PIC Programming

I've been trying to figure out how to program Microchip's PICs in order to create peripheral devices for the BOE-Bot such as stepper motor drivers and such. This has proven to be much more difficult than I had hoped. Apparently I need to get a degree in computer science to be able to achieve this. That, or I need to spend around $250 on a PICbasic Pro compiler to match the ease of use of the Basic Stamp. I've been trying to learn C but I haven't found any helpful websites that teach C programming as it applies to PIC devices. Perhaps I'm just being impatient and want it all to be uber simple like the Basic Stamp. Hopefully sometime soon there will be an open source Basic or Pbasic compiler for PICs. Then I can accomplish what I want to do without having to pay college tuition to advance my hobby. I've got to surf some more forums to see if I've missed one where someone writes tutorials that apply to beginners with little or no experience programming... wish me luck.