If You Build It, Will They Come?
This past weekend we opened the inn for the season. We had some really nice guests, some we knew from previous visits and some were new. It was a great start to hopefully a wonderful season. Every year we try and do something a little different as we open the inn. Sometimes it's as subtle as buying new comforters, one year we added a volleyball court, another we brought in a dvd library for the guests. This year it's a baseball field! People love to play ball in the backyard of the inn. We thought, "Hey, they'll love having their very own ballfield to play on when they stay here." I don't know what we were thinking!
A couple of weeks ago, we had someone bulldozing a couple of old flower beds away. George wanted to plant grass and remove some old rotted railroad ties. Well, when that was finished and the day was still young, and the bulldozer was right there on the property already anyway, why not just start that ballfield we always wanted to build. Why is it that whenever we do anything, we always hash it out for a good 4 or 5 minutes. We never sleep on it. Like when we bought the inn. We had originally planned on buying an investment property. Maybe a small house that we could rent out seasonally and use occasionally on the off season. Then we saw the inn. We had always thought that eventually, maybe when we were older we would own one. But why wait until then, we decided to buy it that day. Yeah, we don't like to dwell on things.
So back to the ball field. We have that big back right corner of property that we never use. "Wouldn't a field be perfect there?" Sure, George. So within the hour, there was no turning back! For a couple of days we seemed to be the talk of the neighborhood. Hmmm. Heavy equipment, lots of digging, The Meadowlark must be adding more rooms. The man that owns the land next to us was over in a flash. He'd heard we were building rooms on his land! People slowed down to see what we were doing, what we were building. Some even stopped by to ask, "So what are you building back there anyway?" Ha!
You wouldn't believe me if I told you how many hours a bulldozer has to push dirt around to level land. Day after day I would look outside and the dirt was still being pushed around. And then raked and then pushed and then raked. Damn you incredibly unlevel land! Do you not know how much a bulldozer costs per hour? Then came the base lines. That stuff's expensive too! Yep. Didn't think this out! We are a little over a week into the build and it is finished. This past weekend we spent wayyyy too many hours putting hay on the seed so that the grass will grow faster. George has worked soooo hard on this field! But in a couple of weeks it is going to be beautiful. And green. And people will play on it. George promises me that!
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And now that you have built it hopefully they will all come!!! Looks great! Cant wait to wack a few myself
So excited for this. Should send a Press release in to your local paper.
So you built it and so we will come. I play a mean 3rd base. Can't wait to see it - should we bring peanuts and cracker jacks?
Love,
Marcia (Seniors Gone Wild)
Well, we built it alright and the local tax assessor came (heard we put in a new septic without a permit), the local zoning board came (heard we were building more rooms without a permit), the man who owns the land next to us came (heard we moved the property stakes so that we can build more rooms on his land), local people from the motel down the road came ("What are you building back there anyway??") Ugh! Now I just hope that some customers will come!