August Expenses

Well, here we are at the end of August. Not a bad month from an expenses perspective, although if we are spending this kind of money we should be seeing more than we are. We gotta get back on the road!

We spent a total of $1,433 CAD ($1,100 USD)... only $6 less than we spent last month. But we sure saw a lot more last month than we did in August.

Chester the Rottweiler

Friday morning, our daughter Lindsey dropped of their dog Chester, the 135 lb Rottweiler for a weekend visit with Grandma and Grandpa while the family went canoe camping.

Chester is almost 4 years old, but he's still just a big puppy. And he loves me, and won't leave me alone!

What's the point of holding onto something if you never realize the appreciated value?

Going through the basement here, I came across an old cigar box full of old coins. I almost wish I hadn't though because it only means more work. At some point someone will have to go through them and see what is worth money, and what isn't.

Obviously the silver coins are worth their value in silver. But the other ones, even though they are old, are not worth much more than face value.

Interesting things that we find

So I'm going through some more stuff in the basement, and there's a bin with a bunch of old clothes in it. Looked like some of it belonged to Ruth's mother at some point. And there's an old purse. So of course before you send the stuff off to the op shop, you check the pockets and the purse to make sure that nobody inadvertently left a wad of hundred dollar bills in there.

And of course there was no money. But there was something interesting!

We'd rather be out hiking or exploring

Well, we're still puttering away at the work around the house. Ruth is probably 3/4 done the gardening... she only has one bad section left to do.

I started cleaning the exterior siding on the house. The beige colored vinyl siding is turning green. It probably hasn't been cleaned in over 15 years. I started with the worst part first... the hardest to get to area at the top of the back of the house.

Our preference is to die while still in good condition!

I hesitated to write this article because I don't want to come across as preaching. After all, we are far from perfect. But, I had an email from someone yesterday who said that this blog had motivated them to exercise more... and that's a good thing!

It's pretty common knowledge that exercise is good for you. And yet statistics say that most parts of the world don't treat exercise as the medical wonder drug that it is.

Are we rich? No, but perhaps we are wealthy...

Of course it's easy to think that the two words are interchangeable. The dictionary definitions are certainly similar... essentially both words mean "the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions."

But I read about a new book coming out next month called "The Psychology of Money" where the author makes a definite distinction between the two. I've only read previews of the book of course, but it seems that one can be rich... without being wealthy. And the other way around.

Four weeks

Hard to believe we've been back here in the Ottawa area for four weeks already. Two of those weeks we were under house arrest, and even then they went by fast enough, but the last two weeks went by much faster!

And we feel like we've got a lot accomplished already, but when we look around there is still sooo much to do. And we're only here for another 7 weeks. Not rushing things by any means, but it will be October before we know it!

Before and after

Ruth's mother was an avid gardener. In fact, when she looked after the property years ago, it was suitable for Better Homes and Gardens magazine. And in fact, she won local awards for her garden.

 I don't have many electronic photos of what it used to look like, but I can give you an idea...

Busy day, with Black Forest cupcakes!

Busy day yesterday as we once again headed into the city. It was our daughter Lindsey's 34th birthday and we were headed in to visit with my mother. My sisters were going to be there too, so it only made sense for us all to visit at the same time.

Lindsey brought Cameron and Sadie with her. The kids hadn't seen their great-grandmother since Christmas!