Ok!! I’m back! It’s been a busy month, though a lot of it seems like it was just spinning my wheels in the mud, trying to go forward. In all honesty, not much has changed since I posted last.
I have done a couple of pet sitting gigs – one farm sitting (chickens, ducks, quail, and a little dog) for four days and one dog sitting for the weekend. The dog sitting was for the two dogs I sat with in December – repeat business!! I am indeed loving this aspect of my life.
Still no running water. Neither Lance or I have ever done any work involving a well system. We are learning, but it’s a slow process. We have also discovered that our network of friends and such does not include anyone that can get a well pump at wholesale pricing. Bummer. Oh well. Once we get the darn pump out of the ground, we can actually do some real pricing. Getting it out of the ground is proving to be a bit more challenging than we were thinking it would be. Sure, we knew it would take some work, no problem there. It’s the taking things apart in order to be able to start the process of pulling the pump out of the ground that has really slowed things down. Lance has watched some YouTube videos about it but we both seem to get a bit cautious, probably over-cautious, when we are doing something for the first time. We don’t want to make the situation worse. Anyway, we are still working on that.
My laptop decided it was done with the abuse of use I was giving it and died. It was a depressing moment, though I have to admit that I didn’t really feel depressed. Not right away. Once I thought about everything I am trying to accomplish, learn, do, the lack of a functioning laptop caused me a little bit of panic – for a few moments. Panic is not a good thinking spot so I put it down so I could attempt to come up with a solution.
The solution was a matter of coming to terms with my reality, pricing laptops, seeing what my options were for fixing the problem, and then having to move forward with the belief that things will work themselves out. Ok. With the belief that I would just have to make it work. Work has been beyond slow which of course means money has been just passing through my hands to the bills and groceries, to the best of my abilities. How is this different from any other time? So much less money to do that with.
Work has been beyond slow which of course means money has been just passing through my hands to the bills and groceries, to the best of my abilities. So much less money to do that with. It’s been stressful, but we seem to be balancing things ok, with a lot of extreme focus on where each and every penny goes to. Definitely have had times of borderline panic, but I’m learning to have faith that the universe will bring what is needed. Not easy to do since I tend to feel better when I am death gripping things. At least that’s what I tell myself.
Anyway, I ended up ordering an ASUS Chromebook (thank goodness for credit!). I won’t have payments on this until May, and my thought is that work will be in full swing by then and it will all work out ok. It’s a bit of a gamble, but I WILL make it work one way or another.
So, my Chromebook came yesterday. I haven’t had much time to mess around with it but, so far, I can say that it is going to take some getting used to. It is so much different from what I’m used to. I may do some searching around the web to see if it will help me to better understand how Chromebook works best and how to get it to do what I want most, besides writing. For the four days before it got here, I don’t think I have ever wanted to write more in my entire life. Pen and paper hurt my hands too much, though I was beginning to start thinking I may just have to muscle through it. Now, the laptop is here and all of those great ideas I had seem to have been stirred back into the mix. I’ve made some notes on those to look at later, but that was all I could get out of those, at this time.
The real estate stuff has been put on hold for a minute. My friend has some things she needs to attend to in her life, so we have rescheduled some of the training. That’s ok. I needed to take a step back from it, myself, to attend to some of my own.
Well, I’d better get working on stuff. Have a great day, Everyone!!
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 
So glad to see you are writing again. I miss your blogs.
I am not sure why you are responsible for fixing the well. You rent the space where you live don’t you? Wouldn’t your landlord be responsible?
Hope Dog and Den continues to grow for you. We were out of town for the day recently and had a lady come in a let the dog out two times during the day and she charged $20. Not expensive but that comes out to about $20/hour. She also cleans houses and she came at lunch time and after she finished cleaning. Worked for her and worked for us. Are you doing anything to promote your business?
Keep writing. Love Dad
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Yes, the well pump is the landlords responsibility, but he is in Mexico until later this month. Plus, we are offering to do the work as rent exchange since things are so desperately tight right now. No ideal but it is where we are at and we aren’t afraid of a bit of hard work. I just wish we knew how to do this better. We will figure it out.
I’m guessing your sitter charges the average for your area. Apparently, Ohio’s economy is a bit different than here. I didn’t go with the highest pricing I saw when researching what to charge for Dog & Den…there are many that charge $75 for an overnight stay and $35 for a single feed, potty, exercise stop, $50 for two stop ins. I went with $35 for the one stop, but only $40 for a second. My overnight charge is $50. I spend about an hour with each client. There is, of course, drive time, gas, vehicle maintenance factored in, hence the $35 for one stop in. Broken down, overall, I’m making about $20 an hour per stop.
As for promoting, there is the website, of course, and I’ve added some affiliate links to the site in the past week. Then there is the Dog & Den Facebook page. This week, I am going to work out a postcard sized flyer to post at local dog parks, some of the grocery stores, etc. I am also going to go to our vet to see if I can leave some of the flyers on one of their displays in the waiting room, and to some of the area shelters, such as the Humane Society. I’m baby-stepping this a little bit, but the next travel season is coming up, so I need to put my hustle on. Love you Dad!
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