Simple living

Cozy

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Laura

This evening I noticed a small worm in the Tiny House, brown with antennas, winding slowly across the floor.  I caught him a piece of tissue and set him outside despite the rain and cold.  I think that the chance of survival is better in the natural conditions that it left.  I realized when I let him out that it is my first evening since building Tiny House Ontario with circumstances the way they are.

It is different because it is cold enough that I had to turn on the tiny camp stove to heat the place.  And I was curled up under the 12v light and reading when I noticed the peaceful travelling worm.

This year the cold left early in spring and seems to be starting early too.  Last year, I was here at this time but did not need the heat.  I left THO when it got cold and I visited here, during the colder weather only when my husband was able to come along with me.  We used the heater last year too of course.  Still, it was so dark, we just sat here with the dogs by candlelight.  The half light always forced us to to either talk or to go to bed because the darkness does not allow much in the way of entertainment.  In our case, reading or a game would be the favorite pass-time in the non computerized world of off grid Ontario.   After dark, cold or rain light is a requirement for us and now we have it.  Frankly, the light makes it so much more pleasant here.

Even so, the heater is a reminder that winter is coming and this Tiny heater will not do the job.  Sadly, the time approaches when it is time to close up.  I hope that a Dickinson falls from the sky!

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

House and Home

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Laura

It has been a couple of days since I last posted.  Basically, I have been at the Hamilton house working on my family tree stuff and fretting about the dental surgery that I will leave for shortly.  If all goes well I leave to go back to my beloved Tiny House Ontario tomorrow morning.

I think that this is what she will look like when I arrive only perhaps a little more fall like?

 

It is a funny thing because THO feels like home to me more than any other place I have ever lived, yet she is still so far from being finished.  Still, there are a lot of small jobs like eve troughs to the water barrels, covering the cloth porch,  flooring, stone patio needs laying, drive needs 5/8 stone on the drive and so on and so on.  This list of small but time consuming jobs will never end.  This is part of what I like so much about it.  I love projects.  Still there is HUGE/EXPENSIVE stuff too, that has to be done. THO has no heat, no kitchen appliances and only partially finished cabinets, no water running or otherwise, these take more time because of the cost.

I am nearing the second year of work on THO and bit by bit she becomes more complete, to be sure.  This year she got a lot of time and attention from me because I did not produce much in my creative life after my computer accident.  Still truthfully I did not spend as much time there as I wanted to.  Baby being broken twice, as well as visitors here in Hamilton, and a trip home for medical and another now for dental turned the 30 potential weeks of THO stay, into about 25 weeks there.  Missing 5 weeks of the year is a lot!  Next year I hope to do better.

 

Categories: Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario, View | 2 Comments

Repurposing with a Purpose

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Laura

When I redid the kitchen uppers I made the depth of them more than the little shelves that I had there before.  Because of this, the wonderful little spice rack that my cousin Vernie made for me when I was in my 20’s had to be taken down.  Still, I want to have as many of Vernie’s works in THO as I can fit there so I decided that I would repurpose it as a shelf for candles and pottery at the top of the stairs.  I won’t be needing the candles as frequently because of the new 12volt electric lights, but they are nice to burn from time to time because the bee’s wax smells so lovely.  Too, they are excellent to have on hand in case of emergency.

As a veg*an you might be asking yourself, if I have thought about the use of bees for my own purposes.  Truth is, I have and I am mixed about the subject of bees and have considered quite seriously putting in a few boxes for them.  I am not really a honey lover or even a candle fanatic, but I love the idea of the bees being there to help me with my garden.  Truth is that while I don’t eat any animal products, I am also guilty of killing spiders as well as mosquitos, biting insects as well as house flies and I have a leather jacket as well as leather footwear that I purchased before becoming vegan and I won’t throw them out so that they go to waste.  I hate waste and destruction of useful things, more than anything else.

On the subject of bees, I am happy to say that  I do have a lovely large paper wasp colony on my land right near the escarpment.  I don’t like to get too close to these awesome little pollinators because they do not take lightly to a threatened nest, but Colleen Murphy has a good camera and could take this photo from a good distance away.

The nest is far enough away that I don’t feel threatened for myself or for those who visit, but still, I have had a few of them in THO this year.  I am not afraid of them though, I just catch them carefully under a glass, slide in a piece of paper and then let them free outside.  They leave without problems so far, every time.

Categories: Materialism, Nature, Open your eyes, Re-Use, Simple living, Sustainable living, View | 3 Comments

Again with the Dusting

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Laura

Since Hj was down on the weekend to help with a couple of things that I could not do on my own we decided to fill in the area which will next year become the stone patio with some of the stone dust that I had delivered a few weeks ago.

We put in quite a few wheel barrels full, raked it down and then stomped on it to press it down  It will further compress in the rain too as soon as a good one comes.  We did not put a board to it and level it down this time, because this job is dusty, dirty, rotten and frankly either of us felt like getting that filthy on a sticky day.  Levelling is a job that takes two hands (at least for non-professionals like me) and will take a couple of hours.  I want to do it one day when I know that I can easily jump into someone’s shower afterward, or at least when I expect a long warm rain that I can stand out in and wash up.

I also decided to place a few stones across the dust from the driveway to the front door.  Frankly the stone dust is a bit of a nightmare because it sticks to the shoes and comes into the Tiny House, particularly if it is raining.  The big issue with this is not so much that you have to sweep the Tiny Floor over and over; seriously, this is a one minute job.  Rather the problem is that Rudigrrr Wolf seems to suffer with Pica.  He eats all kids of stuff that he should not, including rocks and I worry that this might block his little tummy up and get very costly, very fast.  Plus, he chews them… chewing rocks is not a nice sound.  I hope the little stone path helps.

Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Too Goofy!

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Laura

I was taking some photos around Tiny House Ontario while the dogs were in the cloth porch.

They did not like being on the other side much!  I took a photo just to see if it would work through the cloth porch.  Imp, Minnie and Rudigrrr Wolf put up a real fuss.

Imp and Rudigrrrr Wolf had to be photographed again through the sheer side, and I share with you because it is far too goofy to keep to myself.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Dogs, Family, Friendship, Magical, Open your eyes, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario, View | Tags: | 10 Comments