Simple living

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

Hippy Haters

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Laura

This is funny.  I disagree a little.  I am a hippy:  I am not opposed to smoking grass, but do not use it, or any drugs except a very occasional alcohol beverage, and I also do not stink (but I am opposed to being around people who do).

Categories: Rules, Simple living, View | 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

Bad Little Wolf Takes a Leek

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Laura

Yes, this is what I call the newest member of our pack.  The sweet and loveable but busy Rudigrrrr Wolf gets called the Bad Little Wolf  because he is always in havoc.  If I did not know better I would swear that he is a fetal alcohol dog.  I am also not sure if dogs can have ADHD, but at about two years of age he acts like a 4 month old pup, who requires little sleep.

Over the weekend my oldest and very, very dear childhood friend was over and the Bad Little Wolf untied his shoe laces at least a dozen times while he sat with us.  Did I mention that too Rudigrrr seems to suffer from Pica?  He eats anything that is on the ground – and this includes rocks.  I am not sure if you have ever heard the sound of teeth chewing rocks (Yes, they must be chewed before they are swallowed!)?  It is not wonderful.  Always hilarious, my Kev suggested that our 4 pound Rudigrrr might be eating rocks so he does not blow away in the wind.  BAHAHAHA!

Anyway, when the Bad Little Wolf was not squeaking and squealing, or untying Kev’s shoes he was jumping up on us and the other dogs and also eating rocks… Poor Kev!  I hope he will come back!

I can’t tell you I was surprised when the dogs came in from from their business and the stinky one turned out to be the Bad Little Wolf.  Turns out that he was eating leeks.  It also turns out that leeks smell just as bad on dog breath as they do on people breath.  I don’t know if these are poison to dogs like the domesticated onion and leek are, but he did not get sick, he just grossed us out with his kisses and nose biting behaviour.  Still I pulled the remaining leeks out of the fenced area, just to be safe.

I have to agree with Rudigrrr; wild leeks are tempting and because they are yummy.  My favourite way to eat them is plain out of the ground with salt and butter on bread.  In soups, pickled and cooked in with other foods works too, just like with green onions, you eat the whole thing.

I have always told people that they should not mistake them for a trout lily because these are poison but I guess the jury is out on this.  I have included a photo of these too.  Leeks are bright green and they are very small compared to the grocery store varieties.  One eats the leaves on them which are soft and flavourful.  The lily leaves are darker and spotted too.  I would not eat them because I was taught not to do so, but the website that I have linked to claims that the roots taste like cucumbers.

TIP: If you are going to try some leeks: brushing your teeth with baking soda will absorb and eliminate the smell.  I do not know if this works for Bad Little Wolves though.

Categories: Dogs, Friendship, Nature, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Here begins the…

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Laura

I have looked in to putting a small addition on to the Tiny House.  I was thinking about a 4.5×9 foot or 40.5 foot (footprint) lean-to style addition which would have a bathroom with running rain water and I would have also moved the kitchen out there as well so that I could have a little desk under the stairs for painting.  I felt that it was important not just because of the bear that was seen there last year but because a person who strikes me as sort of a weirdo found this website and he feels a little threatening.  I am not too keen on running into him at night with my pants down to tell you the truth.  I think an indoor bathroom has suddenly become a requirement this year.  BUT… Building inspector weighing in and basically the short version of what is said is: “you cannot do this”.  So, there it is.  No addition but you can have multiple under 120 square feet footprint places that are not attached to each other…

Still, I want a bathroom not just for safety reasons but one with running rain water and I need the water from the roof surface in order to collect enough to make this feasible.  Therefore I have to have something close.  I returned to the idea of putting a galley at the front but my friend Liisa stopped by and suggested that I turn it and this was a great suggestion!  Thanks Liisa!

This little semi closed in “deck” 4×8 with a 4×4 footprint bathroom will be right off the front door .  One will have to go outside of Tiny House Ontario to use it, but it will be on a screened in deck with a covered roof and this will be put on deck blocks – unattached so that if there is a problem I can move it.  I know – it will not be easy to move a 4×4 structure but I do have friends with tractors that I am sure will help me if I get into any sort of bind.  I don’t expect any problems because I won’t attach the buildings to one another – I will simply put up a bit of flashing on the house to keep water from going in between where they will meet at the roof (of the covered deck)/wall (of Tiny House).

The GREAT thing is that when my cousin Kenny dug the hole where the gravel was put in and pounded down, he made this quite a lot bigger than the cement would be.  Great idea because the gravel allows for fantastic drainage.  Great too, because now I just have to add the cottage blocks at the correct depth and they should stay put very well, and even if they do sink a bit it is reasonably easy to correct a small structure like this with a car jack.

So far the deck blocks cost me $70.  The 2×4’s were left overs and I have still two more for reinforcing it.  I have to buy some more 2×4’s a used window and door and a screen door as well as some plywood… I have 2×6 and the steel roof already.

I will let you know what it costs and show you more photos when I have this all done.

Categories: Building code, Kingston, Money, Off Grid, Simple living, Tiny House Ontario | 1 Comment