Sustainable living

Preparing for Night

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Laura

This morning, the first talk I want to see is at 11:00. This gave me time to walk around this land before the drive to Kingston.  The nights are colder now; falling in the single digits, but under the blankets I am cozy while I read Teja Cole.  I slept well this past night, even so wake tired from the big thoughts that fill my mind.  The words of all these artists at once is overwhelming but worth it.  This freshness in air has forced the thinnest and most unprotected leaves to put on their brightly colored coats, the rest of them will not be far behind.

I walked over to my garden and was disappointed and surprised.  I suppose I should not be.  Powder mildew is taking over the squash plants.  I had never seen powder mildew in all my years on the farm in the giant gardens of the women who grew all the food for their family.  Now this mildew finds its way deep here, into the untouched forest to attack the plants.  I wonder from what biotechnology hell it pounced out, ready to kill what we we want to grow for ourselves.

The days are too cold now for the tomatoes to ripen, but there are a lot of vegetables and herbs still there.  These strong beauties are still a thriving food source, but I will have to cover them soon if I am to have the opportunity to enjoy them.

All through these woods, the small asters poke their small sunny purple faces up out of the forest floor.  It is a beautiful time.  As though nature is a fresh faced child being tucked in by mother nature for a winter’s night.

All reminders that I must prepare for the coldness that living brings.

Categories: Environmentalism, Food, Forest, Kingston, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario, View, Winter | Leave a comment

House and Home

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Laura

It has been a couple of days since I last posted.  Basically, I have been at the Hamilton house working on my family tree stuff and fretting about the dental surgery that I will leave for shortly.  If all goes well I leave to go back to my beloved Tiny House Ontario tomorrow morning.

I think that this is what she will look like when I arrive only perhaps a little more fall like?

 

It is a funny thing because THO feels like home to me more than any other place I have ever lived, yet she is still so far from being finished.  Still, there are a lot of small jobs like eve troughs to the water barrels, covering the cloth porch,  flooring, stone patio needs laying, drive needs 5/8 stone on the drive and so on and so on.  This list of small but time consuming jobs will never end.  This is part of what I like so much about it.  I love projects.  Still there is HUGE/EXPENSIVE stuff too, that has to be done. THO has no heat, no kitchen appliances and only partially finished cabinets, no water running or otherwise, these take more time because of the cost.

I am nearing the second year of work on THO and bit by bit she becomes more complete, to be sure.  This year she got a lot of time and attention from me because I did not produce much in my creative life after my computer accident.  Still truthfully I did not spend as much time there as I wanted to.  Baby being broken twice, as well as visitors here in Hamilton, and a trip home for medical and another now for dental turned the 30 potential weeks of THO stay, into about 25 weeks there.  Missing 5 weeks of the year is a lot!  Next year I hope to do better.

 

Categories: Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario, View | 2 Comments

Let Us Be Kind

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Laura

I watched a video today which my friend Jim-Bob posted.  It is a great idea this young man had and such a total tear jerker video!  Consider yourself warned!

Anyway, I decided to finally get to the linen closet because of watching this.  You see, I read that the SPCA is always in need of blankets and towels, so that the pets do not have to sleep on cement.

I once lived in a big house and had a big family and when I downsized last year I thought I had pretty much purged, but alas, this is what I had to give!

I am going to deliver them right now.  If you have any old ones that you don’t need I urge you to check with your local rescues and shelters because chances are you have old ones you don’t need and dogs don’t care if they are a little bit ratty.

What other nice thing can I do today????

Categories: Dogs, Materialism, Re-Use, Sustainable living, View | Tags: , | 3 Comments

The Piles

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Laura

I have another confession.  I don’t want to be one of “those families”… you know who I mean… every neighbourhood has them.  Their places are run down, and half put together, they have stuff all over their yards that never seems to be used, just sits there rotting and taking up space.  If anyone was doing a project at their house, my neat-freak Mom used to say, “they need to clean that mess up because it is starting to look like the ____ ‘s place”.  You can fill in the blank for your particularly messy family.  My mom kept a very clean home and she did not like mess.  Mom, she would hate my piles!

These days they have a name for people who keep too much junk.  They even have a TV show about them, Hoarders.

The thing is, that there is a fine line between people who hoard and people who keep stuff because it is useful.  Artists often keep a lot of bits.  So too do people who tinker.  Me, I have a few left over building supplies which I am still using for projects.  It is not out of hand but takes up about a 12x 9 space… just as big a footprint as THO, so this, in my opinion is what makes it look so bad.

I put it all on the far side of the house, so that you can’t see it when you drive up, but from the cloth porch, there it is, a little hoard of stuff.  It would be nice to have a shed with some upper beams to slide all that stuff in.  A shed feels a bit like a slippery slope for allowing me to collect more stuff – but admittedly it would be handy for the rotation of seasonal gear, such as boots and sandals, snow shoes and flippers.

Fortunately, I live far enough away from others that the mess is not seen by anyone but me and my visitors.  Still, I wonder, would my remnants piles drive you crazy if you lived next door?  Be honest.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Off Grid, Ontario, Re-Use, Stuff, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 4 Comments

Repurposing with a Purpose

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Laura

When I redid the kitchen uppers I made the depth of them more than the little shelves that I had there before.  Because of this, the wonderful little spice rack that my cousin Vernie made for me when I was in my 20’s had to be taken down.  Still, I want to have as many of Vernie’s works in THO as I can fit there so I decided that I would repurpose it as a shelf for candles and pottery at the top of the stairs.  I won’t be needing the candles as frequently because of the new 12volt electric lights, but they are nice to burn from time to time because the bee’s wax smells so lovely.  Too, they are excellent to have on hand in case of emergency.

As a veg*an you might be asking yourself, if I have thought about the use of bees for my own purposes.  Truth is, I have and I am mixed about the subject of bees and have considered quite seriously putting in a few boxes for them.  I am not really a honey lover or even a candle fanatic, but I love the idea of the bees being there to help me with my garden.  Truth is that while I don’t eat any animal products, I am also guilty of killing spiders as well as mosquitos, biting insects as well as house flies and I have a leather jacket as well as leather footwear that I purchased before becoming vegan and I won’t throw them out so that they go to waste.  I hate waste and destruction of useful things, more than anything else.

On the subject of bees, I am happy to say that  I do have a lovely large paper wasp colony on my land right near the escarpment.  I don’t like to get too close to these awesome little pollinators because they do not take lightly to a threatened nest, but Colleen Murphy has a good camera and could take this photo from a good distance away.

The nest is far enough away that I don’t feel threatened for myself or for those who visit, but still, I have had a few of them in THO this year.  I am not afraid of them though, I just catch them carefully under a glass, slide in a piece of paper and then let them free outside.  They leave without problems so far, every time.

Categories: Materialism, Nature, Open your eyes, Re-Use, Simple living, Sustainable living, View | 3 Comments