What should I choose for a heat source? I am still not sure. Full column is featured at Tiny House Listings.
Posts Tagged With: nature
Cure the Common Cold
Categories: Forest, Off Grid, Ontario, Open your eyes, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario
Tags: heat source, nature
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Me & My Shadows
The last leaves are now just reflections of nearly forgotten memories, cast like shadows on the wall.
Nelson Mandela said “there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.” I think he is right. I have not yet met the goals that I have set for myself and I know that once I attain these there will always be more. There is always more to come, I think, even beyond death there is more.
I hope that I still have a lot of time to work my life plan out, but one never really knows. It seems to me that my future life is set out like a dinner party to which I have have not been invited yet. Still, I can’t help it! I hope that Judy Chicago set the table for me! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in on this dinner party with all the fantastic attendees?
But, I don’t know what this life has in store for me. The future, my future, just like everyone else’s is somewhere just beyond my grasp. My future exists only like the shadows of last years leaves which promise that there will be other springs; other falls.
I think about Aesop’s warning to “beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow”. I could use some illumination, but in these short days when the sun casts so much shadow it is not always easy to find the light that will surely come again. It is easier to focus on the unreachable shadows which are long, sleek, and mysterious.
Thankfully, I can do some shadow exploration tomorrow when I return to THO. I can’t help it! I wonder what is waiting there for me? I know it will be my home, my land, my friends and family. I know that there is a big party at home this weekend coming. What else is waiting in tomorrow’s shadow?
Categories: Art, Erazim Kohák, Family, Forest, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario, View, Writing
Tags: nature
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Life Without Water
At Tiny House Ontario how I live is much the same as other people in standard homes, except I don’t collect stuff and I don’t watch TV. Also, I don’t have any running water.
I mean, I eat, cook, clean, sleep, read, entertain, I have hobbies and I also take care of myself, my pets and the land that surrounds me. The main difference really between the way that I live in my Tiny House and the way that most people live is two fold, consumption and the time I need to spend on water and bathing. All aspects of this are more time consuming because I have to fetch it, heat it, and organize for off site bathing.
Next spring a most of this will change! I now have the eves troughs up and the barrels are purchased so early in the year before the spring rain, I will install two barrels on the roof of the WC so that I can catch my wash water. I will be installing an enclosed outdoor shower, and I already have everything hooked up in the in-house for the tap to work.
Life will be nearly as convenient at THO as it is on grid! I only have to bring in drinking cooking and dish rinse water unless we have another drought. Let’s hope we don’t!
I have space up top for four barrels; don’t worry, when I built I planned for the extra weight being on the top of the structure. I am planning on installing only two barrels in the spring, to see if this is enough. If this does not provide enough water for my use, I have a back up plan. It is easy to add to two barrels later and if I have to do this, I will get a water delivery truck to come. Certainly with four roof rain barrels and one ground one if is worth the money to have a truck come and for the short term it is much cheaper than it is to drill a well. Any additional water on the truck can simply be dumped on and around my garden to give it a huge drink.
Here is the roof where the barrels will go.
Categories: Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario
Tags: nature, rain barrels, spring rain, water
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Brrrrr
Arrived at Tiny House Ontario and made great time. No problems on the 401 today. Woot!
Cold here when we arrived. When you arrive in a cold house it takes a long time to warm it up but then once THO gets warm it is easy to keep that way. It would be great to have a wood stove so it would be faster to get it warm. It turns out that there is one that might actually work. I will keep you posted on this.
As soon as I got there, I lit the propane camp stove and lots of candles too. I wanted to get it toasty warm so that I would be able to leave THO for a couple of hours to attend a farewell event for my cousin and his family who are jumping countries – Canada to Australia. Turns out we could not get it warm so the dogs came along. I left the heat on and hope it will be toasty when we all get back. Wish us luck!
Here it is at THO this afternoon. Everyone had coats on, including the pack.
Categories: Dogs, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario
Tags: camp stove, coats, nature, propane, wood stove
3 Comments
Crying in the Rain
When we left Tiny House Ontario it was raining all day. We had not planned on closing up for the season quite yet, but I will not go back for a couple of weeks and it has been unseasonably cold. As a caution, I thought I better take all liquids out of the house as well as to empty the rain barrel. Simple reason, I don’t want things to be ruined by freezing nor or by freezing and thawing.
The car was pretty full because of having the last chair in there already. This meant that the battery operated stuff will have to come back to Hamilton on the next trip. Flash lights, drill, radio, solar lights and battery from the bike will all come here for the winter on the next trip and after this we only get back from time to time.
There is not much of 2012 left as far as THO season goes… I hate to leave there. With it raining and grey it feels like the sky is crying.
Tiny House Ontario 