Well, I'm not getting any work done on the Lair...

...But I am making money.

In fact, if things continue as they are, which I don't expect, I'll need to cut back some.

I've got two regular gigs for neighbors, which between them make me 60% of my "dog nanny" wage and probably don't total six hours' work per week. That alone would keep me in essentials, though it doesn't pay for incidentals, emergencies or building materials. My woodcutting gig for D&L will net me about $150 plus a meal a day, with no expenses beyond the gas to get there. Now I've got another $150 trash-hauling job that's a lot less work, but because it involves trips to the county dump which I can't legally do I made a deal to share the wealth with W. Between those and another job I can't talk about (nothing illegal or anything, just private) my first month without dog-nanny wages is promising to be quite nicely remunerative. By my standards, you know.

Landlady has insisted on continuing to pay for Ghost's food, because she's not ready to just let me adopt him. And to be honest, though I often joke that he doesn't remember he was ever her dog that really doesn't seem to be true. He lives with me, but when she's here he insists on starting his day by touching base with her.

Finally, just lately I'm making out like a burglar on other peoples' cast-offs. I was just lamenting the death of a brand-new t-shirt because most of my shirts are rags, when somebody came by with a gigantic plastic bag full of clothes a son-in-law couldn't fit into anymore. There were a bunch of t-shirts (I'm just going to have to get over my objection to advertising companies I never heard of on my own back) and a near-lifetime supply of jeans that fit perfectly! I don't normally wear jeans, because I can get surplus BDUs really cheap and they're perfect desert wear. After years of doing that I find jeans far too hot and confining. But as a few friends have gently tried to point out, BDUs are fine when I'm in the boonies but when I come to town they make me look like ... well, not exactly The Grey Man. I've felt for some time that I need to dress more conventionally when I'm going to be around strangers, but my very few remaining pairs of conventional trousers are falling to pieces. I have some really nice clothes squirrelled away in a suitcase, but those are only for when I have to travel to a city. So this care package couldn't have come at a better time.

So anyway - money and supply-wise, June is shaping up to be a great month. But just when I was congratulating myself for finally making progress on the Lair, I suddenly don't have the time. Hopefully by the end of next week that will change, because I need to keep moving on the Lair. At least now I can console myself that my lack of progress isn't from too much sitting on my ass. I've never been convinced that I was really earning the money Landlady gave me for watching the dogs and the property. But I'm sure earning it now, boy.