Tiny House Ontario

No Green Man

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Laura

There was not enough rain at THO for the blue chalk lines to wash off.  Or at the very least, the roof overhang is wide enough to protect the building from a lot of moisture, so we wiped it down this morning.

Thankfully, there was enough rain to halt the immediate crisis that the forest was facing, but still not enough to hold it off for long.

All over there are signs of the water shortage on the land and forest.  There are also a significant number of dry wells.  For those of you who do not know the climate in Ontario, August is our dry month and we are on day one.

Categories: Drought, Forest, Kingston, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Who Knows What Tomorrow Brings?

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Laura

Tiny House Ontario, is always in transition.  When I go back there in the morning I think that Leo will have some things done there.  I am not 100% sure because I have not reached him.  I hope he will have the rest of the siding up as well as the eves trough, j-trim and facia.  If he was there, I have to fix the cloth porch.

If everything above is done, as far as the rest of this year goes there are a few small plans which I would like to see done.  This is to hook up the rain barrel and hook up the solar system.  We may also install a stove, but this has yet to be seen.

Left on the agenda for next years are some big jobs, such as, the well and pump install, the hickory floors cut, hand hewn and installed, the kitchen install and the stone patio with walkways.   I already know that I want to have a small clay oven on the patio but I saw a photo today which makes me believe that I may also need to have an arbour on this patio.  I would strongly prefer that the pillars be from fallen trees from my land and that the arbour have a canvas water repellant roof.

Any thing I have forgotten or should consider?

 

 

 

Categories: Cloth Porch, Forest, Money, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

Tank Girl Diversions

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Laura

I am heading back to Tiny House Ontario tomorrow in the early morning.  I understand that we have had enough rain there to keep things going for another day or two so this is good.

I was hoping that when I returned that I would not have to get on my Tank Girl gear and start fighting Water and Power for Our share.  Glad that dystopia was diverted… at least for the time being.  Frankly, life will be easier at THO when we can get a well in.  Though, I do know that I could not water the whole forest and the loss of those trees makes me really unhappy, even though there was nothing realistically that I could do to help them.

For the time being, I head back soon in the slightly softer Tank Girl suit and keep on keepin’on.

Categories: Dog, Drought, Ontario, Time, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

UNWELCOMED ADVERTISING!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Laura

When I set up this blog which is about stepping off the consumption line I very specifically chose to not have any advertising on this site.

Further, anyone who reads my posts knows that I do not use ANY commercial products for cleaning myself or my home beyond baking soda, organic apple cider vinegar for myself and white vinegar for my home.  I also use only olive oil to moisturize my skin and my hair.  I would never endorse anything that I do not use or that I am not 100% happy with.  Simple as that!

Still, this stuff which I personally consider to be total crap, and which I am more than likely allergic to, is on my blog.  This is here without my permission!  I do not make any advertising revenue on this Vaseline ad, nor any other ad which is being put without my permission here.  I do not endorse this, nor any other product. While I understand that with the number of readers Tiny House Ontario has, that advertisers might want to get in here, certainly I would not allow any products that I personally would never use, be a part of what I would allow here.  I am not opposed to advertising, for example, I would be happy to allow for example Bison Pumps or certain other off grid suppliers for things that people actually NEED, on my site, but Vaseline blah, blah, blah!  Seriously?  This sort of advertising is NOT in keeping with the ideology here at all!  I promise that if I ever do allow advertising that it will be only for products that I have used, like and or aspire to have at THO.

I want to extend an apology to my readers who have been subjected to this consumer nonsense and I also want to know if any bloggers out there know what to do about this?  For example, can I find a paid and applicable sponsor which will wipe out all this, or can I just make adjustments to my WordPress blog which will allow this to stop.  For example, if I pay for the blog space will the ads stop?

Thanks!  Image by Colleen who both captured this on her screen as well as brought it to my attention.

________________

So a half hour after this post and this is what Colleen sees when she looks at this post!  Please let me know if you also see this.

Categories: Materialism, Money, Open your eyes, Readers, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 8 Comments

Going Batty!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Laura

NEWS: it is raining at Tiny House Ontario and has been for some number of hours according to those who are living nearby.  WOOT WOOT!  I will worry less now!  Sadly, I think even a solid week of rain will not make a lot of difference to farmers at this time; the rain will still save a lot of trees, I hope!

When I was last there a few days ago sitting out on the cloth porch we watched through the cloth on the other side.  There were praying mantis insects under the solar LED porch light and they were collecting the night light bugs.  We have a lot of night bugs.

As a matter of fact, when I lay down at night, with my head in the window, the sound of hopeful mosquitos who are trying to get through the screen and vampire me to death is astonishingly loud.  Hundreds of them, I would guess, smell me.  Apparently, they think I am quite the tasty treat…

In discussion about the large number of mosquitos I came to the conclusion that I might just be able to do something natural to impact this a little bit. I am not sure if it is as simple as build it and they will come, but even so a young friend of a friend suggested building and bat house in order to help with decreasing the mosquito population.  This looks totally simple!

I don’t have any 4×4 boards at THO at the moment but they are not too hard to come by.  Another problem is digging that deep in the forest because of roots and also because of the limestone.   Still, I think that it might be fun to have some of the little winged mice nearby and it will be great if this works and it decreases the mosquitos!

A bonus too is that I also have lots of small bits of steel so I can give them a very posh roof that matches THO!  😛

Thank you, Cameleon, for the idea!

Categories: Cloth Porch, Environmentalism, Food, Forest, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments