Spring has Sprung!

Colin Monner

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!
 
Always a pleasure getting to see my girls in the field, my mom would bring them out to see what we have been up too. I missed them terribly working on the campground while the girls and their mom stayed in the city. Two weeks on and two days off became our work schedule, I would dream of those two days when I got to back to Calgary and see my family. It would be another year until we got to live together again, I feel that I am still making up for lost time as they were so little and grow up so fast!
 
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!
Turning a century old wheat field into a place of leisure is no small task! The last crop was harvested leaving behind this stubble. Using a cable on a spool we were able to line up campsites, roads and green spaces pounding coloured stakes where needed.
I’m guessing that this is the corner of “C Park” looking to the North and a little to the East. We got smart pounding an additional stake towards the centre of the green space to help illustrate where the 120’x120′ area was among the flurry of other stakes. I don’t think we thought of this on our first attempt, it could have been the second or third time we surveyed… gluttons for punishment maybe but every time we got to see things with new eyes and could not help ourselves on making a few changes based on a few new considerations.
 

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.
Remuda did a great job getting our building up, and then the work started! Trenching for services, packing gravel, rebar and plastic was a huge job, for each building… We stuffed insulation and got the vapour barrier up in preparation of some drywall and mud! With the majority of the mud and dust being dealt with we decided to grind the floors removing the top ‘milky’ surface of the concrete.
Grinding the floors was a process, what a loud and dusty job but worth it! After a vacuum and a wet mop our floors where then ready for our sealer. We researched a lot figuring out what out there in the big wide world would we find to use on our floors? Long story short we found an incredible product that would not leave a thick layer to contend with someday, easy to add/repair if needed, and looks good!
Would you believe that 5 gallons of primer got sucked up into these walls? They had better be sealed now! With that job done we jumped on painting the walls with another 5 gallons of paint, no one could have told me I’d throw 10 gallons of anything at these walls. We are definitely learning something everyday whatever we might be doing around here!
 
“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!
Maybe it’s an indication of my limited IQ but I get so tickled knowing we have a hidden horseshoe distributing luck to anyone who visits our campground Store/Office. We have thought of a name, let us know if you have any good ideas, we could have a “General Store”… The Homestead Depot maybe… hehe 🙂
With the paint done along with wood and calking around the windows and doors the next step was to tape and paint the trim! With a light sanding between coats we managed to make a pretty smooth finish.

 

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!
Making these benches became a job that took us three winters to complete. After the completion of our last “winter” project of making our fire pits we started with the benches. We priced out benches a lot and you get what you pay for. One can spend very little on a nice looking bench but it may not last a season in a commercial development. City benches are big and heavy and cost a small fortune for a reason that we were about to find out… The photo above shows our press where we made a jig to help guide the proper bend to our arm rests.
We cut and ground 11 different pieces for each side of every bench. Flat iron was drilled for the planks, capped the ends and welded on feet. We had hardly started to weld and spring had sprung. The welding of 28 right and 28 left sides would have to wait until year three.
Nothing good comes easy and the same goes for benches! After welding on the three 5 foot long pieces for the back and seat we started grinding and grinding! Smooth as silk we ground the welds and then in preparation of primer we wiped them down with methanol hydrate to cut the grease. New iron has a oily film on it to prevent rust, and cutting introduces more cutting oil, and the grinding does not help… so we wiped down 28 benches three times over until we could finally rub ur hands on them and not see any oily residue. With that done we started to paint primer. Though a roller would have been faster we felt a brush worked it onto the steel better. With that done we were ready to paint, but what colour??
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.
Green was our chosen colour! With a roller in hand my father-in-law Brian started to paint like a storm. This campground could not have been done without Brians help whether it is cutting, grinding, digging or nailing he has been right beside us the whole way. Thank You Brian! After painting the benches we then grabbed some 2×6 wooden planks and started to cut!
The first bench is done! Three winters in the making and for our second season being open we will get to place benches all over the place for our guests! How many times did we see parents sitting on the ground while the kids played? We had to get this project done for this season!

 

 

With forks on our little tractor that we call “Marge” we got to pick up the benches after the boards got screwed into place. Two rows of 14 benches got lined up outside of the garage. With the morning sun coming up I thought this made for a good photo 🙂

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?
The photo above displays the back quarter of our reservoir, Pelicans often hang around the aeration stone bubbling away. The back half to the right is our future Nature Haven for birders and berries. Very few guests ventured this far out into the coulee, sheep and cattle trailers did not do what I thought they would do. With some benches and some gravelled pathways will hopefully entice guests to explore.
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!
Here is a photo of our booth at the Okotoks Tradeshow, the staff were so nice and we really enjoyed ourselves! Who knew there were so many happy campers around Okotoks! We will certainly be back next year!
Thank you for giving our blog a read, we look forward to chatting with you again next month 🙂

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