You can also look into ssh-agent. This lets you type your password once (to decrypte ssh keys) and then your later processes can use the decrypted key.

The tutorial I used to set it up is at http://mah.everybody.org/docs/ssh. Be sure to read the security notes http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/ssh-agent-forwarding.html#sec In particular any process that runs as the same user or as root will be able to use the decrypted credentials to connect to the destination machine.