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