Off Grid

Winter End Check up

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Laura
The sky is crying because it knows that THO is sad to see me go

The sky is crying because it knows that THO is sad to see me go

I was at Tiny House Ontario last week, but had a medical crisis and thus headed back early to Hamilton.  We had intended to stay until Wednesday afternoon, but due to my health, my husband had to pack everything up on Monday evening for us to rush back.  It was raining like crazy when Hj, the dogs and I pulled out.  Unfortunately, the medical stuff was serious enough that I was unable to fly to Memphis; but fortunately it is nothing terminal – just painful and annoying.  More than that though, it was a sad disappointment for me to miss my first ever tiny house event.  I strongly hope that any of you who had tickets were not even slightly disappointed by my absence.  The nice thing is that Deek (http://relaxshacks.blogspot.ca) has another iron in the fire, so hopefully I will be able to meet the community later this year and perhaps some of you as well.

I am sure that there won’t be a bit of snow left when I return but of course, there should not be anyway.  The area where the house is is under flood threat and a few people have asked me if the house is at risk, but it is not.  I am way up on a hill and because I am on well faulted limestone bedrock, the drainage is excellent.  I am 100% sure that THO is a dry.  The only weather condition that ever gives me any pause is wind.  This is because I have so many trees large surrounding me there and the ground is shallow above the rocks.

Now that I am feeling slightly better, I will head back up on Easter Saturday and stay there for ten days until my next medical appointment.  I really want to spend the Spring Equinox, Ostara, and Earth Day there in my woods.

Here is a painting that invites me to enjoy this season, I look it up at this time, year after year.

 

Also, I do have an other little update… During the three days I had at the house, I noticed that there were a couple of tiny problems that happened this winter.  You can read about this at Tiny House Listings.

 

 

 

Categories: Art, Forest, Kingston, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , | 7 Comments

Carbon Footprint 2013

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Laura

I took the carbon foot print test for Tiny House Ontario.  I am happy to say it was down a lot.  I reached my goal of bringing my footprint to 2 metric tons.  In fact I surpassed my goals.    In 2012 I THO used 3.01; whereas in 2013 I was down to 1.1!

Though the number of kilometres were similar, a car makes a lot less carbon than a motorbike so this is good.  Also my secondary use dropped because I did not purchase any electronics.  The year before I accidentally brought my new computer swimming (actually I got caught on my motorcycle in Hurricane Isaac) so I had two computer purchases.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know what this figure does not include the figures for my standard house in Hamilton.  Too, I don’t live in THO in the winter yet, so from November until the end of March the house is only used for holidays, so there is very little heat used there.  This means that the house is used only for 7 months a year plus about a month through the winter in various visits.

On the other hand, with ten acres of forest which offsets 1-2 metric carbon tons per acre, THO actually offsets its own carbon plus takes care of the carbon of our other home and then some.

Screen Shot 2014-02-25 at 8.42.06 PM

Categories: Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Buried

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Laura

IMG_1085

Tiny House Ontario September 2013

Tiny House Ontario September 2013

It is quite different looking at the house in the fall and in the winter.  The snow is about 2 feet deep there now, but around the house it is only about a foot deep.  I guess it must protect itself from drifting because of the angle of the house to the prevailing winds.

I thought you all might like to see how buried under the house was when I arrived yesterday.

It snowed in the night, and I beat my cousin Kenny in getting there.  He had not been in with the plough yet, so we walked in.  We had a perfect day for it!

The long midday shadows are gorgeous this time of year

The long midday shadows are gorgeous this time of year

 

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

The Wooden Horse

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Laura

Today it is Chinese New Year and we enter the year of the Wooden Horse.  The year is said to be the one of renewal in which we throw out useless ideas and purge ourselves of unnecessary attachments.  The Wooden Horse, I think is a perfect year for tiny housers, because along with this purging the year proclaims that progress, modernity and unsentimentality will reign.

According to this tradition it is a good year to clean out your closets, to work as hard as a horse and to advance.  Just my kind of mentality!  I have just been reading a little on the the year and it makes me hopeful that this will be the best year of my life.  I hope this is correct!

All these thoughts about how the year of transformation has closed and we pass into the year of moving forward, made me think about how this is reflected in my own little homestead.  Last year was the first time that I concentrated on the beauty of my home instead of the utilitarian function.   I think that this was accomplished with the addition of all the stone work.  Yet I ordered the stove in that year too and this will transform the house into a reasonably practical year around sanctuary.  The fact that I picked up my new wood stove yesterday and the plans to install it are moving forward this spring seem timely and meaningful within the context of this tradition.

What I mean is that installation will be a lot of very hard work.  The stove while tiny, weighs about a hundred pounds.  As well I do not want it in the house but rather in a box outside, so again next spring I am going back to work again in stone.  I know I have a lot of physically hard work ahead of me, but this will transform Tiny House Ontario into an almost fully functional home.  A simple tool for heating means a lot.

I am giving too much thought, perhaps, but I love that this year, the year where wood and horses intersect, that I will be doing the work of adding a wood burner to my home.  Somehow, everything just feels right.

Here is the box and a peek inside.  I did not take it out yet because it is very heavy and I because I still have to move it to the tiny house, I want to keep it packaged and safe.

The box A peek inside

Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario, View | 4 Comments

Polar Vortex

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Laura

We are in the throws of a weather phenomenon here in Ontario (and elsewhere) called the polar vortex.  It was -22 C (-7.6 F) when I got up this morning, but it felt like -35 C  (-31 F) this morning and now the temperature is at a nice balmy -19 C (-2.2 F).  I am not at THO and I have to admit this is one of the rare occasions where I am happy that I am not.

For those of you who do not live in a cold climate let me tell you that with this kind of cold it goes right into your bones, it is painful.  For the dogs it is torture every time they have to go outside because the cold is so deep that it burns their little feet.  Our newest rescue lived his entire 5 years locked up in a cage at a puppy mill and is just being house trained now, but for him this cold is new and dreadful.  His little feet are not tough so within 10 -15 seconds his body collapses on the ground because the pain in his feet is so deep.  We go out with them and carry their tiny collapsed bodies in and treat their feet again with Blistex.

Thankfully there is a warming trend coming, but not before it reaches -40 C (-40 F) tonight, which is ironically where our thermometers meet.

If I already had my wood stove installed I might have actually driven down to THO to stay for a few days.  I would go without the dogs though because I don’t know how easy it will be to make the house warm.  Knowing it is coming makes me look forward to next winter already.  Finding out how it will work has a lot of fills me with anticipation.  That I know my Greyworks Stove is on its way makes me very happy indeed!  But… I will not install it until the end of the spring rains because I have some unique plans in mind.

Before I close, I want to introduce you all to Dieter, who has been through a lot.Dieter napping in the January Sun

Categories: Dog, Dogs, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario, Winter | 11 Comments