Open your eyes

Jane’s Bridge

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Laura

In the summer I purchased a painting from a person who I admire; Kingston artist Geoff Smith.  I Follow Geoff’s work and when he posted this I hoped I would be able to purchase it.  I knew exactly where I would hang it from the moment that I laid my eyes on it.  It would hang right over the window, facing South, in my bedroom, at Tiny House Ontario.  What I could not decide was how to frame it, so I waited.  Finally last week I settled on framing it in a locally made gallery style frame just like I put my own paintings in.  Plain, I know, but I like the simple dark outline, as a finish and don’t really think of a frame as a part of the art.

The painting is called Jane’s Bridge and I love the way that it appears that everything changes if you, the viewer, dare go under the bridge.  It is for this reason that I wanted to put it right to the place where I look when I wake up in the morning.  I see it as a sort of dare to face the challenge of seeing all sides of all things and to take the day Jim Morrison style straight on through to the other side.  It makes me happy just to look at it.  😀

Categories: Art, Kingston, Ontario, Open your eyes, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: , | 1 Comment

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

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

Vegan Trapper

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Laura

RIP Mama young feral lived to October 19 2012

I am sorry to let my readers know, Mama the feral cat that I wrote about in early August was hit on the road in front of my Hamilton house on Friday at ~ 6:00 am.  We brought her to the Burgess Emergency Vet, got her some good pain medication and had x-rays done.  She was totally broken up so we had her euthanized.  The problem was not the cost of recovery but with her being totally feral.  Even if she were to be operated on, and repaired, the vet explained that she would need daily pain medication and care for the next eight months because among other things including internal injuries, her crushed pelvis would need to repair itself.  Due to the fact that Mama would just as soon bite you as look at you, this would be an impossible task.

The next issue is her three kittens.  They are about 10 or 11 weeks old and thus weened but two calicos mean that there are two more females who can add to the feral population and because we live downtown there are vehicles everywhere, including ambulances rushing to the hospital.  I hate to see them suffer a fate like this.  “A stitch in time saves nine” are words that my grandma often used.  In other words try to deal with things before they become a problem.  So, I put out word to my community here, got a trap and a carrier and tried to catch the kittens.   I know that there are some programs here.  A barn buddies program, a feral rehab and homing program, a feral colony on private land up north of here also takes cats after they are fixed if there is specific danger for them.  Too there is a catch/fix/release for feral cats.

I caught the first kitten on Friday night in minutes.

An hour later I caught the next one.

The last kitten was not too keen on being trapped.  But finally on Saturday night when I went to the cage I saw the little grey…

… well large… grey opossum looking back at me.  They are not native species here, but recent immigrants.  A lot of people here have never seen them, including me.  So it was sort of an ordeal.  Contrary to what I read about them, this one at least seemed pretty happy to see me and accepted my opening the trap and letting her/him out with no aggression at all.  Just squeezed out of the opening and waved its tail bye-bye as it disappeared into the former inlet.  Still, the last kitten seemed to understand that I was trying to take its freedom and would not go into the trap to get the food I left for her.

I asked all those who feed the feral colony to please not do so on Sunday, and so, in the evening when I went out the kitten was waiting in the spot where we feed them, I set down the cage and took a few steps away and she walked right in.  I gave her back to her siblings and then brought food out to the colony as well as to the skunk an opossum who we also apparently feed.

All three of Mama’s babies are safely housed in a 4x4x4 cage in my shed with two carriers made up as beds.  They have food and water and we now wait for the agencies that are involved in helping them to get back to us.

I heard that about 3000 cats met their death last year just in our local SPCA.

I urge you to please fix your pet and also to take a proactive stance on your local feral cats.  Find out if you have any catch and release programs in your area and have the wild cats fixed.  After all human beings have caused this problem.

_______________

Letter back from Hamilton Burlington SPCA this morning – pasted below… now what?

HI Laura

Unfortunately our Trap Neuter Release program is closed to new applications for this year.  With the Winter approaching we have closed the program and will start accepting new applications in the early Spring.  You may be able to find a Vet that will be able to do them at a reduced cost, I would suggest calling around to a few different ones and see if anyone is willing to help.  At this point we are also not accepting anyone new into our Barn Buddies program as we have a number of cats that need to still be placed and not enough people with barns who are looking for a buddy.

                You may want to try contacting some local rescue groups in the area to see if they would be able to get the kittens spayed/neutered through vets that they use.

Sorry we could not be more help at this time.

Take Care

Michelle

________

Update 9:30 pm Monday

Just went out to check on the kittens – the cage is empty. I guess my crappy eye sight it was latched but not in the catch. Three little feral siblings are at large again… Sigh.

Categories: Food, Money, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

Small Houses in Old Neighbourhood

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Laura

I just brought some of my green tomatoes over to my friend Marilyn and while I was out, I went though the waterfront neighbourhood by the Hamilton Bay. The area is getting nicer all the time down that way!

The community did a lot of revitalization along the waterfront and this action by the community, really picked up the market and brought in some interesting new buyers.  It is now attracting  lots of artists, professionals and people who take pride in their homes.  Unfortunately a lot of these lovely little small homes have (or are having) additions put on them but there are still a number of cute and solid little small homes that just need a bit of TLC to be AWESOME homes again.

Here are photos of a few of the old small homes that have been polished up and that don’t have additions bigger than the original home on them.  Hamilton, Ontario gets a bad wrap because of the industry along the water front.  A lot of people, even those who live close don’t know what this city has to offer.  It is an interesting and pretty place not just because it is the waterfall capitol of the world either.

If you can’t find something to do or see here, then you are not looking very hard.

These are just lovely little old houses – within a few blocks from the waterfront, in Hamilton. Probably people raised 8 or 10 kids at a time in these houses… just 100 years ago.
Now, so many people think them too small for a couple. Not me… what about you?

Categories: Building code, Ontario, Open your eyes, Sustainable living, View | 3 Comments