Simple living

Baking Soda and Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Laura

I changed my hygiene practices a while ago.  I stopped using all soap, shampoo and scented products and started using baking soda and apple cider vinegar for all of my personal washing.

Essentially one just mixes the soda with a little water and rubs it on hair or skin, and just like with cleaning your sink or taking away stink from your fridge you are both clean and deodorized… rinse.

Then a  couple of tablespoons of (organic: I use Braggs) apple cider vinegar in a couple of cups of water and rinse yourself (hair and body) with this again.

I put about two drops of olive oil on my hands rub it in well and then put my fingers through my hair for conditioning.  I have quite curly hair, so this helps it to look smooth and so little is used that it is not heavy.  A little bit of olive oil (a couple of drops) also moisturizes the face and works on the body too.  For me, it is the best product I ever used!

Interesting is that I no longer have any itch or rash anywhere on my body.  As a person who has suffered my entire life with dermatitis, it is shocking that this worked where the hundreds of products and thousands of dollars spent, including visits to dermatologists (free in Canada but not to the tax payer) never did work.  Some did for a while, but I never had permanent relief like I have now.

At Tiny House Ontario, I have still not started catching my rain water on the WC roof so the shower is not yet in order, so I sponge bath.

Here is the cloth porch again in use.  This time as a bathtub.  😀

Categories: Environmentalism, Nature, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 3 Comments

Lights!

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Laura

News flash!

Tiny House Ontario has now got electric lights!  Well, not really… we are still off grid, but the wonderful people at Home Hardware in Gananoque recommended a product called Lightmates: Power Series.  These are a very small LED puck light with a remote control switch.  The product itself claims that one switch can operate up to 20 pucks but Home Hardware cannot seem to get the company to cooperate and give them more of the individual pucks (for the last year or so) and thus has taken them of the shelves.  Even so, one of these little pucks is similar to a 40 watt electric light in function, only better because you can also switch it off at the puck and the switch just reverses itself automatically, so you have a two way switch.  This is great for the little loft because I can switch it on from downstairs and click it off when I am comfortably in bed.

They were about $15 each (this includes the batteries) and I bought three of them.  One for the downstairs, one for the loft and one for the in-house and the best thing is that the switches do NOT interfere with one another.  I have yet to see how long the batteries last on them.  If they suck and burn way too many batteries, I will let you know, but for now I have to say that I love them.  It is great to be able to read and write after dark now.

I can’t take night photos with my camera well, at all, so you will have to believe me when I tell you how enchanting it looks here now at night.  I have solar LED lights all around Tiny House Ontario and now with real light coming from the windows of this Tiny House, it looks so very lovely!

Categories: Off Grid, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment

Outdoor Kitchen, Pasta Salad

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Laura

Finally, I have taken the time to lower the outdoor kitchen.  It was about 8 inches to high when I originally built it and I just put up with it, because I thought it would be a huge task to adjust it because of the heavy marble top.

Turns out it was easy.  Took about a half hour or maybe an hour to do the whole thing.

Today, I made a pasta salad on it and I did not get a pain in my shoulders.  Woot!

Categories: Cloth Porch, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

The Neighbouring Pacifist

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Laura

Near Tiny House Ontario lives a survivor.  She witnessed, and survived unspeakable things during WWII in what is now the Czech Republic.  The experiences have left her with haunting stories that she often shares… her stories make me shudder.

These experiences have left her with what I believe is PTSD.  She is both a pacifist and vegetarian, and very unusual.  She walks around in rags for clothes, rarely bathes, and keeps as many animals as can fit in her home.

She is somewhat famous in the community for keeping her animals in her home with her.  Close to 30 cats, goats, chickens, dogs and she also feeds the wild life.  Last year she lost some trees near her house and the racoon family who lived there had to relocate.  She asked everyone to keep their eyes open for the lost racoons who we would know, because of the mask they wear.  I found this totally hilarious.  She is always looking for missing cats too.  Even those that have been “missing” for years.

At first, I have to admit, I could not get away from her quick enough.  She smells a lot like cat urine and makes my allergies go crazy, plus she is always looking for missing critters.  The truth is that you cannot get away from her when she starts to talk, no matter how busy you are or whatever, she comes across as quite a weirdo.  She is known in the neighbourhood and avoided.

This year, my thoughts on her have shifted greatly. I am busy at Tiny House Ontario, but not insanely so.  I have a little time to stop and say hello and to listen to her and this shift in myself also forced me to change my opinion about her.    I learned that she saw Louis Armstrong play live in Belgium, that she has traveled the world, that she is smart and interesting and passive and beautiful.  I think she is lonely and isolated.  I think she just wants to live and love and laugh.  I think she is working to forget, but finds this very hard to do.

A few days ago, she was upset.  Very, very distraught really, because one of her hens got out and was in the forest, and she was so concerned that a mink or a fisher would catch her.  I helped her look and tried to shoo the chicken to her own land and I brought my camera because I hoped that I would catch a photo for this blog.

The pacifist walked the woods for two days clapping gently and singing soft words in a language that I do not know.  She spent day and night trying to urge the chicken to come home.  Finally, last evening, the chicken found its way into her gentle hands.

Beautiful isn’t she?

Categories: Erazim Kohák, Forest, Friendship, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Lush

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Laura

It is warm and beautiful today in the Kingston Area.  I woke up late at Tiny House Ontario sat and had a quiet cuppa and a granola bar then I did some work around the house.  Before I did this, I took a moment to notice the woods around me.

The outdoor kitchen in the cloth porch is much too high so I took it apart and shortened it 8 inches.

I also moved the left over lumber pile.  I only have about 10 boards there now so I no longer required the huge tarps and I also wanted to move it behind the house so that one does not see them when you drive up.  It helps to make it look tidy.

I also picked up a lot of bits of tiny lumber ends and put them into the former home for the privy.  I taped this closed so that they will not fall our the door and it held a surprising amount.

My husband put some boards up inside of the cloth porch and this makes the interior of the cloth porch much tidier and complete looking.

It has been a busy spring and because there are so many small things to do, I still have not been painting or writing much.

I am so busy that I have hardly noticed the big changes in the forest.

It is lush now… only the prickly canes have yet to fill in.

I still do not know what these are, knowing them only by the local name of prickly pear.  If you happen to be a botanist, I would really like to know the real name of these ferocious, non-blooming canes that look somewhere between rose and blackberry plants.

I am still waiting for my soil delivery so that I can plant my garden and I have a lot still to do, but even so, if Baby does not get back from the shop, I will be forced to go back to Hamilton again for the week.  I simply cannot stay at  Tiny House Ontario without wheels.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment