Need help on countif and sumif function with dates and wildcard characters

Hi,

I have 2 columns of data in sheet 1 as follows:
Col B Col C
Open 08/30/05
Closed 08/01/05
Closed 08/30/05
Open 08/03/05
Closed 07/01/05
Closed 07/02/05

In sheet 2, I would like to count how many cells:
1. have august as their dates
2. areopen on the month of august
3. are closed on the month of august
4. etc.

so far, i'm trying this countif and sumif formula out, but it doesn't work.
1. =COUNTIF(Sheet1!$C$1:$C$65000,"08/**/**")
2. =SUM(IF((Sheet1!$B$1:$B$65000="Open"),IF(Sheet1!$C$1:$C$65000="08/**/**",1,0)))
3. =SUM(IF((Sheet1!$B$1:$B$65000="Closed"),IF(Sheet1!$C$1:$C$65000="08/**/**",1,0)))

i don't know if it's the wildcard characters, or if it's the format of my date. please help!! thanks!!