Erazim Kohák

An Environmental Wonder!

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Laura

Here are some stats on why tiny houses are fantastic energy savers.  What this does not take into account is the HUGE reduction in additional building materials (outside of lumber) and the huge reduction in STUFF needed to fill the house.

I don’t cool THO and will being next year in burning wood scraps in my mini 12.  Because I was not there this year I cannot do the carbon footprint for 2014, but in 2013 it was 1.1 carbon tons – however with 10 acres of untouched forest we contribute back far more than we could ever use even with having two houses.  Our forest, I estimate covers the foot print for 10 normal homes plus our own footprint.

Thanks to Tiny House Build for creating this info graphic

Thanks to Tiny House Build for creating this info graphic www.TinyHouseBuild.com

Categories: Environmentalism, Erazim Kohák, Forest | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments

Wood Spirit and the Wolf

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Laura

I have finally installed the wood spirit that I purchased from wood carver, Steven Kenzora.  When I wrote about the purchase in an earlier post, I said that it would be put in a place of honour.

Since picking it up I gave quite some thought to where this would be. I decided, finally, to secure it in the arms of an ironwood tree and is facing the entry door of the house.  The tree is due North-West of THO which marks the line between black and white, earth and air and is directionally the mark of the winter solstice with respect to THO itself.  What is interesting, at least to me, is that the tree, an ironwood (considered to be magical by those who practice Wicca) seems to have grown in the specific location and shape to hold this carving.  Ironwood is a slow growing tree with a 7.0 growth factor; so this tree, with a ten inch diameter is about 75-85 years old.  I guess this tree is a sister to Twerp (so named for Tolkein) who is due South-West to THO and perhaps 20-30 years older than what is now named, Wood Spirit Tree.  Interesting too, I think, THO has ironwood trees that are at all four directional cusps and each is within a couple of hundred feet of the house at each of the cusp directions.

What I did not notice until I joined the two is that there is a howling wolf that was carved by nature into the wood which Steven carved into.  Like the Wood Spirit the wolf is a symbol of community and communication, but the wolf is also a loyal guardian.

A lot of symbolic meaning hidden in plain sight.  If you know about these things than you may have guessed that I have been recently influenced by a viking.

Can you see any other symbolism that I failed to mention here?

Categories: Art, Erazim Kohák, Forest, Magical, Nature, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

Me & My Shadows

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Laura

The last leaves are now just reflections of nearly forgotten memories, cast like shadows on the wall.

Nelson Mandela said “there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”  I think he is right.  I have not yet met the goals that I have set for myself and I know that once I attain these there will always be more.  There is always more to come, I think, even beyond death there is more.

I hope that I still have a lot of time to work my life plan out, but one never really knows.  It seems to me that my future life is set out like a dinner party to which I have have not been invited yet.  Still, I can’t help it!  I hope that Judy Chicago set the table for me!  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in on this dinner party with all the fantastic attendees?

But, I don’t know what this life has in store for me.  The future, my future, just like everyone else’s is somewhere just beyond my grasp.  My future exists only like the shadows of last years leaves which promise that there will be other springs; other falls.

I think about Aesop’s warning to “beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow”.   I could use some illumination, but in these short days when the sun casts so much shadow it is not always easy to find the light that will surely come again.  It is easier to focus on the unreachable shadows which are long, sleek, and mysterious.

Thankfully, I can do some shadow exploration tomorrow when I return to THO.  I can’t help it!  I wonder what is waiting there for me?  I know it will be my home, my land, my friends and family.  I know that there is a big party at home this weekend coming.  What else is waiting in tomorrow’s shadow?

Categories: Art, Erazim Kohák, Family, Forest, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario, View, Writing | Tags: | 2 Comments

The Love of the Land

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Laura

What I loved the most about my dad was his deep and thriving love of the land.  He was a farmer who lived not too far away from the place in which Tiny House Ontario is built.  He dreamed of owning expansive property where he make a living ploughing straight long furrows into the earth and filling them with seeds.

This love of the land is one thing where my dad and I found common ground.  I absolutely love the earth!  I love the sky, the soil, the rocks, the trees, the critters and every single natural thing that sprouts from the Mother Earth.  I am the sort of person who could spend a day looking at a tiny mushroom and marvel in the wonder of it.

Too, like Erazim Kohák, I find that the former human interaction with land puzzling and I feel strongly connected to this as well.  An unexpected human thing left behind and out of place in the natural world leaves me with thousands of questions.  On my land, about a half kilometre from THO, there are many small and random stone cairns which draw me back to them time and time again.  They are quite curious because they are way up on the top of the escarpment far away from the low laying fields.  My people, farmers, would never have carried stones for futility, so they came before the Irish parts of me settled here 150 years ago.

Here, in a crescent of stone, is my beloved cousin S (son of my father’s twin); he is also drawn to and fascinated with the cairns on our historic family land.  The pull of them on us, is strong and magical; we are connected.

Did you find our gorgeous little M who is hiding?

Categories: Erazim Kohák, Family, Forest, Friendship, Magical, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | 3 Comments

Life Moves

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Laura

Before I left Tiny House Ontario, I took a couple of photos inside the house.  It always surprises me how much changes there during the day.  Not just out in the forest as one would expect but inside of the house too there is always the flux of change.

My art gallery stays pretty much the same because I very rarely sell a piece of my own work.  Still I hang them on tiny nails so I don’t damage the wooden walls very much, so they wobble with the wind and are very rarely level.  Too, inside, with the switch and the light that I added this year, the wall looks different than it did earlier this summer when I put them up.  Outside the window, the gravel is waiting patiently and settling in.  The big change will come next year when the collected rocks are added and this becomes a flag stone patio.

The shelved wall is always fluid.  From the season that needs heat to the other seasons there is a huge change because all things that freeze are moved to Hamilton with me.  Also there are books that come too, because I can’t live the whole winter without them, namely: Erazim Kohák: The Embers and the Stars, Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way and all of my own writing.  The other change is warmth and peace of mind in the form of the heater and the carbon monoxide/smoke detector.

There are always little changes too because I refer to the books, use the games, light the candles, burn the sage and so on.  Every tiny thing moves, because life moves and changes.  We too move and change, sometimes these are obvious glaring differences like a move to Australia, finishing a degree, finally finding job security, illness and death.

Most of the time, change is barely perceptible; like the changes I refer to here in the photos.  Only those who monitor change can see them clearly.  I am the sort of person who notices subtle changes and this is why I know that in my life there is a shift happening. I see this as clearly as I see that I did not put the bag of seeds and the candle away in the right spots on the shelves below.  I don’t know the impact of these changes, but I know that they are coming.

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” ~ Stephen King

Categories: Erazim Kohák, Off Grid, Open your eyes, Original Art work of Laura Moreland, Stuff, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, View, Writing | 4 Comments