Off Grid

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

In-house

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Laura

I have a place to go!  The in-house (eco-outhouse) is finally done!

A sink and toilet are fully enclosed and I will also have an outdoor shower.  The little building is right beside the Tiny House – One opens the window and walks thorough to get into the tiny in-house….  The building is fully removable if I get into any issues with Tiny House Ontario being larger than 9x 12 now.

It adds just 16 square feet of living space (minus the 3 and 5/8ths wall on three sides and it is in fact so small that it had to be built from the inside out.  Plastic, then tile-wallboard, This was then insulated from the outside and after this the plywood was nailed on and the steel roof too.

My friend Leo did most of the work because a lot of it was out of my element and also with it being so darned small… workspace was pretty limited.  As easy on the eye as Leo is… being in a 4×4 room together working is a might too small.  ;-P

My cousin Vernie built me a beautiful custom vanity with a carved floral door and it has a Habitat for Humanity sink in it, which was $20… It makes the room really pretty.

I have to tallied the costs yet but even so – The interior is done and ready and in use.  I have not yet put in the eves trough and rain barrel, so there is no running rain water yet but the drains work so I use a small enamel pitcher to wash for now.  When the rain water is done, I will tally and I will let you know what the 4×4 (exterior measure) bathroom cost.

Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | 5 Comments

2012 Season Begins!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Laura

After we arrived yesterday, and unpacked, it was so great outside so we decided to take the dogs out on a nice walk through the woods and see how spring was looking on the land.  First observation is that the forest is very dry.  It is a dry spring so far.  Also we have at least one black fly that lived through the winter.

The pathway grew in quite a bit with the prickly bush, so we have to do a little more clearing this year so that we can walk through with the dogs.  Their little faces are just the right height to be scratched and their leashes get annoyingly wound up in the branches.

Also a lot of rocks fell at the fence line for the dog’s garden so these had to be put back up to keep them safely in and other critters safely out.

The stone cairns in the back of the land are still there and looking great.  No trees lost, that I can see, but still a few to clear from last year when the storm brought a tornado close to us.

We cleared a path through this morning and will bring the dogs out this afternoon to check it out.  Hopefully it goes a little better this time.

My husband put the rocks back up along the dog’s garden.

It was cold too but with the small camp heater we got cozy and slept long and well.

Now we start the real work!

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Categories: Dogs, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

Here begins the…

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Laura

I have looked in to putting a small addition on to the Tiny House.  I was thinking about a 4.5×9 foot or 40.5 foot (footprint) lean-to style addition which would have a bathroom with running rain water and I would have also moved the kitchen out there as well so that I could have a little desk under the stairs for painting.  I felt that it was important not just because of the bear that was seen there last year but because a person who strikes me as sort of a weirdo found this website and he feels a little threatening.  I am not too keen on running into him at night with my pants down to tell you the truth.  I think an indoor bathroom has suddenly become a requirement this year.  BUT… Building inspector weighing in and basically the short version of what is said is: “you cannot do this”.  So, there it is.  No addition but you can have multiple under 120 square feet footprint places that are not attached to each other…

Still, I want a bathroom not just for safety reasons but one with running rain water and I need the water from the roof surface in order to collect enough to make this feasible.  Therefore I have to have something close.  I returned to the idea of putting a galley at the front but my friend Liisa stopped by and suggested that I turn it and this was a great suggestion!  Thanks Liisa!

This little semi closed in “deck” 4×8 with a 4×4 footprint bathroom will be right off the front door .  One will have to go outside of Tiny House Ontario to use it, but it will be on a screened in deck with a covered roof and this will be put on deck blocks – unattached so that if there is a problem I can move it.  I know – it will not be easy to move a 4×4 structure but I do have friends with tractors that I am sure will help me if I get into any sort of bind.  I don’t expect any problems because I won’t attach the buildings to one another – I will simply put up a bit of flashing on the house to keep water from going in between where they will meet at the roof (of the covered deck)/wall (of Tiny House).

The GREAT thing is that when my cousin Kenny dug the hole where the gravel was put in and pounded down, he made this quite a lot bigger than the cement would be.  Great idea because the gravel allows for fantastic drainage.  Great too, because now I just have to add the cottage blocks at the correct depth and they should stay put very well, and even if they do sink a bit it is reasonably easy to correct a small structure like this with a car jack.

So far the deck blocks cost me $70.  The 2×4’s were left overs and I have still two more for reinforcing it.  I have to buy some more 2×4’s a used window and door and a screen door as well as some plywood… I have 2×6 and the steel roof already.

I will let you know what it costs and show you more photos when I have this all done.

Categories: Building code, Kingston, Money, Off Grid, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

Celery

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Laura

A while ago the folks and Frugally Sustainable mentioned that they were regrowing celery.  WHAT?

Anyway… It is easy and it works.  I have not clipped and used any yet but I will be toting it with me to Tiny House Ontario so that when it is a little bigger I can eat some of this lovely plant, and also because my husband is a plant killer.  Just cut one or two off from the outside and let it keep on growing.  I wonder how long it will last?

Introducing Ms. Celery.  (She uses pot!)

Categories: Environmentalism, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living | Leave a comment