Roaming Wolves

The snow is up to my thighs now and it's getting hard to go out and feed my horse. A herd of deer have been coming into the yard at night and eating my pine trees and sharing with my mare from her manger. It is unbelievably cold here! It was -16f when I took my son to school this morning. He has been home from school for over a week now because of the bitter cold and snow. I am waiting for the school to call and cancel again today and have me go pick him up. I home school my youngest son so, he never gets snow days. I pulled him out of his elementary school about a year ago and I will probably home school him for another year. Yesterday most of the roads were closed around Idaho because of unsafe driving conditions and we just hung out and played Rock Band and watched DVDs. I am good at drums and singing but, I get kicked off stage if I try to play guitar.

Our friend Zane called. I have known him since he was five and we have seen each other through some hard times. He has a good heart. My son has two friends that I love and adore. One has moved away to go and live with his dad. I don't get to see him too much any more and I miss him terribly. It broke my heart completely when he moved. It's hard to feel that he has moved on and has another life without me being a big part of it. I don't know, I think that you love and become attached to people but, I always seem to lose those that I love the most in life.

Zane comes from a ranching family in the area and even though he is young, he works at his ranch and has many of the responsibilities of an adult. He does this and juggles basketball and school as well. He has the most beautiful mare named Peyton--after his favorite quarterback. She's a brown and white Paint with blue eyes. He bought her as a yearling and he and his dad broke her( I don't think that's the right term anymore, it would be more like "gentled" her to ride.) He loves working out there on the ranch with his dad and always mentions it. I think it would be a great life if you didn't have to go out in sub-zero weather to work. He said that he has a new calf he is nursing. The mother abandoned it and he is taking care of it.

We talked about a report of wolves in the area and debated about whether they were actually out there. There is supposedly two wolves running together behind my house. His ranch runs behind our property through the woods and along the river. The ranchers are calving right now so they don't want wolves roaming in the area. Neither of us have heard any wolves at night so, he thinks they are just coyotes.

Take Control of Your Financial Life! Create a Budget.

The single best way to take control of your financial life is to create a budget.

1. Creating a budget helps you to see exactly where your sources of income are coming from and where your money is being spent.


2. With a budget you will be able to see where expenses can be reduced to help you save money.


3. With a good budget you will be able to plan and make decisions about future expenditures and achieve financial goals.

To create a budget, gather data on your income and expenses. Three months of data is a good place to start. You can get the data from your checkbook register or online bank statements.

1. Start with a list of monthly income using the data collected for three months. You can then project your income for the rest of the year. Your income should be about the same for the upcoming months--adjust it if there are any changes.
2. list income from salary and wages, interest, dividends, self-empoyment income, and any other fixed income such as alimony.
3. Calculate a monthly total for all income.

After you have computed your total monthly income you can calculate your monthly expenses:

1. List your fixed expenses that must be paid every month first like house payment or rent, taxes, insurance, car payment, credit card and debt payments.


2. List your variable expenses like groceries, utilities, clothing, entertainment, any upcoming vacations, and savings.


3. Project your expenses by adding up the first three months of say--groceries and divide by the number of months (3) to get an average.


4. Use this average as your projected grocery amount for the upcoming months.


5. Do this with all of your variable expenses.


6. Include any upcoming major expenses that you know of like vacations and insurance payments.


7. Calculate a monthly total for all of your expenses.Subtract your total monthly expenses from your total monthly income to get your net income.


8. Try to keep your budget simple.


9. Round off dollar amounts to a whole number.


10. Look at your variable expenses to see if there are some expenses that you can cut back on and put into savings.

I have created an example budget for you to look at--just click on the link below.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pw8uKsSvPJgdeEv3ebaTlLA&hl=en&pli=1

Where Should I Put My Money Now? Investing In A Rotting Stock Market.

1. 
   
   Even if the economy slips into a recession or slows to a crawl, there are certain industries that statistically have proven themselves to weather the storm. Don't think about the profits that were made yesterday or last year, look forward and long term. The economy for the year 2008 is expected to slow down considerably but, it will also will also come back in 2009. As the economy shifts you can expect the stock market to precede this slow down by one to three months. By the middle of Summer you should see the stock market rebounding as investors anticipate a better economy.
   
   Historically there are investment areas that do well in a bear market. If you are concerned about the economy and your portfolio, here are the best industries to invest in right now that are the least vulnerable to a slow economy. Think Basic needs like retail food, tobacco, soft drink manufacturers, cosmetics, utilities, pharmaceuticals.

Also Consider investing in companies that are doing business with China and India. China and India still have the hottest economies on the planet and their growth is expected to continue at a very lively pace. GE and IBM have both brought in decent profits with their collaborations with Chinese businesses. Also software should do well this year.

Idaho Snowboarding: Maverick Snowboarding in Mackay, Idaho

Mackay, Idaho is an unpretentious little town nestled in the peaceful valley of the Lost River. The town was founded by ranching, agriculture and mining. The town has successfully preserved it's western image and is home to the "Wildest Rodeo" in Idaho. It's not uncommon to find a cattle drive going on while you are in town. It is also home to many deer, elk, moose, wolves, bears and cougars. In Mackay you won't find any upscale resorts or shops here but, you will find a wild untamed setting perfect for maverick snowboarding and the perfect starting point for unlimited and uncrowded snowmobiling and cross country skiing.

Mackay is located about an hour and a half drive from either Pocatello or Idaho Falls, ID. After the snow falls and winter settles in, the town of Mackay regularly plows the road that winds up into the mountain behind the town. About three miles above the town is an abandoned mine with buildings still standing from a century ago and a few mine shafts as well. Drive about two miles up the road and there is a small parking space. From here you can find many good maverick snowboarding spots, snowboard down the hill or start your snowmobiling adventure!

Off of Highway 93 at the Burnt Lemon turn left and drive through the main street towards the mountain. This road takes you up into the wilderness behind Mackay.

The people of Mackay are always happy to have you here and while you are in Mackay, stop into the Burnt Lemon or Ken's club for authentic western hospitality and great food!

Starting an online business: The Goddess of floating deserts

I have been working on a website for my mom's new Desert business using a company that is a whole service web provider with different web site templates to chose from and step by step guidelines for building an e-commerce store front. So far it is working out wonderfully. I really like using this type of web service. They even have shopping carts and payment set-up!It really is amazing to me! One thing though is that we want to include pictures of her products on the website and the task is proving to be a wee-bit difficult.

The first photo shoot didn't go very well. She had someone take pictures of her standing over a table with her deserts arranged and decorated beautifully on a table with her posing in the back of it with her hands stretched out like, "here are my deserts--help yourself". She looked great, her deserts looked great,the trouble was that in the photos you can see the corner of where the walls of the room join. I asked her if she could shoot another roll of film and put them on a CD for me to get rid of the glaring wall problem. So she took a pair of scissors and cut out the picture of herself--the same one with her arms outstreched--and the deserts and took it in and had a new picture created eliminating the wall corner dilemma. The only problem now is that she also eliminated the table and the bottom half of her torso! So now she looks like the Goddess of floating deserts!

I'm sure that we will get it right eventually.

Idaho ranch life in winter

I and my two sons were recently invited to visit a working cattle ranch nestled in the desolate and gorgeous back-country of southeastern, Idaho. The snow covered country is rugged and beautiful with rolling hills, rivers and cottonwood trees. It was freezing out but sunny and a bit windy. In this country you see very few houses and the ones you do see are log houses or made of hand made brick and hand hew basalt from over a century ago. The ranch that we visited was a generational ranch founded seven generations before. When they founded the ranch there were Native American tee-pees dotting the landscape.

The ranchers walked into the barn wearing chaps and warm clothing and brought three teams of black and white draft horses out and hitched them to two sleighs and a wagon. They loaded massive bales of hay on to the sleighs and we jumped on top of them and rode the horse drawn sleighs out to where the cows were in a herd out on the range. We passed by a small river and the rancher had placed wheat flour out to feed the wild turkeys to help them through the winter and we saw many ducks and an Osprey fishing out of the river. Elk and deer herds also make this ranch their home.

The land on this ranch has remained the same for over a hundred years. Here you won't find the urban sprawl of housing tracks and discount stores just the quite peaceful symbiotic preservation of the ranching way of life and the wild life that make this area their home.

We went out and tore off the massive flakes of hay and threw them to the cows. It was hard work but, OMG we had a good time doing it! After we fed we rode back and the cowboys made a campfire and we drank hot chocolate and ate dough-nuts.

I took the pictures over to show my mom and the second picture was the first one that she looked at and she goes,"why is this man wearing shorts in the middle of winter?" She thought he was wearing some bizarre hot pants and leg-warmer combo! She didn't realize that he had a pair of leather chaps over his Wranglers. Yes folks he's not only a rancher but a Chip-N-Dales dancer!

Debt management. How much debt can you safely carry?

Taking on debt is a major decision that should never be taken lightly. Debt is a useful tool in helping you to achieve your financial goals whether you are planning to buy a house using a mortgage, go on a great vacation and book your airline and hotels using a credit card, or buy a new car and financing it with an auto loan. Debt used responsibly can help you achieve these goals. But if you carry too much debt or become irresponsible the debt can become a cash draining burden. One of the first steps in debt management is determining how much debt you can safely manage.

How much debt can you reasonably carry before you start to run into trouble?
Most financial institutions and credit companies will use a debt to income ratio to evaluate your credit worthiness and your ability to manage that debt.

In debt management, the rule of thumb is that your monthly housing debt payments should be no more than 28% of your gross income--this includes taxes, principal, interest, insurance and fees. Your total monthly debt payments including your mortgage payment, credit card debt,auto loans, child support and alimony should be less than 35% of you monthly gross income.

If your monthly gross income is $4,000, than your monthly housing payment should be $1,120 or less ($4,000 * .28). Using the gross income figure of $4,000 your total debt should be less than $1,400 a month ($4,000 *.35).

My mother the Entreprenuer.

My mom came to me about two months ago and asked me to help her with a business idea that she was thinking about. She would like to make specialty deserts and sell them. Our family has always had family members and friends that had a similar entrepreneurial mindset of starting up businesses and operating them with some success so I think its natural for her to want to do this. The thing is, is that she well qualifies for senior citizen status and she just lost her husband six months ago. I would tell you how old she is but, I'm sure it would give "Death by Chocolate" a whole new meaning. She was working on the idea before my Step-Father passed away and I think that his death motivated her to push harder. The concept of failure never crossed her mind.

We came up with a simple business plan and she took classes in food preparation and handling and became licensed by the health department. After a long and difficult search she found a commercial kitchen to work out of and has been making her desserts to build a catalogue and I have been putting a website together for her and researching out how to ship her desserts. Her start up costs were fairly low so she bootstrapped it and put it on her Visa card and started selling deserts locally in her city.

So far the Christmas season was not what I would call a huge success but she did get enough orders to keep her in business.