Cloth Porch

Going Batty!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Laura

NEWS: it is raining at Tiny House Ontario and has been for some number of hours according to those who are living nearby.  WOOT WOOT!  I will worry less now!  Sadly, I think even a solid week of rain will not make a lot of difference to farmers at this time; the rain will still save a lot of trees, I hope!

When I was last there a few days ago sitting out on the cloth porch we watched through the cloth on the other side.  There were praying mantis insects under the solar LED porch light and they were collecting the night light bugs.  We have a lot of night bugs.

As a matter of fact, when I lay down at night, with my head in the window, the sound of hopeful mosquitos who are trying to get through the screen and vampire me to death is astonishingly loud.  Hundreds of them, I would guess, smell me.  Apparently, they think I am quite the tasty treat…

In discussion about the large number of mosquitos I came to the conclusion that I might just be able to do something natural to impact this a little bit. I am not sure if it is as simple as build it and they will come, but even so a young friend of a friend suggested building and bat house in order to help with decreasing the mosquito population.  This looks totally simple!

I don’t have any 4×4 boards at THO at the moment but they are not too hard to come by.  Another problem is digging that deep in the forest because of roots and also because of the limestone.   Still, I think that it might be fun to have some of the little winged mice nearby and it will be great if this works and it decreases the mosquitos!

A bonus too is that I also have lots of small bits of steel so I can give them a very posh roof that matches THO!  😛

Thank you, Cameleon, for the idea!

Categories: Cloth Porch, Environmentalism, Food, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

Reading Outside

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Laura

Over the last weeks of heat wave, I wished I could lay down outside to read when it was simply too hot to do anything else.

I mentioned this to my husband and magically he had a solution.  A zero gravity chair.  $50 (at Canadian Tire) I believe, he said.

Thank you!  I love it!

Categories: Cloth Porch, Drought, Family, Forest, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

The Force of Nature!

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Laura

My husband and I were sitting in the cloth porch this afternoon.  We were discussing plans for the next week because he is away on business and I had to return to Hamilton for the week because there is a list of things that need doing here.  Suddenly there was a HUGE explosive noise that happened not too far away from the house.  I could tell that it was within the property that belongs to us, just South East of Tiny House Ontario.

My husband is not a rural born person and he was puzzled, but I knew right away that we were losing some HUGE trees to the drought.

We walked back through the land.  All of the forest small plants are dead, small trees too are failing.  We found the big tree that we thought had come down but then we saw that not only was one down but quite a few came down.  We lost a lot in last year’s tornado but now one of the biggest trees on the property lost a huge part and there are about 8 more trees that have come down.  We did not stay too long back at the ridge, there was still a lot of noise coming from the trees and I certainly do not want to be under one of those if they fall!

Can you see the tree spirits in the images?

My God!  We need rain.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Drought, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Friends!

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Laura

Andre who I re-met again on Facebook a few years ago came to visit Tiny House Ontario last night.  I have not seen him face to face for about 30 years now.  We had been planning on him coming for some time because he is a talented amateur videographer and photographer and he thinks that THO will make for some interesting shots.  Last night, his visit was to “size” it up.  ;-P  He brought his daughter Chantelle and his grandson Andrew out with him.  Andrew reminds me a lot of his beautiful Aunt Cindy, so he will be a stunning grown man in a few years.  Little Andrew played music for us on the stainless steel pot that I gave him.  I bet he is the next Tommy Lee, but perhaps not so Motley.

Just at dusk my childhood BFF Lesley treated me to a pop in and brought her husband Clarence over as well.  YEAH!  We chatted into the night on the cloth porch.  She is just as sweet today as she was as a little girl and her husband too is a smashing great guy!

I am sure I have mentioned that I LOVE to have visitors.  Particularly when they come by in the evenings.  At Tiny House Ontario, where there is no disturbance in the nature of things I can’t help but reflect.  To say that I am fortunate to have the friends that I have is not enough.  I am charmed in this way.

Blessed be, all of you.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Family, Forest, Friendship, Laura Moreland, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Chair King

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Laura

It was a little cooler this morning but still no rain.  Hj did a little reading in the shade of THO.  I thought he looked comfy, King of the woods.

I believe that he was working on the finishing touches for something that Kingston Poet Bob MacKenzie asked him to do.

As it turned out we did not get much done again today but this is not related to the heat, rather, I had to go to to the doctor for a little infection and this took nearly all day.

Rain would be great for the woods, but also it would be nice to see the house without the chalk-lines.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Family, Off Grid, Ontario, Writing | Leave a comment