Spring Is Springing!

Overnight little leaves are popping open, small flowers are in bloom, the creek is roaring with snowmelt, and even flowers that shouldn't be blooming around here till June are wide open. Crazy year! Also I was able to get a neat shot of one of the deer that lives around here as she hopped over the fence and of the sunset as you can see it through my reading nook windows and the trees.

Video Tour of Power System

Are you interested in more info on my off grid power system? I finally did a video tour of that aspect of my house. Here are links to the particular parts I used for this setup.

I bought most of the parts for the Solar System as a kit

Batteries, I have 5 of these now

Monitor

Generator (I love this one, and wrote a whole post about it here) 

Charger for the generator

 I'd be happy to try to answer any further questions you have as well!

Tiny Spring Chores

It was a lovely sunny day here at Fy Nyth. The snow is almost all gone with only a few patches left in the shadiest spots now. 

I was able to spend time washing the outside of the windows for the first time since I moved in right at the start of winter. I hate window washing personally, but it is certainly nice to have them all looking sparkly and free from the road dirt that was on some of them since delivery.

And then I worked on stripping off all the door to a bunch of reclaimed old lockers that are going to shortly be forming a ring of planters surrounding my house. They should also double as a skirting of sorts. I can't wait to get them filled up with dirt and get at least a few hardy flowers growing. Sadly, our last frost date here is still almost 10 weeks away. 

I was also able to work on several other projects since I still have a few days off before I go back to work. I painted my large propane tank black so it blends into my surroundings better. The white it originally was didn't really stand out until almost all the snow melted, but now it does. Then topped off my water tank, kicked the generator on the top off my batteries, and did a little work on my remodeling project on the interior of my camper van. Later I cooked up some dinner, washed a pile of dishes, and spent some time reading and writing. Having two full weeks off has been pretty nice after working almost every day all winter!

Turning old lockers into planters.

My now black propane tank.

And the sparkly outsides of my windows. I should have taken a shot before I washed them just for the impressive comparison!

More wildlife around Fy Nyth

As spring starts to show up here, I've got some new creatures wandering around my house. Here are some of the visitors that I have been able to get shots of.

Me and my house

My little sister being here has given me a chance to get a few photos with myself in them that are kinda hard to take on my own. So, if you are wondering who it is that writes this blog and lives in Fy Nyth, here you go. This is me with my little house.

Little sister visits the tiny house

My youngest sister came to WY for a visit! Now Fy Nyth has had it's first week long guest stay here. We've had a lot of fun exploring the area, camping, eating, napping, hot springing, visiting the WY Dinosaur Museum, and hanging out in my little house.

Podcast interview

There's a live podcast about this house! Kyle has recently started a podcast dedicated to tiny houses  over at LetsBuildATinyHouse.com and I did the interview a few weeks ago. Now it's live. Go check our episode out over at his site:

http://www.letsbuildatinyhouse.com/ariel

Dinner party

Dinner last night with a few friends. It's crazy how much space this places appears to have even with three people in the shot for a sense of scale! And no, it's not any kind of wide angel shot, just your average iphone.

My mobile life

I've realized recently that I do have a very mobile life. I've been thinking about this as I work on remodeling my van to better suit my camping needs. More about this below. These various versions of shelters and lots of time spent living like this are probably why the switch to a tiny house was really not difficult for me space wise, even though I had been living in a much larger house before.

First, obviously if you've been following this blog, you know my house is small and on wheels. It has about 229 square feet of space. But as you can see in these first three photos. It's very comfy and holds all my large belongings.

But while mobile, my house doesn't actually move. And has no plans to anytime soon. A lot of dishes and other things would have to be packed if it did, otherwise they would all come crashing off their shelves.

So while traveling (which in the summer at least is just about every week, a little less often in the winter), we (my friend Seth and I most of the time) can go car camping with this lovely van I drive. It is my full time vehicle as well, but is really laid out for camping. And happens to have just over 60 square feet of floor space inside. The interior needs a lot of work to be more efficient for my needs and to look the way I prefer, but the photo below gives you a glimpse of the interior pretty much as it was when I bought the van. We've already used it lots of times, but I am hoping to redo a lot of the interior in some of my free time the next two weeks while I have off work for the off season here.

My van setup includes it's own set of beds, bedding, kitchen set up (plates, utensils, grill, burner, cooler, etc.), lighting, curtains, and so on. Since all of that, and most of my other outdoor gear, lives in my van, when I want to go somewhere, all I really have to do is fill a water jug, pack up some food, and take off. The roof tube I added holds a lot of fishing rods which is great, because now they don't have to live inside the vehicle, making the interior much easier to move around in.

I even have a large car camping tent that works as a guest room or overflow quarters while close to a vehicle. It's a 4 man instant tent with the poles permanently attached and can be set up in less than a minute. Below is the view looking out it's door. I don't seem to have a photo of the outside of this tent for some reason. It is very comfy and heavy though, so you certainly wouldn't want to carry it too far.

Then we have my truly tiny and mobile shelter. My backpacking tent. While my house weighs a little over 10,000 lbs., this set up is down to 1 lb. 9 ozs. And now we're down to 34 square feet of space. Amazingly, this is still fairly comfortable for two people to live in, even for a week or more at a time. Below you can see Seth and I both able to sit totally upright in our camping chairs inside, with lots of room to spare. 

Again, I have a third and totally separate setup for beds, bedding, cooking, etc. And the whole system actually comes in at about 18 pounds including luxury stuff like a journal and camera and all my clothing. All I need to add to that is food and water, and I can be very comfortable for a long time, anywhere in the wilderness. So as I said, being very comfortable living in all of these situations, the very smallest of which I've had longer than any of the others, makes living tiny truly easy for me.

I suppose starting with the tiniest end of things make it work kind of like the "Cow In The Kitchen" story for me. Everyone is different, but if you really want to go tiny and never have at all, maybe this kind of approach will make it easier for you?