Environmentalism

Mullein

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Laura

I have a bumper crop of Mullein growing at Tiny House Ontario.  Check to be sure that you are not allergic to it first like with any plant, but this is a GREAT toilet paper replacement if you get caught in a pinch.  I am going to dry some of it this year too.

 

I have not tried any of these things and thus do not suggest that you be my guinea pig.  I understand that Mullein Leaf has served many purposes over the past few centuries, from making candlewicks to casting out evil spirits. However, as an herbal treatment, Verbascum thapsus was primarily used as a cure for diarrhea, respiratory diseases and hemorrhoids. The leaves and flowers of the Mullein Leaf are classified in traditional herbal literature as expectorants and demulcents.

Mullein Leaf or scientifically referred to as Verbascum Thapsus is a wildflower native to much of Europe and Asia which can grow almost anywhere. Because of its thick, soft leaves, it is also called Grandmother’s Flannel and Our Lady’s Flannel. The word Mullein is said to be derived from the Middle English word for “soft” which is moleyne.

Traditionally, Mullein Leaf has been used by medicinal herbalists to aid with problems of the respiratory tract, such as cases of irritating coughs with bronchial congestion. Some herbal treatments extend the therapeutic use to pneumonia and asthma.

As far as natural herbs go, the Mullein Leaf is purported to reduce inflammation of the trachea along with soothes irritated tissues. Due to its high mucilage content, Organic Mullein Leaf is also recommended for topical applications by herbalists as a soothing emollient for inflammatory skin conditions and burns. Externally, an extract of these herbs made in olive oil is used for soothing and easing ear problems.

Mullein Leaf is also thought by some herbalists to provide constipation relief, help with sleeplessness, care for the kidneys and help with nervous tension.

The Mullein has very markedly demulcent, emollient and astringent properties, which render it useful in pectoral complaints and bleeding of the lungs and bowels. Slightly sedative and narcotic properties.

Demulcent, emollient, astringent and sedative.

 

Categories: Environmentalism, Forest, Magical, Nature, Off Grid, Simple living, Sustainable living | Leave a comment

Somewhere Between Hard Knocks and Sloths

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Laura

An old friend Steve, wrote to me a while ago and said, “no offence meant here, but Tiny House Ontario is practically a hotel when compared to a hunting camp”.  “Yes, this is the point”, was my answer.  I have thought a lot about what Steve said and you know, he is not the only one either who puts these questions to me.  My cousin Irene says that she wonders about me (she thinks I have gone mad).  She has said to me more than once, “I lived that life for many years and I don’t understand why you want to go back to that!”

It is not about giving up on myself like men do in a hunting camp.  It is also not about doing without, or making due, like it was for my cousin Irene.  I simply don’t have five children to take care of in a home with no conveniences – I really do not know how women survived those hard times!  I do not idealize these times.  I do however idealize the less consumeristic life that people lead before all this advertising mania took over our lives.

There is a point to Tiny House Ontario and there are also several lines that I am not comfortable crossing.   Still, the lines are fuzzy when it comes to the way that I live.  I found this year when I was moving in, that I was not worried at all about plumbing, running water, electricity, but I did worry about two things.  Firstly, I needed to get the in-house built because of the weirdo that I picked up on here and secondly, how would I paint without a studio?  Now I have a bathroom – but I have not yet painted – but this may be just an issue of being so busy!  Time will tell me.

The Tiny House objective is NOT to lead a hard life.  I don’t always intend to live with no heat, plumbing, water, lights… so why do it now?   It is hard to explain even to myself, what I am trying to do.

Here is what I mean, with water as an example.

It is great to have running water and taps.  I get that!  Really I do!  Turn the tap or flush the toilet and presto snapo, there it is to take care of your needs.  Why would I want to give that up?  I mean, we need to have water to live.  We drink, cook, and wash up after cooking with it; we also need it for personal bathing, and cleaning house.  All of these needs are equally important for normal living (not for survival).  Why would I want to live without water?  I cannot live without water but I can, I found, easily live without running water.  Simply put, until I have a well installed, I have do my own running for water.  Fortunately, I have multiple sources of water within walking (or short driving) distance.  I have a few jugs that I can carry from my friend’s homes without having a vehicle to get them.  I have found that I can comfortably live with about 10 litres of water a day.  It is not difficult or even a hardship to plan through this requirement.  Still, if I did not have friends or family there, even this would become impossible, so I am grateful to them for allowing me to be a sponge (BAHAHAHA).

Along with cooking and cleaning with this 10 litres of water, I sponge bathe daily, wash my hair every third day, but even so, I need to shower weekly.  Thankfully, Liisa allows me to do this at her house, still, I think that the rain water shower will be great once it is fully hooked up.  I think, that with this connected that I will be able to reduce my dependence on gasoline because I drive to and from Liisa’s home for my weekly wash up.  Laundry, I bring to town – I do not pull out the scrub board much.

I guess, what I am saying is that my objective is not to live in a hunting camp.  I like things nice and I do also like to bathe and keep my hair looking fresh.  Tiny House Ontario is not about living a life of total hardship (or isolation).  I will in fact, put in a well with a hand pump as soon as money allows me to do this with cash.  My objective is to have a property without having a mortgage on it.  I don’t want any more debt than the mortgage on my Hamilton home (OK… I don’t want that either – but you know what I mean.  I hope.).

My objective is to build the most comfortable and ecologically sustainable life that I can with the least amount of money.  It is not an exercise in hardship.  It is an exercise in self sustainability and kinship with those around me.  As time and money dictate improvements will come.  A little at a time.  Tiny House Ontario is a work in progress.  I am not sweating the things that I could use there.  Still, if you know anyone who digs wells, donates solar arrays,  donates and installs septic systems, donates and puts on siding, has a tiny 12 watt fridge or a two burner interior propane cooker… all for free… let me know.  I am happy to bring on the conveniences.

Just because it is Tiny… does not mean that it is all free – but it also does not mean that it has to be awful either.   If only I had a money tree…

Really, honestly, I am totally happy with the model below.  A few cents at a time and with this, I grow a beautiful green life

Categories: Environmentalism, Forest, Friendship, Materialism, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Spring

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Laura

The leaves are opening up!  It is beautiful at the Tiny House now!

Categories: Environmentalism, Forest, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Little Nut Struggles to Survive.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Laura

Hickory Dickory Dock

The mouse ran up the clock

The cluck struck one

Down he’d come

Hickory Dickory Dock…

Every big nut tree starts from one little nut hitting the ground and surviving.  On my little slice of ancestral land, there are plenty of hickory trees.  Both the edible shag bark (sweet nuts) and the in edible (but horrible tasting) bitter nut trees are plentiful.

I mentioned before that the biggest shag bark hickory I ever saw is there.  I imagine that when she was a nut that my Lenape ancestors were still hunting there with bows and arrows.  I can only imagine what she has survived.  Drought, occupation, war, floods, the great depression, countless ice and wind storms and the axes of builders.  Still even a nut knows when life is ending and I too knew she was at the end of her life-cycle over the past couple of years.  With only a few branches remaining, and some animals have taken up living in her scars, she has been looking weak.  This spring when I came I found that her only two remaining large branches have left her and are sadly laying on the ground next to her.  Since the biggest one is her top branch, this loss reduced her height by half.  Just like human beings, she shrinks with age.

She looks small, feeble, fragile now.   Even so, she hangs on to her life with tenacity because seems to be budding out on her remaining little branches.  I believe what I see here is her last remaining spring hoorah before she becomes an apartment for the forest creatures.  Still, remember that perhaps 200 years ago she was just a little nut, she has lived a long life, witnessed much!

Hickory dickory dock.

Here is creation story which shows the importance of trees.

Lenapé Kishelamàwa’kàn

(The Lenape Creation Story)

Here is how the creation myth was explained by a Lenape patriarch when a Dutchman asked him where the Indians came from: He was silent for a little while, either as if unable to climb up at once so high with his thoughts, or to express them without help, and then took a piece of coal out of the fire where he sat, and began to write upon the floor.  He first drew a circle, a little oval, to which he made four paws or feet, a head and a tail. “This,” he said, “is a tortoise, lying in the water around it,” and he moved his hand round the figure continuing. “This was or is all water, and so at first was the world or the earth, when the tortoise gradually raised its round back up high, and the water ran off of it, and thus the earth became dry.

“He then took a little straw and placed it on end in the middle of the figure and proceeded, “The earth was now dry, and there grew a tree in the middle of the earth, and the root of this tree sent forth a sprout beside it, and there grew upon it a man, who was the first male. This man was then alone, and would have remained alone; but the tree bent over until its top touched the earth, and there shot therein another root, from which came forth another sprout, and there grew upon it the woman, and from these two are all men produced.”

*Jaspar Dankers & Peter Sluyter, Journal Of A Voyage To New York In 1679-80.

Categories: Environmentalism, Erazim Kohák, Forest, Kingston, Nature, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Celery

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Laura

A while ago the folks and Frugally Sustainable mentioned that they were regrowing celery.  WHAT?

Anyway… It is easy and it works.  I have not clipped and used any yet but I will be toting it with me to Tiny House Ontario so that when it is a little bigger I can eat some of this lovely plant, and also because my husband is a plant killer.  Just cut one or two off from the outside and let it keep on growing.  I wonder how long it will last?

Introducing Ms. Celery.  (She uses pot!)

Categories: Environmentalism, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living | Leave a comment