Sustainable living

Emily Carr’s Tiny House, Elephant

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Laura

I believe that Emily Carr is the most famous female painter who has come out of Canada.  I became interested in her work, during the winter break of 2011, about a month ago. When I started looking in at her, I found that she was a writer, which I had not known.   When I discovered this, I went to the library, picked up her books and started to read.  I have just finished reading This and That: The Lost Stories of Emily Carr and I am currently reading The Complete Writings of Emily Carr.  Through this process it has become clear to me that she and I share more than a few commonalities beyond the obvious: artist/writer.  As a matter of fact, we are weirdly similar.  I find it particularly strange that we share so many parallels, because of the huge differences in the periods that we have lived.

With my interest fully piqued, I went to Hamilton Public Library a few days ago and I picked up Emily Carr a monolithic book about her and her works.  I intend to read next this next, but had not really looked at it until a few minutes ago.  I opened the book and I cannot begin to tell you how totally surprised I was!  There, inside the jacket, I found a huge photo of her her sitting on the stoop of her Tiny House with her four dogs (and her monkey) all around her.

I have to say that while the hundred little idiosyncratic similarities are strange and interesting, finding that we are both Tiny Housers with a whole slew of dogs, is a huge parallel by anyone’s standard.  Very few people ever have their own pack of dogs… and of those who do, I bet that I am the only tiny houser (outside of her) who does.

What about Emily’s Elephant, that Lawren Harris called “swell”?  Of course, this is the name that she gave to her Tiny House on wheels.

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Added on Feb 21, 2012

Reading now, Hundreds and Thousands, Emily has just returned from a the summer in the Elephant (which she also calls “the van”). She says something which I certainly identify with as I am sure will all other Tiny Housers. “The roof seems low and heavy and the walls squeezing us. Yet the house is enormous after the van. But the van was so much nearer the big outside, just a canvas and a rib or two and then the world. And the earth was more yours than this little taxed scrap which is under your name.”

Categories: Art, Emily Carr, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, Writing | 2 Comments

Ancestors and Descendants

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Laura

The Embers and the Stars by Erazim Kohák is one of my all time favourite books.   It is not light reading.  It is dense and hard to get through, but beautiful, lyrical, life changing, and worth all the effort.  This book certainly impacted me in ways that I never once expected.*

With this book in mind as it always is, in the morning, I woke up thinking about forest.  Specifically about the hickory trees that I hope to keep safe on my land, then I thought about big Bonny tree, the giant oak that my grandmother would have walked under on her way to school.

My thoughts then brought me way back to the Irish family who first settled here pushing out my native ancestors and their long history by shaming it away and marrying in.  It was not so much the natives that I was thinking about.  Sadly and honestly, because I know little about the natives, the history for them is vague and sporadic like a dream of better and harder days.    It is the settlers who I know, and understand.

I thought about my original Dixon (also spelled Dickson) family, because it was the settlers who brought land ownership with them.  Specifically I thought back 162 years to the time when Robert Dixon, took up a land patent for this land in 1850*.  I also thought about his descendants, too my ancestors, who walked this land working it and planning for it, just as I work and plan today.

A funny thing is that work is easy and planning is not at all.  Planning is complicated.  You see, I suspect that Robert Dixon had great plans in mind, when he divided his land at his death.  It was left to his boys; girls out of the equation, including his wife Alice (who was inherited, like a cow to be managed by her sons).  Great, great, great Grandpa Dixon would not have imagined that it would be a sixth generation granddaughter (GGG granddaughter) who would be the keeper of it.  I don’t believe that he could have fathomed that my G uncle Lewellyn (G grandma Caroline’s brother) would lose his 50 acre share in 1943 because of a $2500 loan he took and could not pay during great depression.  Old GGG Grandpa Dixon, could not have imagined that the wonderful neighbours, the Miller family would buy that land and continue calling it “The Dixon Farm” even to today.  He could not possibly have known, when he set his plans, that the Miller descendant would be thrilled to see it in the “Dixon” hands once more.  More over, I expect that the biggest thing that he could never have imagined is that a woman would be the one who is interested in planning for it now.

So what about my plans?  I have one biological son James, as well as a son Conrad and daughter Kasha who are mine too, emotionally.  Will any of them have interest in Tiny House Ontario and her beautiful forest home?  I don’t see any signs of this.  Will it be another long lost descendent of the Dixon line who will want her?  This is not apparent to me either.  Will it be in the hands of family?  Who knows?  I believe that I cannot know what is in store for these acres.

The only thing that I know for sure is if little chunk of land is protected from greed, it will outlast me.   Perhaps another 162 years from now someone walking it will find the extra chain saw blade I lost out there, and wonder about the person who was connected to it.  Time will tell.  Time always gives us some version of the truth.

*I plan to read The Embers and the Stars again this summer at Tiny House Ontario.  If any of my friends or locals wants to join me in this, I would love to do a Tiny House book club weekly meeting to discuss the chapters.  Wednesdays at 6:30 pm?

*First a full 100 acres then the rest of the lot and concession of 100 acres was purchased from John Ilan (also spelled Island) in 1857 for ₤225.

Categories: Environmentalism, Erazim Kohák, Forest, Open your eyes, Simple living, Sustainable living, Time, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: | 2 Comments

The cloth porch is still standing

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Laura

I have written before about the cloth porch.  A few dollars worth of deeply discounted fabric, some left over boards and two boxes of staples as well as a screen door is what it is comprised of.  While I was building it, then banging in the staples, I resigned myself to having to redo the cloth covering annually because I assumed that the thin, semitransparent, fabric roof would never stand the weight of the winter snow on it.  We have had a couple of pretty good snow falls now, so I thought for sure, when I arrived to check in, it would be down.  It is late January now, and to my surprise the cloth porch is still standing.

I know! I know! It is not the most beautiful addition that was ever put on a Tiny House but if you have ever been to Ontario in the spring (and summer) you will know that if the black flies don’t get you in the spring, then deer flies, horse flies, ticks and mosquitoes surely will get what is left of you before you freeze to death in our winters.

I am starting to believe that buying and installing new cloth is one job I may not have to do in the spring!  Time will tell.

Categories: Building code, Cloth Porch, Environmentalism, Materialism, Off Grid, Ontario, Sustainable living, Time, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, Winter | Leave a comment

The best things in life and the boring details

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Laura

The best things in life aren’t things; even so, there are some things that you need.  Largely, I really want to believe that stuff is not that important.  But then I think of those who live on, and with nothing; I submit that existing without stuff would be quite impossible.

In Tiny House Ontario, like in each Tiny House, the stuff that I keep must be absolutely considered.  A detailed deliberation must be given to every bit and bob, even if it is as small as a barrette or a box of nails. Food, too, must be closely observed.  I like to grow or buy fresh and since there are farm gatepost stores in the area and a some wonderful general stores too, I don’t have to worry too much about storing it, at least for the time being; I am there living only during the growing season but eventually, food storage will be an important issue and by then I believe that a fruit cellar will be an absolute necessity.

Despite the size, there are five storage areas in Tiny House Ontario.  On the main level, there is the kitchen and the shelves at the West side.  In the loft there is the closet, the dresser and, opportunistically, I bought roll under the bed storage when it was on sale, but I have not put this to use.

The necessities:

Tools for building and outdoor work.  Cooking, serving, eating and food (I keep a few gross but easy dry things there all the time, like Mr. Noodles and dehydrated soup, as well as beans, flour, salt and sugar should someone need to survive there for a few days), my grandma’s kettle and dish soap. Water for drinking, cooking, washing as well as survival books and extra eyeglasses so that I can read them.

A reasonably well stocked first aid kit and toiletries, a wash pan, and a couple of buckets, face clothes, towels and  throw blankets, garbage and recycle bins, clothing, bedding, candles, matches and lighter

A cell phone, bee’s wax candles, lights, batteries, propane, BBQ, camp stove and a heater if you do not have a heat source built in are also required, as well as a cooler or refrigeration source.

Stuff that I love and believe I require:

Literature including the complete works of Douglas Coupland , poet Sean Moreland, and some family history books.  Cards, a few games and puzzles, candy (for the children who come), and chocolate (for me).  I also must have art and art supplies, as well as a solid collection of old Harrowsmith magazines which tell me how to do a lot of homesteading stuff so they may well be required as much as I like them because I use them for reference materials.

I also find it important to have some spiritually, emotionally significant and things that comfort me.  This collection includes: a justice and safety spell, sweet grass, white sage, and burning shell.  A green crystal, the family bible, angel cards, carved boxes, a friendship ball, an Irish shamrock, the ashes of my late dogs, a hat and a salt and pepper poodle shaker set.

I would guess that the stuff I love makes up about 1/10 of the total mass of stuff in Tiny House Ontario, I suppose I could live without it, but I choose not to and I am grateful that I don’t have to make the choice of what to leave behind me, as many unfortunate people have had to do all over the world.  It would be interesting to know how this breaks down in the average home.  When you look around your home now, I wonder what do you need in there?   What do you have just so that your home looks nice when visitors come?

Categories: Art, Douglas Coupland, Materialism, Sean Moreland, Sustainable living, Tiny house, World | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tiny House in a big world

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Laura

Yesterday, I posted about the people I know reacting to my move toward living in Tiny House Ontario and two things happened since then to make me think about perceptions – a little bit more closely.

The first thing is that my beautiful and long time friend, Donna, who lives in Kingston, Jamaica, wrote to me semi-privately about the last post: “I’m a little amused/amazed about the reactions to your Tiny House. People live like that all over the world, happily and joyfully!”  Of course she is correct.  We Canadians have so much space around us that we tend to forget, actually, we really do not know, that people all over the world live in little spaces.

I was oblivious that people would be able to live permanently in anything small until a few years ago when I had an opportunity to visit another beautiful and long time friend Sigita for the first time in Germany.  Then I saw this again when I visited Kafka’s home on Golden Lane in Prague, Czech Republic.  Both of these experiences did not make me want to live in a Tiny House, but they did show me that it is possible to do so, and to recognize that people can, and do live comfortably in small spaces.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I lived in a room when I was a student and I also lived in a tiny (240 square foot) one bedroom apartment when I was a young woman.  But I always saw these smaller places as being temporary – until I could afford bigger, better, more.  I did not aim to live “that” way forever.  The early part of my life was all about saving for a bigger house, and then when I got a bigger house, I wanted an even bigger one.  As a matter of fact, it was my large collection of stuff that made me believe that I needed to have a bigger house.  You know, so that I could put all my stuff in there; just like George Carlin said.  I don’t believe that I am a particularly greedy or unusual Canadian.  I think it is normal for us to expect to own a home when we grow up here.  Perhaps it is part of being a society of immigrants who came hoping for something more and better?

The second thing that made me think about people’s reactions, is that I got my first annual report from WordPress.  I opened it up to read and discovered that I have readers from other places on this planet; this really surprised me!  Given that my blog is only one month and two days old, I already felt pleased at just how many people stop in daily to read about my passion.  I have, to date had nearly 4000 reads, that is about 85 a day, and I really thought that all these reads were my friends and family.  I assumed (because they know me), they are interested in what I am doing.  Or at least worried that I might ask them a question next time I see them.  What I mean, is finding out that other people who do not know me are reading, makes me believe, I should acknowledge there is habitable land outside my own small geographic area.

Now that I know that there are readers from places outside of Canada, I want to be sure that I am not forgetting that to the rest of the world the concept of a Tiny House may be really quite normal.  Also to acknowledge that I come from a position of relative privilege, and I want you to know that I recognize that to a lot of people in the world (including in Canada), having any kind of roof over head is not attainable.  I do know that people live different lives not just here in Canada but everywhere in the world.  I do know and this and this is one of the reasons why the reduction of my footprint on this planet is so very important to me.

So, here you are!  From Canada, USA, Jamaica, Chile, United Kingdom, Romania, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, Philippines and Australia if WordPress got you all right.  Wow!  Thank you for reading!  Tiny House Ontario is just this wee spot which I feel is sort of sacred and I am so pleased to find out that other people feel drawn to it too.  The Tiny House has had such a huge impact on me and it is changing me profoundly still, every day, even when I can’t be there.

Here, I have posted a photo of Golden Lane in Prague.  The Tiny Blue House is where Franz Kafka lived and wrote.  It is much smaller inside than it looks from outside because the walls are very thick.  The map is of those of you who found Tiny House Ontario and again, thank you for stopping by!  

Categories: Environmentalism, Materialism, Readers, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny house, World | 3 Comments