Working on the books

Okay, I was asked how Samantha (actually that wasn't what she was called, but I'll let that one pass) got down from the wood pile yesterday- she turned around and walked back down the wood pile. Sometimes I think the dog is smarter than the average dog. But then she's my dog.

Today was spent at home - we have been having some problems with our dish so we called the installer today and tried to get that all stright. I think we did - but then you never know what will happen the next time we have a rain storm. I don't want to be a downer, but we have not been satisfied with this dish since we had it installed. I don't know if we would have had better service if we had stayed with Direct, but I guess we won't find that out for at least two years.

While we were at home today I did the books - and we actually did better than I thought we did - we spent about 1/2 as much on fuel as we did last month - spent $300.00 less on eating out - and about $150.00 less at the grocery store (I don't know if that is because we stayed out of Wal Mart and didn't buy the 'other stuff' or not). I guess we are eating more stuff that we brought with us and cleaning out the basement pantry. We also spent less on miscellaneous stuff than we had done last month. If it had not been for the $850.00 we spent on the truck (between the actual truck bill with the hotel in Butte and the car rental in Idaho Falls)we would have been able to save an extra $1,000.00 but that was not to be. We were able to save some but not as much as I would have wanted, but some is better than none. I guess the truth of the matter is if you watch your pennies you can save some money, but you are always going to have unexpected expenses - a good thing about our situation is that we have that extra money to be able to pay for those unexpected expenses. Yes, I didn't save as much as I wanted but we did save some (better than last month).

Now, we talked with some people today about when the cabin will be shut down - right now it looks like we will probably leave the middle of next week. We need to be in Michigan by a week from Thursday evening - one of Dan's nieces will be leaving for a cruise on Friday morning and if we are going to see her we must be there on Thursday. So, we will see what will happen - hopefully, we will know something by tomorrow evening. Keep your fingers crossed. The bad thing is, if this is, in fact, our last weekend of work there will be a lot of things we will not be able to do that we wanted to do - one of those may be the hike in Yellowstone. We may just not be able to work that in - we'll just have to wait and see what we will be able to work in.

I'm so glad that we got some comments again - and yes, Crystal, you will probably see pictures of the Michigan countryside in the near future, but I am excited about that since I have never been to Michigan before - you just don't know what you may see. Dan and I are hopeful that things will get more calm for those of you at school - I know that it can be hectic, but I'm hopeful that the schedule will get better.

Now to leave you for tonight - I just had to include at least one more MOOSE picture -

it's just that this one is hanging over a fireplace in the old dining hall at the musuem that Dan and I went to yesterday - Hope you enjoy! HAHA!

I'll talk to you tomorrow!