RESP book review
I was interviewed a while back by Kate McCaffery who wrote up a nice review of my RESP book over at Wallet Pop Canada. Here is the review – The RESP Book (A Review).
Tulips
One of my favourite things about spring is the tulips and other spring bulbs that bloom. In our back yard we had a row of at least 50 tulips that were a day or so from blooming. It would have been spectacular except that some squirrel went and chopped the flowers off of all the plants. My wife and I were furious.
Any suggestions as to how to prevent this from happening next year? Keep in mind that the squirrels are far from sacred.
Best of Blogs
Congrats to Dan Bortolotti of Canadian Couch Potato and Jim Yih of Retire Happy who won their respective categories in the Globe and Mail Best of Blogs competition.
On with the links
Dianne Nice from the Globe & Mail put on her Sherlock Holmes hat and got a debt collector off her dad’s back. Great story.
Gail Vaz-Oxlade has 9 signs home ownership isn’t for you.
Krystal wrote a great response to some engineering a-hole, defending her communications degree.
Larry MacDonald asks Where is the housing bubble in Canada? A good analysis of regional real estate markets.
The Oblivious Investor had a great post on risk tolerance and your asset allocation.
Tim Cestnick of the Globe & Mail explains the rules for deducting interest on investments. This cleared up a few misconceptions for me.
Canadian Capitalist says that TD offers automatic wash trading. Not sure what wash trading is? Read the article.
Congrats to Boomer & Echo who just published their 200th post.
Jim Hall from Mawer Investments warns that Canadians have too much faith in commodities. Very true.
Michael James wrote about an interesting study on mutual funds, indexes, fees and performance.
The Financial Blogger tells us his net worth. I think Mike needs a visit from Gail Vaz-Oxlade. 🙂
16 replies on “LinkStuff – RESP Book Review And The Tulip Massacre”
Thanks for the mention Mike.
Your squirrel story reminded me of the rabbit problem out at the University of Victoria. They had over 600 rabbits living around campus for decades and recently just took the initiative to “remove” them – http://communications.uvic.ca/rabbits/qa.php
@Echo – That sounds like a reasonable solution to me. 🙂
Here’s what you need,
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/Airguns/AirRifles/PRD~0755027P/Remington%2525AE%252BAirMaster%252B77%252BAir%252BRifle.jsp?locale=en
Add a redneck friend, two camping chairs and cervesa.
You’ll have a wonderful day!
@Mark – Cool! It even has a scope. 🙂
Got an email from Sanju who says:
Apparently, Coyote urine keeps critters away from gardens. You may want to give it a try.
http://www.urbannaturestore.ca/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=770&idcategory=0
Maybe I can get a pet coyote?
We had exactly the same thing happen with our tulips, except we’re not sure if it was a squirrel or a rabbit. I’ve read that rabbits don’t like garlic, so I’m planning to plant garlic among the tulips next year to see if that helps.
So garlic wards off vampires AND rabbits – It’s the miracle herb.
Thanks for the mention. My post disappeared due to some Blogger technical problems. It’s back now.
But unfortunately garlic doesn’t ward off our evil little rodents. They’ve been digging it up daily. Other suggestions we’ve heard are planting daffodils near the tulips, and using cayenne pepper.
Blood meal. Squirrels don’t like the smell of blood. Close to bloom time, sprinkle it around the flowers. You might have to reapply after a rain.
For all matters of rodentia:
1. Get a dog.
2. Drink beer, and then pee in the yard.
3. Get a dog to pee in the yard.
This works well on the farm. 😐
My Dad had a ground hog problem …
He blocked up all but one hold and put them to sleep via his 88 Jeep Cherokee.
Not sure about the ethics of it all, but the effectiveness can not be questioned.
oh no! not the tulips! so sad 🙁
Mike, I’ve tried blood meal and cayenne pepper to no avail. What has worked for the squirrels in my neighbourhood is hen manure–a pelletized natural fertilizer to boot. It has a chicken manure smell, which has the added benefit of repelling cats from your garden as well. I spread it all over a newly planted garden so these rodents won’t dig up my seedlings/seeds. I totally understand squirrel problems–they’re the size of small cats because the idiot who lives behind me feeds them.
Thanks for mention, Mike. We had some moles or mice digging up out lawn, leaving furrows behind.
Thanks for mention, Mike. We had some moles or mice digging up our lawn, leaving furrows behind.