Sunflower update

Two of the four sunflowers I planted in the front yard are in bloom.  Once they open, they grow quite quickly!

STOP LOSS!

I made my ever first stop loss order on August 29th.  I had bought Stellar Biotech earlier in the week at a cost of about $2.10 for 1150 shares.  However, on August 28th, it started dropping as fast as it had rocketed up.  So, at the opening bell on August 29th, I had a stop loss order put in my cash account and I was preparing to sell the 1200 shares in my TFSA account at another brokerage!  Two browser windows open and within the first 20 minutes of trading, I had dumped Stellar Biotech.  I actually had to use the help system as I had never made a stop loss order before.  This was something I should have done a lot earlier in my very disastrous trading career. So, thanks to some quick moves, I lost $280 in my cash account (which can be applied to my capital losses) and made $580 tax-free in my TFSA account.  I signed up for a trend analysis service and they had some trading rules I should have been applying much earlier. As I review the small profits I made this month on Stellar Biotech and Teranga Gold, I had to get my psychology right as I could have made three times more money than I did because I didn't act at the right time to maximise profits.  You have to be satisfied with any profit and minimise your losses!

Stellar Biotech chart

I also took a 75% loss on North American Palladium after reading this report from Seeking Alpha.  I figured that was better than a 100% loss.

When I heard of the Mount Polley mine tailings pond breach, my heart sank. The still small voice was asking if my investment in Taseko Mines (TKO) was ethical.  Their New Prosperity Project has been blocked twice by the federal government despite being approved by the BC Government.  I had sold 700 of my 2000 TKO shares to move it into Stellar Biotech (that was a good move as it cut my loss on TKO).

Then, last week, I heard of more Eritrean migrants dying in the Mediterranean as they tried to escape to Italy.  I had piled most of my money into Sunridge Gold in the hopes it would be the next Nevsun Resources.  I'm down about 70% on that one too.  Again, the still small voice asked what are you doing investing in a company in Eritrea (the political risk was off the charts) when I first took the dive.  I did anyways because I trusted the instincts of Peter Grandich (a Christian).  So, the still small voice is telling me "you reap what you sow" and I'm thinking SGC is yet another lesson in this.

First Sunflower of the Season starts to open August 21

Yesterday, the first of the six Russian mammoth sunflowers that have grown in our yard started to open its flower.  The one closest to the house has the largest (twisted) stem, but isn't ready to flower yet.  Looking forward to some nice blooms from the ones planted further from the house.  I have two in pots in the back yard, but they are behind in development of the two tall ones in the front yard.

We also made the last pies of the season yesterday as well.  We've made about 15 apple pies the last few days and delivered 8 to various friends these past few days.  Definitely not something you want to gorge yourself on for a few days!

tiny blueberry pie for left over crust

Niagara Region II

We had a second chance to go to Marineland on July 25th.  The kids really like Marineland and I'm partial to it as well (despite the animal rights protesters).  It was another beautiful day in Niagara Falls.  I noticed they planted a lot of serviceberries (Saskatoons) at Marineland:

We were in the Niagara region for the TCCAT retreat at Brock University.

We were blessed that the retreat was the weekend of July 25-27 as the Burlington Skyway eastbound was damaged by a dump truck with the loader up the following Thursday.  The dump truck slammed into the metal trusses and the eastbound part of the bridge was closed for several days.  The actions of one impaired truck driver caused traffic chaos the following long weekend (a great inconvenience for Caribbean Festival travellers from USA to Toronto). Crazy.

Burlington Skyway westbound on the way to Niagara Falls

Norland Apple Pie

Started to process some of the Norland apples into pie today.  I used this pie crust recipe with lard since shortening is bad (transfat).

Visit to Canada's first copper mine - Capleton, Québec

We had a nice visit to the Eastern Townships on July 29th.  One of our stops was Canada's first copper mine in Capleton.  During the 1 hour visit to the mine shaft, you descend 50 m of the total 3 km depth of the mine.  The operators have to pump out water that accumulates to keep the visiting area dry.  Well worth the money we paid!

Here is a good example of the malachite in this mine:

First fruits of 2014

On August 11th, I picked the first apples from our Norland apple tree.  They weren't ripe yet, but I wanted to lighten the load on the tree.

The next day, I picked some more apples and then picked some raspberries as well.  The kids really liked the raspberries.

The Russian mammoth sunflowers are getting close to 6' tall now:

The middle one got stepped on, so it's a little behind.

Black walnuts in Oakville

On August 9th, I noticed large green balls on the tennis courts at Maplegrove Arena in Oakville.  At first, I thought they were crab apples, upon looking up, I saw that they came from the black walnut trees beside the tennis courts.  I thought these were ash trees by the type of leaves on them, but searching for images of the fruit revealed that they were black walnuts.

I saw several reports about the emerald ash borer in the Oakville Beaver, and now they add the Asian longhorned beetle to the fray of invasive insects that have arrived in Oakville.  The EAB has devasted ash trees and it's too bad that such majestic stands of ash have been destroyed.  I noticed that I see more gingko trees being planted as street tress these days.  I noticed some in Etobicoke on the way to a friend's house and saw others in Oakville as well.  I guess this living fossil is resistant to pests for a reason!

On August 1st, I saw this tree in Stratford that I thought was an arbutus, but it probably isn't an arbutus which is common in BC's Lower Mainland.  I didn't realise that arbutus trees are the only broad leafed evergreens in Canada.  Upon further research, I think this is actually a paper bark maple.

That's what I love about Ontario - there are so many different kinds of trees compared to the prairies!  However, the Tree Atlas of Ontario now lists some of my favorite trees as not desirable because they are non-native species.  The European horse chestnut is among them!  I love it's white flowers in June.  That's why I planted my Ohio Buckeye (which can survive Saskatoon winters).  I suppose the pyramidal English Oak would also be an undesirable.  I admired these trees in the court yard at New College at U of T as an undergrad.  My dad's neighbor has them and one of the acorns from their English oaks dropped in our yard and grew into an English oak that is now about 6' tall.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra Concert from 1990

I found an old programme of a TSO concert from 1990 January 25 (two days before Mozart's 234th birthday) .  I recall possibly going to Hart House for supper and then walking down to Roy Thompson Hall to listen to Mozart's Jeunehomme Concerto, KV 271.  I had to take the GO Train back home to Oakville.  I enjoy the recordings I have of Clara Haskil playing this concerto.

The only other TSO concerts I've ever been to was one with Sarah Chang playing a Paganini Violin Concerto (also during undergrad days) and one from Easter Break 1998 with Perlman playing the Brahms Violin Concerto.  Pinchas Zukerman was conducting that evening and I think the Mendelssohn Reformation Symphony was in the second half.

I really enjoyed this concert.  I bought the same day tickets for $10 as a student by walking down to Roy Thompson Hall from U of T before the concert.  Mozart's Jeunehomme Piano Concerto is the music of a teen and it bubbles with youthful energy.  The slow movement is very solemn and has a depth of emotion that reminds me of the slow movement of KV 595 - his last piano concerto.  I also recalled the spectacular brass of the TSO in the finale of Brahms' Second Symphony!

Don't use Ubuntu Linux 14.04 on Pentium 4 Class machines!

I discovered the last two days that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS doesn't run well on a Pentium 4 2.66 GHz with 1.5 G of DDR.  It was formerly running Windows XP SP3.  After trying a for quite a few hours to figure it out, I gave up and put Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on it instead.  I think there's issues with the old GeForce 2 MX400 AGP 4x video card though.  It's running OK though.  I typically do this when installing Ubuntu

1. Install VLC Player from the software centre and set it as the default app to play videos.
2. Install Iced Tea Java Plugin so Java applets will work.  I actually tried installing Java from Oracle on this computer (had to go through the manual command line steps), but it didn't work with the browsers.
3. Install Google Chrome.  I had to download it from Google since it didn't show up in the 12.04 Software Centre.

 Next, I tried using a TP-LINK N150 TL-WN725N USB wireless N adaptor.  It wasn't automatically recognised by Ubuntu.  Luckily, a Google search dug up this solution.  Now this old Pentium 4 can be used as a surfing station connecting wirelessly with the $15 TP-Link wireless N adaptor.

Chuck E Cheese 2014 Civic Holiday

Kids still like Chuck E Cheese.  This one is at Winston Churchill/401 in Mississauga.

It is in the Meadowvale neighborhood.