The Mini-House

We Have New Neighbors!

2010-05-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well, Pilger does, anyhow! We have moved her to a new anchorage; Black River. Just down from the cheese factory. A little tricky to come into, but if you have been shown the expanse of rock shelf just under the surface, you can slowly move in. It seems to be a bit windy, and a rather long row, but there really is nothing to hit. Picton harbour is just too busy, plus you need to keep the anchor rode short-scoped so you don't swing and take someone's 20,00$$$ paint job off. Jeez! Why do people spend so much dough making their stuff pretty when it only drives the cost of insurance and become prohibitive to other plain folks? We rather LIKE out Trem-Clad! Touches up quite nicely and even looks "shippy". Oh well.
More pikkies to come when we get back from our next cruise, hopefully to Kingston.

The Hoop-Houses do it again!

2010-04-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Jim will be providing lettuces, green onions and whatever else pops up, to the Regent cafe. Here they are, the wee dickens! Started indoors March 7, transplanted April 1 (no foolin'!), they are going gangbusters! The plastic covers help the soil hold whatever heat it collects, keeps bunnies out too.
That top photo shows the hoop-covers off right right now. They are easy to get on and off, depending on how you design them. The supports are made by cutting lengths of some old strong pole-like stuff (in our case, some lawn chairs with the seats rotted off) and some poly-water pipe. Hammer the poles as far as they can go, then bend the pipe over to get the right shape, allowing enough length to not blow off in a wind. Get some 4mil plastic, attach it to 2x4 pine the same length as your raised bed. Roll on, roll off. Enjoy!

Wow, Spring Didn't "Spring", no, it got squirted out of the ground!

2010-04-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

What beautiful weather we've had! We've been enjoying our forest walk, seeing all the junipers greening-up and hearing all sorts of song birds. There are some trilliums getting ready to join these wee snowdrops. Jim has been busy with the covered garden beds, transplanting some lettuces already! Green romaine and cimmeron (a tender, red-speckled romaine) destined for The Regent Cafe, if all goes well. We would also like to be able to supply the Milford Farmer's Market, but we'll see how the yield goes.

This handsome thing is a warm-frame.

It will eventually house our tomato and pepper seedlings, which will enjoy the stable temperatures afforded by the insulation. The weather has been so warm, and is forecasted to continue intil June, Jim is thinking of planting these seedlings early. If anyone has any insight, please let me know!!! I'm trying not to plant my herb-seedlings early!

Grow a garden, save yourself!

2010-03-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

No pikkies this time, just me, blabbing away. I was at a meeting at a friend's house, when I saw the cutest wee bag made from a pair of pink corduroy pants, previously sported by a very fashionable 6 year old. It was a zen moment. Handy. Lots of pockets. Great never-slip-off-even-when-you're-chasing-boys strap.
Here's the thing: I have had a mini-pile of recyclable pants and some bits of fabric just waiting for some innovative designs to burst from my head. The wait was on! No head burst! I chopped, picked out stitches, even sewed sweater-to-blue-jean panels, but could never decide how to finish them. No inspiration. So the pile just sat there, eventually finding its way into a rubbermaid tote, which made it official that I had just begun a Fabric Stash. In my mini house. But no Coco Chanel moments. Then the Pink Pant Purse.
They chopped the legs off, sewed a bottom seam along the, well, along the bottom, then made a strap out of the legs. Duh! No buckles, pewter zipper-pulls or other adornments. My product line will be rolling off the table promptly! With these pants, I will save the world!
You see, this meeting was an idea-gathering session for the Communityy Action Prince Edward County/Quinte. They are putting a presentation & workshop together to take it to the streets: we can all do something to lessen our carbon footprint. It's fun, we get to work together and it is more meaningful than simply buying energy-efficient light bulbs.
If any of you have heard of Transition Towns, you'll know what I am talking about. (The rest of you can visit http://www.transitiontown.org/ and have a better look.) The Community Action group has the same idea.
What it all comes down to is this: People get overwhelmed by the news that our planet is slowly beginning to overheat due to excessive carbon dioxide(and other greenhouse gasses) and this will cause climate and weather to change: More unstable weather events, fiercer storms. People become unnerved when they hear that the extraction rate of fossil fuels will soon peak, then decline, then become a very expensive commodity/way of life indeed. The biggest unknown is...when?
The Community Action Group, and Transition Towns, want you to know that there is a way to build resilience to these things in your community. A few ways to do this include:
1. Plant a garden: fresher food will contain more of its nutrients and require far less fossil fuel to deliver it to you. Plan a community garden in your neighborhood. Save your own seed and be less reliant on genetically modified seeds.
2. Support local businesses selling locally produced goods and items. Keep the money in your own community to support your own families, cut gas emissions by allowing them to commute less and by yourself NOT jumping into the car to have a fun trip to Walmart.
3. Whatever your heart's desire, get it into action! James and I have a passion for growing our own food, saving seed and sharing with others so we planned for a Seedy Saturday (seed and info exchange) right here in Picton. We are also going to be producing lettuce and some veggies for The Regent Cafe. Our friend David wants to be able to walk with his wee son to get fresh veggies so he is working towards establishing a farmer's market for downtown Picton. You get the picture, just do it!
4. Of course, turn off your computer when not in use, lights too, plan to drive your car less, make a trip count for a few errands, take the bus.

And make a Pink Pant Purse. reduce. re-use. recycle. But do get started.

Recycling

2010-01-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

We got a sexy, new (er) car! Can yuh make out the sleek lines, the bold colour and brand new tires? Well, neither could we, not this snowy lake-effecty morning.
But we're pleased to have recycled yet another hunk of steel, this one being a Hyundai Accent. The old Honda was dragging its ass around, waiting to be retired. Anyone need parts for a '95 Civic?

Almost Spring!

2010-01-18T11:11:00.000-08:00

Pilger waits in the ice of Picton Harbour. I had forgotten to bring my trusty camera on the day it snowed, hence I missed the shot of coyote tracks going up to the stern and leaving a wee yellow spot. Judging by the other sets of prints, some two-legged boot-wearer came for a close up.

The second picture is of a coyote in our back yard, he/she was just standing there, waiting for Robbie to come out to "play". Quite a big dog.

Anyhow, we are spending our days doing all kinds of interesting things. In our garden musings, for t'is the season, we have decided to see if a Seedy Saturday would take hold in Picton. Seedy Saturday is the brain-child of an organization called Seeds of Diversity, see www.seeds.ca . They promote home gardening and seeds saving. The website is a great one one, full of info on cultivars, heritage varieties, gardening info and , of course, a full listing of Seedy Events near you! At a SS you would bring seeds you have saved from your own garden, or one that you helped along, and swap some of yours for someone elses of a different variety. Being our first year, most attendees will not have any of their own seeds, so they may help themselves to some some of ours, to get the ball rolling for nest year. There will be a talks given by the Pro's, addressing certain gardening topics, including composting, actual seed saving and possible treatments of certain species, say some who knows a whole lot about every variety of tomato known to mankind. More updates later!

We have gathered an interested crowd to help and possibly take charge in the coming years. We do believe that as many as are able should grow food for themselves. The quality and nutrition level of home-grown veggies has simply got to be better than stuff shipped from afar. If you save your own seeds, you will be protected from possible rising costs of foodstuffs.

The time is also right for a knitting club in Picton. How does "Wednesday nights at RoseHaven Farm Store, 7pm" sound? Maybe every other Wed. night.

Some things you can't Prorogue!

2010-01-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

Snow. Sunrise. Dogs Who Pee. You can't stop any of these things. Can't bend the sun to fit your will. Can't fire snow. And if ya try to deny a dog his morning whizz, you'll find a wet spot in the house. But if you are just a power-hungry, sweep-whatever-under-the-rug kinda guy, you could try. I think those that lived with you would notice, though. The wet spot would start to smell. We would notice you chanting at the sun and snow, and think you were up to something.
Maybe you would say to yourself, "Maybe those I live with won't care. Maybe the wet spot will be 'under their radar' ". Do you really think they won't notice?
Mr. Harper, do you really think we don't care about what the Geneva Convention states regarding the treatment of prisoners? Are we supposed to forget all about how they were hauled off to face torture simply because you have shut-down shop for a while?? I'm afraid March won't be far enough away to strip our memories of the few but important statements made by Richard Colvin. And shame on you for saying that we don't care. Now you are hiding out in The House. God only knows what you will actually get up to.
I don't often rant on about politics, it rarely gets all up-in-your-face. This time, the Right Honorable Prime Minister has lied about what we canadians think of the Afghan Detainee mistreatment and is trying to sweep it under the rug. I say it's time to air the rugs and find out what is really going on in that great big House.
Find the Email address to you local MP and tell that MP how you feel!
In the meantime, I hope you have a happy New Year, enjoy those around you and make big plans!

The Good Life

2009-11-17T10:51:00.000-08:00

The weather has been lovely this past week, with continuing lovely for three more days. Maybe another week. Calling for rain on Friday, but you never know, the forecast seems to change all the time. Except right now. It is decidedly lovely. The sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular. I saw a beautiful shawl I would like to knit in yesterday's sunrise. Maybe I should learn to handpaint yarn, like some uber-cool people I know. I am wearing a sweater that my mum created over 25 years ago. She carded teal & undyed white roving, then knitted it into a sea of moving colour. It might as well be handpainted yarn! The Seven Siblings are pretty lucky to be swaddled in such knitted garments.

I am currently knitting away at some Christmas goodies, and seeing how my kids don't read this blog, I could tell you what's on the needles. But that would be presumptuous. Last year, I gave Renee a dark-coloured cowl with matching wrist-lets. Perhaps I designed the cowl to be a bit too deep set, as you couldn't see her face when she tried it on. When her colleages at work saw her approaching, there was a low "Ooh, here comes Death!"

So, yes, The Good Life! Lots of sun means lots of electricity, which means we can use our bread-maker. I love the bread-maker! Uses less power than an oven, no dough-bowl to clean up. Heck, I don't even wash the measuring cups, I dust them out then put them away. Lots of sun means a warm house with no wood fire. So I fill up my solar heated shower bag and wash my hair. Takes less than a half hour to dry it in the sun. Lots of sun helps with many things, especially our moods. And lettuce! Jim is growing some Grand Rapids leaf lettuce in a big old planter we scooped from the dump.

They say that little things amuse little minds, and I guess They are right. I am a simple person, or at least I hope I am. I live on a very, very small amount of money, especially when our annual paycheck starts to run thin in November, but that makes life simple too. We see just as many chickadees as anyone else. Even more when Robbie flushes them out to play a game of tag.

This simple life started when we, Jim and I, decided to maintain the lifestyle of cruising sailors that we began three years ago. Three years with no fridge, no mortgage and no credit debt. God has seen fit to keep us healthy, although I just recuperated from the dreaded H1N1 virus, I did OK. I'll have you know that the ale Jim brews keeps at a decent 66 degrees while being aged in our Secret Beer Locker (under the bed, sitting on the cement floor), and Chardonnay tastes great at this temperature as well! The only thing I miss is having ice cream in the house. But if that's the only thing, then having a reduced carbon footprint is most certainly worth it.

For those interested in how the wind-generator is doing, it seems to work just fine, although we thought we had stronger prevailing breezes that what we are actually getting. My advice is to get/borrow a wind speed measuring device and measure your prevailing breeze. The package instructions say that it will start generate power at 6 moiles/hour, but we have found that it is closer to 10. Also, we installed lighter guage wire that what was called for, so that could be impairing the output. Anyone got 50 feet of wire greater than 10/3?

Is That a Nose-Cone, Or Are Yuh Happy To See Me?!

2009-10-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

After a rather dull November last year, we decided that we needed a bit more juice to have more light after 4:30 in the long winter evenings. So here's our solution: a funny hat party!
Good thing he didn't try this party-trick with the cookstove!
Seriously, we went to Canadian Tire and bought the wind generator we scoped out last year. 400 watts! We then went to Rona and found some fence-post and "fixin's", some 10/3 wire and some guy-wire. The previous day we chopped down a handy-looking juniper. We put it all together,

Plugged it in...

And Tah-Dah! Installed us a wind generator!

We spent most of this morning smushed up against the front-door window, gazing at our newest thing. Arms around each other's waists, we gloated in the prospects of possibly hosting SAD light parties, perhaps even get our own mirror-ball for those awkward silences at dinner parties. We'd be the life of the whole county! Then we'd open up the electrical closet door, thus smushing even smushier, and watch the digital display of juice coming in...neat-o! This will certainly help us through the short solar days, as we can now power-up both day and night, as long as the wind blows.

..and Speaking of Big Steel Things!

2009-10-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

This is our Waterford Stanley Cookstove. May I add a couple of !!!! to that? Our friends, The Family Atkinson of Merrickville, had this puppy in their old Ontario farmhouse. They had come to visit our Mini House this summer and as Papa was looking around he mused out loud how well the wee cookstove would function in the wee house. Only being slow on some things, I said "Yes, Please!".

So on the way home from another fantastic Thanksgiving meal chez Danielle in Ottawa, we stopped by the Atkinsons and shoved the thing in! If you look closely, you can see all the air squeezed out of the foam in the back seat! We learned from the website that it weighs 500lbs! I could smell something burning as we stopped to pull Robbie out of the corner he jammed himself into. But the Atkinson's said a prayer (a rather serious one, as I recall) for a safe journey home, so nous violas!

We went to visit a welder here in the County, said making up some skoocum legs wouldn't be a problem. Jim had retrieved two beatiful cast steel BBQ grates from our local Walmart (the dump), so he cut them to size and they look great! One pot of stove-blacking went a long way, and one tub of fire-box cement will help. Won't be able to fire it up until we install the legs, so I'll letcha know ASAP.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the feasters!

We are recuperating from turkey, mashed potatoes, baked squash, cranberry sauce and dressing made with Hot Italian Sausage. Go Danielle!

Here we go again!

2009-09-21T12:19:00.001-07:00

We found Pilger in Iroquois Boatyard, with thanks to Gratton Sheely. She needed her lid put on, her new bronze ports installed, some rot at the prop/shaft area attended to and various other things done to get her sea-worthy. Not being absolute perfectionists, we thought we would do the interior later. So you get no pictures of her interior! No, we thought we would...

finish painting her and just drop her right in!

Ta dah!

She didn't seem to mind!

Up went the masts,

On went the sails (only took three days for that!) By the way, this is our new friend Kate helping to hoist the fore sail. And yes, Pilger is a Chinese Junk Rig. Also called lug rig by the Brits, but the Asians got them first. Designed by a Mr. Colvin, her model name is a Gazelle.

Piled in the dog and away we went!

So! We have another boat! To make a long story short, we came, we saw, we bought. No one has ever needed more of an explanation! We took four beautiful days to drive her to Picton Harbour via Kingston, Deadman's Cove and Prenyear's Cove. Day One we made average 6 knots over the ground with main & fore sails. Wow! Day two we ran wing and wing (or wing and wong, as dubbed by Annie Hill, fellow junk-rig enthusiast) over flat water and still averaged 4.5-5 knots. Wow! Came into kingston in very light wind and still made pretty good way. I love this rig! Quick to get the sails up, the sails tack by themselves, no reefs to tie when the wind pipes up, you merely drop a panel. The only difficult thing about her is that it was hard to decide to not keep going!

Robin and Kate joined us for this trip, very helpful and able crew. They taught us more about Vegan cuisine and I taught Kate to crotchet! They are staying at our place for a few days, our first Couch-Surfers, and it's been fun showing them around Picton.

So we have decided to stay home for the winter and make plans to cruise in the spring. Out the St. Lawrence maybe.

Now I'm going home to sleep!

How Does One "Chill" in August?

2009-07-31T13:06:00.001-07:00

Chill at the beach, get a breeze in your hair or sit in a shady garden. All of my favorite sports!

Thar Be Greens Here!

2009-06-10T12:45:00.001-07:00

Those hoop houses worked out really well. The plastic covers kept the soil warmer by about 5-10 degrees, pretty substantial. We have actually been enjoying our greens for a month and a half now, wowwie huh? Jim now has plans to build a wee solar green house to start the plants in March or April. In the top-most photo, you will see we followed advice given by another gardener. Jim shaded his plants while hardening them off, did it with juniper boughs.

We are keeping busy with all kinds of things, mostly raiding the local dump for stuff we can salvage. We actually found a youth's bike and a mostly good propane BBQ dumped along the back road we walk along every morning. Took them home, fixed 'em up and presto!

Instant BBQ! Have eggplant, will travel! A week later we found a better fitting bonus-grate at the dump. Bob & Linda gave up a coule of bike frames for us, too. It only took two dives into the "Walmart" to find enough thrown-away parts to build a couple of Frankenbikes. That and two new tires from Canadian Tire (Who knew?) plus 10$ helmets and we're off and pedalling. Dreamy!

Our next big salvage will be another boat. Smaller than Chelonidae. Lighter. Better on gas. We plan to get her to Northern Florida, then keep her down there so we can puddle around down there during the winter. Suckers! So far we have looked at an Albin 23 ft. sailboat, but there was no standing headroom. I hate crouching to cook! Saw a Paceship 23, but the same problem, no headroom. The Grampian 23 at least had a decent layout to make a hree month cruise possible, but, well, what were we expecting? Then we got looking at 26's. Saw a Grampian 26 with headroom! Well, I thought we'd be a 10th, no maybe a fifteenth of the way there! You know how it is, Jim, needing everything to be so perfect, needed the right engine, sailing capability, water tight hull, blah blah blah! Turns out it had all that, so we'll go for a second look and a putter around the Picton Yacht Club. Maybe I'll need a new blog!

Besides that, things at the the Mini House are going well. The rainwater catchment system is working quite well, doesn't take too long to fill up those garbage cans! We use it for irrigating the garden and washing my hair. Lovely!

I am going to track down a copy of a book called "The Vanishing Face of Gaia" by James Lovelock. I heard an interesting chat with the author on As It Happens the other night and was intrigued by his theory: this planet is adding carbon of her own into our man-made-mess and climate change is not only inevitable, but on our doorstep, and that it cannot at this point be stopped. But it is not too late to save ourselves.

I am glad I live in a self-sustaining way. I feel lucky! In the meantime, we shall go for a walk...

Wow! you never notice the mess until...

2009-04-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well! Spring brings a whole new set of work parameters! These are our Hoop houses, built over raised beds for our kitchen garden. Jim & I have been quite turned on by some old-timey garden & agriculture books, mentioned at the side-bar to the right. Perhaps the most eye-opening book is The One Straw Revolution, recommended by my dad, Stan Gauthier of Parksville, BC. The main premise is this:Farming (raising food) is a joy that requires no chemicals, tilling or heavy machinery. Too many farmers (gardeners) spend money they don't have to amend soil that likely doesn't need it, break it to useless bits with equipment that chugs diesel & spews carbon, and ends up harvesting the same edible portion as a natural farmer, who does none of these things. The author's main concern is for farmers & gardeners to take better care of their soil by amending it with the previous year's straw & leftover stalks, vines, etc. and to allow for natural decomposition and build the soil up year after year. No till? Hooray! I hate tilling even more than I hate shovelling! Mr. Fukuoka discusses the Japanese Ministry Of Agriculture's tests on soil quality, crop yield & insect damage, among many other things, and reveals that all things are not as they seem.
He calls his farming method the do-nothing method, or no-till. It is defined as growing cover-crops amongst his main crop, then leaving that cover crop plus the straw to decompose in the field producing an enriched humusy soil that is fully nourished for the following year. This means he doesn't need fertilizer. Because he grows a variety of plants and shades the soil with cover-crops, he also has a variety of insects that benefit his fields, so he doesn't need pesticides. All those roots do a good job of aerating and breaking up the soil, so he doesn't need to till. Refuses to squash this light & luscious soil with a tractor, so he harvests by hand, with a paid crew. No tractor or combine. No diesel. No fumes. No monthly payments. Better yield than a conventional farmer per acre. Doesn't need an outside job. Huh?
The part about Japanese farmers of a century ago having time to goof off in the winter and write Haiku is my favorite! Today, these poor guys have to work part time just to afford all the chemicals and machinery for their crops, plus feed their families. Read The Book! I got it through inter-library loan.
We have started many veggies indoors already, the tomatoes already have flower buds! Some of them are destined for what Jim is calling a One Straw trial. He is going to plant some fava beans in a grassy area, protected from all the wind we get here by scrub (short) Junipers. He will also put in some tomato & pepper plants. I'll keep ya all posted!

CSA, Quest ce que c'est?

2009-04-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well, you pay for a product before it's grown or harvested, hatched, laid, bought on auction, raised, slaughtered, wrapped in tidy paper packages and delivered to your door! Some folks have veggies delivered once a week, some include eggs. We get pasture-raised meat from Nyman Farm here in Prince Edward County. We signed up for a mixed-pack, it includes all kinds of meat.
Now here's the thing. We don't have a freezer. Or a fridge, for that matter. So Colleen has generously said yes to my request to keep my stuff in with hers. I pick up once a week, which is probably all she can stand!
Nyman Farm is a pretty busy place; she and the WOOFers just packed up the annual maple syrup crop into beautiful bottles, for sale on premises. I should ask her permission to give you guys a link to her website, http://www.jcnymanfarms.com/ , I am sure she won't mind!
What we are not doing is saving money. What we are doing is weaning ourselves off growth hormones, anti-biotics and questionable feed sources. No more factory raised "meat" products for us! We feel better already! FYI, factory-raised meat is what you get from super-markets (even if it is labelled "organic". The criteria for "organic" does not include how crammed-in the animals are.) and meat shops. Ask your butcher how the meat you are eating is raised...you don't know until s/he tells you.
What we are also doing is supporting a family farm. Nyman's don't want to have to afford to become "certified Organic", as they would then have to bill that expense to their customers. So they just call the meat pasture raised. They raise the feed as well, with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Local eating, buying and being entertained is becoming more and more accessible. It all depends on the choices you make at home. Don't wait for anyone else, including government bureaucrats or industry organicrats (isn't that a great term? I read it in Fields of Plenty, Micheal Ableman), to legislate anything, you'll be waiting until the sky darkens with transport-diesel fumes and your children are all sterile due to growth-hormones build up.
There's my wee rant-y! S'cuse me while I whip up some perogies for dinner. If I pay attention to the quantities of flour/water, I'll give you the recipe.

Spring has sprung!

2009-03-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, technically the ground is still frozen, but that doesn't mean a thing!!! We had some good thaw temperatures that have allowed us to screen some more soil for our raised garden beds. After procuring some good live-stock poo from our new farmer friends, we have built up some mighty good dirt to grow our kitchen garden in. We planted lettuce and Pak Choi yesterday. Jim's indoor tomato and pepper seedlings are doing famously, the best performers so far were sent by my gardening father from BC: heirloom Purple Cherokee tomatoes and New Mexico Hot Peppers. Can't wait!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2008-12-03T11:20:00.001-08:00

What a beautiful season!

This picture was taken some time in late November after one of those sticky, heavy snows. It was bright on the first day after the snowfall, but I didn't get the camera out until the nest day, a dull grey day, but pretty nonetheless.

This dull, grey weather has brought out the best and worst of living off-the-grid. Not enough sun to put heat into the house or power into the battery bank, so we have kept the fire going most of the day. The house is so small that it doesn't take much to heat it up with wood, also it is new construction and well-insulated so a little heat heat lasts a long time. Last night was a good example of leaving for a few hours and coming home to a yet-warm place. I guess we could have fired up the generator to boost the battery bank to give us some reading lights into the night, but that would defeat the rationale of the Mini House Lifestyle Concept. But what the hell else can we do with only candle-light, a roaring fire and no reading lights?! um...wait a minute...

Oh well, we'll get that all figured out. Let's talk about the future!

Just this morning we were talking about what has priority for the New Year. The porch? The interior trim? A wind generator? Landscaping? Our funds are quite limited now, so these decisions must be made carefully. We think the trim should go on as soon as possible, as we have found some draughts coming in through some of the windows. Then, I think, the porch should be finished. The south side will be a pergola; a simple overhead run of 2x6 boards on their sides to hold up vines and other green things to provide shade from the summer sun, yet allow the winter sun directly in. The other sides will have a tin-roof.

There is much to look forward to in the new year, besides all the house-y things. Seed catalogues in the early winter, gardens to plan, Bob& Linda will be clearing out a hunk of the property to get ready to start their house, all kinds of friends to keep up with. I am missing my sailor friends and really wish we could join them in their southern tours, but winter in Canada can be nice, too. Especially Christmas.

Around the House

2008-11-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the neigh-bors! This pasture is one farm south of here, just past the South Marysburgh Dump. Don't drink the water!

What I enjoy most about Prince Edward County is the view of the sky. So much wide open space is good for the soul. And weather forcasting. You'll always know what lies a half hour ahead of you.
The firewood has been here for at least two months, so it's nice and dry.

Our wood stove is so small, though, that Jim had to build a buck to hold one log so he could saw it in two. IE chainsaw!

I thought you'd like to see our whizzer! Our potty. The composting toidy! Works like a charm, just a bit breezy on the bum because of the 4" chimney creating the necessary draught to take odours and humidity outside.

Last but not least, our solar panels. Mounted on pressure-treated lumber, we saved hundreds of dollars by NOT mounting them on a metal & plastic stand that revolves to track the strongest rays of sunlight. This gives us enough power to run Jim's woodworking equipment, a vacuum and the house lights. The Surette batteries can store a fair bit of power, although not lots, so we do have to be careful.. The whole idea of the Mini House is to REDUCE, right? Right!

....now if we can just get The Big Three to invest in solar panels, we'd get this economy on the right track! BTW, there is a picture of Bill & Leslie, of Manjack Cay, BAhamas, on my other blog, pictured with their solar-powered golf-cart. Hey, GM, take some hints!

2008-11-08T10:03:00.000-08:00

Cheers!

Welcome our wee house-y! You've caught us on quite a food-production spree! Jim had just finished bottling his first batch of beer. I had made a few batches of jam. What a crazy aroma was in the air!

2008-11-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Here's the shower stall. Very Exciting! Salvaged from Bob's "must-go" shed, this baby is connected to the outlet pipe for the grey-water field. More info regarding this in the post below this one.

Here, I would like to discuss Mini Feature #1.

Water Reduction.

See the black thing hanging up above the shower? That is a plastic shower-bag. You fill it at the top, seal it and sit it in the sun for a few hours. If the sun is at all shining, you will have hot water. The shower-head isn't visible here, but it hangs below the bag. It saves about as much water as possible because you only get so much! 10 litres, as a matter of fact. So you don't let the water run when you are not using it. One bag is ju-u-ust enough to wash me once and my hair twice. When there is no sun, a hot kettle will do. We try to avoid burning any non-renewable fuel source, but there have been days...

2008-11-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

...and here is the piece de resistance! My beautiful, functional, practical galley! All the woodwork is done by Jim. White pine with some spruce kickin' around in there. The counter top is laminated maple. Missing are the cabinet-doors, will build those when we get more dough! The china-rack will remain door-less. Don't forget to double-click to enlarge the image so you can see all my stuff!

The Mini Features here are:

* the sink drains into a block-lined, sand-filled grey-water pit. Since we have a composting toilet, we don't need a septic field. We have saved so much money, it's crazy that anyone would prefer a septic system! I guess the winter management of a grey water field would be a bit scary (the outlet pipes could freeze!), but hopefully we won't be around for the deepest freeze. (Florida beckons)

* the Franklin "Intrepid" wood stove. Pretty and pretty small! Once again, small is cheap! But with such a small area to heat, it's really all we need. The place heats up in no time at all thanks to the insulation below the concrete slab, in the walls and ceiling. We did discover that we must cut our hunks of fire-wood in half so they fit, though! We got this from the local home-improvement place in Picton, used and for quite a good price.

So far, so good!

2008-10-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

...but still no pictures.
And life has been quite good. Snug as two bugs in one rug! Can't get any more snug than that! As a matter of fact, we are so damned snug that we have to crack a window open so the fireplace actually sends the woodsmoke up the chimney!
Yes, we made this important discovery one evening when the house started to fill up with smoke. I opened a window to help clear the smoke out, noticed it cease and desist, closed the window. More smoke piled into the house! Opened the window again, kept it open. Jim wondered how this could be. He figured it out. You see, the composting toilet has a pipe that goes above the roof line to ventilate its contents and evaporate the wee-wee. (hee-hee!) It works by taking air out of the house and moving it up the pipe on a hot-air-rises principle, same as the wood stove. But the toilet won! And literally sucked the wood stove's air right out! Now that's a well insulated, closed-up house!!! And one helluva breezy loo!
It has been fun transferring our knowledge of boat-living to mini-house-living. We are just beginning the process of planning and building the furniture, and hope to come up with some good designs to maximize storage space by building in-place stuff. Eventually, we will have rain-water collecting tanks built into the dining-nook settees and another under the bed. Also into the dining nook will be storage for preserves and all the beer Jim is making. And the wine we made at the local brew-on-premises place. And, by the way, the kitchen has been built, only need the cupboard doors now. Jim made it from some pretty nice vee-groove strips and the leftover maple from the laminated maple counter-top. I am the most spoiled kitchen-wench ever! Everything is handy, and very beautiful!
The comment made by most of our visitors regards the ceiling height. Before some have visited, they exclaim that they could never live in a 450 square foot home, but after they have been inside for a few minutes, they notice the cathedral ceiling in the main living area and the 9'3" ceiling everywhere else. You don't feel crowded with a lid like that!
After all the hard-core construction of the house, we are ready to take a break and work in the garden. (Some break!) We will be screening the small rocks from our soil and build up some raised beds for a vegetable garden. It'll take another year before our kitchen-compost pile is ready for spreading, even another for the toilet-compost for the flower beds and places where we want to plant trees, berry bushes and stuff. So in the meantime, I guess we'll plant what will grow in this heavy, sticky soil. Some of it is poorly drained, so we'll do what we can until the beautiful compost is ready.
So that's the plan! Having all this land available has Jim's imagination going. He is currently reading about bee keeping, maple-syrup-making, candle making and weaving. Wish the library had how-to books more current than 1986. The basic info is all there, but just a little dated.
We have become somewhat involved in our community. Jim has joined the PECurling Club, where he has volunteered to help make the ice. They are painting it today whilst I loaf about in the library, writing to you. I got a small job at the local cafe, I'll be serving tables two days a week. Might join the ShoutSister choir in January. Looking forward to becoming aqainted with my guitar on the nights Jim is out curling. There is a lucious-looking double-bass for sale at the local music store...aak!
Looking forward to showing you some pix when my laptop is back from getting repaired!
FYI, it is 0 dregrees outside, overcast with wind gusting up to 50 km, and a comfy 20 iside. No sun today, just the wood stove going. Oh, look! A tiny bit of snow! And still enough solar power to run the house lights and maybe a couple of cuts on the chop-saw.

We're In!

2008-10-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

My laptop is still fried, so no pikkies for you, so sorry!
But we have moved in! Yay! The board & batten siding is still missing its battens, but is painted a lovely soft yellow, trimmed in a rich blueberry. The wrap-around deck adds a hint of that "pressure-treated" green, which comes from a copper compound added to the mix. The GalvAlume roof is complete, although the tail of Hurricane Ike tried to swipe it when it was half-done. The drywall is taped and primed, ready for paint. The woodstove had it's inaugeral fire-up, works quite well. The passive solar gain is a thing of great beauty!!! All we really hafta do now is move the composting toilet inside. So I bought some lovely paint to get the loo ready, the same cream colour as Chelonidae's interior tongue&groove. Looks great with the spruce beam cieling.
And the flies are a real riot! No, really! Each fly-strip we put up comes back down with a feast for a family of bats, a pond of frogs and a pot of Venus Fly-Trap!
Pictures and an essay on Living Small as soon as I get some paint on the walls!
Cheers,
Mich

The Folks Came out for a What's See

2008-08-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

...and here is what they saw!
Beloware featured the Lovely Linda and Daring & Dashing John, trying to decide whether to dive or just jump in...to the greywater field! That's OK, Mom, we still love you!
But they did get to witness the roof strapping going on, and John got to partake in some very manly shovelling of sand. Sure made my stint at the shovel easier!
We are moving along at a great rate, the house is so small that nothing takes a lot of time. For example, the Tyvec went on in less that 45inutes. Board siding took three short days. Roof framing went up in one day. Windows took maybe two hours. Long live the Mini house!

Mind you, we have been working so hard, dodging rain showers and thunder storms, that we have been doing little else. Except yesterday. We attended one of the most beautiful weddings we've been to. Congratulations April & Ryan, good health and a hundred children!

2008-08-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

Check out THIS rack!

2008-08-19T16:49:00.001-07:00

2008-08-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, we've got the wall framing 75% up and are ready for...for...what? More rain? No! If we get more rain, Paul might never get his back-hoe back! ...wait a minute...
Anyway, isn't this the cutest wee house-y you've ever seen? I certainly think so! And besides, we have spent a pitance on building materials and effort! Long live the Mini House! Long live the Reduce Principle! Smaller really is the way of the future! Save money, fuel, hydro and the environment.
But a word about all this rain. Yucky! Apparently, The County is usually a dust-bowl by this time of year. A complete draought. Zero rainfall. Get the picture? No Rain? Pretty simple. Well, this summer, there has been over six inches. This may not seem like much, but let me put this in perspective for you: the term "inch " refers to the amunt of rainfal needed to cover the whole region with rain. Six inches is so off the map for rainfall that the soil can't drain it away fast enough and our fields are about 10% under water. Thats about three acres. That a $#!load of rain! Refer to the pictures if left in any doubt. And pray for some clear weather so Paul can get his back-hoe out!

We've been framed!

2008-08-11T17:30:00.001-07:00

The Mini House Rises!

2008-08-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

2008-08-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well! Believe it or not, we have got the first wall framed and standing! No shots, as it was too late in the day, but we can see it from our camp set-up 500 yards away.

The rain almost had us beat, but two fine lads and some exceptional equipment saved the day...and our backs! Paul and his dad, Bill, came out with a back-hoe and a tractor/mini-dump-truck combo came out on Saturday to fill, fill, fill! Gravel, sand and before we knew it, the moat around our wee castle was all gone!

All but one small corner. Here's the story. The equipment was creating these titanic ruts in the road. There has been so much rain his year in The County that neither Paul nor Bill could believe the ground could be this soft, but it is soft indeed! They had two more trips to go when they decided that they could not risk getting their equipment stuck in the mud. So Paul's back-hoe is still sitting in what will be our driveway. It's kinda stuck back there. Can he get it out before even more rain falls? After last night's rain, I'm tellin' ya, there ain't no way! There are soft ruts in our drive way that are over a foot deep. And then another 3/4 inch of rain fell!

Excavating the Mini House

2008-08-03T12:39:00.001-07:00

NOW What are They Doing?!

2008-08-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Blogger is back! And ready to tell all...the thrills (getting Bob and Linda to agree to sharing their land with us) the chills (camping out in this very rainy season!) and spills! (Well, none of us have had any spills yet, but I'll be sure to tell ya if we do!) We are romantically dreaming of bottles of delicious wine from the soil here in Prince Edward County. On Old Milford Road, as a matter of fact.

Any how, what we are really up to has more to do with living with as small an environmental footprint as possible. As some of you know, Jim & I spent the previous year living about our beloved (now sold to new owners) 36' wooden sloop Chelonidae. After we had gone down to the Bahamas and come back, we had put so many miles on our engine that we had to give ourselves a reality check: was this an environmentally responsible way to live?

We had burned about 800 gallons of diesel.

Things had to change!

So we took the best of living aboard and transferred our collective knowlege to an idea for a house. Firstly, we decided that we would like to try sailing south again, but buddy-ing up with another couple to save fuel, engine wear and tear and taking turns driving long distance. Secondly, we learned to live without great requirments for electricity and water. Thirdly, we adapted to our changing environment, for example when it rained, we collected rainwater, when it was a bit chilly, we turned on our cabin heater and heated a small space. When it was hot, we put up the Wind Scoop and caught more breeze to cool the cabin.

This translates to the Mini House design in quite a few ways. Building a small house will require less building material and energy to build. The chappie we hired to excavate actually laughed when he realized that in just three hours, he had dug the hole and made four very short trips to the neighboring quarry to get stone to fill the hole. Then he was done! Such a small foundation! 16 x 28 feet! Bigger than your average 36' boat!

A small house doesn't require a large amount of wood to burn for heat in the chance we are home during the winter. We will limit propane use while baking and cooking using a marine range, as the oven cavity is a fraction of the space of a conventional oven. Besides, I only bake enough for two people, why not go small? We have decided to cut energy demand by continuing to live without a fridge.

I don't know whether we will live without all luxuries, as we'd like an LCD TV to play movies and such, but we are minimalist type people. Growing an organic garden, helping Bob & Linda grow the vineyard, and perhaps working part-time will keep us out of trouble.

It takes so little to accomplish so much! We have also decided to drive our old Honda a little as possible, car-pool when we can, buy grocery items that have minimal packaging, recyle our egg cartons with local egg producers. Reduce, re-use, recycle sort of thing...no effort is too small! Especially reduce!