Sustainable living

Violet Rickards

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Laura

Here is an article from the fall magazine of the National Farmers Union.  It is about my beloved grandmother Violet.  She is photographed here in a wheel chair not too long before she died, as I will always remember her, fighting for the farms and the land.

She would frequently write to the news paper and at the end of her letters say: “people are important”.  I know that she was important, and how fortunate I was to have won the grandma draw.  She remains a strong figure and presence in my daily life.   I miss the touch of her hand and her support.

Categories: Ontario, Sustainable living, View | 2 Comments

One Tiny House Regret

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Laura
I love this! I strongly wish I would have done one of these under Tiny House Ontario. I would only have been able to go down four feet because of the stone under, but even so this would be loads of space for food storage.  I decided this summer after discovering that I have a dairy allergy that I don’t need a fridge after all – but this would have been so great to store all my garden produce even though I would have to stoop down there.
Sigh….
Do you have any regrets about your Tiny House build?
This is mid way through a stand alone cellar project which can be seen here.  Due to the fact that I did not have the foresight to build one under THO, one like this is also on my TO DO list.
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I am not sure why there is a problem with the link… you may need to cut and paste this in your window if it does not work for you.
Categories: Food, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 4 Comments

Small Houses in Old Neighbourhood

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Laura

I just brought some of my green tomatoes over to my friend Marilyn and while I was out, I went though the waterfront neighbourhood by the Hamilton Bay. The area is getting nicer all the time down that way!

The community did a lot of revitalization along the waterfront and this action by the community, really picked up the market and brought in some interesting new buyers.  It is now attracting  lots of artists, professionals and people who take pride in their homes.  Unfortunately a lot of these lovely little small homes have (or are having) additions put on them but there are still a number of cute and solid little small homes that just need a bit of TLC to be AWESOME homes again.

Here are photos of a few of the old small homes that have been polished up and that don’t have additions bigger than the original home on them.  Hamilton, Ontario gets a bad wrap because of the industry along the water front.  A lot of people, even those who live close don’t know what this city has to offer.  It is an interesting and pretty place not just because it is the waterfall capitol of the world either.

If you can’t find something to do or see here, then you are not looking very hard.

These are just lovely little old houses – within a few blocks from the waterfront, in Hamilton. Probably people raised 8 or 10 kids at a time in these houses… just 100 years ago.
Now, so many people think them too small for a couple. Not me… what about you?

Categories: Building code, Ontario, Open your eyes, Sustainable living, View | 3 Comments

Tomatoes

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Laura

 

Everywhere I look right now in my small house there are tomatoes… green ones.  Thankfully, my friend Marilyn is going to take some off my hands because she likes fried green tomatoes.  I made a baked variety with coconut milk and gluten free crumbs which were pretty yummy, so I thought the 300 green cherry tomatoes would work similarly.   I roasted them too but they seem to have too much solanine in them because they don’t taste good at all.  What a waste!   Even too bitter to be enjoyable after I ground them up, put onions and curry and more coconut milk in… sigh.

I kept a few in varying degrees of redness out and put some bananas near them to keep them ripening.  The others which were ripe or ripening I am stewing as I write.

As for the other quarter bushel of green tomatoes?  I don’t like chutney, or relish… I have no good ideas.

 

Categories: Food, Nature, Ontario, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

THO Floor Space

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Laura

Finally!  THO has floor space!  Making the Tiny House bigger is something that I have been working on for a while now.  I did not want to build on so the only solution was to downsize the stuff that I keep in the place.  After getting the Tiny adaptable table that my cousin Vernie built, I started getting rid of the table and chairs inside and now finally they are removed.  I can’t believe how HUGE the place feels now!

 

Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario, Trade, View | Tags: | 2 Comments