Forest

Land Claim

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Laura

I wonder if we all moved off of Turtle Island how long it would take for nature to swallow up all signs of human life?

I think it would not take very long, at all, for all signs of Tiny House Ontario to totally disappear.

The driveway, is just a little over a year old.  It was a lot of work to get it in but even so, in just a year nature already fights back against settlement.  HJ and I spent an hour yesterday recovering the West edge of the driveway back from the forest because Mother Nature is trying to reclaim it from us.  This is the third time that we have had to do the job in the calendar year.  It is not a horrible job, but had to be done because driving in in a car was somewhat like going through a car wash; there was always something rubbing up against the vehicle.  Admittedly, Baby does not do much to keep it back and I suppose if we were driving in and out more with a large vehicle that the drive would be more permanent. Even so, back to the wondering of how long it would take for all signs of us to disappear?

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

Laughing Wire Water Garden

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Laura

My cousin Vernie, one of my favourite people, let me know that he had some chicken wire to put over my garden to keep out the rodents.  So I went over to his place to pick it up and he shared a few hilarious anecdotes from the past.  He just slays me!  His daughter Tracey has also inherited his wicked sense of humour so we laugh a lot when we are together.  I love that my life is filled with hilarity!

Vern also shared one of his new inventions with us, a very cool corn planting machine.  The man is a genius!

With chicken wire in hand and though it was raining cats and chihuahuas we braved the rain to reseed and also to put the chicken wire down.  It looks pretty nifty and will be interesting to see how the plants can come though it.  Hopefully they will not all be gnawed off.

This morning it was still pouring but the seeds seem to one totally in place.  I hope it keeps on raining for another day or two since everything is dry as bone here and water is needed to get the food growing.

I left a small rubber container out on the cloth porch last night and it was about 2 inches deep this morning.  Thus it was a good rain.

My mom used to sing… “oh Lord don’t let the rain come down, because my roof has got a hole in it and I might drown”, but we are dry in Tiny House Ontario as well as in town doing a blog post.

I think I will sing… “oh lord how I wish it would rain down on me” to keep that water coming for a bit and get my garden going.

Categories: Environmentalism, Forest, Friendship, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

Wild Strawberries…

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Laura

When the rain stops, I will go into the forest and pick a bunch of wild strawberries.  They are nearly ready at Tiny House Ontario.  I think that nothing tastes better than these little wild wonders.

Categories: Food, Forest, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Growing – Maybe

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Laura

It is now six months since I started the Tiny House Ontario Blog.  It is almost a year since the Tiny House was built enough to move things and myself into.

This year we got some soil from one of the local farm boys.  He delivered beautiful soil to me, far more than I needed for $40.  The best thing is that it is REAL soil not sifted dead crap that you buy from the companies who bring their interpretation of soil. Dead dirt.

The soil has lovely clay deposits in it which I took out and will make a clay oven from ( I now have half of what I need).  It also had some wonderful round granite rocks which are left overs from the ice age going over the Canadian Shield, these will be beautiful orange accents, for the stone fence, I also had four full wheel barrels of extra soil which I put beside my humanure/compost unit and this will be used to cover the organics.  I am grateful to the farmer and to the young man for sharing with me.

There was a good half day of digging and I am grateful that I have a husband who took care of this for me.  I am still quite winded from losing my grandmother, so it was nice to have him take care of the hard work.  He dug and I threw out the beautiful stones and clay, then raked and planted the garden.

We went to Sand’s Produce and picked up a few tomato and pepper plants from the Sands family business and planted them too.

The next morning we found that some little critter stole every single one of the zucchini and squash seeds as well as having dug up the bean seeds.  Today since it is raining, I put a few more in the ground and will put wire mesh over the seeds.

I am not sure if we can produce any food in a garden, in a small clearing, in the middle of a forest.  I guess it is fully depending on the cooperation of the other creatures who make this their home as well.

Categories: Environmentalism, Food, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

A Different Angle

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Laura

I took a photo of Tiny House Ontario that I find so absolutely initially terrible looking that I almost don’t want to show you.

Still… it is too weird and funky to keep to myself.  And if you look past the TYPAR covering, you might see this photo as interesting, as I do.

The light filtering through the trees is gorgeous and also my sweet husband is the shadow in the cloth porch.

Life is worth living here.

 

Still, I hope we can get Tiny House Ontario sided this year.  A new white food grade barrel will go up this weekend on the WC roof to meet the hose (you might see it) there.

Onward, we move.  One foot in front of the other.  

Categories: Cloth Porch, Environmentalism, Forest, Magical, Off Grid, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment