Hello and Welcome to our A Stones Throw RV Campground Blog where we chat about what we’ve been up to and how things have been progressing with our campground development. It’s crazy how times flies by, I came across a photo of my two girls who came out to say hi when we were surveying the development for the third time… every time we surveyed we got to look at things with fresh eyes, take something new into consideration… make some changes.
Our first survey was in October of 2019 and it was snowing and windy as all heck, but survey we did. 1,700 survey stakes got pounded each time, three different colours to help us differentiate which was Red for Road, Green for Green Space, and Yellow for Electrical lines for pedestals. In the end within the 50+ acres we were only out 10 inches, not too shabby!
The development of A Stones Throw RV Campground is over 50 acres in size, one cannot see from one end of the campground to the other. We are often complimented on how much space we have made for guests and their visitors. We want room for your family to put down some roots and experience what makes Southern Alberta so special. People are always surprised when they arrive here, they think its flat bald prairie where in fact it’s quote the opposite with our rolling hills and coulee. One just needs to look West to see the Buffalo Hills on the horizon, you will notice that there is nothing flat about that track of land!
Store/Office Construction
When you enter the front gate at A Stones Throw RV Campground the first building you come to is our Store/Office which was first constructed in 2020 by Remuda and we have been working on it ever since. Last year we were able to open up our free laundry room to our guests along with two individual bathrooms with flush toilets and sinks.
This winter we have put up drywall, mud and tape, sand and paint, window trim and door casing, concrete grinding and baseboards… this list goes on and on! We really wanted to have our Store/Office open and stocked for our guests this 2023 season and it looks like that will happen! We want to support Farm to Table as best as can so we have been reaching out to local farmers and the community of Milo to offer a place to show their crafts and products.
“Commerce for the Community” is our goal as a business, we believe our development will introduce a lot of families and business to our community. It has been wonderful hearing from the Milo Cafe, Grocery Store, and Bar/Hotel who have all welcomed new customers coming from A Stones Throw RV Campground. Our Store/Office will be one further step in promoting Buy-Local!
In our next blog we will update you on the the store with some more pictures 🙂
Tours
Cindy and I love to give a tour to a new visitor for a lot of reasons. I like to say it is because it gives us an excuse to take a break, which is true. What we enjoy the most is answering peoples questions, getting to show what has been done, it’s a little walk down memory lane. Sometimes we catch ourselves realizing how much has been done, it’s hard to believe. We are often complemented on our vision and the level of consideration we have put into everything that we do. If there is a way to over-think, over-engineer, over-beat-something-to death we will figure out a way to do it! Not once have we ever said “Oh who cares, we will be dead before anything happens”, everything we do is to last for the next generation and on.
This is the first week that we have been driving around in the campground with no snow! It’s been a little rough giving tours the last few weeks with wet roads, Mother Nature has finally taken the hint that Spring has sprung, A LOT of snow and ice has melted within the campground and around the farm. Now with some warm evenings winter has nearly disappeared and the running water has stopped. We are lucky to have filled our reservoir with all of the runoff from this winters snow.
Benches
Our campground benches have been in the works for three years now, every winter we get one step closer to completing our last mini-mega project. The campground development it’s self is a MEGA project but we’ve got a lot of irons in the fire! Mixed into the list of To-Do’s were a few Mini-Mega Projects… Our first Mini-Mega Project was the fabrication of 180 fire pits followed by the creation and installation of our Secondary Emergency Spillway off our reservoir dam. The creation of 28 park benches is now finally coming to a close! The last big step as you can see is adding the 2×6 lumber to the seat and back and BOOM we’ve got a place to sit!
Some guests have inquired if we would consider making plaques where families could dedicate a bench in the name of their family. It is a lovely thought and one that we are taking into consideration. When looking at the City of Calgary and what they do for Bench and Table Dedication it is impressive, information can be found at https://www.parksfdn.com/bench-and-table-dedication and The City of Lethbridge has a similar project which can be found at https://www.lethbridge.ca/Things-To-Do/Pathways-Trails/Pages/Gifting-Program.aspx.
Walking Paths
Last year was our first year being open to guests and we had no idea where people might roam. We surrounded our reservoir with signage and life preservers assuming the sheep and cattle trails would lead guests around the water and though the coulee pasture. Boy were we wrong! Guests don’t want to walk in a line like a bunch of animals, they want to walk side by side like people! This is my assumption of course.
We noticed a few wandering guests out in the coulee and more often than not they would stop half way around, and turn back. Maybe curiosity killed the cat but I could not help myself. I had to ask why they didn’t venture further and the answer was always very understandable. Without a pathway how does one know they are truly invited to walk and explore? Without a pathway, how would you know if you were trespassing?
We have taken these thoughts to heart and are working on the logistics on how we can fast track our plans on adding a pathway around the coulee. We have laid out our initial path and have a pretty good idea how to facilitate a narrow bead of gravel up and down hills. There is a first for everything, making a path will certainly be a first for us. I know that nothing good comes easily, and I also know nothing is as easy as it should be but like every other hurtle we’ve experienced with this development, we will figure it out 🙂
Tradeshows
As a family business we have wondered how do we get our campground’s name out there? You can spend as much as you have in advertising if you wanted to, but what gives the best bang for your buck? We are still figuring that out! Some people may like the shotgun, while others prefer a little more accuracy on the target. The same goes for advertising, we could blast a message out to anyone everyone hoping a connection is made to the masses or we could try to talk to individuals face to face.
We launched our business at the 2020 Calgary RV Expo and little did we know COVID would strike two months later!? The next opportunity to wave a flag at an expo would have to wait until 2023. The Calgary RV Expo this January was incredible, so many people and so many faces! It was really nice to see! The next month was the first time attending the Calgary Home+Garden Show and what a great time! We met so many nice people and experienced a real burst in tours. It was nice to hear how people have heard about us, or who had never heard of us and they are so excited!
Last weekend was the Okotoks Trade and Lifestyle Show and we were very impressed with the number of vendors and their organization of the event. We have had a tour every day since with several sites being taken by new guests. There are a lot of new sites that we need to get ready before May 1st!
Thank you for giving our blog a read, we look forward to chatting with you again next month 🙂
