I have workers to pay and bills to pay to keep the electricity and the internet turned on.

I am gradually digging myself out from under piles of boxes and furniture. I think is a few more days things will almost be livable here in my new country home.

Thanks to all who shared their rodent tales with all of us. If you haven't found the rodent thread... it starts here:

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=19918

Here's the one I am going to try before I invest any money on traps and poisons.

Reader: "Okay, I'm going to tell you exactly how I got rid of unwanted guests
and I already realize that few will believe this ..."
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=19982

I know this reader and I believe his story completely. I have been talking to the mice and letting them know that this is my house and they weren't invited to live here. It didn't occur to me to give them a place where they could come for food for a few days... just until they find another place to live.

My two little dogs are part Rat Terrier. They can tell when one of the mice is on the move in the kitchen... all the way from the back bedroom. Both dogs have caught and killed the mice... 4 so far. Three more drown in the dogs' water bowl.

I am going to let the mice know that they are in danger if they continue to trespass on my property. I will tell them that I have two 20 pound guard dogs whose ancestors were bred to hunt down and kill rodents. Being killed by one of these dogs is not something that the little mouses would like.

I am hoping that they are reading what I am writing as I write it. I guess you could say that I am posting a "mouse eviction order" online. Since I really don't want to kill them... they are such cute little critters... I am hoping that they pay attention to their eviction order because by doing so they will not be killed by the teeth of one of my rat terriers.

Money is really tight for everyone these days. But there is overhead for RMNews and this month I have tried to keep up with the overhead as well as pay my friends who moved me. I can't believe that we moved all my stuff in a Dodge Pickup Truck. I thought for sure I was going to have to rent a moving truck. Thanks to these two friends from church, I saved the money that I would have spent renting the truck.

There are here today and will both probably work all day. That will be close to $200.00. They will wait for their money until the first when I get my VA check. But the electric company won't wait for its money... If I don't pay them over $200.00 on the back bill, which was $2,000 before I started paying it down, I'm sure it will be cut off again. That bill was for 5 months. I never received a bill for the new house, or if I did, I thought it was a duplicate bill that I had already paid and I never opened it.

I also have to pay the phone bill. I am without a cell phone at the moment because I don't have the money to pay it. I have a house phone which I am now using.

I only have 3 utitlies at this house... electric, cable and phone. I have dsl through the phone company and I actually have a house phone for the first time in years. I haven't had use for a house phone because I have used my cell for everything.

I like having a house phone. I have an antique phone bench, and I have three antique looking phones. One is the black one that was the phone we used in the house where I grew up. The other two are replicas of the old phones, but with updated innards. They are both white with gold trim.

I am thinking about painting my phone stand/bench off-white and trimming it in gold. It's the little things these days that make me happy.

I am hoping and praying that the chipin widget is filled up asap. I would like to give my helpers the back pay that they have already earned. I think it is over $300.00 each. They have really worked to make this move run as smoothly as possible.

I also must pay for our server or there won't be an RMN page. That's $400.00. It used to be due on the first, but with rent being due on the same day, it was always hard to come up with the money for the server. The owner of the server has changed our billing date to the 15th. I am many days over the due date so I am hoping that we can get that $400.00 is asap.

If the fundrazer widget was filling up with regular daily donations, it would be $2200.00. a hundred dollars a day comes to the $3,000 that I need to keep this ship afloat. The Fundrazer widget only has $1,600 in it. That just a little over half and it's the 22nd already. (Where has this year gone?)

Thank you for all your help, suggestions and support...

Here's the Fundrazer widget.