Nature

Feral Cat Tiny Homes

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Laura

The feral cat colony is not totally homeless now.  As a matter of fact they have wonderful insulated Tiny Houses thanks to Hj, O and I.

After googling and googling, I found a few great ideas and sort of developed a plan based on other people’s ideas.  We got some coolers at Canadian Tire, punched holes in the sides with a drill and then jig sawed the holes (EASY) then we put in a section of a stiff plastic plant pot.  These pots were free and are thin enough that they flex to fit the imperfect holes I cut.  After I pushed these in tight, I caulked them in both inside and outside.

After this, we bedded them with straw, put in some fresh catnip and treats to encourage them to come in and closed the lids.  We then brought them over to the location, placed them up on rail ties, put on some roofing material and another rail tie on top then covered this with sticks and debris.

Hopefully this is enough for the colony to have dry and warm homes this winter.  It is supposed to be a long hard cold winter according to the farm almanac, and this might save them from preventable suffering.

We also had a great bonus!   O caught one of the cats!  A gorgeous orange boy.  He is part of the colony but not a feral, rather a more recently abandoned and absurdly skinny boy.  She just lost one of her beloved pets to old age so this lucky boy she cuddled right up to and took him home so that he will have the experience of being loved by a human being who really cares for her pets.

So, there is one less cat to house and to worry about!  Thank you O for being so kind to animals.

 

Categories: Friendship, Nature, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny house | Tags: | 1 Comment

Necessity

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Laura

I think that everyone has heard “necessity is the mother of invention.”  It might just be true in all cases, but when I found the photo below, I was totally blown away by the ingenuity of the fellow who made this place into his home.  It looks humble but it may just have everything that a person needs to live comfortably.

Could you live here?  I think I could, but I am not sure that I would want to; it looks as though it may be a bit spider rich for me.

Categories: Building code, Magical, Materialism, Nature, Simple living, Tiny house | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Who Wants This?

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Laura

I just started cooking supper now.  A fall vegetable and red lentil stew of my own creation.  The house smells really great as this simmers in the large pot on the stove.

It would be so much more satisfying to be in the forest to eat this meal.  It is 11 degrees in the Kingston area now.  A little bit cloudy and damp.  Imagine a long, well paced walk in a forest, while it is preparing for its long winter nap.  You can smell and see the changes that nature brought us in the past days.  A few chipmunks gather the last of their stash, the hornet nest preparing to sleep, birds call as they are flying over you going south.  You are just a little out of breath coming back after the hour, but you can smell the light spicy aroma as you approach the cozy Tiny House.  Keen to see how it looks, you all fresh and rosy cheeked peek into the pot and see this just as the open pot reveals a deeper scent of onions peanuts and peppers.  Mmmmmmm!

Food tastes so much better after a bit of time with the natural world.  Anyone else want to be doing just this?

Here is what is in my fall stew:

1/4 cup grape seed oil

3 chopped onions

Fry to brown then add

3 chopped red peppers

6 chopped tomatoes

1 chopped head broccoli

1 chopped head cauliflower

2 chopped big potatoes

4 smaller squashes (I used white ones but it does not matter)

3 small nappa cabbages

8 cups water

1 cup red lentils

1/4 cup TVP

1 cup natural peanut butter

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon pepper

salt to taste (I used about 3/4 of a tablespoon)

2 tablespoons mixed herbs parsley, thyme and sage is what I had.

Once this is all soft and ready I took it off the heat and added a small can of coconut milk for the under flavour.

Categories: Environmentalism, Food, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Short, Yet Very Sweet

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Laura

One of my husband’s (two) best friends and his wife are visiting from Germany.  A few years ago I was not able to attend the wedding because of work reasons so Hj went alone.  Hj goes regularly home for business but I have not been to Germany in nearly 10 years.  Sadly, I have not seen M in a long, long time and I never met K until yesterday.  The time together was good.  They are bright and interesting people with lots of wonderful stories and ideas: it has been a real delight, but an ever too short visit.

While they are here for only a short window of time, we wanted them to see a couple of special spots around Hamilton, so here is what we did.

We drove around a bit of the waterfront, past the Dundurn Castle which is a National Historical Site, into the huge graveyard across the street (graveyards are very different there than here).  We stopped to see a couple of Hamilton’s waterfalls.  Then we took a short drive to visit Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks which is another National Historic Site  and it is located not too far from here in Brantford.  We also visited the Woodland Cultural Centre which sits beside the notorious Mush Hole.   We stopped and had a bite to eat at a local Indian Buffet.  Then we split for a bit, K went to Yoga: M watched soccer: Hj and I attended services for the late great Lincoln Alexander who lived very near our house a few years ago and who died on October the 19th.

After this we all got together again here at our small house, where we chatted until a few minutes ago.

For Lincoln Alexander, I thought it fitting to add a few apt words which I believe the man lived by.  These words are from White Elk:

When you were born, you cried
and the world rejoiced.
Live your life
so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.

Categories: Art, Friendship, Nature, Ontario, Open your eyes, View | Tags: | 2 Comments

Tomatoes

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Laura

 

Everywhere I look right now in my small house there are tomatoes… green ones.  Thankfully, my friend Marilyn is going to take some off my hands because she likes fried green tomatoes.  I made a baked variety with coconut milk and gluten free crumbs which were pretty yummy, so I thought the 300 green cherry tomatoes would work similarly.   I roasted them too but they seem to have too much solanine in them because they don’t taste good at all.  What a waste!   Even too bitter to be enjoyable after I ground them up, put onions and curry and more coconut milk in… sigh.

I kept a few in varying degrees of redness out and put some bananas near them to keep them ripening.  The others which were ripe or ripening I am stewing as I write.

As for the other quarter bushel of green tomatoes?  I don’t like chutney, or relish… I have no good ideas.

 

Categories: Food, Nature, Ontario, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment