My heinous plan to take advantage of Everett's playstation-love during the month of August worked beautifully. He had to earn his gaming hours by doing certain jobs for me. One of them was vacuuming out the van, for which he logged two hours.

He complained when I first explained the plan, but was soon happily marking up his earned time on a list on the fridge. Give that boy a list to make- any list- and he's all over it. He is motivated to "get ahead," he tells me, so that he can have an uninterrupted playstation marathon sometime.

He's washed some windows on the inside; obviously a first-timer, he might have to re-do some of them.

He's picked beans for Scott's mom, twice.

He's cleaned the downstairs bathroom.

And now ... he's gone back to school. Grade 9 this year.

There was one paying job Everett tackled. Weeds in half of the half-acre garden, unused this year except for the strawberry patch, had grown to four feet high. Scott couldn't get in there with the tractor, so they had to be pulled by hand. It's a big job and Everett thinks the 50-dollar fee he'll receive when it's done is big money. He's dreaming of what he's going to buy with his cash.