Materialism

Rubbish Books Re-use

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Laura

While in Gananoque a few days ago I stopped in at a cafe called The Socialist Pig.  I won’t go again even though they have internet and the coffee was good.  The reason, I did not enjoy it is because the smell of bacon from the place next door was overwhelming.  I was with a person who eats meat and even for them it was “too much of a good thing”.  I wanted to use my computer so I stayed for a quick coffee and while I was there I witnessed four other people pivot out instead of sitting down, for just this reason.  I don’t know if anyone else finds that the chemical used curing bacon takes your breath away while it cooks?  I really cannot breathe at all when I smell this.  Perhaps it is another in my long and dragged out list of chemical allergies?

While I was not a fan of the smell of the cafe, I thought that they had an interesting idea for dealing with old unwanted books (instead of sending them to the land fill).

Of course, Tiny House Ontario has no use for a bar that would hang out of the ends of the house because is is so huge, but I think, if I ever have the opportunity to build that 380 square foot straw bale “green” home that I am always dreaming of, I may very well use this idea as the dividing wall (or part of one) between the living room and bedroom.

Categories: Environmentalism, Materialism, Ontario, Re-Use, Simple living, Stuff | Leave a comment

A Little Flooring

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Laura

This is the entry way at Tiny House Ontario.  When I built the stairs with my husband last year I was in a terrible hurry, so I built a square box out of plywood and never bothered getting back to it.  Too many other things needed doing!

This year my husband and I removed it, custom fitted it from the door to the stairs and we got some flooring from Gananoque Home Hardware to put in there.  Nothing fancy!  .49 cents a sheet – 8 sheets cost $4.  plus tax.  The trim was $20… so the foyer was redone in an hour or two and cost about $25.  It wipes up easily too which is great.  While I hate to produce garbage, I don’t think of this as my forever floor, rather as something to protect the 5/8ths of plywood and the 2×10 base..  Still, even though it is not my forever floor, I would be happy if it lasted until all the landscaping and so forth is done.

I do have a plan for good floors to go in.  Matter of fact, I plan to use that big hickory tree that is dying at the front of my land as the floor for Tiny House Ontario, but I don’t want to mill this until it is totally dead.  I expect that the big hickory will do the whole house, easily, but I don’t want to put it in until the very last because I don’t want it to be damaged by the coming and going of construction.

The grubby cement floor and bamboo mat will have to do us this year, in the rest of the house.  Perhaps longer, since I want to hand hew those boards after they are quarter sawn at the local mill.

Anyone ever hand hew a hickory floor?

Categories: Environmentalism, Erazim Kohák, Materialism, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a 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

The Hokey Pokey Clinic

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Laura

I had to laugh today when my friend Little Red Riding Hood posted this in her Facebook wall.  Perhaps it is an old joke?  I never heard it until today, so it was totally new to me.

Still I thought, isn’t living in a Tiny House sort of like this?  Small and sort of funny but it really does turn people around.  You can’t be a huge consumer when you live in such a small space.  Funny too because you would never be able to turn yourself around if you did not stop buying stuff, that is for sure.  It really does not take much to make a Tiny House look like a hoarders space.

So here I am in the Hokey Pokey House… and that’s what it’s all about…

Categories: Materialism, Stuff, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, View | Leave a comment

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
.
.
Categories: Art, Environmentalism, Forest, Materialism, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments