Moving Day Today

We made very good progress yesterday. The "blow-ups" were installed and we moved some hay bails around to be in place for the next steps. We still have a long way to go, but at least you can see a little bit better how it is shaping up:

We have to move our RV over to the lot today as the petting zoo tent needs to be installed today and that will block the access to the RV location if we don't get it moved.

There are still some issues that need to be resolved. First, and most important to us, is running a water line to our RV. The power is already there and with the water connected we would be ready to go. There are some construction issues that Rob (our owner) is trying to resolve with the Fairgrounds staff. The main one is how to attach our poles and other equipment to the asphalt without creating holes in the surface. It is virtually impossible to do it any other way, so he has some convincing to do.

We also found out yesterday that every carload of visitors needs to be charged $9 for parking at our site. That is not good. I don't believe that charging for customers is going to help our sales. Oh well, this is the first year for this location and we are learning a lot about how and what to negotiate for future years.

I mounted the help wanted signs on the fence yesterday and,  so far, have had no calls. I hope that situation changes today with our RV on site....

On Track

We finally completed the first step in the creation of the pumpkin patch. The fence was installed yesterday and I met the truck this morning to get the hay unloaded and ready to place around the space. The space is absolutely huge and is one of the largest - if not the largest - of all the pumpkin patches.

Here is a shot of Rob (the owner) and Josie as the fence gets placed:

These shots were taken this morning as I met the truck (at 6 AM) to guide him to the space to drop the hay:

We will see tremendous progress today as Rob is already there with a crew of about 10 workers. They will install the poles for the tents, connect the utilities and get the rides ready for installation.

I will place the banner on the fence advertising for help. We hope to get some quick applications to start that process.

The plan is to move our RV tomorrow into the space at the lot. It is getting exciting now....

Zone Managers Visit

The visit from our zone managers - Mike and Vernel - started at about 10:30 AM yesterday. WE met at the empty) lot on the Fairgrounds where our pumpkin patch will be constructed and will be our home for the next 31 days. There is nothing to see there right now except for bare asphalt. It is really hard to visualize how this is going to work, so you have to be patient while all the construction takes place and I remember to take photos of the progress. I didn't take any photos yesterday, so I will begin with those today.

The meeting was encouraging as they pumped us up for the long haul this month. They also took us to lunch before they left. The schedule was laid out starting with the delivery and installation of our fence today. From there, we connect utilities and begin to install the equipment. It will be a transformation that is unbelievable if you haven't seen one before. We expect to move our RV there on Wednesday. Thursday will be state inspections of the equipment and Friday we will open for business.

We are mentally ready....

Vacation Over

We received word that our zone managers are coming today. They are obviously going to check out our "empty" lot to make sure it is ready for the many crews and items that will be showing up over the next several days. There is so much to do to get this lot ready and we wonder if there is enough time to make it all happen by the 4th of October. They've done it many times, so we believe they can do it again. I will try to keep up with everything with photos all along the way.

I don't think that the hookups at our new location on the lot will be as good or as complete as we have enjoyed this last week. There are no nearby connections for water, power and sewer, so we will have to run hoses for water, cords a long distance for power and probably have the service come once per week to empty our holding tanks. It will all come together as we get closer to opening day.

We are actually anxious to get started and feel like we are ready to get this show going. After seeing the photos of all the other locations, it is hard to believe that they can transform ours into the spectacular result they've achieved with the others.

Stay tuned for big changes...

Schedule Received

We need to enjoy these next two days as we know now that the real work on our pumpkin patch will begin Monday. All of the other patches are/will be set up by then and we get our turn in the barrel. There have been photos on Facebook of the other patches and they are looking sharp.

Our work begins by installing the fence initially, and then connecting up all the power cords and other connections to the utilities at our lot. The tents then go up and they bring in bales of hay and other cover material along with the rides and blow-up slides for the kids. We also begin interviews for our help and by the 4th of October (Fri) we will have the state inspections for our rides. That means we will most likely be open for business on Saturday the 5th.

We were shocked to discover that our first paycheck was deposited last night. We almost feel guilty as we didn't do much work this week. Of course, that also covers the time we were in class and we are the "new kids" this year which counts for something. We hope we get a lot of help during this start up phase as we have not remembered how to do a lot of the things. In a way, it is a scary situation, but we are set to go...

Costco Visit

The one (necessary) place we had not visited since we arrived was Costco. We closed that loop yesterday and was surprised that it was not so far away - just a couple miles. We now have the most important locations identified - Bank, grocery store, laundromat, Walmart, Sam's Club and Costco and, of course, the beach.

We also filled our propane tank while out yesterday and that was a little difficult. The first place we stopped would not fill the tank since it was manufactured over 10 years ago (2007) and needed to be recertified before they would fill it. The guy recommended that I take it down the street to the Shell station where they would fill it without recertification. Job done.

The wait continues. Our turn for set up is going to begin sometime over the weekend. We saw some people working on the power box of our Pumpkin site yesterday, so there is some progress being made. We are anxious to get things moving...

Digesting Material

There is so much to learn about this activity that we will never know all the ins and outs of running one of these locations. We won't worry about it either as there is lots of support from our zone managers that will help when we need some. Yesterday, we read more from the many manuals and procedure flyers that added to the confusion. The areas where we will need the most help are in hiring, handling and scheduling our employees. We can't advertise for help until we get our location set up which will be early next week.

Our zone managers tell us they are planning a visit either tomorrow or Saturday to review all the schedules, size up the location and just discuss all that we need to accomplish in the next several days to one week. As we are the last site to be set up, we are patiently waiting for the onslaught of crews and helpers to get the show on the road.

This promises to be an experience of a lifetime - good or bad...