Nature

Did You Hear Me Squeal From There?

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Laura

OK… you already know that I am irrationally afraid of giant spiders.  It is embarrassing how many things I am afraid of because I am from a farm and should be desensitized.  I also never got used to eating meat, so I guess my family did a pretty good job of NOT desensitizing me to stuff.

Now you know the truth about me.  I am a bleeding-heart sissy!

Another one of my (many) phobias is giant garden slugs.  THIS was on my compost bucket when I went to pick it up.  Now you know what that noise was.  Actually, I did not really scream, but I did make the face from the Edvard Munch painting and the sky did turn colour.  OK, not really, that last part was just how I felt.  They are so slimy that I also wanted to throw up.

Really?

Yes, unfortunately.

Similar ones were all over Germany and Switzerland when I lived there, so I learned to always look before I touched and also not to step anywhere without having my eyes on the ground.  In Ontario these don’t actually exist.  They are invasive species that have been accidentally introduced from Europe.  I guess, now that they are here, I will have to keep my eyes on the ground again.

If you like this sort of thing, you can look it up.

If I was not so scared and grossed out by it, I might have murdered it.  It is an invasive species and much the same as purple loosestrife and trees of heaven they are not supposed to be here.  I just can’t do it.  Hopefully it does not carry away one of my dogs.

Categories: Nature, Ontario, Open your eyes | 2 Comments

Wild Thing!

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Laura

In the forests in our area of Ontario there are a lot of places that grow prickly bushes and thorn trees.  The Tiny House Ontario forest is no exception to this.  We have hawthorn, wild roses, black cap and raspberries growing wild as well there are several varieties of thistle including one that tricked me into thinking that it was a soft lovely plant… until it got spikes growing out all over the place.

We also have loads and loads of what we locals call “prickly pear”, I know from looking it up that prickly pear is actually the name of a cactus that grows in the Southern US, but it is not what I have here.  The canes range from ground level to 6 feet in height but they bend down as canes do so the canes can actually be about 10 or 12 feet in length.  They do not have flowers or berries, they have no detectible smell, but they are vicious when you try to walk through them.  The sharp spikes go right through your clothing and dig into your skin.  They take hold of you like velcro and it is difficult to get away.  Walking through them is not, at all, fun.

Even though they are wild and unruly, Tiny House Ontario was built right next to a huge stand of them which is both long and wide because many wild animals make it their home and I want to witness them.

In the cloth porch you can always hear them scurrying through.  I stop, listening and hoping to catch a glance.  Sometimes, I see a chipmunk, red squirrel, black/grey squirrel, robins, black snake, and garter snake, woodpeckers, grouse, partridge and loads of other bird varieties, rabbits, coons and even deer and escaped chickens.  We have also heard wolves, coyotes and fishers many times but not caught a glimpse.

I love all animals, and wish they would come out more frequently  but I know that our scent keeps them as well as the more dangerous coyotes, wolves and bears back.

Fishers are about the only exception.  I don’t like them or trust them to stay back.  They seem to have no fear and can confirm I have heard them right up next to the Tiny House screaming like Dementors (from the Harry Potter series) in the night.   These little killers worry me because of my tiny dogs and sadly they are also not natural to here.  I understand that the Ministry brought them in to control the porcupine population.  I grew up here, and know that porcupines are around because we had a dog that was always getting quilled and also because they are sometimes dead on the road.   I know about these little critters, but I am not afraid of a porcupine who need not be feared unless you try to get to close. I wish that people would just leave wild things alone.

(UPDATE AUGUST 18, 2012 Prickly Pear is Devil’s Walking Stick!)

Categories: Cloth Porch, Environmentalism, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Breakfast Music

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Laura

I finally figured out how to upload video so here is a sound clip from Tiny House Ontario.  The grinding sound is me moving the computer on the BBQ.  Sorry!  I needed a level spot.

The video should tell you what it is like to sit here over a tea.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Forest, Magical, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

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

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