I just finished updating the waterproofing on our beautiful Steven Kenzora carvings. I was just about to photograph them when I looked up. The sun was shining through the canopy and I thought it looked like there were angels dancing on my roof.
If a thousand angels fit on the head of a pin, then the tiny roof of my tiny house makes a very magnificent dance floor!
Angels on my roof
Kenzora’s work is out again for the year.
THO warrior
The guardian of the forest
This past weekend I removed and relocated 19 very cute but very messy little mice from Tiny House Ontario. I thought I had them all at 14 because I did not hear any noise but on the last day, I lifted the toilet and there was a wonderful plastic bag and toilet paper home. It was a mom with four tiny pink babies.
I removed her and her family easily right in the bag. Since I know this is the access point for them, I then covered the area under the sink and toilet with a cup of cayenne pepper, a cup of cloves, and several types of essential oil which I understand they dislike the smell of. Lavender, peppermint and clove oil was what I used. I have to tell you, the bathroom smells heavenly to me. Clearly, I am NOT a mouse because I could sit in there all day and sniff.
The mice made one hell of a mess. It was seriously awful what they did in a five week period. They found a five pound bag of niger seed which I use to feed the song birds and this was absolutely everywhere. Further to this, they peed all over everything. The entire house had to be emptied and washed. All food, paper, tissues, towels, tea and coffee had to be disposed of. They got into everything. It took me hours to clean the place and it still smells of urine.
Mouse urine does not seem to be like urine from other animals. I think it has a lot of oil in it because it was never dry in the area where they peed. I normally don’t use a lot of chemicals when I clean but this time I bleached and then used oil soap to clean up the mess.
I the house still smells when I get back I will rub the wood and floors with pine essential oil but for now, after three days of work the house looks reasonable again.
Lets hope it stays that way.
On Thursday evening my friend Guillaume made the trip to Hamilton to spend the night with Hj and I. His intent was not simply to have a visit with us but to discuss his own tiny house build. His work as a chemical engineer has forced him through a few relocations, currently this involves a lot of hotel rooms and I can tell you from my own experience with work travel living in a suitcase is not nearly as glamourous as it might seem to those who have not done it. Every hotel in every city, no matter where you are becomes the same disconnected holding unit. Now, with his current location change he is keen to have a somewhat more stationary home which can be relocated when his career calls. A tiny house, is clearly his best and only option. However, the life appeals to him too. He loves the idea of a sustainable lifestyle and has big (ahem, tiny) plans. He is a person who is very connected to the Norse tradition and having a simpler life is strongly in keeping with his personal values.
We looked together through a lot of photos and talked about the long and short term planning aspects of owning a tiny house. As well we talked about him building the house while he stays at Tiny House Ontario. In fact, he will soon be buying a trailer and bringing it there to begin the job in earnest.
He will initially put the house in the clearing beside THO and once the shell is done it will be moved to its location at the rear of my land. In order to park the house back there he will have to do some land prep, which is to say that he will need to trim back the shrubs along the tractor path. They have grown back in since 2010 when we last cleared this route. He will also have to put in a couple of loads of gravel and will get my cousin Kenny to smooth this in. This will cost him between $600 and $1000 which is a reasonable amount of rent for him to pay for the year and the benefit to me is that it will be easier to get in there if there is a fallen tree or simply to walk back to the rear of the acreage.
The natural location for him to place his house is to go where Great Giant Clyde fell and was removed over winter. The naturally made hole in the canopy is ideal because this will allow him to collect sun for his solar system. I am happy to know that absolutely no tree will need to be removed in order to provide Guillaume with a little space to call his own. His location will be about 1/6th of a kilometre to my own house but we will be divided by the thick prickly pear line so we will both enjoy 100% privacy in our homes. The other benefit is that he is open to allowing me to share all the steps he makes in the building of his home, so this will provide me with a lot of fodder for my writing.
In short, we are great friends and soon we will be great neighbours as well.
I would like to take this time to say goodbye to Clyde and thank him for creating space for Guillaume.
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.
Ostara by Helena Nelson Reed http://helena-nelson-reed.smugmug.com/Paintings/Goddess-Paintings/19503163_ZFNwbN#!i=1526990829&k=ZThjSSn
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.
Tiny House Ontario 