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Post by MinnieMom on Apr 27, 2024 12:02:56 GMT -5
Thanks! Yes, I suspect my patience is running low just as we are about to turn the page and see significant visual changes over the next ~6 weeks. Certainly seeing the Welcome Center go up has been a joy to watch. And I know that the visual pace there will slow again after this week, where it went from frame to almost dried in so quickly. Hum. I think I may do a short photo series showing those stages. That could be fun to show in the weekly video update! We had a very good 90 minute discussion with the community members yesterday afternoon. The couple had a very real, very serious concern. It is a private issue, so I'm deliberately not going into the actual concern here. Instead, kudos to DH! He was wonderful, giving a direct and honest answer to the question as it was something we anticipated years ago. The sense of relief the couple felt in hearing an answer directly from us was obvious. I followed up with our actual engineered plans that show the land survey, environmental controls and additional voluntary work we are doing with berms and plantings to ensure privacy. Then we discussed other plans for the resort and bonded over a mutual love of Disney. Before the couple left, the lady asked if she could give me a hug. They were talking about booking their next anniversary at Standing Pines Resort as they left. I followed up with a message this morning to make sure we completely answered their question. She sent me a very sweet response. Evidently, there were many conversations after they left us last night. They shared the info we provided with others in this large, local extended family. Those discussions were evidently also very positive, as she suggested we should keep an eye out on reservations. It sounds like most of their extended family is now also talking about booking stays with us. What a happy ending to this particular story! By contrast, a different campground in another state shared some screenshots of their community struggles last night in one of the owner's groups. It really caught my eye as a contract to our experience with this local family. Even as they had very legit concerns, they approached us privately and gave us the grace to respond without doing a public blast. Thinking about that kind of approach versus what this other campground is dealing with left me with a profound appreciation of the courtesy of the Hartsville area. That's not to say we have not had any community issues. We have had the occasional question or concern raised. I'm 100% certain there are some community members who reserving judgement until they see our actual impact, but overall we have been blessed with almost total public community support for Standing Pines. The family who sold us the land loves the campground as a way to see some of their family land developed. They stop in to visit and check on progress at least once a week. They have helped us sell the idea to the area, doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us behind the scenes. Several local ladies who also own small businesses reached out to me to connect and share ideas. Somewhat by design and somewhat by luck, we landed in a place where there are many, many locals who now jump to defend or explain Standing Pines when questions come up. Frankly, I doubt I know about a small percentage of these discussions. I think most of these concerns are getting addressed positively by Standing Pines fans without ever reaching us. Our experience stands in sharp contrast to this other campground's struggle. Here are some of the images the other campground owner shared of their community opposition.  While I feel for this other campground and reached out to them to offer empathy and a listening ear, I am also extremely grateful Standing Pines is not facing those kinds of community challenges or PR problems. Instead, I'm having fun almost challenging potential investors! Reaching the point where we don't actually need additional investors has made this much, much more fun for me. Here's a facebook post I created today for one of the RV park sales groups. Now, realistically, I don't think there is any chance anyone in that group will invest. There are a ton of sharks there, like bargain hunters looking to do quick flips or buy from retiring small owners who may not fully understand the value of what they are selling. So this may also be my way of gently poking fun of the whole group. Mostly, now I'm curious to see if the admin (a campground broker, of course) allows the post. All right, time to break for lunch then come back to my RV office and work on next week's video update. Hope everyone is having a happy weekend! |
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Post by WDWGoof on Apr 28, 2024 9:19:55 GMT -5
Wow, those posts remind me why I will never consider being on social media (this chat room is it for me). If any of my family members were to read me being that vicious I’d be eating lava soap, regardless of my age! How does that person enjoy life when she is so mean. Boggles my mind that people are that way now days.
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Post by MinnieMom on Apr 28, 2024 10:56:02 GMT -5
Yep. Just mean. I get pushing back on a new business or even rallying others to try to block something if convinced it would be a really bad thing. But that tone is just was out of line. Again, I feel for that campground.
We have benchmarked any number of dog parks in recent years. We want to have at least the fencing up for the planned private event weekend in May. So that means ordering fencing today. DH and I have been reviewing maps and planned location. Not surprisingly, we are making relatively small last minute adjustments to planned location. I also came across a new concept this morning that I like for the future. In addition to the large dog (over 35 lbs, about 1/3 acre in size) and small dog (under 35, about half the size of the big dog park) parks, we have room for a private dog park. This possible future add would be about the size of the small dog park and only available to one family at a time. That works well for dogs like ours, that love to play but can scare other dogs because they are intense herders who will round up and drive all the other dogs in a park if given half a chance.
I also think we are getting close to final layout for planned amenities for both the front area by the clubhouse & pool plus the back part of the park with the dog parks, pump track, disc golf and more. I may come back and post the visuals for those plans later today.
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Post by MinnieMom on May 6, 2024 8:18:41 GMT -5
Happy Monday! Hope you are well and happy this week! Below are lots of words that more or less mean we are on track. I'll post this week's blog and video update after they come out tomorrow afternoon.
1) Road Grading & stormwater system installation started. This is a key date, as the GC has this work designated as the critical path that will control the overall timeline of the project. The first stormwater concrete box is set; the first set of pipe is set and buried. This is a seven week project on the timeline. I expect all the boxes and pipe will be laid by the end of June.
2) Sewer system installation is moving quickly. The drain field where the two giant 10,000 galleon tanks are buried is going much more quickly overall than I expected. The subcontractor has some high end GPS on his equipment. While there were some challenges with control points, once that technical issue was resolved he can set his equipment more or less to automatic. That means precise, rapid digging for the couple dozen rows of drain line in the field. They likely will finish the drain field and move to begin setting drain lines in the campground proper later this week.
3) The interior framing started for the Welcome Center last week. It's now on pause for reasons that make no sense to me. That is on my agenda to discuss with GC today.
4) I did some marketing work last week, including meeting the regional director of tourism commission. She's great! I owe her a couple of follow up's this morning.
5) That fun, almost light hearted post I did about our investment opportunity got more nibbles than I expected. I still don't think anything will come of it, but time will tell. After sending a couple of potential investors the deck at their request, who knows? I realized this morning I need to add a timeline slide to that deck. I'll get that done today.
6) I need to make the deck for this week's episode of Building Memories. Plus I think I'm going to launch a fun new challenge to see if we can keep growing the facebook community organically.
7) Charlotte, NC should be a good market for us. Time to start thinking about how to market to that audience.
8) One of this week's meeting is with the illustrator for the books. She's coming over to take a look at the mural wall on the Welcome Center.
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Post by MinnieMom on May 7, 2024 16:18:44 GMT -5
It's another busy and good week! In an amazing compliment, a social media manager for a small RV campground in NC reached out today to ask for advice about growing their facebook community. That makes me so happy! I invited him to schedule a time to talk. At the very least, I can honestly share some of our mistakes so he doesn't have to learn the hard way. Here's the link to this week's video update for construction progress and upcoming milestones: Episode 11: Projections - Onwards Towards Opening Day I'm a few weeks behind on doing the blog posts to match the videos. I will try to get those updated this weekend, with links here as well. Bottom line - thinks seem to be mostly on track. Interior framing for Welcome Center is delayed due to shower pans mistakenly being sent back and having to be reordered. Stormwater system is going in under the future roads. Sewer system is progressing on schedule. We are looking for options for pond liner, having accepted that's a necessity. My focus on making this upcoming preview weekend a success is growing. Last night (literally after 8pm) was the final delivery we expected for materials for that event. Lots to do in the next week to get ready for these first guests! |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 8, 2024 9:50:07 GMT -5
I just launched a fun new weekly game for the Facebook community for the campground! I hope it entertains others as we have had a great deal of fun planning for in over the past week or so. Join the Standing Pines community over on facebook to play along! Or, just let me know if you'd like me to do the same contest concurrently here every week for those who might not be on Facebook. Happy to share the fun! 🌲🕵️♀️ Introducing "Where in Standing Pines?" - Our New Weekly Challenge! 🔍🏕️ Let’s play a game! Get ready to put your thinking caps on, because we're launching an exciting new weekly contest right now! 🎉 Every Wednesday, we'll post a photo of a specific area or feature currently under construction at Standing Pines Resort. Your mission? Guess what that location will be when the resort opens! Here's how to play: 1️⃣ Check our page every Wednesday for the "Where in Standing Pines?" challenge. 2️⃣ Take a close look at the photo and share your best guess in the comments. 3️⃣ Use the hashtag #WhereInStandingPines so we can find your guess. 4️⃣ Check back the following Wednesday for the new challenge photo and to see if you guessed correctly! The most creative and accurate guesses will get shout-outs, and the winners will be congratulated live on our weekly Tuesday video show, "Building Memories with Standing Pines"! 📺🌟 Ready to dive in? Here's your first "Where in Standing Pines?" challenge: What do you think this area highlighted with the oval will be when Standing Pines Resort opens? Share your guesses in the comments below! 👇 HINT: The first few weeks will feature photos from the early Building Memories weekly shows. If you get stumped, feel free to check out those early episodes on the Standing Pines Resort YouTube channel for clues! #WhereInStandingPines #StandingPinesResort #ComingSoon #GuessTheLocation  |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 14, 2024 12:46:14 GMT -5
Hey MO - time for this week's update video! Below is my personal facebook post. I don't usually share these on my personal page anymore, but I tried a few new things in this week's video and really want some feedback for how they go over. We are still dealing with pool permit issues, which is extra annoying because now we may well be so far behind we won't be able to open with the pool open after all. And one of the bathroom doors is in the wrong place in the Welcome Center. The architect is reviewing to see if we can simply change the direction of the toilet. That may mean it doesn't meet ADA compliance. That's fine from a requirement standpoint, as all other bathrooms in the Welcome Center are fully ADA compliant. But it is an issue to work through. There are other challenges around the potential pond liner, some acceptance we are not going to be able to attract enough investors to pave the roads before we open and similar adventures. Overall though - while I don't want to tempt Murphy's Law, we are cautiously optimistic about our October 15 opening date.
This weekend is the first private, preview camping experience with the CCC group. We will have ~60 people for a weekend of complimentary dry camping. There is a plan to get the fencing up for the dog parks, build the gaga ball court and install the 9 disc golf baskets. If it doesn't rain Saturday, we have a fair chance of getting all three of these projects completed!
I'm excited to share the latest episode of Building Memories, a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Standing Pines Campground. In this week's installment, "Growing Green," we explore the pine trees that give the resort its name, as well as the normal weekly construction video updates, "Where Wednesday" winners, and Feedback Friday recaps.
Our whole family has been working hard on this project. We would really appreciate it if you would watch the video and share your thoughts. Your support and feedback are invaluable as we continue to build Standing Pines Campground into a place where families can create unforgettable memories together.
If you enjoy the episode, please consider sharing it on your own Facebook page to help spread the word. It would also be great to grow the YouTube channel, so if you would like to see these weekly construction updates, please consider liking and subscribing for more behind-the-scenes content!
Here's the link to Building Memories Episode 12: Growing Green
Thank you so much for your ongoing support and encouragement. It means everything to us!
#StandingPinesResort #CampStandingPines #BuildingMemories #DiscoverMemoriesTogether
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Post by MinnieMom on May 16, 2024 14:16:42 GMT -5
Ya'll, we had so many contractors on site this morning. For hours, all DH and I did was meet with different contractors. We did a walk through of the Welcome Center with the head of the electrical sub contracting company and the GC. The architect did a good job with locating outlets and switches overall, but I added a dozen more outlets. The plumbers were there and had plenty of questions for DH and GC while I mostly worked with electrician. The HVAC outfit was there, hanging some air handling units. The sitework team continued their work, moving on to installing underground stormwater pipe for Baby Deer Lane. The pool builders showed up and shook hands with everyone.
By the time we left the construction zone at noon, I felt like DH and I had already put in a couple full days of work in one morning. GC says to expect the next 2-3 weeks to be like this, as multiple trades will be onsite. The next 2-3 months may actually be like this, as several different trades will be working almost on top of each other to bring construction together as we are starting the final stretch of the build process.
And it is wonderful! After years of planning, months of the deliberate pace of site work and weeks detailing relatively less visual progress, the pace of construction is accelerating. It won't be long now before everyone can see what's been so clear in my head for so long - - the first phase of Standing Pines!
After a quick lunch break with Grandma and DD, we are back at work this afternoon. We have our first guests coming tomorrow for the camping club private preview event. So much to do, so little time!
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Post by MinnieMom on May 24, 2024 11:55:18 GMT -5
The CCC weekend at Standing Pines was awesome!! A couple of people did pics/vids, which are available by dropbox at this link: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/y78ehky9imhj8rje65zt2/AFFnl8HFL8IsbFWDQESDXjY?rlkey=v2dfv2z0hptccs5lazn2pmq8r&st=pxtascw9&dl=0 In total seven families participated (12 adults; 4 kids) for the weekend. We made progress on several projects and it was a great weekend for bonding! I am absolutely certain everyone who came will be back for multiple future stays at Standing Pines. It was a ton of fun! Yesterday, I had two events for the Forrest Friends. The first was a virtual meeting with a class in VA that read an advance copy of the chapter book. One of my god-daughters is in this class and asked if she could offer this to her teacher. I said yes, teacher said yes, the ~20 students in the advanced reading class read the book. Based on the the enthusiastic interest, questions, suggestions and requests for additional Forrest Friends stories, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this story resonates with the target readers. They really liked it! The second event of the day was the first public reading/signing for Rascal Takes Responsibility, hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce. That was so much fun! There were easily 20+ people (which is a lot for our small town) and half a dozen young children. These kids were great! As I read, I stopped in different places in the story to ask questions like "what would you do? why do you think they did that?" and the kids jumped right in with thoughts and answers. Every single child that attended waited in line after to buy their own copy of the book, which both I and the local illustrated personalized and autographed. Good times!  At the Welcome Center, the plumbers finished up what they can do prior to the sheetrock going up. The inspector showed up as scheduled yesterday. However, the county sent a residential inspector instead of commercial inspector, so that got hosed up. New inspection TBD. Yesterday, the doors and windows went in. I love them! They add so much to what will be the final look for the welcome center! We went with full glass double doors, with glass side panels and glass transom windows. There are two sets of these doors on either side of the Welcome Center. They provide so much light and add to the feeling of openness/spaciousness! Love these!  Oh, as the couple of picnic tables were part of the weekend projects. DH opted to create his own design. The 8-foot table length was widely praised. However, the seat height needed to be adjusted. So getting that feedback from guests before we build 100 of these was invaluable. This is not the final location for these picnic tables, but they were so handy to have near the Welcome Center we are going to do a covered/concrete floor outdoor dining area for 2-4 picnic tables between the Welcome Center and the pool. This outdoor eating space will be mere steps from the Snack Bar service window and adjacent to the community firepit. The big project from the weekend was installing the fence posts for 425 lineal feet for the dog parks. While they did not final all the post install, the small team that worked on this project did get the lines laid. That will make it much simpler for DH and to finish the project. And the dog parks are really a nice size! The larger park, for larger dogs, is just over 1/3 acre. It will have water for the dogs, seating for humans and some fun play obstacles. We also adjusted the location to include more trees than initially planned, with additional plans to plant even more to provide shade and interesting things for dogs to smell at the park. We do have another construction dilemma that may delay the completion. Without going into details, underground infrastructure needs to go in a certain order. An attempt to speed things up looks like it may have backfired, so this week was lost while GC/sub put their heads back together to try to find the best path forward. I am certain it will be okay, but I suspect best case is now early September to finish the Welcome Center and sitework (campsites, roads, pond, all utilities) while we will need every day of the 6 weeks after to get as many amenities complete prior to soft opening on October 15. To finish this update on a positive note, check out the first potential ad for Standing Pines! This is 10 seconds long, currently posted on youTube and Facebook. It's the first in a series highlighting moments and memories from the first guest camping weekend. The goal is to help potential guests envision themselves enjoying a visit to Standing Pines. |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 24, 2024 13:26:19 GMT -5
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Post by dlwdwdvc on May 25, 2024 11:35:26 GMT -5
Gosh I am always thinking of your family success…
Today in mail I received the June Woman’s Day Magazine …this was a gift subscription.
Page 68 declares June is
National Great Outdoors Month
With article
Dinner under the Stars
bySamantha MacAvoy
and another article
KeepCalm and campfire on
Learn our tips for preparing a cook-ready (and safe ) fire page 72
And a picture of Oreo Cookie Skillet !!!
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Post by MinnieMom on May 26, 2024 15:16:48 GMT -5
dlwdwdvc thank you! I'll have to check those out. As I'm learning about SEO, it might be good to do a review of the articles for blog posts on our website. Evidently that's a good way to build in search terms and help pop higher on google search lists. I absolutely love the challenge of continuous learning with this whole project! This weekend, DH and I worked together on the model campsite we've created in our front yard. The future rental RV, which we used to live in and is now my office, is set up and fully connected. This coming week's video update will include a walk through and discussion of the model campsite features. We are hoping this gives future guests a real way to connect with the possibilities of camping at Standing Pines. On a more personal level, DD finishes up her homeschool year this week. She has done such a great job! I've warned her that the academic level picks up a lot next year, so she's good with us starting classes in July to get ahead of that work. Plus, our state homeschool curriculum counselor has helped us qualify the two classes Samantha will take next month (coding and anatomy) through the Governor's School for Science and Math as the honors components for her Biology and Computer Science classes this next year. We have her Geometry teacher set up from a recommendation of her Algebra teacher this year. Sam wants to wait a year before doing Entrepreneurship 2. I think that may be smart, as it gives her some flex to adjust to a full set of high school classes without the additional demands of starting her first small business. She still plans to do it, but delaying a year while we get the campground open in October and a few months of operations behind us will give me more time to create a solid curriculum for that elective class. One of my BFF's is coming to visit with her two adult daughters this coming weekend. BFF turns 50! Wow, how does happen?  ? So her girls and I are treating her for the weekend. It still surprises me she picked this over a visit to Orlando, but okay. They will have the two bedroom RV for the weekend. We will do some camping cooking with them and all of us girls will visit the local salon for nails, hair and massage one day and the local water park for some lazy river floating the other day. I suspect they will also be amenable to some pics/vids we can use in marketing efforts as well. As soon as BFF and her girls leave, one of my other BFF's will pull up with her three kids! I don't know if she's bringing her motorhome or staying in our RV. Either is fine. I know her kids are looking forward to finishing the gaga ball assembly and playing. Again, while the primary is spending time with friends, everyone who comes to visit knows we will dual purpose and use the memories to help market Standing Pines. It's an all-in effort! I will try to get back to finishing the Forest Friends chapter book next week. Rebecca, the illustrator, thinks she can get that work done fairly quickly. If all goes well, we could publish that as soon as July. I may also try to get the text done for the other 8 illustrated story books in June. I'd like to have that done before we hit the final stretch of construction. Once that's done, I can relax and just publish them one after the other as Rebecca finishes the illustrations for each book. One project I'm kinda dreading is redoing the website for the SEO work. That is tedious and not at all something I enjoy. But it needs to be done, so I'll do it. And we are running into some challenges with construction, as expected. Nothing that we can't handle, just the ongoing work of active project management. I finally let GC know that we won't pave in 2024. So that is changing some things, but perhaps not as much as I worried about. And if some additional investors do come on board, we have time enough to adjust again and pave after all. Here's hoping! I'll be back on Tuesday to post this week's video and blog. Happy Holiday Weekend MOs! |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 27, 2024 10:51:34 GMT -5
I took some time to play and have fun this morning, creating this short little video to thank the growing Facebook community. We went over 1,700 followers yesterday!
And the efforts to continue to be a good neighbor seem to be part of that growth. Here's another short, one minute video featuring some of our personal favorites local eateries.
This afternoon will be more project management (less fun), although I do still need to put together tomorrow's video for the weekly show. So a mix of work and fun.
For now, time to go work with DD on her final project for entrepreneurship.
But before I go, I have an ironic story to share. An HR recruiter called me this morning. He saw the job in NC that I turned down last year is posted again and wants me to consider it. Ah, nope. Sure, the money would be good. But we are too close now. I just can't see walking away from the early success building Standing Pines and building interest in it right now. And it only took me seconds to get to that conclusion rather than the weeks long process when I applied, interviewed and was offered the job last year. Good personal growth, I hope!
Anyway - - what do you think of the first Forest Friends video? Cute? Silly? On brand?
On another topic, more on general Disney stuff, DH and I started the 4-hour youTube video on the failure of the Star Wars hotel this morning over breakfast. It will take us awhile to get through it, but seems like maybe a good educational experience in what we should avoid with marketing Standing Pines. Everything is a lesson!
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Post by dlwdwdvc on May 28, 2024 10:59:06 GMT -5
Well done friendly , inviting Videos .
Thanks to you and DVC Fort Wilderness Log Cabins , I am collecting all the info and anything interesting about Camping .
I think I might just get that VW mini van next year when it begins sales in America!
First road-trip to Standing Pines !
Ok I just walked into Target and the front section of the store always has $1-$5 fun items .
Guess what the new stuff is for the Fourth , etc ,but also Camping merchandise!
Fun tubes of different puzzles and iron on camping patches and camping stickers and tin coffee cups
You’ll have to hurry to get the cute red mug that says Happy Camper !
Plus $5 books about National Parks and Log Cabins ! The National Parks is almost sold out at the Orange Blossom location !
Hope you have a Target Store nearby!
Another thought ! Different age groups were entering store and were immediately drawn to the camping merchandise.
I think CAMPING is bigger than what we realize ! Which is more good feedback for you !
Your Opening Weekend looked like so much fun !
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Post by MinnieMom on May 28, 2024 12:30:22 GMT -5
Thanks! Sounds like we need to visit Target really soon - the closest one is only about 30 minutes away. Happy to grow the camping community! I bet the VW mini van will be great and would love to welcome you to Standing Pines for your first road trip! Here's a link for today's weekly show. We covered construction updates, CCC weekend highlights, model campsite and a tour for the future rental RV. Other than the technical difficulties with my camera, this one was fun! www.youtube.com/live/uOPKr6Dj1EI?si=QZ0-MdeYkV7qVQ9Swww.youtube.com/live/uOPKr6Dj1EI?si=QZ0-MdeYkV7qVQ9S |
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? So her girls and I are treating her for the weekend. It still surprises me she picked this over a visit to Orlando, but okay. They will have the two bedroom RV for the weekend. We will do some camping cooking with them and all of us girls will visit the local salon for nails, hair and massage one day and the local water park for some lazy river floating the other day. I suspect they will also be amenable to some pics/vids we can use in marketing efforts as well.