Rules

Persons

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Laura

Today, October 18, 2012, I venture off the topic of Tiny Houses to recognize my status as a PERSON in Canada.  You may or may not know that women have been persons under Canadian law for only 83 years – since 1929.  When my grandmothers were born, they were not persons.

I just wanted to holler out a huge thank you to the women that fought this good fight.

  • Emily Murphy
  • Henrietta Muir Edwards
  • Irene Marryat Parlby
  • Louise McKinney
  • Nellie McClung

I also want to remind myself that well behaved people who follow every rule change nothing.

While I am speaking about the issue of challenging the status quo, I also want to holler out to Texas Tiny Houses who on their Facebook wall, are currently speaking out not just about the way that we live, the waste that we produce and offering people alternatives, but who also began to speak out about the legalization of marijuana.  While, I am not a smoker myself; as a matter of fact I am nearly deathly allergic to all aspects of the hemp plant.  I still believe that banning it is as silly as banning chamomile tea – BUT… it does not matter what I believe!

What I mean is that even though I don’t always agree with those who are protesting, and even though we do not always believe the same things, I am glad that there are people who stand up for change!  I am glad that we (still) live in a democracy and I am really glad to be recognized as a person.

I can make this post and make these comments only because we have democracy here in Canada, and I want to be among those who care about protecting it.

Thanks again to these late great women who have changed our lives!  xo L

 

“Never retreat, never explain, never apologize–get the thing done and let them howl.” ~ Nellie McClung

Categories: Friendship, Open your eyes, Rules, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

Harvest Waste

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Laura

This year was such a terrible growing year owing to the drought that gripped our area along with so many others.  Now the frost warnings have now started in this region so the food that was growing had to be harvested and brought in.  I have picked off all the peppers, squash, tomatoes and cut down the basil and swiss chard.  I got bags of food even though the season was not great owing I believe to the late rains.  Oddly, the melons did not produce a single fruit, but now… too late, the plants have loads of small round beginnings.  I guess if the frost does not hit then perhaps I will get something of them in the Indian Summer.  The food is now in Hamilton with me, all safely hand processed and tucked away in my root cellar and freezer.  Tonight I am going to caramelize the immature squash and onion then throw in some green tomatoes and stir this into some buckwheat pasta for supper.  Use up what did not mature.  Should be sweet and sour and hopefully interesting.

Between the rounds of cooking that went on yesterday I caught up on a lot of reading and news.  Among the items that I found interesting was a blog out of Tennessee called Dreaming Smaller in which a young man who has had a  catastrophic injury shares his plans and concerns about downsizing their home (for he and his family).  The land is where his family home, long ago burned out was situated.   In the long grass there hides a copperhead snake nesting site, so you never know when one of them will wiggle out of the grass and bite… These bites hurt a lot, he assures, but are rarely fatal… (!!!)  With this said, I know I am not the only Canadian who finds the idea of living near a poison snake pretty darn scary.  On a chance cafe meeting a young Australian tourist told me “Canadians have a weird national obsessive fear of poison snakes, every single one of you asks about them.”  With this in mind, I thought you might also like to check his site out.

Among the usual tragic news of accidents and shootings, the news out of Canada that I find most shocking and disgusting is the story of the “Peas Garden“.  This small garden was started on May 1, 2012 in Queen’s Park and maintained in all summer by about a hundred volunteers.  The food was intended for low income persons and the community was to have a harvesting party on September 29th, but on the eve of the harvest, the City Parks Director Richard Ubbens sent City Employees to rip it up and sod it over.  This was done without warning the group.  The food was all destroyed, the heirloom plants plucked.  The opportunity for food bank users to have this healthy locally grown food was callously removed.  This in a year which anyone connected to growing food will know was not ideal.  This in a time when food banks cannot keep up, this story really sickens me!  There is nothing, and I mean nothing that enrages me more than wastefulness and mean spiritedness toward the disadvantaged.

Food for thought… When did Canada get so turned upside down?

Categories: Drought, Environmentalism, Food, Forest, Ontario, Open your eyes, Rules, View | 3 Comments

Garden Watered and Fooding

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Laura

My husband and I carried in 100 litres of water from our neighbour’s house today.  Thankfully they are good to us and our garden.  I hope I can produce enough that I can bring some stuff up to them!

Finally we saw a tiny bit of benefit to all this water carrying.  We picked to make a little pasta sauce.  A few good sized tomatoes, a green pepper, lots of basil and flat parsley.  I added salt, oil, garlic, gnocchi and a good beer (my favourite kind) on the side.

Since we returned with all this to Hamilton from THO, it is not really a zero mile diet, not even close but the sauce was great and so too was the cold beer!

I will be in Hamilton until Sunday so I will catch up on my posts I hope!

Categories: Food, Forest, Ontario, Rules, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Tiny House Community: Possible?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Laura

I have noticed many people in (and around) the Tiny House community wondering about building Tiny House Communities.  I was out for a little drive around my community and decided to take a few peeks in at the beautiful Rideau Canal.  On one of my stops I noticed a Tiny Cottage community which I realize is simply small rental cottages; however, I wonder since these are already built, would these not be a good location for a Tiny House Community?  I also think that they set a precedence for Tiny House Communities to be allowed within Ontario.  At least in the communities which have allowed these Tiny seasonal cottages.  Any lawyers reading who have experience with municipal building codes, input would be excellent!

Adorable aren’t they?

Categories: Building code, Ontario, Re-Use, Rules, Sustainable living, Time, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

Hippy Haters

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Laura

This is funny.  I disagree a little.  I am a hippy:  I am not opposed to smoking grass, but do not use it, or any drugs except a very occasional alcohol beverage, and I also do not stink (but I am opposed to being around people who do).

Categories: Rules, Simple living, View | 1 Comment

Building Code Ontario and Tiny House Ontario

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Laura

OK you caught me, I am an artist and writer and some things simply don’t interest me that much, or hardly at all.  Also I like to think outside of the box, which is probably what lead me to the Tiny House Movement to begin with.

For example, my take on it is that the Ontario Building Code, is not very different from any other rule book.  Kinda boring.  Started originally with good intentions, like keeping people from burning to death, then it got signed on to by ever more groups, added onto over and over and over. Intuitiveness and sensible stuff gets shoved aside somewhere along the line and this rule book becomes as stagnant as the water in an old tire.  Inevitably, to make any changes to this or any other rule book you have to fight like a warrior and often times with no hope.

If you clicked on the OBC link above, or if you are one of those sorts who read the rules, then you will know that the OBC book is absolutely HUGE.  I have not read it.  GASP!  What I have done is that I have consulted with a few builder friends and relatives because chatting and planning are more fun and interesting for me.  I let the people in the know tell me what I need to.

There were some steadfast things that I learned, by osmosis and through these chats, and when I was pretty sure I knew what I was talking about was pretty firm, then I called the Township office and spoke to the building inspector in February of 2011.  I fortunately reached this inspector directly.  I gave the inspector my address and name and began to speak.

I told the inspector that I don’t live close and that I wanted to build a 108 foot structure (on my land) for me and my dogs to stay in when I visited home.  I also said that I might want to use this when and if I eventually build a home there.  I was told that I can do that.

I then told the inspector that I wanted to do it in straw bale and the inspector said that 108 square feet is the maximum for the exterior measure (new news), so if I build with straw I would have only about 40 square feet left on the inside.  I asked the inspector if there were any exceptions, I was told no exceptions.  This is when I knew that I would have to use 2×4′s so that I would have some interior space.  Oh well.

I told the inspector that I was planning on building a place which was insulated, 15 feet high and with lots of windows.  The inspector said that the details like this do not matter as long as it is up to code in terms of safety and that it could not be over 15.5 feet.  Good to know.

Thus Tiny House Ontario is a stick built house on a cement pad with a sort of verbal clearance from the inspector there.  As far as I know this inspector has not been in but the Road’s inspector has been in and seen Tiny House Ontario because this inspector has to approve (hopefully next time around) my damn culvert.  Two unsuccessful visits to date.  UGH!

A recent query on here makes me worried that someone in a government suit will pull in to my land and insist that I tear down Tiny House Ontario.  I truly hope that this is not the case.  With nothing in writing I guess you are always vulnerable.  Still I think that I did everything that I am supposed to.

Categories: Building code, Environmentalism, Materialism, Rules, Sustainable living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: | 7 Comments

Great Uncle Frank’s Tiny House

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Laura

I went to Tiny House Ontario over the weekend and drove in to see my grandma Violet Rickards.  Grandma is approaching 90 and recently, feeling slowed down and tired.  On the route in, I took Rideau Street, ironically, where grandma’s brother, Frank Compton (Punky) lived in his Tiny House when I was a young girl.  Great Uncle Frank worked on the big ships and due to this work, he grew accustomed to small spaces and when he finally hit land he never changed that way of living.  He bought a Tiny House and lived there until the end of his life.

When I was young, I loved to visit Great Uncle Frank.  He allowed me to open the cupboards and look around.  Not only that, he encouraged me to explore.  He would say “there is a treat somewhere, and you will have to find it”.   Or, go lift up the latch in the closet and see what is down in the cellar.  In retrospect I suppose that this allowed him to have a grown up visit at his Tiny House, but when I was a kid, I did not see it like that.  What I saw was that I was allowed to to exactly what I wanted to do when I visited him.

This Tiny House at 371 Rideau Street in Kingston Ontario, sits empty.  It was never what one would call a fancy house but all a single person needs to live comfortably.  It had a quirky but functional bathroom, a decent sized kitchen, a small bedroom with a closet (where the basement entry latch was in the floor), and a little sitting room too.  The coolest thing about this tiny house is that it also has a really good sized shed and a back yard that is a great size and which overlooks the Rideau Canal, he kept his horse there.  It is a great, conveniently located, spot except that the street is somewhat busy and there is an industrial welder who is housed across.   Still, it sickens me to see this Tiny House sit empty in a world where so many people are homeless.  No reason why this could not be tidied up again and made into a house that someone could call home.  When I was a young single mom, I would have loved to have had this tiny house to live in, still would!

Today, when kids in the neighbourhood of Tiny House Ontario come to visit, and they do come… I do just as Great Uncle Frank did.  I tell them to look around, open things up, go upstairs and see what I have done up there.  I encourage them to look for hidden treats and also to tell me about themselves.  I very rarely have grown ups there when they come, so I don’t really care about adult conversations, and maybe Great Uncle Frank did not either.  Perhaps, just perhaps, it is just as it should be and he was truly Great Uncle Frank, just as he was called.  

Categories: Building code, Materialism, Rules, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny house | 1 Comment

Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Adventure Journal by Contexture International.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 679 other followers