Monthly Archives: August 2012

Balance

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Laura

I was up around Toronto yesterday morning and I am happy to report that the vegetation in that area is looking downright lush again.  Here in the Kingston area, I think we must have had significantly  less precipitation to carry us through.  There has been rain, as a matter of fact, it is raining today.  Even so, I think this is too late, we have lost a lot of forest here and I also think that it is way too late for most farmers because the root system is dead on so much.  The balance of need was not met.

We have a few red tomatoes in the THO garden but sadly this is because they are dry rotted on the bottom.  The Zero mile diet has been 99% flop.  I know I will find that the balance here was also thrown off, it will have been an expensive year at THO when I finally do the books this fall.

I am lucky that I have more than one option still and am really pretty happy that I put in a back up garden in Hamilton and this is doing really well.  I have had a number of meals from there already and also I have frozen one huge bag of tomatoes and my potatoes and herbs look really great.  While I was there I put away some Niagara freestone peaches too.  I think I will reap a lot of food from Hamilton considering particularly that I have only about 30 square feet of space to grow in at the house.  Still, I feel terrible for my farming friends in this area whose books will be red with the loss.

Back here at THO, here is some rain on what is left of the ant tree.  I would like to put a bird bath up on that post, one with a drain, so I am hoping I can find something which fits here easily. I am in town now to post this and also to get two 2×4 boards for a small project.  I will write about what I am doing when it is accomplished.

Categories: Drought, Forest, Gnome, Magical, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Disorganized, lovely day, to read

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Laura

I am not sure why I am so drastically disorganized this year.  Today, for example, I went to the Pagan Festival in Kingston in front of City Hall, except I was a week early.  I hope I can remember to go again next week when it is really on.  I want to see the Norse sword work.

There was nothing lost because, the day is gorgeous here in the Kingston area and it is just nice to sit around the house both in and outside with my dogs.

I had to read a draft for a fellow writer in Hamilton and this is a good place to read quietly.  I will write this post and head back because there is a book by a fellow Canadian writer, Bianca Lakoseljac, that I started last week and have not found the time until today and thus I would like to finish reading it.

What would you do if you were here today?

Categories: Cloth Porch, Dogs, Forest, Kingston, Magical, Off Grid, Writing | Leave a comment

George Carlin

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Laura

I know that most people see George Carlin as a comedian; I think the reason he was funny is because he spoke the truth. 

Categories: Materialism, Money, Open your eyes, Sustainable living | Leave a comment

Great Lakes

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Laura

My nephew and niece as well as her boyfriend are visiting Canada from Germany, and are leaving shortly for a bit of a tour around the area to see a little bit of the Great Lakes.  Their plan reminded me of Great Lakes song by the band Harlan Pepper.  The video above is not professional, but from 2009 and at the time of this the kids are still in high school in Hamilton, Ontario.

I like the feel of this homespun video, a more professional version of this song Great Lakes is on their 2010 album Young and Old.  I love the setting that they use because it reminds me of my own family gatherings.  You know, there is nothing like sitting on the porch in the summer singing and having a few beer with friends.  I guess, unless it is sitting on a porch on a Tiny House on the Allegany Mountain (part of the Appalachians) and having so much talent.  The whole thing is pretty sweet I think.

I have seen Harlan Pepper play live a few times now, and I am a big fan of what they sing as well as their laid back homey style.  I guess it is odd that I love them so much, given the wide age difference, but the singer reminds me physically of young Bob Dylan; too the lyrics are snappy and while the music sounds new it is grounded in all the music that I love best.  Of course it is not much of a leap that I am a fan of these young musicians.   I think a lot of their charm is that they seem like the kids next door and I guess in my case they really are since my Hamilton place is around the corner from from them.  I don’t know the young musicians but our kids went to the same school for a time many years ago.

While I was thinking about them, I checked in at their website today.  I am mighty pleased, because I notice some movement and think that there may be a new album in the works?  If you like the sound, they have a lot of shows coming up: all in Canada.  If you want to catch them live you will have to get up here to Canada for a visit.

As for my visiting family, I hope that they enjoy the trip North. I also hope that they see the lakes in the way that Harlan Pepper and I see them.  I love Great Lakes!

Gute Reise!

Categories: Family, Magical, Music, Ontario | Leave a comment

Empty Tummies and Arrogant Politicians

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Laura

It is not the aim of this blog to try and talk the world into becoming vegan, or even vegetarian but rather the goal is to discuss the object of living with less.  Since I started this blog on November 30, 2011 I have discussed a plethora of topics around being a woman/writer/artist who lives part time in a project called Tiny House Ontario and how this huge, but Tiny project is going and is effecting me.

But there is something going on here in Canada and the United States that is too huge to ignore and has me really worried.  Right now we in Ontario and a whole lot of the USA are living through an historic and dreadfully bad drought.  The Canadian government has been nearly silent on the issue but recently I read an article out of the United States which explains briefly the reasoning behind the USDA’s sensible recommendation that citizens give up eating meat on Mondays.  It carries some mind boggling statistics and information in it.  Even so, the article does not go far enough (in my opinion).  The most significant missed topic in the article is that  it does not discuss what the USDA and farmers already know.  Here it is!  Livestock are being and will continue to be “dumped” because farmers cannot afford to feed them.  This means (for those of you who did not come up on farms) that they sell mostly ALL of their animals as livestock for slaughter.  This might seem like good news if you are a meat eater (initially) but here is where you are wrong, this means that there will be a lack of breeding stock next year.  You will start to see huge price jumps at about Christmas for the cost of meat and the price will keep on raising.  Truth is, it will take a few years for the animals and the farmers to catch up.

The hostile and arrogant reaction of the politicians quoted in this article is totally off the mark*.  They flaunt their stupidity on the subject of meat.  Not just on how it is produced but the time of production as well as the costs of production are not noted at all.  These clowns absurdly suggest what they will do, which is to “eat more, put pounds of meat on display and call the USDA heretics”.   What they are saying in essence is we are going to eat it all up until it is gone and leave nothing for you.  It is greed and ignorance at best!

The sad fact is, I am commenting on this subject because a lot more people will go to bed hungry this winter in both the USA and Canada and for the next year or two as well, if there are not GREAT growing years coming our way.  I wish it was not going to be this way, but it is.  Quite simply, we have not had nearly enough rain.  Below is an image from NASA Earth Observatory.  There is more info from them here.

What I am asking, is to buy some food from your most local farmer and please eat less meat for the next couple of years.  I know it sounds cliche, but if we all do a little bit there will be a little bit left over for the poorest among us.

I can’t tell you how much that I hope I am wrong.

*I want to qualify that I am not partisan or even particularly interested in who is who.   These folks are way too far from me to make me even remotely interested in finding out anything about the particulars of the political affiliation.

Categories: Drought, Environmentalism, Food, Money, Nature, Open your eyes | 5 Comments