Forest

The Trees: Speaking to the Issue

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Laura

My friend Colleen and I were chatting this morning, as we do from time to time.  Our chats are filled with banter about animal ethics, environmental issues, and we also very often speak about the problematic ways in which human beings behave.  There is often an emphasis on sheeplism and our frustrations in dealing with this.

During our banter, she mentioned a song called The Trees which is both written and performed by the iconic Canadian rock band Rush.  Since I have always been about as far away from the mainstream as possible, I had never heard this song.  My loss.  It is really great; meaningful on a lot of levels.

The way that this song connected to something that has been on my mind for the last bit was timely.  For the last few days I have been thinking a lot about the rules.  Not the dating book series, but the rules of society.  These rules, while put in place for the good of the whole, lost sight of a lot of things that are perfectly sensible.  Specifically, I am speaking about Tiny Houses and the Bylaws that prohibit people from making choices that are better for the land, environment, mental health and in a million and one ways are greater than any McMansion can ever possibly be.

I have for three days had the story on my mind about the fellow who bought some acres in the US and whose neighbour harassed him from the day that he moved there.  The story* messed up on so many levels, sort of Deliverance meets the Tiny House movement.  The post is interesting but here is my synopsis of it this Deliverance story, the blogger bought land and put a tiny house on it.  He hoped to live there for two years but made it only 5 months, in the time that he lived there he was constantly harassed and subjected to all sort of crazy from a weirdo next door (my words, not his).

The question is, who would you rather have for a neighbour?  A quiet person whose house is so small that you can’t see it and who leaves the land as natural as it was when the planet formed, or a lout who blares his music, lets his kid, big scary dogs and insanity into your life every day just because you happen to live next door?  You guessed it, the lout called the government and they are making him remove his Tiny House from his land.  It seems wrong that an innocuous Tiny House can be considered wrong in anyone’s mind.

I am of the opinion that the legality of Tiny Houses should not be questioned.  This should not be an issue.  If indeed laws are put in place to protect people then who exactly is this law protecting?  Why would anyone think that a Tiny House is dangerous?

Is this because refusing to participate in a consumer lifestyle is not acceptable and therefore a crime?

Here are the wonderful lyrics to the song that I think speaks to this issue.

“The Trees”

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas
The trouble with the maples
(And they’re quite convinced they’re right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade
There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream ‘Oppression!’
And the oaks just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
‘The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light’
Now there’s no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw
.
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Categories: Art, Environmentalism, Forest, Materialism, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments

Escarpment lookout potential

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Laura

Wikipedia says: An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.

The land under Tiny House Ontario is on a limestone fault, at a quite high elevation when compared to the surrounding land.  There are a lot of rock piles here too.

The closest city to us, is Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  Kingston sits at about 25 feet above sea level, whereas Tiny House Ontario, which is within 30 Km of Kingston sits at about 200 feet above sea level.  The difference in height is not so great; the approximate height of a 20 story building, and the gradient upward is not a sheer drop.  As a matter of fact probably about half of the height is covered in the distance before you arrive at the escarpment, and it is somewhat hilly too, so unless you are on a bicycle or on foot, you would probably not know that you are going up hill.

Along the same escarpment where the road goes though, they have the same elevation as me and because the road is through, you can see Kingston’s water tower, radio towers and also lots of the windmills on Wolfe Island.  I have included here some images from two different seasons near the edge of the escarpment on my land and one where the road is open so you can see the height and view.

My cousin Kenny, who knows this land, says that I should remove a few of the softwood trees so that the hard ones will grow larger with the light and I will have a better view.  What would you do?  Cut a few trees so that you would get a better view and more light?  Let it stay the way that it grows naturally?

**Please note that I changed the title of this post from view to lookout because Tiny House Ontario sits far away from the ridge, so any potential for seeing into the distance would be purely as a place to walk to, and lookout from.  At Tiny House Ontario, you can see only inside the forest.**

Categories: Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, View | 4 Comments

Ancestors and Descendants

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Laura

The Embers and the Stars by Erazim Kohák is one of my all time favourite books.   It is not light reading.  It is dense and hard to get through, but beautiful, lyrical, life changing, and worth all the effort.  This book certainly impacted me in ways that I never once expected.*

With this book in mind as it always is, in the morning, I woke up thinking about forest.  Specifically about the hickory trees that I hope to keep safe on my land, then I thought about big Bonny tree, the giant oak that my grandmother would have walked under on her way to school.

My thoughts then brought me way back to the Irish family who first settled here pushing out my native ancestors and their long history by shaming it away and marrying in.  It was not so much the natives that I was thinking about.  Sadly and honestly, because I know little about the natives, the history for them is vague and sporadic like a dream of better and harder days.    It is the settlers who I know, and understand.

I thought about my original Dixon (also spelled Dickson) family, because it was the settlers who brought land ownership with them.  Specifically I thought back 162 years to the time when Robert Dixon, took up a land patent for this land in 1850*.  I also thought about his descendants, too my ancestors, who walked this land working it and planning for it, just as I work and plan today.

A funny thing is that work is easy and planning is not at all.  Planning is complicated.  You see, I suspect that Robert Dixon had great plans in mind, when he divided his land at his death.  It was left to his boys; girls out of the equation, including his wife Alice (who was inherited, like a cow to be managed by her sons).  Great, great, great Grandpa Dixon would not have imagined that it would be a sixth generation granddaughter (GGG granddaughter) who would be the keeper of it.  I don’t believe that he could have fathomed that my G uncle Lewellyn (G grandma Caroline’s brother) would lose his 50 acre share in 1943 because of a $2500 loan he took and could not pay during great depression.  Old GGG Grandpa Dixon, could not have imagined that the wonderful neighbours, the Miller family would buy that land and continue calling it “The Dixon Farm” even to today.  He could not possibly have known, when he set his plans, that the Miller descendant would be thrilled to see it in the “Dixon” hands once more.  More over, I expect that the biggest thing that he could never have imagined is that a woman would be the one who is interested in planning for it now.

So what about my plans?  I have one biological son James, as well as a son Conrad and daughter Kasha who are mine too, emotionally.  Will any of them have interest in Tiny House Ontario and her beautiful forest home?  I don’t see any signs of this.  Will it be another long lost descendent of the Dixon line who will want her?  This is not apparent to me either.  Will it be in the hands of family?  Who knows?  I believe that I cannot know what is in store for these acres.

The only thing that I know for sure is if little chunk of land is protected from greed, it will outlast me.   Perhaps another 162 years from now someone walking it will find the extra chain saw blade I lost out there, and wonder about the person who was connected to it.  Time will tell.  Time always gives us some version of the truth.

*I plan to read The Embers and the Stars again this summer at Tiny House Ontario.  If any of my friends or locals wants to join me in this, I would love to do a Tiny House book club weekly meeting to discuss the chapters.  Wednesdays at 6:30 pm?

*First a full 100 acres then the rest of the lot and concession of 100 acres was purchased from John Ilan (also spelled Island) in 1857 for ₤225.

Categories: Environmentalism, Erazim Kohák, Forest, Open your eyes, Simple living, Sustainable living, Time, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: | 2 Comments

The Trouble with Driveways

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Laura

The forest where Tiny House Ontario sits, has had very little human intervention.  I had a few trees go missing on the South East ridge in 2010 (a former neighbour cut them down, to burn for fire wood; they were not his to take).  This was all the damage done to the land when I considered my Tiny House build.

I would like to live there but I also do not want to harm the forest.  I did not want to cut any trees at all, but reasonably, I needed to have a route in.  An entry just makes life so much easier, not just for my own purposes of living, but for the cement delivery, lumber delivery and so on, I required a road.

I did not go about this all helter-skelter and without a good deal of forethought.  In order to put in my driveway I chose the point of least damage through; I made a lot of effort to keep from taking any trees over 3 inches in diameter, and I also did not want to cut a single shag bark hickory.  These hickory trees are rare and protected so it is not only illegal to cut them, it is unethical.  I managed to keep every hickory, but there were a few maples that had to go, so I could have an entry point.  My friends John and Leo cleared the lane all the way back to the ridge, but got four pick up trucks of firewood from a 600 foot long and 8 foot wide lane way, which is a very small and reasonable loss.  They did not clear cut, certainly, but did cut a swath out of the woods.   About half the wood they got came from a large dead maple which wanted for reuse, and thus put the driveway right over it’s old trunk.  Aside from the large dead one, I believe that there were about 20 trees that were larger than 3 inches were cut, but only two were larger than 8 inches.

There were no trees cut down in order to make space for Tiny House Ontario.  A spot was chosen where there was a natural clearing.

It was not just trees and that had to go.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, a lot of what was removed to get through was a swipe through the “prickly pear” (which I think is a sort of a fruitless rubus cane).  There were also a lot of small saplings and trees that were less than 3 inches in diameter, these were sacrificed.  I also covered a lot of leeks, wild lilies, mayflowers, a few trilliums, and a small patch of wild ginseng too.  What I mean is that you cannot buy land which has a low yielding potential for farming, to build on and expect that you will not damage any of the natural features in the process.  It is a pity but it had to be done, if I am to actually enjoy the use of this land.

A nice side effect of the little bit of clearing, is that the new openings will allow two more benefits for me.  Both are because now there is light coming in.  I will be able to add a vegetable garden and solar panels.

While I did my best to be as conscientious as possible, I absolutely caused damage to the forest.   Here is what I did to get it in step by step, with a small slide show for you to see the process.

  • I picked the route of least resistance.
  • I made a path with some bright yellow string.
  • Permit was applied for and attained.
  • John and Leo came in and cut everything within 10 feet of the line (except one hickory which is 8 feet in and makes a narrow spot in the driveway).  The photo of me with my chainsaw is taken on a former property when I lost a half dozen huge cedars to a flood.
  • Myself, and my husband cleared the “prickly pear”.
  • Myself, and a few lads cleaned the sticks up with a chipper.
  • The planned driveway and tiny house location were clear to take some (minimal excavation and) gravel.
  • The gravel was brought in load, by load, and flattened by my cousin Kenny’s tractor and accessories.
  • Tiny House Ontario hole was dug and filled with stone, cement was brought in and laid and then it was built.
  • Several final loads of gravel were brought in right up to the Tiny House that I tamped down.
  • The culvert was installed by the road, but not accepted by the county (twice so far), so I do not have an entry permit as of yet.

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Categories: Building code, Environmentalism, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

Painted Window

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Laura

When I am alone at Tiny House Ontario I look out this window.  It is not always possible to see out it, because it is often times fogged up.  Even though I can’t see out, it is still one of my favourite things to look to.

If I put an addition on Tiny House Ontario, then this will become a doorway, but I think I will put this window right in again in my bathroom or kitchen.

Such a simple creative piece, but it must stay.

Categories: Art, Forest, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Original Art work of Laura Moreland, Tiny House Ontario | 3 Comments