Trade Mark

That's the name an uncle called me years ago when i was a little kid. Then i would see it on many different things when learning to read. So that has been in my subconscious mind for a loong time.

My dad did a lot of trading in the stock market and brought me along downtown to visit his broker from time to time. Dad worked for the phone company and was always reading articles about new ideas and products like the transistor and studied companies for new trading ideas. Maybe i should have paid more attention. He sure would have loved the computer and charts that we have today along with unlimited, endless information.

That was back in the 50's and 60's.

In 1970 i moved to Alaska. I was poor and sold any stocks i had left to build a house for Lois Ann and me. In 1976 i got a great job at the huge ammonia/urea plant. Anyone who works these types of jobs knows that you see LOTS of charts for pressures, temperatures, flows, levels etc. Eventually that kind of job; all tied in together with personal computers and discount brokers and 401k's and savings got me back into being 'Trade Mark' again. That was the 80's and 90's. Also, a gradual shift was taking place where more responsibility was given to each person to take care of their own retirement instead of the company or government doing it all for you.

We all had to learn about investments or trading, whether we wanted to or not. When you trade using charts it called technical analysis. This comes sort of natural because of 30+ years of looking at charts every two hours and more at work.

Below are 4 great websites that i check out almost every day when it is good to be in the market:

1. http://www.stockmarketmentor.com/ is a good pay site that taught me a lot about using Bollinger Bands to trade. Dan Fitzpatrick also trains you to use stops and become a risk manager. There is free info on this site also.

2. Richard Lehman at http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/Favorites.CServlet?obj=ID1399335 uses 5 min, hourly, and longer term charts with channels on many indexes to show you where the market is going. It is amazing how often these channel lines contain the price. The last chapters of his book explain this channel system. See his other website www.Channelist.com for more information.

3. Another great one from the public chartlist on stockcharts is Joanne Klein's "Above the Green Line" http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/Favorites.CServlet?obj=ID3387040 The Green line is a 250 day moving average and page 1 has the highest momentum ETF's and page 2 has the highest momentum stocks. The Relative Strengths are above 90. It is worthwhile to study her trading method!

4. http://blog.kimblechartingsolutions.com/ is a site you must see!! Every chart has a picture for us art fans. You learn about bullish falling wedges and bearish rising wedges, ascending triangles, support, resistance... and above all else, the best times to HARVEST!!!

During hockey season i do a lot of trading. Not so much in the summer. Just trying to make enough to stay retired and comfortable. Hope this helps anyone who thinks the stock market is a mystery.

Emery has moved

If most of you have been checking out Facebook you know that John and Heidi have moved to Tacoma Washington. John is now a regional director for Samaritans Purse - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. We are missing them and especially Emery. Hopefully we'll get down to see them often.

Grandma painting Emery's toes.
Emery looks a little sad about moving.
Showing Christoffer her doll.
One of my favorite things was watching Emery peel a mandarin orange and then divide it into sections. She uses all her muscles in her tiny fingers and hands, and concentrates on the task at hand. Grandpa taught her how to do it.

It was really great to have them up here for about 10 months and see Emery grow up. I had forgotten what it was like with our kids.

Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Christmas and New Year is a great time to re-connect with everyone. Hope you all had a fine Christmas. About a week ago, every single tree branch was coated white with fresh frost and snow, but it didn’t quite stick until Christmas because of some warm wind and weather.

Thankfully we have had a very good first year of retirement in spite of the uncertain economy. Lois Ann is still working half days at the elementary school and she enjoys it. I have been finishing up some decades old projects at home, and putting in a lot of time working at the lake house making it more comfortable for John, Heidi and Emery. (Golf and hockey still take quite a slice of time.)

We took a fun road trip over the Alaska Highway to Washington in June. Heidi and John took us along as adult guests to Young Life camp Malibu, north of Vancouver, Canada. We had a very good time. We spent some more time in Anacortes and visited with Holly. On the way home we went over to Spokane and stayed with Vivian and Micheal Norris, and the next day stopped by Bruce and Susie Stinsman’s in Idaho. On the way north we went through Banff / Jasper parks in Canada and did some hiking. The Alaska Highway is way better than it was 20-30 years ago, no dust or gravel.

In July John, Heidi, and Emery moved up here. They are helping Young Life grow on the Kenai Peninsula, and also working with a local Christian college. It is sure fun having Emery close by.

Holly is living in Anacortes and making coffees for a living. She travelled to Alaska a few times this year, and India!

Christoffer lives about 9 miles away and has kept busy all year as an electrician. We get to do a little hiking, golf and hockey together.

We hope and pray everyone has a good 2010. These are interesting times and changes we are living through. (New Year resolutions: do more blog and facebook photos and entries.)

God Bless Everyone,

Trail beside Exit Glacier

This is one of the best hikes on the Kenai Peninsula! It is about 7 miles to go up and down. Here you can see some of the zig-zag path going up. I asked everyone where they were from so here is the list: Boston, Texas, Seattle, LA, Ottawa, Holland, Colorado, San Francisco, France, Spain, Belgium, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Florida, Virginia, Whittier (the only ones from Alaska and they were summer hires) California, DC and ?? (they didn't understand English)Mark, Holly, Christoffer
This makes a good desktop photo. There are not many trails around with green forest and ice.

It was so very nasty on top that we did not see the hut until we were about 50 feet away from it. Thankfully the fog and clouds cleared off before we headed down and we could see some of the Harding Icefield.

Frog search

Every spring when the ice melts off the pond you can hear the frogs making a racket. I decided to try and find them or their eggs.

Christoffer's dog Chompers helped in the search.
Lois came along for a walk to the pond. This is the best time of year as the sky stays light almost all night.

CBS with his new motorcycle

Here it is!! Christoffer was away working for 5 or 6 weeks straight. Guess what popped into his mind when he was free for a few days and the hot summer sun was beating down.
I had to sit down and imagine what it would be like to be a member of the Nobody Motorcycle Club.
I do like Christoffers haircut. He is imagining what it would be like to be retired.

Where is Holly?

Holly used to take care of about 90% of the spring raking for us : ) It is May 1st here and most of the snow is melted and missing.
Now we really miss her especially with all this dusty/sandy ash all over the leaves and snow.

On May 3rd we went over and helped Christoffer with his leaves. After about an hour he got smart and sucked them up with his riding lawnmower.

'A time to finish'

Here is a project that was started 30+ years ago... Like Ecclesiastes 3 says, "there is a time for everything - a time to start, and a time to finish what you what you once upon a time started". It has taken a long time to do part 2. I am very good at starting projects, but it often takes a long, long, long time to finish. A few years ago i would think silently, "There's something i can do when the plant shuts down."
Now, here are some post dated blog entries and photos from April and May. Even with more time on my side it is hard to keep this blog caught up.

Volcano smokes

The volcano started blowing harder as if someone opened the vent valve about 10 more rounds.
Another view from a few blocks down the road.
This is from Lamplight road.
Here is a biblical view with our church. I will get a photo here when it really blows.
If you have a pair of those red blue glasses you can see the dome building. This is from May 16th by Game McGimsey and Peter Lipschutz from AVO where you can see hundreds of photos.

Survival Strategies for Tough Times

Here is how one person tripled his income by having the dog and cat helping out. (Also, the dog and cat income is tax free.)

Rare animal photo

I looked out the window after putting Chomper outside and lo and behold the cat and dog were together. Extremely rare event and photo. Usually Chomper chases the cat all over without ever catching her or him. Of course it was early on Sunday morning - the day of rest...
The cat was a stray that adopted us and hasn't even let us touch her/him. I think we will call the cat Dash. She is kind of a scaredy cat who stays under the shed and runs around in the woods.:

Brad preached a great sermon once about three kinds of love. Chicken love: if a chicken has a cut or hurt the other chickens will attack the hurt. Cat love: cats only come to you when they want to, on their own terms. Dog love: they always want to be with you and stay close no matter how you feel about them.

we've been ASHED

There was a dark cloud overhead about 4:30, an hour after the eruption, and it came down like rain except it was fine sand and powder. It dumped on Nikiski and our house for about 20 minutes then moved up and dumped on Anchorage too. Look at the dust blowing up on the highway after a car went by.
The following photos are from the AVO webpage. This first one shows the thunder and lightning that go along with volcanoes. If you read Exodus 19 it seems Moses might have walked up on a volcano to get the ten commandments. This was taken by Bretwood Higman.
I downloaded this Landsat5 picture from space. It was very impressive and the real file is 23MB if you want to get it from the AVO photos page.
The dark cloud in this space shot is one of the eruptions!

Mt. Redoubt Volcanoe

Last night Redoubt blasted off as we were sleeping 5 times! There is a link in the title to the official AVO website. Here is a link to the Anchorage Daily News article. Also here is a link to the weather service so we know which way the ash is being carried by the winds.

Here is a photo taken on the 15th from the end of our driveway; you can see a small steam/gas plume.

Spring break visit

Emery and me. Holly, Heidi, and Emery came up for Lois Ann's spring break.

Life is full of choices, do I want the pacifier or the stuffed tiger?
This photo is also sort of an optical illusion; Emery looks like she is standing.
Getting ready for a photo shoot of new hats.
Emery found her feet. This is the first time to find them herself.
I like all the mirrors in the hotel room.

Posted by ms at 2:34 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Heidi and Emery

This is one of my favorite photos of Heidi and Emery. Look at her little fists.

reading through the Bible - - - FAST

A little over a month ago i found this mind expanding article about reading through the Bible faster than most people would even think about doing. Most folks have seen plans for reading it in a year, like that is a big accomplishment. This article shows how and why to read through in several months. Some audio Bibles are only about 70 to 80 hours in length, so an hour a day and you should be through in 3 months!

It is better news than what is happening in the world today, and there were some tough times recorded in the past that we need to recall. Also some answers and solutions to similar problems.

Why stocks are down

Many folks are wondering what is happening to the world economy, and it seems that very few can figure out what's up? (not much) Here are a few links to some of the better explanations.

Here is the link to a very good you tube annimation/video about the credit crisis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zEXdDO5JU There is also a part 2 since you tube only allows 10 min. per video.

If you have some extra time you might be interested in checking out this free 'crash course' by Chris Martenson http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse It is well done with great graphics and explains some of the stuff that led up where we are now. Toward the end he suggests some steps to take. Most of the crash course was finished before the crash started.

For a more radical cycle view on the economy here is a 77 page typewritten pdf file. http://www.contrahour.com/ItsJustTimeMartinArmstrong.pdf

Emery in New York

Here are a few photos of Emery and her parents and cousins and aunt and uncle. I've never been to New York city so am a little envious of little Emery. They all look a little cold.
The Dads
Nice group photo.
I've seen this statue before.
Is this a yawn or a cry?
Since we saw Emery at Christmas she has learned to lift up her head. I think she is 3 months younger than her cousin.