Winter Snowfall

The snow is steadily deepening around here. And Burley and I are enjoying watching every flake fall! We've been having fun snowshoeing through the woods among other things. Now that it is deep enough to not catch the snowshoes on every little bit of unburied brush and twig. For those of you who enjoy watching snowfall without having to shovel it, here's

How Much Produce did the Tiny House Garden Grow?

Now that I have a bit more time to catch up on some things thanks to winter slowing my life down, at least compared to summer, I wanted to check in on how the garden actually produced this year. Does the work it takes to grow fresh food here produce something useful? How much food did I get? This year I did something I've never taken the time to do before and weighed all the various things the garden grew as I harvested them so I would know the total poundage of food produced through the year. What would you guess that total ended up being?

Looking for a Gift?

Unlike the last one, a really quick post. Just in case you need a gift for someone who is not in need of something actually essential to life 😀, did you know you can buy your own photo prints and canvases of wildlife, landscapes, or even my tiny house? I hate to get all salesy, but then people say "Hey! You should sell some of your photos!" So I guess not everyone knows that I do just that. And did you know that scientists have found that even just looking at nature scenes lowers your stress levels, heart rate, and more? If that sounds interesting, I would love if you come on over and check out some of my work!

https://arielcelestephotography.zenfolio.com/ 

 

English Shepherd as a Homestead Dog

It is very hard to imagine my life without Burley in it now. When he joined my home at 11 weeks old, he fit in right from the start. I'd had a very close doggy companion years ago, as well as showing and breeding several Labradors. But after my last one passed, life circumstances related to work and housing did not permit having a dog in my life for years. Finally my situation changed, thanks in no small part to the move to my tiny house, to allow that possibility

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick "Hi" and best wishes to all you and yours today! I hope you have many things to be thankful for as I know I do. This is also the anniversary of when I moved into my tiny house. Thanksgiving day in 2014 was the first night I spent sleeping here. Now headed into my 7th year here, I have some thoughts.

Tiny House Cooking - Split Pea Soup

With the snow coming down out there, it's good weather for a nice hearty soup! Like most soups, you can pretty much toss anything you like in a pot together and it will probably be tasty. But this is a version of split pea soup that I enjoy. And it is a good way to use a bunch of root veggies that I have stored from when I cleaned everything out of the garden before it froze solid. First, what you can see in the above photo is

Beartooth Backpacking

Another flash back to a summer backpacking trip. This one took place near the end of July and was with my good friend Julie. It was extra fun for me because it was my first trip into a whole new mountain range that I've never visited before, the Beartooths. Julie has packed there before with her sons, but we went to some areas that were new to

Winter Arriving with a Bang!

It's only mid November, and while my area, as you probably know, is cold and snowy for much of the year, this one is currently getting off to a nice deep start! While I won't know what the whole winter will bring

Catching up from the Summer

All summer long I tend to be so busy that I rarely have time to write. But it's dumping snow outside, so I'm going to try to catch up on a bit of what I've been up to through the summer. Here's a look at the second backpacking trip of my

Early July Tiny House Garden

So far this year the garden has been thriving overall. Which is wonderful since gardening is one of my favorite things to do. As is eating wonderful fresh foods. 😊 While the weather has been pretty cool (here high in the mountains, that means around freezing) for most of the spring and early summer, the frost covers have continued to do their job well. I probably covered the garden 85% of the nights, as well as some days, from planting in early May till

Spring Backpacking and other Walks in the Woods

While there's still a lot of snow in the mountains above our house, we've been able to do some backpacking and hiking, two of my favorite activities. And one of my one younger brothers came to visit for a bit. Among other things like work projects, long conversations, and enjoying good homemade meals, we went on a two

Mini Documentary about Fy Nyth

Hey there! Just a quick note. Check out this little look at life around my house put together by Exploring Alternatives. I think they did a really nice job! Find their mini documentary about life here at Fy Nyth at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFI5m0n4G0Y&feature=youtu.be

The Best Brownies Ever (And they're healthy!)

Do you like brownies? Especially rich soft almost fudge like brownies? Then this is the recipe for you! You know how most of the time when you see something labeled "gluten free," "dairy free," "vegan," etc you can often assume it's kind of a shadow of the normal version. Less wonderful but maybe edible? At least that's often been my experience. These are not like that. They are better than any other brownie I've ever had!  And everyone

Random Spring Stuff around the Tiny House

Just a few quick glimpses into some spring chores over the past little bit. Though it's rapidly turning into summer around here! Before most of the spring things can really start, I'm usually itching to get going on stuff, so it's a good time

Planting a Tiny House Garden with No Frost Free Summer

Planting a garden in a mountain corner of Wyoming where there is no official growing season... As in most areas have a "last frost date" and "first frost date" and in general (though not always!) you can pretty much count on plants growing with no frosts and freezes in between. If you don't know what your growing season is, you can put in your location in this handy little calculator - https://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/index.php and it will tell you some general info. Like in my parent's area, they generally have a frost free growing season a little over 150 days long so they can plant things that take up to that many days to mature without freezing. But in my area, there's always a chance of frosts or freezes all summer. So really what I grow is kind of what many people would call a

Tiny House Garden - Is the Gopher Proofing Working?

The garden above is the one I started as soon as the snow melted my very first spring here in the tiny house. And after a lot of work to create it, mostly involving removing truckloads worth of rocks from the size of chicken eggs to dinosaur eggs (seriously, some weighed more than me! 💪), it thrived for several years. Those rocks all went into helping form the lane that leads to my house. Then that lovely garden was discovered by evil marauding little demons. Otherwise known as

First Time I've Ever Seen These From the Tiny House!

All the garden beds are finally bare of snow! Just barely. :) I had to share that little note just because it's exciting to me at this time of year.

 Anyway, you've probably seen a lot of different interesting wildlife around the tiny house here if you've followed life around here for any length of time. But the other day I glanced out the window and saw something I've never seen here in our clearing before! Not actually an uncommon creature. In fact much more common than many of the other things like wolves and mountain lions that have walked by. But in six years of living here,

Tiny House Life Frugal Tips - Ghost Power Draw

Ghosts sucking power from your outlets? Vampires drinking from your electric bill? Sounds scary or crazy, right? Well there's a real thing that often goes by the names ghost power use, vampire draw, phantom power use, and a host of other terms. For me this is an issue of concern due to my house being powered by a pretty small solar power system. So my electricity is limited in the first place and I don't want to waste it. But even if that's not the case for you, it's likely that you pay for the power you use. And who wants to pay more to a utility company than they need to?

Continuing with the theme of tips that can help reduce the total expenses one has, just in case you want the option to

Make Your Own Soda Pop in 12 Hours? Tiny House Cooking - Ginger Ale

Do you call that stuff soda? Pop? Soda pop? I've heard and lived in areas where each was commonly used. Anyway as we are probably all well aware by now, when you buy and consume a bottle of whatever you call it, you are not building your health at all. With massive sugar loads, increasing incidences of everything from diabetes and heart disease to gout and dementia, to obesity and cancer risks tied to soda consumption, clearly none of us benefit from drinking them. But, some of us really, really, REALLY, like them. 

I can't say I do personally, though I have good friends and family members who crave soda at an addiction level. I'm very thankful to have grown up in a house where soda was just something that was not normally present or an option, and I never really developed much of a taste for them. Now something like gummy candies, that's a whole 'nother topic for me! I might even do a whole post just about that sometime.... But back to soda. The only thing in that family that I have ever truly enjoyed is

Late Winter? Or is it Spring?

Greetings from Burley, the wet rat dog, and I. 😀 It's warmed enough for wading in the creeks to be fun. At least for him, I am not nearly so into wading in water that is approximately the temp of ice melt. He however adores it, and begs for more sticks to be thrown in the water pretty much endlessly. When he's all wet, you can see his neat coat color, dark shaded or wolf sable. Every hair that looks black most of the time, is actually

What Can You Do if Quarantined in a Tiny House?

I know that currently much of the world is in some kind of quarantine or lockdown either voluntarily or mandatory. And many are struggling to find things to do to entertain or occupy themselves with much of their regular activities canceled or closed. Since I feel very blessed that little has changed about my life here in my tiny house, I thought I'd try to make a little list of what I stay busy with. Maybe some of them will be things you are interested in or enjoy too, or maybe they'll just inspire new ideas of your own! I sure there's no way that all of them will work in every place or interest everyone, but I feel like I have so many interests, hobbies, and things I'd like to learn that I could fill several lifetimes before I got bored! While this is by no means an exhaustive list, here's a lot of what keeps me busy at various times during the year or

A Bit of Recent Tiny House Life

Just some quick glimpses into what we've been doing around the tiny house lately. The good part of the way I've chosen to live for years now is that my normal life is apparently pretty close to what people call quarantine. 🙂 So other than not being able to workout in the gym a couple times a week, my life is pretty much the same as normal. And for this I feel very

Tiny House Cooking - Fire Cider

Have you heard of fire cider? This is another thing I like to keep on hand much like my ginger brew I've shared before. Both are tasty and I enjoy them just for that. But they also both seem to have benefits for your health and immune system so I like having them on hand for any time I feel like my body might be fighting some kind of bug. With this one though, you need some patience as it takes four to eight weeks for the flavors to marinate. So the best time to make it was two months ago. 😉 But if you didn't do that, the next best time to make a batch is

Housekeeping & Blog Info

Just a little tiny housekeeping stuff of two kinds around here. First a little business. Then a look back through time. :) It's come to my attention that some folks get the auto email alerting you to a new blog post, and then try to comment by replying to that email. The only thing that does, thanks to some kind of software magic I figured out at one point by watching a tutorial and have now forgotten, is to automatically send you an alert so you know when there is a new blog post.... and no one sees replies to that. So please comment so right under the post! I love hearing what you folks are doing, what the weather's like in your area, and answering questions. Though I know sometimes it takes me a bit to have time to sit down and write replies to everyone.

Anyway, on to fun stuff. The photo above was about the second day after I moved into Fy Nyth. I know many of you never saw it back then so I thought a look through the changes as I gradually rearranged things to best fit my needs would be fun and possibly provide thoughts or ideas for how to best fit your own needs. As you can see, I was just trying to get everything in the door. Below is actually what it looked like just a few hours before

Snowshoeing & A Bit of what I Do For Work

Hello from Burley and I who are still very much enjoying things like long snowshoes through the woods! Thanks to our good friend Beth for snapping this great shot of us together on the last snowshoe she joined us for. Around here winter is gradually turning into spring. The snow is still quite deep in most areas, but a few cleared spots that also face south have melted out and become mud. 

I hope you are all doing well and getting to do something you

March Snowpack Comparisons around the Tiny House

You folks always seem to enjoy weather and snow comparisons. And I find it fun to scroll back through older photos and be reminded of the differences myself. So here's one for March! The above photo is today, March 19, 2020. As you can see, there's still a good bit of snow around. It's about my waist level in most areas where it has not been shoveled higher. Below is 

We Won!

Thanks in large part to all of you, this photo won that contest I mentioned! Folks were asking me for the results, but the entry and then judging deadlines were such that I just got them myself. And this photo is the winner! Thank you very much to all of you who gave it a vote so it made it into the judge's consideration. The prize for this competition was a year's free subscription to the website that I use to host my photo sales. This is a bit off the normal topics of tiny house life, gardening, cooking, off grid life, etc. but at least some of you know that another of my passions is wildlife photography. Occasionally though someone will suggest that I make photos available for sale, so apparently not everyone knows

Pandemics, Panics, Murphy's Law, and Living in a Tiny House

I hope you are all having a wonderful, healthy, and safe winter, spring, or whatever season it is for you at the moment! Recent events, or more accurately, some of the reactions I've seen from people to them, have prompted me to cover a little bit about what I do when things go wrong around here. I've been asked many variations of these questions over the years. "What if you get sick?" "What if you get hurt?" "What if you are snowed in?" "What if your vehicle breaks down?" "What if any of the other million things someone can think of goes wrong?" 

The short answer is that I plan on things going wrong, breaking down, and getting ill. Because this is what I've observed through both my life and broader history. Stuff breaks. Weather does unexpected things. Things wear out. I get ill. And usually all these things happen at the most inconvenient times too. 

One good example is shortly after I moved into my tiny house here, the heater broke. Now I'd just moved in recently. I only had one heater, a situation that is no more as I now have at least three options to heat my house! It also happened to be a Friday night. Also it happened to be twenty something below zero fahrenheit. Also, the closest heater repair guy was a 17 hour round trip drive away in the winter, and did I mention this was heading into a weekend? Also, I happened to pick up some kind of stomach bug and was flat on the couch throwing up. Too

Tiny House Life Frugal Tips - Cut Your Own Hair

I've been pondering for a bit a lot of the questions and comments I get that relate to something along the lines of "how do you afford to buy a tiny house/do what you're doing/etc." Well, in general, there's two basic ways to be able to have what you want I've found. Earn more money, or spend less money. Now there's lots of experts out there who have much advice and ideas on all aspects of the "earn more" side of things. From jobs and skills training, to the most profitable fields to work in, to investing and more. All of that is far from my area of experience for the most part. I've generally found that personally, it's easier and more fun to find ways to spend less than earn more. 

Now I certainly don't have a goal of spending as little as humanly possible though there are folks out there who can advise you on how to do that as well. For me, my goal is more about spending money only when I find my life benefits greatly from the thing that money buys. And for many things, I just simply enjoy doing them myself more than paying someone else to do it for me, not having them, bartering for things, or using a different/older/second hand item versus buying something new. Some things I would still rather pay someone else to do. Like I just really don't enjoy

Winter Bird Watching from a Tiny House

Over the past few years I have really enjoyed watching the birds that frequent the woods around our tiny house and the feeders. I have to thank my good friend and fellow tiny house dweller Moose for giving me a bird feeder he had when he moved. The little birds that started to visit it inspired me to create the current bird feeder setup I have. (It's so far been bear and squirrel proof! Check it out if you are interested - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zylzSISwE) There were birds around before for sure, but I didn't get to see so many or watch them as up close. Watching and listening to the many little feathered friends is so much fun, plus they do a lot of work for me. Constantly patrolling the garden in the summer for any little unhelpful bugs that might be trying to take over, searching out the larva and eggs over the winter, and eating a lot of mosquitoes! They are great neighbors to have. And the time to enjoy watching, photographing, and listening to them is one of the many things I enjoy about living a slower paced life, much of which has been made possible by my tiny house. So I thought it would be fun to share with you all some

Tiny House Cooking - Honey Oat Bread

 I've shared several different ones before, but here's another bread recipe I really enjoy with a nice warm bowl of soup. All the below zero weather recently makes me enjoy these kinds of meals. This one is easier and faster than most breads because it's not a yeast bread, but a quick bread. It only uses baking powder / soda and so does not have any of the "touchiness" of a yeast bread. This bread is really fast to mix up, you do not need to wait for

Can You Help Fy Nyth Win This?

Hey all! Just a really quick post asking for your assistance. You can help this photo's chances of being picked by the judges in a photography contest. If you have a minute to go give it a vote, I'd much appreciate it! Just click here:

https://woobox.com/56uw8x/gallery/g_0bq0VqNCY

The top 10 photos as voted by the public get consideration from the judges for the winning spot. When I last looked, my photo of Fy Nyth was in the top 20, so it would be sweet if it could make it into that consideration! And... back to regularly

Changing Showpack Depths

Up to the first of January, this winter was running a little below average snowfall. Of course long term averages are made from higher and lower years. As you can see in the above photo, heading into the new year the snow around the house was not very deep.

 Then at the begining of January, it started dumping. It snowed almost every day for the first half of the month, and actually broke records for January snowfall totals. Which has brought us up to about average for the whole winter so far. Anyway, I thought you might all enjoy photos of

Possible New Video Hosting Site?

Hey folks. Less fun stuff post here. For everyone wandering about videos, I've been playing around with other potential video hosting platform options. This one seems to work more of the time than most (as in from the upload end, it only glitches about half the time). I have a handful of videos there now and would be curious to hear feedback on how the viewing experience is for you all from the viewing end? Do they load and play smoothly on various devices? Is the quality and sound the same as you are used to for my videos? Is it easy to navigate and find things? Any other thoughts you have? https://www.brighteon.com/channel/fynyth 

(For those who will ask, yes I've been trying to copy videos to BitChute too, and over the past 9 weeks, have not yet had a single one of 550+ videos successfully upload to their site though I have hundreds of failed tries.)

And, of course none of this changes anything about the FTC's stated goal of pursuing individual creators with massive fines over vague rules that could include

Winter Wonders - Snowshoeing, Wildlife, Ice, and Snow

We've been very much enjoying winter around here! Many miles of snowshoeing through woods and along rivers have provided delightful glimpses of beautiful things in the natural world.

 The snowpack, the amount on the ground, is always changing with new storms, well below zero weather that sucks moisture back out via sublimation (frozen water turning directly into vapor without melting into a liquid first), or a warmer day with some sunshine that helps compact all the layers from the various storms together as the snow settles. The snow fall totals are a different measurement from snowpack, generally measuring the amount of new inches that have fallen once a day before all the above mentioned effect have much time to act on that new snow. At the moment this leaves the mountain above me reporting over

Tiny House Cooking - Instant "Cheesecake"

Most dessert type foods I can easily pass on. Cakes? Most are dry and I don't enjoy them. Cookies? Eh, if they are really fresh and soft, but otherwise not my thing. Doughnuts? Unless it's within about 10 seconds of coming out of someone's skillet after being home made, don't even really like them. And so on. But I have a serious weakness for anything made with cream cheese. Anything. Like right down to eating a block of plain cream cheese. I really really like the stuff!

 If I'm ever out for dinner with a friend, I'll most likely pass on any dessert offered. Unless the waiter mentions cheesecake. Then I will almost always have a piece. And of course I can bake my own cheesecake. I've made a wide variety over the years and enjoyed every one. One of the best I ever had was a 8 inch high pistachio cheesecake made for me by a good friend as a birthday gift. Truly amazing! But... I don't do this much as my body doesn't seem to digest dairy well. As much as I enjoy the stuff, I avoid consuming it most of the time.

 Occasionally though, I just really crave the rich creamy taste. And if you ever feel the same, here's how I get that cheesecake like fix, in less then a minute, without having a whole cheesecake

Best Snowshoe for Deep Powder, New vs. Old Snowshoes

As I mentioned in one of the last posts, we've been doing a lot of snowshoeing recently. And as discussed, I have found modern style snowshoes to be pretty ineffective for actually moving through deep snow. I've pondered for several years if I needed a new-to-me pair of snowshoes and if so, what would best fit my needs. I have found over time, this is a good process to work through to be sure I am going to acquire an item I actually need or want and know I will use for sure. I don't have time or space in my life for things that don't fit that description, so I don't want to waste any money or energy on any of the trillions of items in the world that I do not need or want and know I will use for sure. 

 So, when I'm thinking through something I might want, unless it's something I already had that is totally worn out, broken, and unrepairable, and needs replacing with the same item, this is what I usually do. Think about, do I need this? Almost always the answer is

Another Big Nighttime Visitor

A couple mornings ago, when Burley and I woke up and first went outside, I saw new tracks in the snow. One advantage of getting more snow almost every day, is the ability to easily pick out and follow fresh tracks. Burley has a pretty huge foot print for a barely 50 pound dog. Much larger than many dogs his size, and this serves him well for living in deep snow country as those big feet act a bit like snowshoes. But at first glance I knew these tracks were not Burley's. They were two to three times larger than his feet. My first thought was that our resident mountain lion had visited again. But a second glance let me know that they were not cat tracks. Just like a house cat, mountain lions can retract their claws, so their paw prints just have a pad and toes, no nail print visible. Each of these tracks I was looking at had a very clear nail print at

Snowshoeing with Burley

With lots (more than 11 feet in the mountains above me since January first alone!) of snow, Burley and I have been enjoying quite a few snowshoes through the woods. I love being able to float over the deep snow, the quiet of the winter woods, and

Winter Squash

Some of the many squash I helped grow and harvest at a previous job in a different and much warmer location!

 Winter squash (the hard, sometimes oddly shaped and colored ones, not things like zucchini which are summer squash) are a great way to get lots of vitamins, minerals and fiber, among other thing, into your diet in the winter. Check out http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2751/2 or other sources if you want to see a list of all the vitamins and minerals they contain. They also store very well, so are a great winter food. I would love to grow and store my own as they are pretty easy to grow. If you have a warm enough climate. Most varieties take a 100 day plus frost free growing season and here we're lucky to have 50 days without snow. Usually with multiple frosts in that period. But wether you can grow your own or buy them, one of the best things about squash is how easy they are

2019 Highlights

Sometimes on new years day, I want to tell people, "you know, a new year starts for you each day you wake up still alive." Do something with it. Don't wait for some random day on a calendar to make resolutions and do new things. If it's something you want to or know you need to do, start right now. Whatever day on a calendar that is. 

That said, it is nice to look back through what happened in the last while every now and then. So here's some highlights