Monthly Archives: February 2012

Emily Carr’s Tiny House, Elephant

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Laura

I believe that Emily Carr is the most famous female painter who has come out of Canada.  I became interested in her work, during the winter break of 2011, about a month ago. When I started looking in at her, I found that she was a writer, which I had not known.   When I discovered this, I went to the library, picked up her books and started to read.  I have just finished reading This and That: The Lost Stories of Emily Carr and I am currently reading The Complete Writings of Emily Carr.  Through this process it has become clear to me that she and I share more than a few commonalities beyond the obvious: artist/writer.  As a matter of fact, we are weirdly similar.  I find it particularly strange that we share so many parallels, because of the huge differences in the periods that we have lived.

With my interest fully piqued, I went to Hamilton Public Library a few days ago and I picked up Emily Carr a monolithic book about her and her works.  I intend to read next this next, but had not really looked at it until a few minutes ago.  I opened the book and I cannot begin to tell you how totally surprised I was!  There, inside the jacket, I found a huge photo of her her sitting on the stoop of her Tiny House with her four dogs (and her monkey) all around her.

I have to say that while the hundred little idiosyncratic similarities are strange and interesting, finding that we are both Tiny Housers with a whole slew of dogs, is a huge parallel by anyone’s standard.  Very few people ever have their own pack of dogs… and of those who do, I bet that I am the only tiny houser (outside of her) who does.

What about Emily’s Elephant, that Lawren Harris called “swell”?  Of course, this is the name that she gave to her Tiny House on wheels.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Added on Feb 21, 2012

Reading now, Hundreds and Thousands, Emily has just returned from a the summer in the Elephant (which she also calls “the van”). She says something which I certainly identify with as I am sure will all other Tiny Housers. “The roof seems low and heavy and the walls squeezing us. Yet the house is enormous after the van. But the van was so much nearer the big outside, just a canvas and a rib or two and then the world. And the earth was more yours than this little taxed scrap which is under your name.”

Categories: Art, Emily Carr, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, Writing | 2 Comments

Escarpment lookout potential

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Laura

Wikipedia says: An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.

The land under Tiny House Ontario is on a limestone fault, at a quite high elevation when compared to the surrounding land.  There are a lot of rock piles here too.

The closest city to us, is Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  Kingston sits at about 25 feet above sea level, whereas Tiny House Ontario, which is within 30 Km of Kingston sits at about 200 feet above sea level.  The difference in height is not so great; the approximate height of a 20 story building, and the gradient upward is not a sheer drop.  As a matter of fact probably about half of the height is covered in the distance before you arrive at the escarpment, and it is somewhat hilly too, so unless you are on a bicycle or on foot, you would probably not know that you are going up hill.

Along the same escarpment where the road goes though, they have the same elevation as me and because the road is through, you can see Kingston’s water tower, radio towers and also lots of the windmills on Wolfe Island.  I have included here some images from two different seasons near the edge of the escarpment on my land and one where the road is open so you can see the height and view.

My cousin Kenny, who knows this land, says that I should remove a few of the softwood trees so that the hard ones will grow larger with the light and I will have a better view.  What would you do?  Cut a few trees so that you would get a better view and more light?  Let it stay the way that it grows naturally?

**Please note that I changed the title of this post from view to lookout because Tiny House Ontario sits far away from the ridge, so any potential for seeing into the distance would be purely as a place to walk to, and lookout from.  At Tiny House Ontario, you can see only inside the forest.**

Categories: Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, View | 4 Comments