Friendship

The Neighbouring Pacifist

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Laura

Near Tiny House Ontario lives a survivor.  She witnessed, and survived unspeakable things during WWII in what is now the Czech Republic.  The experiences have left her with haunting stories that she often shares… her stories make me shudder.

These experiences have left her with what I believe is PTSD.  She is both a pacifist and vegetarian, and very unusual.  She walks around in rags for clothes, rarely bathes, and keeps as many animals as can fit in her home.

She is somewhat famous in the community for keeping her animals in her home with her.  Close to 30 cats, goats, chickens, dogs and she also feeds the wild life.  Last year she lost some trees near her house and the racoon family who lived there had to relocate.  She asked everyone to keep their eyes open for the lost racoons who we would know, because of the mask they wear.  I found this totally hilarious.  She is always looking for missing cats too.  Even those that have been “missing” for years.

At first, I have to admit, I could not get away from her quick enough.  She smells a lot like cat urine and makes my allergies go crazy, plus she is always looking for missing critters.  The truth is that you cannot get away from her when she starts to talk, no matter how busy you are or whatever, she comes across as quite a weirdo.  She is known in the neighbourhood and avoided.

This year, my thoughts on her have shifted greatly. I am busy at Tiny House Ontario, but not insanely so.  I have a little time to stop and say hello and to listen to her and this shift in myself also forced me to change my opinion about her.    I learned that she saw Louis Armstrong play live in Belgium, that she has traveled the world, that she is smart and interesting and passive and beautiful.  I think she is lonely and isolated.  I think she just wants to live and love and laugh.  I think she is working to forget, but finds this very hard to do.

A few days ago, she was upset.  Very, very distraught really, because one of her hens got out and was in the forest, and she was so concerned that a mink or a fisher would catch her.  I helped her look and tried to shoo the chicken to her own land and I brought my camera because I hoped that I would catch a photo for this blog.

The pacifist walked the woods for two days clapping gently and singing soft words in a language that I do not know.  She spent day and night trying to urge the chicken to come home.  Finally, last evening, the chicken found its way into her gentle hands.

Beautiful isn’t she?

Categories: Erazim Kohák, Forest, Friendship, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Poor Baby

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Laura

This is Baby.  She is the reason I am posting so much right now.  She made me go back to the grid.

Baby is the Tiny House Ontario steed, and my only wheels.  She gets me where I need to go – except for right now… Baby is sick…

I was coming home on her at 2:00 am from a community gathering and she just plain quit… right there in the middle of the road.  It was the second time that day… but this time I could not get her to start again.  Thankfully, I was rescued first time by my sister/friend Liisa and in the middle of the night by my cousin Kenny who (not only knows the land but he) knows how to be at the right place at the right time.

Baby is in the bike hospital right now and they cannot find the problem with her.  Something in her wiring; she runs for a bit and then stops cold.

Poor Baby.

Categories: Friendship, Off Grid, Tiny House Ontario, View | Leave a comment

Cloth Porch Damage

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Laura

After hanging there for a year through the winter and everything mother nature could throw at it, the cloth porch has an eight inch long tear in it at floor level.  I had some red thread on hand and have fixed it up.

I did not see it happen… and I hate to point fingers… but I check it every morning to make sure nothing wild got in and at 10:00 am I caught this one on the other side.

“Do you think the grass looked greener over there Minnie?” I asked.   She claims that she was framed by a one armed man… but she looks mighty guilty doesn’t she?

I took this the day before.  I did not know that she was contemplating her escape… silly me!

 

Categories: Cloth Porch, Dogs, Forest, Friendship | 1 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

Evicted!

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Laura

 

Last fall a Ms. Mama Mouse moved into the BBQ at Tiny House Ontario and because I am a person who is highly concerned about the ethical treatment of animals I left her be.   I also fed her and her family when I went home.  She liked Mary’s Organic Crackers (who doesn’t?) and also the peanuts that Liisa brought her were a big hit, and the shells became part of her bedding after, so these had a HUGE added bonus.  Ms. Mouse came to look forward to my visits and would come out to see what sort of tasty treats were coming her way.  When I peeked in with a treat, she would peek out at me.

Even so, now that it is spring, and this is my main means of meal preparation I had to evict Ms. Mouse.

Since she has come to expect nuts, seeds, she sat watching me, totally aghast, as I took her home apart.  Poor little girl.  I think she even cried a little with me.  It was about half removed by the time she decided to run for her life.

After clearing her out, I turned the BBQ on bringing it up to 500 degrees for a good hour and then allowed it to sit at about 200 for an additional hour in order to kill germs or whatever she left behind.  The BBQ is probably in its last year of life, so I think when this happens I will leave it in the forest for the mice.

It is two days now and so far she has not moved back and seems to have accepted the newly located home that I have made for her.

 

 

 

Categories: Forest, Friendship, Nipple, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments