now - a LOT of stuff to do - without having to deal with someone else's mess.  Those trees would undoubtedly have just sat there and rotted forever, an eyesore.  

I then asked him about the driveway.  What are they planning to do on the driveway?  Oh well I don't know about that.  Yes, it's a 1,400 foot long driveway and they were running an ATV up and down it, if they are planning on removing trees along the driveway, I want to know about it.  I won't tolerate them cutting down trees that aren't on the driveway easement, eluding to the fact that one set of trees they had cut down in the back was not on their easement.  

He knew nothing about that and said he would contact them and find out, for they shouldn't be riding atv's on the driveway and they weren't planning on doing anything with it. Yes, well it's those vehicles that are tearing the driveway up.  Again, none of these companies care about the condition of the driveway. It could be pure mud and they will just plow through it. If they get stuck, the get a dozer or earth moving equipment out there to unstick it.  It's pretty ridiculous how they are allowed to operate.  

I know, I chose this property knowing what was going on with  a portion of it.  It would be nice if they would at least give the landowner's notice about their intentions instead of having landowners show up after the fact and basically go into shock about what has happened while they were gone.  It just kind of sends you into.... well, they took down some beautiful trees and it was rather shocking.  They were about 15 to 20 foot tall pines and were a natural block to the view of those giants tanks back there. Now it's just barren.  I'm going to have to plant some trees in their place. 

Actually, I will probably plant some fast growing shrubs that are nice to look at and will block that view in a couple of years. Looks like $100 worth of Thuja trees will do the trick. 

I have asked the older couple that if they see these people come in there again, please contact me so I can go confront them. Or not confront them, just watch what they are doing.  Guaranteed I will be out there as fast as I can get there. They agreed with a heart emoji and said will do!

These people may cost me more in utilities and such, but they are worth the price to have someone keep an eye on the property.  I found out yesterday they helped manage a very large park at one point in time in south Texas. I haven't asked them for that kind of help, it just means I would have to pay them or reduce their lot rent or if enough work, eliminate lot rent altogether for them and right now? That is financially out of the question. 

This situation threw my whole day off. I was in the mindset that my woes with these companies were over with, that all the ridiculousness that they could inflict was done.  They had already come through with land clearing equipment previously and a dozer, even, on the west side on the rear of the property clearing trees.  They had a giant bush hog clearing out brush as well.  The grader they had come along the driveway did far more damage than good by basically erasing the gravel left and displacing it off the driveway itself, leaving it unprotected and eroding every time it rains.  

Monday I will endeavor to get the trenches dug for the pipe and wire and then get over there and get a trench dug out for the driveway drainage so I can put some gravel down there and get that situation dealt with where there is extensive erosion going on.  I also mapped out in  my mind where the Hip Campers will be and want to use the blade on the mini-ex to clear a bit more land, I want enough room for 3 hip camp vehicles back there.  

And if time does permit for the trenching along the driveway, I will call the gravel company and see if they can manage to get a truckload of gravel out so I can spread it with the machine.  I just don't want to order it until I know if I am going to have enough time for it.  Or, eat it and just use the machine for 2 full days instead of one, regardless, the work needs to be done. This isn't a wish list, this is a top priority item.  But, so is the shed.  Clearing out for hipcampers is less of a priority, but it's well up there for potential money making.  

My new shed showed up while I was sitting here typing this entry.  Time to go out there and see if it's in a bit better condition than the last thing they showed up with.  And, I have to decide on which shower stall I want so I can trench where the drain on the stall will be.  I have this stuff figured out as far as how it is installed, I don't have precise measurements and I sort of need those before I get the machine. You know, so I have a trench dug in the appropriate location? lol 

Well well well. I sent a message saying I want to plant those Thuja trees and the man called me back.  Uhh, well if you get those trees we'd like to plant them for you.  OH?!!  Okay!  Lol, it ended up in a pleasant conversation, he apologized and that ended far better than what I expected.

Well, apparently the family is off to Chili's and I'm dragging along with them.

 So...the Valley of Decision. Well, I have recently decided to do much more in following after the Lord, that is for sure!  That isn't what I'm referring to here but it was the first thought that entered my mind after writing that. BTW, I think I need a new keyboard. Pounding on the keys for so long? It misses letters and spaces and I have to keep correcting it  - or move on and leave the error.  

Yes, well that was random thought, lol.  No, I have decided to get one more long term in there, if there is one that may come sooner or later, and leave the last 2 for short term.  One pull-through and one back-in lot. This way I can still test whether this shed and all of what I am doing to it will have any effect on short term, much higher paying (cumulatively of course) lot rents.  

Slowly getting caught up on bookkeeping to keep things on the up and up and also to show income for any potential lender I may be able to get a loan with.  I really want at least 30 more lots.  

There are advantages and disadvantages to filling the place up with this oil field workers. One advantage is they are hardly home.  That means they aren't sitting on the toilet as much and filling up the septic system, causing it to work harder and use more electricity in the process.

The second is since they aren't home, they will be using less electricity in cooling and heating. Tho, I think most of those things have propane furnaces, it doesn't stop them from placing space heaters around.  I can't tell if an RV is using a space heater - at least not with a meter on the pedestal - but I can tell if their AC is running all day long without them being home.  When it gets warm out, I will be walking up and down the row and listening for them to come on.  I can see keeping it 78 - 80 degrees inside just so they don't come home to a burning hot trailer - I can't see them keeping it at 70 or whatever, cooling a unit that isn't being used. Trust me, I will say something to them about it if I find the latter to be true. 

It will be a request and it will be given to the entire park: I have noticed that some of the RV's in the park whose owners are not home all day long have the AC units running continuously.  I am giving low rates to everyone, in order to keep those rates low, I am requesting that everyone please turn the temp up to 78-80 during the day when you are not home, or turn it off altogether ( I really don't expect people to turn them off altogether, I might not add that sentence, it takes a long time to cool down a hot trailer and if you have food or other perishables in there, they will be ruined). Otherwise, I will be forced to raise rent rates, which I don't want to have to do.  

So, electricity is going to be the "issue" in summer, whether I can make money or be paying giant electric bills.  There is a case to be made for adding meters to each pedestal, lowering the lot rent but requiring them to pay their own electricity.  The problem? Meters are very expensive.  

The Valley of Decision was how many more full timers to take in? 1 for the moment.  Certainly, I have a 2 nighter coming ni next week (I think it was) and a 3 nighter next month. I don't have anything else reserved.  It's this shed situation - will it make a difference or not?  And can I get these long term people to use the laundry facility or am I wasting money for nothing? 

I have decided to rent the mini ex on Monday. That gives ample time to dry out the soil - it isn't supposed to rain until late Tuesday next week.  It'll be one of those days I get up early, get over to the rental place and get busy.  Which means today, besides attempting to install electrical outlets  - I didn't get to that yesterday because these new people came in and ate up a lot of time - I want to run a stringer along where I want the trench dug out and then spray orange marking paint along the line.  

I'm thinking I should  hand shovel the gravel out of the way and into a pile so I don't waste it - that machine will be difficult enough for me to manage without also having to worry about saving gravel. 

I guess I'm in for a long day today.  

I do wonder if my sleep issues aren't directly related to a mind filled with "what is next" for the business.  I dunno, but cold or not, I'm outta here. Lots of work to do!

G'day

 Wednesday - morning.

I would be eternally grateful to the Living God if my energy levels could ever come back to "normal" status since that episode of Covid in November.  It's getting to the point of ridiculous.  Work 6 hours of manual labor and I'm toast?  And other things not worth going into here.  

Well, it was longer than 6 hours yesterday, it's just that it was 6 hours of solid work, the rest was doing other business related things that didn't require much energy. It's why I'm trying to keep off going back to trucking as long as possible. I'm not sure I'd last a 14 hour shift even if only driving.  

I frankly believe that a lot of these deaths with young people who are otherwise healthy and aren't drug abusers are victims of the Covid shot.  But there is speculation in the medical world that getting Covid regardless of shots can also damage the heart.  I'm not living in fear, I'm just saying, it's particularly odd all of the things that are happening in our society that are seemingly after-effects of Covid - whether the virus itself, the shots to try to diminish it's effects or a combination of both.  

Oh, well I'm eternally grateful to the Lord regardless of energy levels.  Salvation is a priceless gift. 

Anyway, today's agenda is simply to go to Lowe's get 3 more boxes of the vinyl tiles, install them and then start work on installing the electrical outlet boxes.  Start running the wires if time permits.  It rained during the wee hours of the morning, I'm not renting a mini ex today. I dunno when the 2cd new shed is coming.  

I want the 2cd one to built out, not the damaged one.  It will serve as the enclosure for the water heater.  

I am not going to write too much today, I have a purplish middle finger and tho the pain isn't terrible, I can definitely feel it when hitting the i,d or c key.  My leg is still in pain, somewhere between mild and medium.  I suspect that will exist for quite a while.  

So, with that, off to work.  

G'day. 

 Well.

The longest day I've worked in a while and I"m feeling it.  I spent all day in that shed putting that flooring in.  I have to go buy 3 more boxes of tiles tomorrow to finish it, I was way off on my estimating, tho at least it wasn't over-estimating.  It's hard work, actually.  I started to get better at it as I went along and better cuts and measurements, tho the door and cutting around it admittedly took much longer than any of the rest of it.  

The shed came in today.  I got a notification on my phone and I checked the camera, sure enough, sitting on my front porch.  The washer and dryer also showed up, very professional and courteous delivery driver and helper.  The were meticulous about gently handling the boxes and I noted that there were no rips of tears in the boxing, it was all in great condition. Amazing, coming clear from the east coast and then ending up in a warehouse in Dallas. If I had thought about it, I would have tipped them. But, I was exhausted and I still had work to do. 

They carefully maneuvered both machines into the shed and I signed off on them. Beautiful coin operated bliss, I do hope all of this trouble will be worth it.  It's a lot of money and it's a lot of work.  I've got days and days worth of work left to do.  It doesn't help that I smashed my left hand middle finger squarely with a hammer while pounding a tile into place.  It was alleviated from a lot more pain, tho, by immediately covering it with ice and keeping the ice on there a while.  

It's kind of hard to type lol.  

Anyway, they came, left and I went home to get the kids from the bus stop.  But, I saw Taylor on the front porch.  I could tell instantly she wasn't feeling well.  I went, got the boys, went home with them but I decided to take them to the property until James got home, mom needed the rest.  I finished out the rest of the tile I had and we went home.  

Upon inspecting the shed box, it had several tears, rips and open holes in it all over the box. One corner was smashed in.  They manhandled this thing in transit and I wasn't pleased. One of the holes showed a gouge in the metal and a long scratch.  That'll rust, I thought.  Looking at all of that, I decided to start an online return. Give me a new one please. Then is said "It may have to be returned" tho it didn't say who had to pay for it.

So, I finished that but called them afterward. I had to go through one person to get to a person that could help me. This lady said, yup, we are shipping you a new one, no you don't have to return it, you can keep it, we sent an email indicating you could keep or better yet, donate it!  Donate it? Who would I donate a damaged shed to? I was amazed they just said yup, keep it and hopefully the next one shipped to you won't arrive in the same condition!  Must be a dollar amount that if it's under that, they aren't going to bother with it.

I dunno, but I'm taking it over to the property and it can sit behind the shed.  I'm not doing anything with it for now, I don't want to put 2 sheds together at the moment.  I want to put one up right where I want the water heater to go and see if it has enough room for the heater and my tools.  

I've had several people asking about long term in the last 24 hours but no one has actually committed to moving in.  If I can get this shed done fast enough, I'd like to maybe rent out 2 more long term and then keep 4 spots open for overnighters and see what happens.  That and the hipcamper situation.  I want to run a month or months long special and just advertise "For $10 per night, you can have access to electricity, for $15, you can have access to the shower, kitchen and laundry". A small rig won't use much electricity.  It's not a ripoff to ask more to use the facilities. I've paid more for such use.

That's it. Just going to wind down and call it a day.  

 I'm absolutely amazed at the prices RV parks are being sold for. There is a 14 lot park 60 miles down the Interstate that is going for 600k. It has no amenities.  

There is still the park that was built but never opened going for 1.2 million - it's 32 spaces with a party barn and a fishing pond.  Nothing else. 

An old park that I didn't even know was for sale near the state line - not the new one, another one - going for 1.6 million.  

And more - for unbelievable high prices. How do you sell a park for that much money that can't really pay the mortgage?  Must be something I'm missing there.  Then again, those parks have been on the market for a while, excepting the one near the state line.  I'm not thinking of selling my park, I just want to get a loan on it and if all of these other places are worth that much, then my estimate of 350k is probably quite conservative.  I have a lot more acreage to boot than any those around me for sale.  

I know it's taking time to get on the map, but I'm chomping at the bit to expand this place.  It would take a minimum of 6 months for them to build more sites, that's just the way they do things around here.  

_________

That was last night. A local park was listed for sale - the price was amazingly high.  It's another one of those "I was awake for 2 hours last night in the middle of the night and now I overslept until 8:30 am" days. It takes a while for me to fully wake up - get the fog out of my brain - on such days. Hence, even tho I have to get X amount of flooring in before the come with the machines today, I'm sitting here drinking coffee.

They allegedly are coming at a 12 to 4 pm window.  So I have plenty of time, a couple of hours of putting in that flooring should have me getting quite a lot of it done - I hope?  I dunno lol. 

My second request to reserve a spot from March 23-25 just came in over the phone.  She explained there is a square dance going on in our town and people are looking for an RV park to stay it.  Apparently there are more that may want to stay. 

Well, if that's true, I might take one or two more before cutting it off.  March 23rd is more than a month away and I'd like to get more long term in there - unless - the park is going to start filling up with short stays.  

That would be nice of course.

I think I'm awake now and the day isn't growing younger.  I must get out there and get a lot more of that flooring in.

G'day

 Oddly, a small shed like I am having delivered to my doorstep is cheaper than an official "water heater enclosure".  ?? A water heater enclosure is basically a small shed. I don't get it.  I don't care either, I found a $99 shed at Walmart just now, I will measure the heater when I get to the Park in the morning and if it's tall enough, I'm buying it.  It will go directly behind the shed and I will just have to cut some holes in it for lines going in and out.  

Even more odd, at least to me, is these enclosures don't have a back panel.  It's all open excepting a couple of steel cross members to hold it together.  They start at $174 and go up - and way up - from there.

I don't care, I just want to keep the thing out of rain and I want to elevate it a few inches off the ground.  Wait, they sell a cheap pan that you can put the water heater in, I really don't even need to elevate it off the ground, just put it on a sheet of plywood.   So, the new shed I was getting for the tools is the same size as the one from Walmart - I would have bought the one from Walmart if I had seen it.  Funny how things pop up a day later after you've done what you think to have been an exhaustive search.  

Lowe's has the flooring tiles I need at the same price Home Depot does.  I wanted it on Home Depot card, but screw it, today I just went to Lowe's and got all the flooring tiles I needed, went to the property and started installing them. Not quite as easy as they make it look in videos, but then again I've never done it before.  

I dunno, but the machines are showing up tomorrow between 12 and 4.  I will be out there working anyway.  I will get enough of the flooring done that they can just put the machines on the freshly laid flooring, but out of the way.  I still have to do all the wiring and pipe installation.  And probably some drywall. I really don't want to do drywall, it's just going to add more time to this project - but walls without drywall would look pretty tacky.  

It dawned on me today that I best be running a line over to where I want a shower.  I mean, it probably isn't the greatest idea to have people taking showers in the dark.....I won't put outlets in there tho, I don't need people hanging out in the bathroom.  Take your shower, or use the toilet, and get out please, in case someone else is coming along.  A small ceiling lights - cheap - will suffice.  The point? Now is the time to figure out all the outlets I will need, not after the fact.  Especially not after installing drywall....

A few inquiries on lots today that didn't translate into rentals. Happens a lot.  I dunno if anyone has been driving through the park looking, I was inside the shed, busy with the flooring.  I'd really like to finish that flooring tomorrow if possible and move on to the indoor electrical stuff.  

Oh, and an hour and a half spent on the phone with the tax company.  I was impressed with their knowledge, I wasn't too impressed with the price tag. They charge a "flat fee" for yearly access - almost 3 grand.  I mean, a local accountant wont' be cheap, but it will get me started without spending thousands of dollars up front.  Yeah - no.

I have nothing else. It's just go at it day after day until it's all done.  At least, until all that is currently on the list is done.  The list will just grow....and grow....if there is some way to make money that isn't cost intensive, I will do it.  

Anyway, outta here. Time to sleep. 

 It turned out to be a rainy day. 

Weird.  I went to bed last night, slept 3 hours, woke up then stayed up an hour and a half and then the next thing I know? It's 6 hours later.  I don't ever sleep 6 hours straight. Not that I don't want to, it just doesn't happen.  

Another guy contacted me about a lot.  He wanted to know if there is laundry?  I'm working on it, but the rain stopped me from digging the trench to get electricity to the building.  I really don't know if he's going to go or not after I said that to him.  Shrugs shoulders, can't please everyone, tho with laundry I'm definitely on track to doing so, just going to take a bit of time.  

I found a place in longview that sells flooring cheaper than anyone else.  Will be heading over there soon.  

Apparently I have qualified for a Verizon Mastercard - business card that is, I don't need or want any more personal credit cards.  I just saw the notification in email. Chase hasn't written back to confirm one way or the other about a card from them.  But, a Verizon and Amex card is enough to start with anyway. Put a little on each card and pay it down to zero every month. 

Wish I could say the same about my personal cards.  It will take a while for these 2 cards to impact my business credit score - which is nothing at the moment.  Anyway, perhaps I can find some flooring cheap enough, get enough of it installed today so they can put the machines on top of the flooring tomorrow. I guess it doesn't matter I just want to get something done today regardless of rain. 

Prorated payment received via credit card for the new tenant.  So nice to have a credit card processing app available at my fingertips. It must be charging them the processing fee because every time it deposits money to my business checking account, it shows the full amount.  Unless  they are going to send me a bill? I have no clue, actually, how that works now that I think of it and probably should do a little investigating to make sure I'm not "behind" on some payment I might owe them. 

Electric usage this month on both accounts is minimal.  It's what I hoped for. The account shows current and estimated usage. I'm pretty sure they can access those meters via satellite or something, I dunno how it works but I doubt anyone has to physically come out to read the meters, otherwise, how could they know my current usage?  I fear summer time usage, lol.  

I'm tempted to just stay home and work on quick books. The sound of the rain falling on the window ac unit is mesmerizing, almost makes me want to go back to bed, lmao.  

Oh, those 3 workers for the same company? They're on 11 days and then off for 3.  After the 11th day, they head straight home - somewhere in Oklahoma.  They have "get up in the middle of the night" hours and said that other workers that are doing long term on the project have been there over a year.  Good, I can hopefully count on them being around awhile.  

This shed thing - just kind of annoying because there is so much to do. I guess I best get up off my @$$ and get to longview, get the flooring and get busy. 

 Ok.  Well, I dug down - a lot of digging down.  I got the water pipe and the sewer pipe exposed.  It is not pointing the direction I thought it would be and these people did not locate these utilities in a good spot.  For a smooth install for the sewer - not too many turns/bends, I need to go straight towards the shed.  To do that here? I'll have to dig out gravel on pad 14.  

Just really lame setup.  If something happens, they'll be digging up site pads, ridiculous.  The other side is not set up like that, if something happens, they'll be tearing up the driveway but they won't be needing people to move their trailers.  I wasn't there when the did this west side trench, I had no idea this is what they were doing, if I did, I would have told them this is unacceptable.  I don't have much of a choice. If I try to go around the pad, I'll end up with 3 elbows, 2 of them 90's.  Don't really want 90's if at all possible, certainly don't want 2 of them close to each other.  

Well anyway, it took about an hour and a half to dig that all out.  I'm ready for the mini-ex.  I would have gotten it today - but.....it's going to rain tomorrow. I get the mini-ex for 24 hours, meaning if I were to have rented it today, I wouldn't have been able to use it tomorrow.  I am not wasting my money, I have a slate of things I want to do with that machine and I will wait until I have 2 days in a row to use the machine.  It was rather deflating.

After that, I went to Longview to get the rest of the flooring. This is new-in flooring, they just brought it into their stock. They had sold the entire rest of the pallet to one man and then they said they can't get anymore.  Wut.  It was cheap, I should have bought it all at the same time, silly me.  I will be taking the other stuff back, I'm not going to eat it.  I would be happy to wait for them to bring in some more, but they said they can't even order it. 

Heading back from Longview and failing at that mission, I decided to stop by the park. I just never know what's going to be happening over there, new people show up but they don't tell me they are showing up.  I wasn't expecting anyone, no one has said they are coming. 

Well, when I drove in there, there was this dude attempting to level a trailer.  His trailer was blocking the view of other trailers next to it, I thought it was the dude that had shown up on Friday. He said he would be back Monday.  So I pulled up and said something about trying to level the trailer.  But I'm looking at this guy - this isn't the dude that showed up on Friday. OH, are you helping him get set up?  He looks at me funny. We're both confused. Hi, remember talking to me - whenever?  

No. I don't.  I walked to the back of the trailer to see around it and 2 lots over, there was the Friday dude's trailer.  Now I'm thinking, gee, these people just show up and take a spot without even asking? This guy wasn't telling the truth, but I let it slide. It turns out he is the father of one of the 2-some that showed up a few weeks ago and the son was at his trailer doing something.  He came over and explained it all. This is the other guy that was coming, my father.  He just showed up a few weeks later.  

Ok, I remember him saying he was going to show up 2 others, but when he only showed up with 1, I just figured the other dude wasn't coming or found some other place he liked better?  I dunno.  The lack of communication with some of these people......Anyway, they are all 3 being paid by some company that deals with big companies that are in the fracking business (and probably other businesses as well) that takes care of housing issues.  I will be getting a check for the first 2 at the beginning of the month, she hasn't yet called me about this guy. 

This is how much the oil and gas business is worth. They pay their workers per diem and they pay for their housing. All 3 of them are welders. I will be texting the lady from that company shortly.  

I am now at 9 long term. It's happening faster now, it seems.  The Facebook ads are paying off.  I have had more luck with them than the far more expensive google ads, which I shut down.  Not worth it.  

If I could only start filling the rest of the lots of with overnighters. This is what the rush to get the shed done is all about.  Get a steady flow of overnighters in for the rest? I don't have to go back to trucking. 

__________

Rain may hold up any progress with trenching for a week or more.  It's going to be spaced out just enough to make it impossible - or highly difficult anyway - to do any trenching.  I am moving on with the inside of the shed and I will get to the trenching when the weather stops this stuff and I can get on with it.  

To that end, I will buy whatever flooring I can find tomorrow and install it.  Which means I need a small shed for all of my gear.  I can't keep it in there if I"m going to have it filled up with amenities.  Just what I need, yet another expense.  We definitely don't have room for all of that stuff at the house and I don't want to have to be running back and forth to the house to get a tool or something every time I need it.  I dunno, I just see no end in sight to these endless expenses.  

Thank you for reminding me. The cheapest shed I could find now ordered, should arrive later this week. Nothing huge, nothing fancy, but has a door and lockable.  All of my gear should be able to fit in there, tho I will have to get some shelving to install as well.  And a floor, tho I think we have a piece of plywood laying around here that will work.  

I'm trying to be minimalistic as possible...but I have things I just have to have.  

After the flooring, I can start installing outlets in the shed and run the wiring. You aren't really supposed to do that without the main ground wiring first, but who cares.  I need to get the stuff done and I'm not going to sit around endlessly waiting for the weather to get better to to the trenching.  I can keep myself occupied with other things that must be done in order to make it work.  

And I can - well I dunno but maybe I can run the 2 inch drain line for the washer to the outside at least and get it ready. That should keep me occupied for quite a while.  

Did I say I received an email today indicating that the washer and dryer will be brought to the property on the 15th? I didn't? Well now I did lmao.  Oh dang, well excuse me for a second, I need to order something else.  Well darn, I don't know how wide it is.  I'll have to measure it tomorrow. I need an outdoor enclosure for the water heater.  

Oh, well they have "white glove service" for the washer and dryer.  Just means they will bring it in the shed, put it wherever I want and then I have to sign off it's in perfect condition.  We'll see what condition they are in. They were trucked from New Jersey to Dallas in a UPS truck, that spells trouble right off the bat. 

OH, well the generator should fit into that shed and then everything else is relatively small besides shovels. I have a lot of different kinds of shovels.  Don't forget that pickaxe, I thing I would have never bought unless the 8 year old prodded me to do so. He wanted it as a toy, I have used it several times over for various dirt digging projects including today, trying to get down to the underground wiring and pipes.  Which I did and I give partial thanks to that pickaxe.  The site - pedestal included - is now covered with a large tarp and surrounded by caution tape.

Anyway, enough.  Time to wind down.  

 Monday - morning

Yesterday was church then the property.  New couple moved in - they're there until June, they say. There is no telling, really, how long any of these energy workers will be around. They say long term - some of them say a long time.  I don't really need any of them to be leaving right now, thanks.

I need some more long term in there, hence I placed another pay-FB ad.  This is more than marketplace, it shows up when people are looking for certain things, in this case: RV park in my area. 

I have 2 tenants on T-Mobile right now with no complaints so far.  I'm going to send a message to the rest of them to please switch over and we will see what happens.  It won't bother me to get a second T-Mobile router - at that price I can afford to up the ante and also have that price locked in "forever", so they say.  That's unlimited data that can handle up to 66 devices on it at one time.  This is their claim, we will find out soon enough if it's true.

The garbage pile across the street continues to grow.  The man that lives there picked up some of the trash scattered all over the yard the other day - I saw him out there - but not all of it and just took it to his ever-growing pile of trash and dumped it on there. In other words, it's going to end up all over the yard again.  I don't know what happened to the letter I tried to print to the lady that owns the home - it didn't print - but I will try again this morning.  

Today's task is to at least try to dig down to the underground pipes and expose all of it to see what I need in terms of fitting.  I assume a 4X4X4 wye-T for sewer and a 2X2X1 T for the water.  But who knows, I need to get down there and find out.  I'm motivated, I just don't know about having to dig through layers of roots again.  I'm going to try, that's what I can say about that.  

I feel pressured to get all of this done, before those machines arrive.  Get the thing up and running and hope people use it and also hope it draws in more people. It will have to have that small bathroom in there for the latter tho.  I expect a shower will get used - frequently.  It will add another layer of "things to do" on a daily basis in cleaning it, but if it brings in revenues, I'm fine with that.  

And I've sold myself on a couple of electrical outlets near the back of the shed and a water spigot.  With a bathroom, I can get the people in there that don't have bathroom facilities in their rigs.  This is lost revenue that is easily fixed after I finally get the utilities to that shed.  I really think the reason I am not getting more people in is the lack of a shower with a big water heater that a person can take a longer shower in.  However, I have heard that some of these newer RV's are coming equipped with those inline heaters that heat the water as it passes through.  There is a reason all of those new ones have to have a 50 amp outlet and I doubt 2 AC units on the roof are the only reason. 

Why am I sitting here writing instead of at the property? It's early, it's cold outside and I'm enjoying my morning coffee.  Feeling pressured doesn't mean I have  to get up and run over there right now.  It means I have a goal for today and I hope to accomplish that goal and then move to part 2.  However, there is a 97% chance of rain tomorrow, which will further delay everything.  

All I can say is, I need 4 more long term tenants.  Leave myself 2 overnight setups and call it a day.  Or just fill the whole place up with long term - still pretty wishy washy on that and I really won't have a pulse on what the potential is for overnighters until I get that shed completed.  I suppose tomorrow if it's raining I could install the floor tile I bought - the cheapest stuff they had, just don't like the idea of bare particle board floors.  I didn't even buy enough to cover the whole thing, I guess I best go back and get the rest of what I need before they sell that stuff out.  Another trip to Longview.  

I'm still thinking I best put a door code locking handle on that shed for when I open it up to guests.  The code can be given to them at time of arrival or over the phone.  This way I can at least know that only guests have access.  There will be stuff that can be stolen from in there.  I'm not overly concerned about theft, but you know that thieves are everywhere.  I don't care how big or small the town is, there are thieves there.  

The older couple sent me a message yesterday: We're really glad you are filling up the park!  They were wishing me success.  The park is no longer underwater so it's not insolvent. It may not be making a huge amount of money - yet - but it's definitely taking care of itself now in terms of meeting financial obligations and not draining my personal accounts dry.  

Alright, so now I have a guy coming sooner or later to bush hog the weeds.  It won't happen this week if it rains.  I need those weeds out of there, it's just an eyesore.  Not as bad as the trash across the street, but certainly up there in "ugliness" category.  

I have increased the amount of work I will want to get done with the excavator. Besides trenching from spot 14 to the shed and trenching along side the driveway for water runoff, I also want to clear out enough space behind the shed for at least 2 small rigs to be able to easily park in there.  This is not a new gravel setup - not now anyway. It will be listed as dirt with access to electricity, bathroom and kitchen. There will be no surprises.  

Well, I'm offa here. Coffee is almost downed and I do want to get a start on the day.

G'day

 I started watching YouTube videos this morning about electricity setup and spent far more time doing so than I anticipated.  However, it's a good thing I did.  The underground line needs to be laid first before installing anything inside the shed or even mounting the panel. Well, the panel is mounted but it can come back off easily.  By the time I was done watching those videos - and admittedly needing to watch a few more for more enlightenment on subject matter that I am grossly uninformed or knowledgeable about - the boys/dad were back from their excursion around town. 

We ended up going to the property, but I had no intention of working today. My leg was aching - it comes and goes. When it comes, I'm done.  This is from the injury several weeks ago. It may take months for it to heal completely to the point it doesn't hurt anymore.  I built a fire, the oldest boy wanted to work for money. Great, start pulling those weeds.  He got a few weeds pulled and then wanted to play with my old phone.  I still have the Iphone 8 - it works perfectly well, just that it's battery doesn't last terribly long even with a full charge and doesn't have some of the features of the Iphone 13 I now have.

But I saw no reason to sell the thing, it works on wifi. I can even send text messages on it from an email address set up on it, which I have.  I can run it off my 13 with tethering.  Or hook up to local wifi.  

Anyway, he wanted $5 for the work he was doing and I laughed at him. Yeah, sure thing you pull a weed, come over, sit down, play on the phone, go pull another weed, lather, rinse repeat.  I might give you a quarter for the work you are doing at the pace you are keeping.  There is no sense, in my mind, to give kids a false sense of what life in the real world will be like.  You have to prepare them if you want them capable of being able to function in a society that is sometimes brutal and cutthroat. That sent him to working.  The other boy kept trying to distract him, so I called him off. Nope, you can go play in the dirt, the weeds, whatever, but you are going to leave your brother alone while he's working.

Anyway, several things happened during the 3 hours we were out there.  A person had called earlier asking about a spot and if they could come see it? Sure, I don't have to be there, you can drive through and see if it's anything you want to get yourselves involved with.  Shortly after I got there, I had the "bright" idea to go to an old post I had put in a local facebook gossip group and try contacting someone else about bush hogging these damned weeds down. They are unsightly and rather irritating.  I got into a conversation with a particular person online and then it ended.   

After that, a 4 door, 8 foot bed dually - big pickup - came slowly driving into the park.  They drove around and passed by us on the RV park driveway. I waved at them, they just kept going. I suspected it was the people that were coming to look at the place.  I never heard back from them - so write them off. I don't stress over people not wanting to stay, that's their choice and if they don't want to be there, I certainly don't want unhappy guests/tenants there either.  Just a recipe for disaster.  

Then a car came cruising in - very slowly.  Thy went all the way down the driveway. ??? All the way to the gas operation.  No idea. They came back and introduced themselves. I'm Amy the person you were talking to. I'm horrible with names, mostly with people I have only known for a short period of time. Oh, are you the ones that called earlier? No, we are the people that were going to bush hog. OHHH!!

I said, well, I just want the front portion done.  How much will you charge for that?  I braced myself - people around these parts are notorious for extremely high pricing. He said "I can do it for $100".

Wait, what? I thought but didn't say.  A hundred dollars?  I've given up on the bulldozer for now, it's just too much money, the driveway needs gravel before I rent a bulldozer.  Yes, let's do that! We had final words and they started driving off before - wait! How much to do that back part too?  The back part has far more weeds and they had viewed it.  He said $350 and I said do it. He knew enough to say it is too wet to do it now.  Yes, I thought, it is but I wanted to see if he knew that.  Why? Because the last jackass I had out there too my money and didn't do the job.  That was many months ago.  

After that, I made sure the fire died down to smoldering embers - it doesn't have to be put out, it's in a 3 block high ring, it's not going to spread anywhere - and we came home after. We had been out there long enough. One boy wanted to stay, the other wanted to go home, I sided with the latter, it was time to eat.  

After that a call came in. We talked a while back, she says on the phone, I was asking about a lot.  Ok? I don't remember people that disappear, I have no need to.  If they don't want it, they don't want it.  She went on and on about a local competitor they ended up at.  It's a married couple and the man was too busy with work to deal with it, he had left finding a place in her hands.  She said at the time she thought my place was "too far out of town". What?!! Lmao, I'm a mile away from city limits. It ain't a big city, I can tell y'all that for a fact.  

After a lot of explanations - apparently she thought I would remember the phone call we had - which I don't , again, these are not things I need to concern myself with or keep in my memory banks when they don't show up and they find another place ....and I've talked to a lot of people - it turns out they were calling me from my park.  I had just left there, lol.  They were checking it out and checking their cell phone reception.  ATT, Verizon and now T-Mobile have decent connection there. 

I could hear the husband in the background. He was mad that they hadn't moved to my park in the first place! Lol. They are moving in tomorrow.  We will be getting out of church, Lord willing of course, about the time they are setting up.  

I'm sitting with the older boy and something about God came out of his mouth. It opened up a discussion about Jesus. If you want to hear about the most important part of the day? This was it. Money and tenants are irrelevant compared to souls and the Kingdom of Heaven.  Random things come out of kids' mouths.  It can be pretty entertaining - or it can be fairly serious stuff.  It covers the gamut of earthly things and you will get explanations from a child you would never think of. Sometimes it's rather enlightening.  Sometimes it's silly. Strange.  Scary...etc. 

It all came down to going to be with God after we die.  Yes, but there is only one way to get there. I refuse to say "in my opinion" for I believe it's the truth that cannot be denied whether anyone wants to believe it or not.  However. I did not convey the message to him like that.  You just present the truth, they have to be free to accept or reject it. God is a God of free will. You can come to Him - or you can ignore him and do your own thing.  Presenting the truth to a child has to be in a child's understanding of things. It is kept pretty simple and easy to understand.  

At one time in my Christian life, I was one of those "cram it down your throat" people.  It's easy to get into that mode once you come to the understand that there is a God and that the only God is the God of the Bible.  I have found that there are different ways to get the message across to different people and you have to be in tune with the blessed Holy Spirit to understand what to say to who.  You wouldn't get harsh with a child about God, you might get harsh with a person so lost in drugs or demon possessed that they only way to get through to them is "in-your-face".  I've done all of it and then some - I have stories, lol.

It was a simple, heart-felt message. I remember now, it started with asking about why Christ was killed?  I explained about God, a bit about the Old Testament and our need for a Savior.  We have all sinned, all of us, and we have to ask God to forgive us and invite Christ into our hearts. If you ever think you want to do that, just let me know and we can pray.  As i said, I am not forcing or trying to manipulate anything about God or Christ down his throat, it's totally up to him. 

Ok, well I want to do that.  Ok, well let me know when.  I want to do that right now!  It's been a long time since I've led anyone to the Lord. But I did and we prayed together, leading him in a prayer and he received the Lord.  He understood that we have all done "bad things", things that are not pleasing to God.  I am not going to sugarcoat the Word of Truth. Just like facing life and all of it's realities when he grows older, if he's going to believe in God, he needs to know who God really is.  A wonderful, caring, loving God, yes!  But also a holy, just and righteous God!  

I have to say I broke down in tears. Haven't felt that way in a long time.  Haven't led anyone to the Lord in a long time.  

We prayed tonight when he went to bed.  I asked him to pray. "Well I don't know what to say?" Well just ask God to bless our sleep.  And that he did. God doesn't require some scripted, professional, prayer that comes from a book instead of the heart.  He listens to us, we can talk to him in reverence, yes, but real.  Down to earth. 

Well.  A eureka moment came to me today.  I truly believe I will get more people in for overnight stays if I get laundry and a shower in there.  But after giving it an exorbitant amount of thought, I also came to the conclusion that if I had a minimalist kitchen and a toilet in there, I could really get some HipCampers in there. When I say kitchen, I'm talking an electric oven with range top, a sink, a small counter to work on and a cupboard with pots, pans and cooking utensils.  I absolutely must have a toilet in there to get HipCampers to come.

What led to this? I was thinking.  If I'm running all of this stuff to the shed and I'm spending all of this money, why can't I just run a couple of 20 amp lines out to the side of the shed, have a regular plug in and get some of those people coming in here?  This would cost less than $100 to install and I think it would attract some of the different kinds of traveling customers that don't want to pay much to stay anywhere.  

I could go on, and I probably will tomorrow. My thoughts have expanded this park without spending tens of thousands of dollars doing it.  Rest assured, I have bene racking my brains and reading inordinate amount of material trying to figure out a way to do it.  Get myself out of trucking permanently without having to expand the park right away.  

Enough, It's 11:00 pm and I want to go to church tomorrow. Rested if possible.  

 Make sure that doesn't happen again. 

I arrived at the park yesterday with my laptop.  They wanted to pay credit card.  It totally escaped me that they could have just paid online.  I'm new to this, folks, I haven't done this that many times.  Got the laptop out, got the card processing app up and - it wanted the user name and password.  Drew a complete blank.  It is saved on my desktop, I don't need to enter it every time I bring it up.  I said I could just go home and they can give me the card number over the phone, they decided to just pay with a check.  

I'm not sure why these other people are coming in March, but the curiosity of the situation is that I never received an email from the software telling me I have a reservation that needs attention.  It sent me one the last 2 times? I'll have to go back into that system and figure out if I did something to stop the emails.  

I also updated HipCamp with more pictures, I only had 3 on there. Hipcamp also asked if I could like a professional photographer to come and take pics in exchange for free night/s stay.  Ok?  I signed up for it.  It's just a thing where they put up requests into some system somewhere and if there happens to be a photographer in the area that wants to do it? They show up.  

It also dawned on me that I could easily set up a couple of electric-only sites on the other side of the shed.  It's flat, level ground and I'm only talking 20 amp, regular circuit, no 50 or 30 amp stuff.  Why? Because there is a market for it.  Reduced prices as well.  It would basically be a place to park a small rig overnight at the same price a truckstop that has pay parking would charge a trucker.

I'll have a water spigot by the shed as well.  They just won't be able to dump sewer, tho in reality, since I'm running a line over there, I could install a sewer dump.  They charge anywhere from $10 to $25 to dump a tank full of sewage. It's mostly frowned on in the industry, parks would rather they just spend the money to stay a night.  

Anyway, this would be a version of boondocking but with electricity and I would have to do nothing more than install a couple of outdoor electrical outlets.  I'll have plenty of juice at the shed to handle it.  This is what came in last night. A pickup with a bumper pull, small trailer.  We're talking less than $100 to install.  I could, actually, put in sewer and water, I may end up having enough pipe left over, not sure.  I also could get a small kitchen going in the shed - an electric oven, a sink and a small counter.  Put some pots, pans and cooking utensils in there - cheap stuff - and add that onto the site as well.

I'm getting ideas as I go along here. If I could put up a used oven cheap, it would cost a few hundred dollars to install a simple but usable setup.  The shower - I have found it's just as important as laundry if not more so.  People are asking if I have a shower? No, unfortunately, but we can change that.  

I'm just not sure how I would be able to install it.  The shed is elevated off the ground, but it's not enough to crawl under it.  To install a toilet or a shower, you have to bring the sewer pipe up from underneath.  I've seen the fittings at the store for both a shower drain and the toilet, it's 4 inch you just attach the sewer pipe to it.  I'll have to spend even more time looking at YouTube videos I guess. 

I want to utilize this rather large expenditure of money just to put in a laundry setup as much as possible.  If I can add stuff to it that doesn't cost a lot, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to do so.  

I think it would be a hit for HipCampers, that's a bit different crowd right there.  I don't care who comes in there, I just want to maximize the potential for more customers. If you look at the bathrooms that many HipCamp locations offer? They're mostly outhouses.  That's right, a hole dug into the ground and a toilet seat mounted onto a wood structure.  I could actually put a working toilet in my shed, nothing like an outhouse.  Lol. 

A toilet is like $100. The fittings for it - well i need to find out how to install sewer line P trap or how that works.  I don't smell sewage coming up out of the shower stall in my room, I assume there is something you have to install in the line before the drain like a p trap under the sink to stop bugs and smell from coming up into the room.  

Let me put it this way. After spending thousands of dollars doing the shed for nothing but a laundromat? We're going to spend another grand on a shower stall, a toilet and a kitchen. Nothing fancy.  If I ever get there, fancy can come later.  That shed is 12X16.  The machines will be at one end, the bathroom can be at the other and the little kitchen can be in the middle and I think that will gobble up the space in there.  But, if there happens to be some space left over, a couple of chairs to finish it out. The kitchen only needs the oven, no other electrical appliances except maybe a toaster. I'm not supplying food, lol, a refrigerator is unnecessary.  

So what am I doing today? I'm going back up to Lowe's to try and figure out what to put into the electrical box for fittings and conduit, I don't need much.  Enough to go into the ground where the wire will come out and enough going from the breaker box to the inside of the shed.  Once I get the machines setup done, I will install an electrical outlet and try to get a toilet in there.  

Well that didn't take long to figure out. We all know toilets have their own trap, I just didn't know if another one was needed under the flooring? Nope.  The shower? They have a special, narrow trap that attaches to the drain line under the floor.  Of course sinks have a p trap in the closet underneath them.  

Sounds easy? Lol, likely not.  Everything I have done so far has been a pain in the rear. I could only hope that something else might go easier! Well, enough. I'm going to watch more videos and figure some things out and then head up to Lowe's. 

 I'm going crazy with this electrical stuff. Lowe's twice today, was going to go a third time after taking pics and looking at an existing setup elsewhere.  When....the dude finally calls. He's had a bad day. Actually a bad week. He said he had dropped his trailer and where am I? I had already informed him I was going to be a bit behind him. He was in a bad mood. The slide out he paid a grand to fix? Wasn't working. He needed to leave right now and I said fine,  we can settle up later - but - I'm only maybe 7 minutes away.

He insisted on leaving and I said fine, we can meet up Monday- I think he was needing to go to work like right now.  If he doesn't pay when he says he will? He can leave. I doubt he wouldn't pay.  It all changed to meeting me at the highway. He got out of the truck, walked to my SUV, handed me money without even asking who I was and then said, I hope you are the RV park guy? Yes, lol.  

Then some other people called.  We'll be there in 3 hours, is that okay? Yes - they were asking because that is well outside the window of most RV parks time limit for showing up.  That's a couple more hours from onw.

Then, another lady called wanting to reserve a spot in March.  Ok?  4 days. Ok? I'm fine with that, lol.  They wanted a specific spot - it's the one I'm using to hook into power, but I should definitely be done with that project by then.

______________

And bam, just like that. The people for March are booked and paid.  The people showing up for overnight are walking the doggy trail right now - yes, even in this cold weather they were all excited about that trail. I was excited that someone was finally going to walk it! Another couple started on it a while back but it was getting dark.  

And the longer term guy paid up.  This is what I'm talking about.  More of these overnighters, please. I gave them a discount over an already discounted rate. They wanted to pay by card and my laptop was acting up. They wrote a check so I gave them $5 off for the "inconvenience".  Really isn't an inconvenience, but maybe I'll get a review out of them? No clue.  

The trash dude across the street? Animals are getting into the trash now and scattering it everywhere. He is now piling the trash up on his porch.  It's disgusting.  It is a horrible image and I completely forgot to send the mail out to the lady who owns the property.  I will definitely have that letter in the mailbox for pickup tomorrow. If she doesn't do anything about it, I dunno what to do.  I am not going to clean up their mess - tho I have been sorely tempted - because then they'll just think they can do that forever.  

There are giant birds - look like some form of vultures - picking at the trash all the time now besides the signs of animals having dragged the garbage all over the place. The only thing I can say is, even tho it is a horrible look coming into the park, my park is so far back you can't even see that nastiness from the park or even if you can, it's a distant view. I'll have to look tomorrow, but people aren't going to be looking at trash.  

I dunno, I could go on but we are fixing to leave for Longview to go on our bowling adventure with the gang.  

 What happened last night? I was laying there around - whatever time it was in the middle of the night - had turned the light on to get up for a minute.  The light turned itself off.  

Anyway, I have this T Mobile thing that didn't work at the house - tho it was supposed to, I'm taking it over to the property this morning, plugging it in and finding out whether it will work over there.  If not? It's going straight back to T Mobile and they can refund my $50. 

One cheat day - my birthday - and after 5 days, I'm almost back down to where I was when I took the cheat day.  There is a bit of regret on that one - I didn't expect to gain that much weight that quickly or take that long to get it back off.  I won't be doing that again anytime soon.  Give me 3 months or so and I might start discussing a cheat day.

As it stands, we went to a place called Fire and Dice last night for dinner - it's a gaming place but they have a Thursday special for hamburgers with whatever you want on them for $5.  I actually took my own break, ordered the hamburger without bread and used mine. That may sound tacky, it is what it is.  

We are going bowling tonight - I'll just make sure I've eaten before we leave. Haven't been bowling in ages.  I brought it up to the group a while back and it gained some steam to the point that everyone decided they must go, kids and all.  The kids here have never been bowling before, that should be entertaining.  I love bowling. Not particularly good at it but it's fun. The bowling alley in our town closed - I think it was Covid that killed that place.  It's never reopened. They're using the parking lot to train new truck drivers how to parallel park, back in to spaces and general maneuvering.  

I'd go warn all of those people about the horrid aspects of trucking, but - maybe it's their lifeline.  There's plenty of money to be made in that industry, but there is heavy sacrifice to get it. I won't go into all of that, just to say that eventually - sooner or later - I will have to go back into it.  Even with a full park, well maybe I could eek by a living off of it.  I don't think I can get an expansion loan without having some solid income tho and that park just isn't going to cut it as it currently stands. 

I knew that getting into this thing.  I had to start somewhere.  ATM I've got the Amex card, have used it twice and now will wait a couple of weeks and then pay it down to zero.  This will slowly build a credit history.  I'm going to need more lines of credit, this is just what I have at the moment.  The shed loan is in my name, not the business name.  The land loan the same.  

I was just sent a piece of mail - real mail/snail mail - from some group that offered me $74,000 for the property.  What a great price!  More like, you can't be serious.  Even without the park on it, the property is now worth between 150 to 200k.  Add the park and we're more like 350k.  It's not for sale, but it will eventually be used as collateral for a loan somewhere in the vicinity of 250k.  That will upgrade the park from 14 spots to around 50, add a pool and some other amenities that will draw people.  It will also pave that driveway. 

With 50 occupied sites, I can retire.  Well, I can retire from the rat race. I don't consider the stuff I do at the park any form of rat race at all. It's hard work most of the time, but I do enjoy it.  It would be nice if I had another 40k laying around right now to do some of the things it needs and add at least 5 more spaces.  

Now that's a thought.  What if I just went for a smaller loan and only added maybe 10 spaces?  

I could live off of that.  After expenses and taxes I'd take in around 4 grand a month.  That's not bad.  Not for take home pay.  Umm, but right now I'm just struggling to fill the place up.  I still only have 1 Google review.  I have a great review on Hipcamp, I'm hoping that might translate into some more business and a great Facebook review. I need the google reviews, frankly.  

The people I let tent camp overnight for free, in exchange for a Google review? Yup, they never did it.  The people I helped that were struggling to find a place at nighttime? Nothing from them, either and yes, I asked.  The newbies? I won't ask them for a while. Let them stay a bit and then I'll see if they're interested.  

I'm not sure how the parents think about it, but they aren't stopping him from going to church, so I am going to continue on with my discussions with the boy about the Lord.  He asked God to speak to him out in the wood a while back.  I don't make fun of children and their youthfulness and their perspective of the world or in this case - God.  And God knows and even tells us to have a "childlike faith". It's amazing how this kid is really getting interested in knowing more about the Lord.  

For right now, it's time to get my @$$ over to the property and try to get some serious work done today on the laundry project.

 Besides last night's episode of the tv turning itself on and the night before other thing, now an electronic device elsewhere in the house has turned itself on.  I'm not sure what's going on, but if I were going off previous encounters, I would say there is some spiritual warfare going on in this house.  I dunno, but I can tell ya, I've been doing some praying here.  I also was talking to the 8 year old today about the Lord.  He has learned about heaven and hell and other things pertaining to eternal life, but he doesn't quite understand the Christian baseline of "no man shall enter except through Me" and "the only name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" and a lot more scripture.

That name, of course, is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  

I have often found that the enemy ramps up attacks whenever a person is getting close to receiving Christ in their heart.  I can't say I much care for it, especially when this stuff is going on in the dead of night.  But, that is the enemy - darkness.  The Light dispels the darkness.  There are so many scriptures that come to mind now that I'm thinking about it. 

I am going to pray tonight that nothing happens.  Because I really don't want to keep going through this.  I've had these battles and they can go on almost indefinitely.  Rather just believe God to send angels to deal with the situation and get the enemy out of this house.  I'm not going to be run out of here, either.  The blood of Christ breaks the curse - the enemy does not like to hear about the blood of Christ. Mostly because it's the shed blood at the cross of Calvary that defeated satan and his minions.  I don't think the devil understood that killing Christ was actually what God wanted to happen.  What needed to happen. The ultimate, sinless sacrifice - for without the shedding of blood, there is no atonement for sin. This is why bulls, goats, cattle, a lot of different kinds of animals were being sacrificed in the Old Testament.  

Once Christ was hung on the cross and pierced by a spear and his blood came out - and he died - that was it. It was the end. No more sacrifices needed to be made. The thing people don't understand is that Christ came to FULFILL the law, not abolish. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  The 10 commandments didn't somehow disappear in the age of grace.  

I could go on and on, but I do think that this boy coming to Christ is probably the reason for all of this nonsense and if that is true, then it's worth the fight.  

“Pay attention, all of Judah, every inhabitant of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat,” Jahaziel said. “This is what the Lord says to you: Don’t be afraid or discouraged by this great army because the battle isn’t yours. It belongs to God!

  This is what I have to remember when these things start happening, the battle is the Lord's!

6But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. 

 I have lots of scripture flowing through my mind and my heart.  God's word is the way to defeat the enemy, standing in faith upon the Lord's promises to us - yet also remembering to submit to His will. Not because we are obligated, but because we love Him and we want to! It's pure freedom.

"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

 That posted because tomorrow is never a given. It may come or it may happen that I - or anyone - may pass. Just look in the news lately with all kinds of celebrities and people in the limelight that are passing away - even at much younger ages than you would expect or hope for the person. 

So, if the Lord wills - I have been saying that a lot to myself lately - I will go to the property tomorrow and hopefully get something done now that I have pretty much everything that I need to get a lion's share of this project done. The wood to mount the panel is in place, I just need mount the panel now.  

Hopefully the new guy will show up while I'm there working.  This is really contingent upon my sleep tonight tho. Regardless of this stuff going on, some nights I sleep great and other nights it's very poor sleep.  It dictates how much I will get done. In extreme cases, it dictates that I will get nothing done.  I'm trying to get back into "working for a company" mode and it's been very difficult.  

Well, T Mobile router didn't work here at the house.  Not a strong enough signal. Even tho we are allegedly smack dab in the middle of 5g territory.  The property? No idea, it'll be going over there tomorrow. If it doesn't work there, either, it's going straight back to T Mobile.  Great price if it works..useless if it doesn't.  

Then, I'll be stuck with this over-priced Verizon setup and there isn't much I can do about it.  I keep getting emails from Verizon about "overuse" of data and "adding" more to it.  I will be calling them asking them again - for the fun of it - if there is an unlimited data plan for the thing.  There are endless companies offering satellite internet - but it's all the same as Hughes. Slow and expensive.  The different with Starlink is the satellites are much closer to the earth, so I've read anyway.  Other satellites are 22,000 miles up, Starlinks are much much closer giving much faster usage.  

I just can't fathom paying $500 per month for Starlink. In the long run, it is highly likely that coughing up the 7 plus grand for the local, wired internet will be a better deal.  

I've sent an email to Fidelity business sales - a thing I haven't done yet - to ask if they could check into why the engineer thinks the setup needs 1,700 feet of wiring when the next door neighbor has Fidelity?  And clarified - in case they didn't know - I don't want internet at each site, I just want to broadcast wifi.  I don't know what else to do.  Eat high internet bills until something comes along that will work.  

Hmm. Well Starlink is now showing April as the date it will switch from "low capacity" to high capacity in my area.  Well if that's true, that's not terrible far off.  RV starlink is available now, but there aren't any guarantees of service and looking at their service map? Not worth it, we are in low capacity area and very low speeds.  

Well, anyway, if he comes, tomorrow the park is half full.  That is a good thing.  Just 7 to go!

Now, if I could get some sleep without weird things happening tonight....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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