Forest

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 www.TinyHouseBuild.com

Categories: Environmentalism, Erazim Kohák, Forest | Tags: climate, Consumerism, Environment, Footprint, Green house gas, Statistics | 4 Comments

Snow White Picket Fence

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Laura

One time many years ago, when I first arrived to live there, I got lost in Munich Germany. After work I was tired and not paying attention so I wound up on the wrong bus. At that time I could barely speak a word in German and no one seemed able to help me, so I got off the bus and walked where I thought we had come from. After walking for a while, I came along to this little cottage style house with a white picket fence all around it. The entire large garden was landscaped to look like a magical land for gnomes. There were gnomes doing all sorts of things. They were crossing little bridges, sitting having tea, digging holes, having picnics, having concerts, fishing, drinking beer, picking flowers – you name it. The gnomes were doing all the things that gnomes might be doing in a magical little land just beyond the fences of our imagination.

Before that point I had never given any thought to gnomes, but on that day I started to think that there was something magical about them.

I looked for the place many times afterward but was never able to find it and I also can’t find it on the internet. Today in this age of internet posts one would think that these “Munchner Gartenzwerge” would have at least one shot of them but so far, the ones I find are not of this magical place.

With this in mind you may understand why, when I saw a complete set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for sale for $85 on Kijiji that I made the purchase. Not only are dwarves similar to gnomes, but they live in the forest and while I am not the fairest in the land Snow White and I share many commonalities.

I had to laugh to myself when bringing them out to THO. I mean five seat belts in the car and there were me, Hj, five dogs plus Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Try explaining that to the police; thankfully we were not pulled over.

The photo is busy but here they are now at home. I still have a lot of collecting to do to finish this perennial fantasy garden, but it is coming along.

Categories: Forest, Garden Gnome, Gnome, Magical, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: Munich Germany, white picket fence | 5 Comments

Night Time Goosebumps

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Laura

At 2:00 am, Dieter signalled that he had to go outside. Hj turned on the upstairs lights and tottered down the stairs with him. Then he turned on the downstairs and outside lights, including the spotlight out to the dog’s garden and since it looked clear, he opened the door to let Dieter out. Dieter immediately rushed out the door barking and began chasing a large animal around the yard. Hj was yelling “Dieter, Dieter, Dieter” and running after him. At first we thought the animal was a fisher, but within moments we understood it was a porcupine. A big one, of about 25 pounds.

Fortunately, Hj was able to get Dieter back into the house and the porcupine never made contact with either of my guys.

S/he is right there under the sapling. Can you see our prickly friend?

The porcupine, I guess needed to relax after such a burst of commotion, so s/he stayed in the fenced area for about half an hour and then finally scaled up the fence and continued up one of the maple trees. After s/he climbed up Dieter was brought out to go to the bathroom… ON A LEASH, this time. He really did have to go to the bathroom but quickly did his business without further incident and came back in.

Dieter (doing his best Flock of Seagulls imitation)

Dieter is, by the way, our most recent rescue. He is five and a half and was adopted in December. He had been living in a cage in disgusting conditions for the first five years of his life. His owners were backyard breeders, who ran a small puppy mill. He was the “stud”. When he was pulled along with all the other dogs he was half the weight and had half the hair that he now has. He was covered in fleas and suffered with tapeworm just as all the other dogs in the house. He has made a stellar recovery!

Please adopt, don’t shop. Dogs like Dieter make such grateful and wonderful companions!

Categories: Dog, Dogs, Forest, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, Wildlife | Tags: Dogs, Forest, Porcupine, Tiny House | 2 Comments

EEEEEEEEK! SQUEEEEEEEEEK! WORK!

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Laura

This past weekend I removed and relocated 19 very cute but very messy little mice from Tiny House Ontario. I thought I had them all at 14 because I did not hear any noise but on the last day, I lifted the toilet and there was a wonderful plastic bag and toilet paper home. It was a mom with four tiny pink babies.

I removed her and her family easily right in the bag. Since I know this is the access point for them, I then covered the area under the sink and toilet with a cup of cayenne pepper, a cup of cloves, and several types of essential oil which I understand they dislike the smell of. Lavender, peppermint and clove oil was what I used. I have to tell you, the bathroom smells heavenly to me. Clearly, I am NOT a mouse because I could sit in there all day and sniff.

The mice made one hell of a mess. It was seriously awful what they did in a five week period. They found a five pound bag of niger seed which I use to feed the song birds and this was absolutely everywhere. Further to this, they peed all over everything. The entire house had to be emptied and washed. All food, paper, tissues, towels, tea and coffee had to be disposed of. They got into everything. It took me hours to clean the place and it still smells of urine.

Mouse urine does not seem to be like urine from other animals. I think it has a lot of oil in it because it was never dry in the area where they peed. I normally don’t use a lot of chemicals when I clean but this time I bleached and then used oil soap to clean up the mess.

I the house still smells when I get back I will rub the wood and floors with pine essential oil but for now, after three days of work the house looks reasonable again.

Lets hope it stays that way.