I think that everyone has heard “necessity is the mother of invention.” It might just be true in all cases, but when I found the photo below, I was totally blown away by the ingenuity of the fellow who made this place into his home. It looks humble but it may just have everything that a person needs to live comfortably.
Could you live here? I think I could, but I am not sure that I would want to; it looks as though it may be a bit spider rich for me.
Susan B. Anthony once said that “cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations… can never effect a reform.”
Recently, I have been distracted by some changes happening both within me and also with regard to the decisions that I have made. Some of the things that I am thinking about are personal while others are directly to do with Tiny House Ontario.
A couple of days ago I posted about my regret for not putting in a fruit cellar. Now I have to confess that my mind might be changing regarding the type of furnace that I want to put into THO. I have always, since the beginning of the project thought I would go with a Dickinson Marine Stove. About $1,200 US +++
A couple of days ago, while checking around on the internet for other Tiny House stories, I noticed a stove that appeals to me visually a lot more. The Mini Franklin Woodstock Soapstone. About $1,200 US +++
I like this one visually a lot better because the vent pipe goes STRAIGHT out the back to the chimney. No silly, wobbly, silver, tube climbing up the wall to find the exit. The chimney too, if that is what they are called on propane stoves. It also looks to me as though they offer a different sort of tidy looking chimney which sits flat against the exterior wall. Both of these look so much tidier in my opinion.
The cost is about the same for the two stoves I am not sure that the cost of shipping is similar, nor am I sure if the cost additional things, such as: wall mount, vent, pipes, chimney and so on, is similar. I am also not sure if the Mini needs a 12v electric hookup or even if it requires any electric at all. I can’t find this on their website.
AAAAUUUURRRRGGGHHHH! Rant…
I found it easy to navigate the Dickinson site and they have the manual right there for you to print and read. Which I have done and but truthfully, I feel as though, with this Dickinson I know what I am getting because so many Tiny Housers use them. Their website, though, is not ideal. I don’t know what beyond the stove I need to order; nor what it costs for these things I need to hook one up. I would like a nice neat package. I get that they are somewhat unique for every home BUT there are no images provided there either. In short they don’t make things nearly as clear as I want them to be.
The Soapstone Mini makers are not even as clear at the Dickinson people. Right down to the image they provide being so tiny that it is hard to see. I know… I know, you think I like tiny things, but this is really, really TINY. No manual either. You have to write them to find out more. I am not too wild about that idea, I hate it when companies are vague. Basically, if they just put the stuff on the site then I could do my own homework. I don’t want to talk on the phone or spend weeks chatting back and forth via email. The most frustrating thing is, I don’t know what questions to ask because the product information is basically just size and colours and the shipping method. I mean, I want to know about size… all we ladies do… I might also like to choose a different colour… but seriously who cares how they ship it? I don’t want to bash them totally, in fact, they had some things better on their site. They do provide a few (albeit TINY) images of the types of hook ups and this was most appreciated. Like Dickinson no packages with the extra stuff in it. They give a nice 360* (TINY) option I can see a tiny wire coming out of tiny bottom of the tiny back — unless this is a tail. In truth it is such a small image that I can’t see.
Before I have some knowledge I am silenced by not feeling I know even enough to ask a simple question.
So what do I want? I am going to assume that these businesses are both dealing with a lot of DIY people. I heard that Dickinson sells far more stoves to Tiny Housers than they do boat owners, so I would like to see them cater to our DIY philosophy!
Key stuff for me is I want user friendly, diagrams, images and explanation options in click out bubbles.
Examples would be more and larger images. Diagrams of the various packages that are needed to hook one of them up based on the sort of place that they are going into.
They know better than I what I need! In my naivety I think I will require a:
A wall mount thingy: $x
A going through the wall tube: $x
A turning up elbow: $x
A chimney of length x: $x
A bunch of other thingamabobs that only they know about: $x
Screws/nuts/bolts/any unusual drill bits etc: $x
Why do they not have a package that looks like this that has a nice little diagram showing you what you are going to have to do with the stuff when it arrives?
Ideally too, they could also provide VARIATION to those packages based on different roof heights, wall thicknesses and slopes.
Then and only then would I want to be told to contact them personally if I have questions… once I understand what I need.
I can’t be the only one who is like this?
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If you are a Tiny Houser, I would appreciate a ball park on the costs of the other stuff and shipping. Also if you have a Soapstone Mini… what electric system do you need for her?
Please comment on this one…
Thanks for listening to me rant! xo L
Here is an article from the fall magazine of the National Farmers Union. It is about my beloved grandmother Violet. She is photographed here in a wheel chair not too long before she died, as I will always remember her, fighting for the farms and the land.
She would frequently write to the news paper and at the end of her letters say: “people are important”. I know that she was important, and how fortunate I was to have won the grandma draw. She remains a strong figure and presence in my daily life. I miss the touch of her hand and her support.
I just started cooking supper now. A fall vegetable and red lentil stew of my own creation. The house smells really great as this simmers in the large pot on the stove.
It would be so much more satisfying to be in the forest to eat this meal. It is 11 degrees in the Kingston area now. A little bit cloudy and damp. Imagine a long, well paced walk in a forest, while it is preparing for its long winter nap. You can smell and see the changes that nature brought us in the past days. A few chipmunks gather the last of their stash, the hornet nest preparing to sleep, birds call as they are flying over you going south. You are just a little out of breath coming back after the hour, but you can smell the light spicy aroma as you approach the cozy Tiny House. Keen to see how it looks, you all fresh and rosy cheeked peek into the pot and see this just as the open pot reveals a deeper scent of onions peanuts and peppers. Mmmmmmm!
Food tastes so much better after a bit of time with the natural world. Anyone else want to be doing just this?
Here is what is in my fall stew:
1/4 cup grape seed oil
3 chopped onions
Fry to brown then add
3 chopped red peppers
6 chopped tomatoes
1 chopped head broccoli
1 chopped head cauliflower
2 chopped big potatoes
4 smaller squashes (I used white ones but it does not matter)
3 small nappa cabbages
8 cups water
1 cup red lentils
1/4 cup TVP
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon pepper
salt to taste (I used about 3/4 of a tablespoon)
2 tablespoons mixed herbs parsley, thyme and sage is what I had.
Once this is all soft and ready I took it off the heat and added a small can of coconut milk for the under flavour.
One of my husband’s (two) best friends and his wife are visiting from Germany. A few years ago I was not able to attend the wedding because of work reasons so Hj went alone. Hj goes regularly home for business but I have not been to Germany in nearly 10 years. Sadly, I have not seen M in a long, long time and I never met K until yesterday. The time together was good. They are bright and interesting people with lots of wonderful stories and ideas: it has been a real delight, but an ever too short visit.
While they are here for only a short window of time, we wanted them to see a couple of special spots around Hamilton, so here is what we did.
We drove around a bit of the waterfront, past the Dundurn Castle which is a National Historical Site, into the huge graveyard across the street (graveyards are very different there than here). We stopped to see a couple of Hamilton’s waterfalls. Then we took a short drive to visit Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks which is another National Historic Site and it is located not too far from here in Brantford. We also visited the Woodland Cultural Centre which sits beside the notorious Mush Hole. We stopped and had a bite to eat at a local Indian Buffet. Then we split for a bit, K went to Yoga: M watched soccer: Hj and I attended services for the late great Lincoln Alexander who lived very near our house a few years ago and who died on October the 19th.
After this we all got together again here at our small house, where we chatted until a few minutes ago.
For Lincoln Alexander, I thought it fitting to add a few apt words which I believe the man lived by. These words are from White Elk:
When you were born, you cried
and the world rejoiced.
Live your life
so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.
Tiny House Ontario 