Ontario

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

Evicted!

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Laura

 

Last fall a Ms. Mama Mouse moved into the BBQ at Tiny House Ontario and because I am a person who is highly concerned about the ethical treatment of animals I left her be.   I also fed her and her family when I went home.  She liked Mary’s Organic Crackers (who doesn’t?) and also the peanuts that Liisa brought her were a big hit, and the shells became part of her bedding after, so these had a HUGE added bonus.  Ms. Mouse came to look forward to my visits and would come out to see what sort of tasty treats were coming her way.  When I peeked in with a treat, she would peek out at me.

Even so, now that it is spring, and this is my main means of meal preparation I had to evict Ms. Mouse.

Since she has come to expect nuts, seeds, she sat watching me, totally aghast, as I took her home apart.  Poor little girl.  I think she even cried a little with me.  It was about half removed by the time she decided to run for her life.

After clearing her out, I turned the BBQ on bringing it up to 500 degrees for a good hour and then allowed it to sit at about 200 for an additional hour in order to kill germs or whatever she left behind.  The BBQ is probably in its last year of life, so I think when this happens I will leave it in the forest for the mice.

It is two days now and so far she has not moved back and seems to have accepted the newly located home that I have made for her.

 

 

 

Categories: Forest, Friendship, Nipple, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 2 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

Something Very Unusual.

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Laura

So, let me give you some preemptive information.  When I downsized a while ago, I thought I lost something which is important to me.  It is something very strange, and one of a kind, and probably weird.  Still, I think that by this post, number 101, you have already come to understand that I do not ever want to be a sheep (not an ordinary sheep anyway) and I guess the those who look at and read my blog also desire the unusual.

When I was a kid there was this thingamajig at the house of my grandma Violet Augusta Compton (Rickards) and my grandpa Robert Charles Rickards.  I would pick up the jar it was in and look at it for hours when I was a little girl.  I don’t know… I guess I thought it fascinating, you know, I still do.

I need to go back even farther… My great grandmother Violet Augusta Henderson (Compton) and my great grandfather Frances Gilbert Compton were living on the Carey-on Farm, on what is now the Rudledge Road, leading to Sydenham in Ontario.  The great depression was on when they moved there.  Times had been very hard… they had lost a lot.  This was their fourth home during those years. They could not keep up the payments and had been forced to move on, and move on, and move on.  They had nothing but kids to feed a couple of black faced sheep.  Sadly one of the sheep miscarried a malformed babe just after they arrived there.  The baby was stillborn with two and a half feet on every leg.  A sort of siamese triplet.  For some reason, my great grandfather who we all called Dad, took the foot off that poor lost babe to show it to others because he had never seen anything like it.  At this time in history, I guess, you would look it up on the internet, but then, word of mouth and show-&-tell was about all they had.

Anyway, the depression began to grind to a halt, and things got a lot better for Dad and Ma and their family.  But that unusual sheep’s foot was there and somehow it became sort of synonymous for changing luck – like a rabbit’s foot… not so lucky for the rabbit – but you understand, just one of those funny talismans.  Personal to us.

Anyway, my grandma gave me the foot many years back.  I had a rough time as a single mom and I guess she thought I could use the upswing… and now you know why I was so sad to lose it, happy to find it and now I will share it with you.

Here is the tiny footlet.  It is just an inch and a half long and from spring of 1937 (if I remember correctly); it is 75 years old.

Categories: Kingston, Nature, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario, Writing | Leave a comment

The Path

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Laura

A path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others in leaving it if that is what your heart tells you to do. Look at each path closely. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself one question. Does this path have a heart?  If it does, the path is good, if it does not it is of no use.

~ Carlos Castenada ~

8×10 Kingston Waterfront Path

Categories: Art, Kingston, Laura Moreland, Ontario, Original Art work of Laura Moreland, View, Wolfe Island | 1 Comment