Set up! (A tiny home/land development report)

Well, well, well.

Here we are.

Yesterday morning, Eastlink came and connected my Internet. And now I am comfortably geared up here until October.

The Internet hook-up was the stickiest piece of this whole process! It required FOUR separate calls to Eastlink. TWO of them were required to try to sort out the mess made on the first call. And I had two separate technician visits. It required a bit of patience, but we got there in the end. 

I am proud and happy to announce the end of Phase 1 of this project. Seven and half weeks to get from a space cleared out among the trees to home, garden, shed, civic address, mail delivery, electricity and high-speed Internet. I am pretty impressed with everyone I've worked with to make this happen (except for that first – #facepalm – contact at Eastlink). I have been blessed with professional, efficient, respectful and pleasant people working on this project. 

I feel very happy to be settled for the rest of the summer, without any more major projects needing to be undertaken on my land. My main focus now is to buckle down and work hard at my computer to save up for Phase 2. There is a slight chance that I might decide to dig a well this summer, but for now, I continue to be grateful for my water-sharing neighbours, friends and family members.

My folks have given me a small chest freezer to put in my shed which means I can easily make ice to keep my cooler cool, and I have longer term food storage – between the freezer, my garden, electricity and Internet access, I won't need to go into town as frequently.

Essentially, I am content. Deeply content. And so is Salinger, who is contemptuously licking one of his back legs as I write this (he is cold-shouldering me because I did not respond with glee to stepping on a disembodied rodent face in the house this morning).

This is probably my last tiny home update for a while (except for some possible garden updates through the summer). Stay tuned for writing on other topics.

Car Chaos

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The cold I came down with this week has been dragging on, so while I felt fairly energetic, I figured I better not expose myself to people who hadn't already come in contact with my germs.

Plenty of projects at home to take care of, I thought, and decided to tackle a big one: cleaning out my car.

As I believe I have mentioned before in this blog, I am a messy person. A chaos muppet. When faced with a clean-up job, I procrastinate. I doubt my car has been truly cleaned in a couple of years. Sure, I've loaded some things into it and unloaded others, but emptying it out to the floor mats just doesn't happen very often.

And, when you take into account that I have moved 3 times in the last 14 months, never fully packing or unpacking for any of those moves, you might have some idea of the strange assortment of things that had gotten forgotten, abandoned, eaten, drunken, neglected, stranded and/or ground to dust in my car.

Or do you?

Did I, even?

Not really. And so, to entertain myself during the boring task of cleaning out my car yesterday, I took an inventory of everything that was in there.

I find it a shockingly and hilariously long and varied list – with some of the items too numerous for individual mention graphed in a bar chart for your convenience – as an extra treat if you make it all the way to the end of this post. 

Here, for your entertainment and enlightenment, starting at the trunk and working counter-clockwise, follows a list of the contents of my car on May 29, 2015:

THE TRUNK

• 1 half of a large garbage bag of paper to be recycled (from my move out of my winter rental a month ago)
• A basket with the remnants of my land-warming toast (glasses, sparkling wine wrapper, etc, from May 16)

• 1 cardboard tube from a bottle of 10-year-old Irish whiskey
• 1 unopened box of Kleenex (in the plastic wrapping in which it was sold along with 5 other boxes, many months ago)
• 2 rolls of paper towel in their wrappings
• 2 stone book ends
• My purse
• 1 undergarment, 3 socks and a t-shirt
• 1 bag of used books to be donated to the Waldorf School book sale
• 1 bottle shampoo
• 1 bottle conditioner
• 1 guitar stand
• 1 string of fairy lights
• 2 Eco-friendly reusable produce bags
• 1 uneaten bag of Jelly Tots (which were immediately eaten)
• 1 empty (and punctured) bottle of sunscreen
• 1 container used to pour water into my steam cleaner
• 1 hot pink skate guard
• The plastic cover from a stack of blank DVDs containing my old glasses, hollyhock seeds, a short capo, dead batteries, used stamps for donation to the Lion's Club and other detritus.

• 1 copy of The Pocket Rumi
• Peppermint foot lotion
• 7 bungie cords (assorted lengths)
• 2 packages of beads and one of shepherds hooks to make earrings
• 1 ball of sock yarn
• 1 pair of thread snips ("antique" ones which have been in my family for years)
• 1 defunct stick of deodorant
• A scattering of loose coffee beans
• 1 bag of assorted rug hooking supplies
• The Little River Folk Society's banner
• 1 empty clementine crate
• 1 lighter
• 1 bag containing hand-me-down cat food from someone's finicky cat
• 1 pad of paper
• 1 pink owl barrette 
• 1 random L-shaped piece of transparent acrylic that says "Personal Stamp Exchange"
• 1 drug store bag containing foam ear plugs and a defunct Lipsyl
• 1 obsolete Canadian Tire Advantage card
• Empty packaging from some kind of gift cards
• A ziploc bag full of Chimes Ginger Chews
• The top of a tea tin (the tin, lidless and empty, is in my kitchen)
• 1 roll of green masking tape
• 1 flattened cardboard box
• 1 scrap piece of 3/8 inch plywood
• 1 random bit of wood

• 1 porn DVD (title withheld) that a hilarious friend of mine found lying on the street in Shelburne and left in my car as a hilarious joke (I didn't find it for months – and thought someone completely different had left it in my car – AWKWARD!)
• 1 empty paper potato bag
• 1 piece of driftwood
• 3 copies of my most recent CD, Blackbirds
• 1 wrapper from a ball of mozzarella (What the–?)
• Shattered fragments of mussel shell
• 1 (losing) bingo scratch card
• 2 black plastic bottoms from reusable shopping bags (one of them badly torn)
• 2 pieces of metal and 2 pieces of plastic with no known use

Mystery metal and plastic bits

• 2 toy "baseball" bats - one red, one blue
• 1 eyeglass case, containing my "old" sunglasses
• 1 loonie, 3 quarters, 2 dimes

BACK SEAT – PASSENGER SIDE

• 6 Blue beer bottles
• Several dozen quilting magazines, looking for a new home
• 1 Printer drum for recycling
• 1 Yoga bag containing 2 socks and nothing else
• 2 yoga mats
• 3 origami cranes: yellow, pink, orange 
• 1 bag from The Source containing two batteries for my guitar tuner
• 1 surplus phone I've been meaning to give to friends every time I've seen them over the past three weeks
• 3 pieces of throw rug undermatting
• Another undergarment
• Another t-shirt
• Paperwork from my recent land purchase
• The business card of buddy at the department of transportation
• 1 new package of blue-tack
• 1 dishcloth
• The USB and power cable from the printer I dropped off as e-waste last week
• 1 never-worn scarf that I've been meaning to find a home for
• 1 hoodie
• 1 unopened package of guitar strings
• 2 Hair elastics
• 1 Box of buttons handed down to me by my mom
• 1 eyeglass case (empty)
• Another undergarment
• 1 mitten
• 1 unopened package of what I still think of as "typewriter" paper (100% recycled)
• 1 plastic bag containing a sweater, a skirt, a package of earring backs, a Ziploc bag full of bay leaves, a dish scrubber and some unopened mail from 6 or 8 months ago (I have not idea how these items come to be in the same plastic bag)
• A bag from my last gig containing CDs, a patch cord and some general flotsam
• ANOTHER undergarment
• 1 plastic knife
• 1 broken windshield wiper and the packaging – and assorted unnecessary spare fasteners – from the new wiper
• 1 empty, clean sauerkraut carton (don't ask!)
• 1 copy of Canada's food guide
• 1 empty, flattened arrowroot cookie box
• 1 Tupperware container that belongs to the mom of one of my best friends from high school (which I have been meaning to drop back to her ever since I cleaned it out after enjoying BBQ leftovers late last summer)
• 1 seemingly clean Ziploc container inside a very dirty, sticky plastic bag
• The packaging for a 2 terabyte external drive
• 1 half-empty box of Twinings orange, mango and cinnamon tea
• 1 tuner pedal
• 1 dime

FRONT SEAT – PASSENGER SIDE

• Something that used to be fruit - it looks like it might have once been a pear or apple (I'll spare you the indignity of a photo)
• 1 emergency multi tool in unopenable packaging (the joke is you'd need one of those multi-tools to get it open)
• 1 map of NS
• 1 thank you card written from my mother to my then-boyfriend
• 1 battered William and Kate "collectible" postcard (I have NO idea where this came from)
• 1 unopened box of official Scrabble scorecards
• 1 container of Purel
• 1 tin of ginger mints
• 1 empty envelope
• 1 folding fan
• 2 twonies, 3 quarters, 1 dime, 1 nickel and 2 pennies

FRONT SEAT – DRIVER'S SIDE (in, around and under):

• 1 completely intact Remembrance Day poppy
• 1 Hair elastic
• The decimated remnants of the cardboard floor mat the Rust Check guys put there three months ago 
• 1 pair foam ear plugs in a plastic case
• 1 loonie, at least, I think it's a loonie:



It is a loonie! I shined it up with a little Coca Cola this morning

CENTRE CONSOLE

• 14 CDs and/or cd cases, mostly mismatched
• 1 Stick deodorant
• 1 Package of clasps for making necklaces
• Expired throat lozenges and cold medication
• 1 Empty, and somewhat crushed, paper wrapper from a roll of loonies
• 1 Package of thumbtacks
• 1 Small wooden figurine of an orange cat
• My wallet
• 1 orange sharpie
• What appears to be a solar universal phone charger - I did not remember that I had this and can think of so many times that it would have been useful over the past four years. 
• 1 roll of transparent Scotch tape
• 1 unopened eyeglass cleaning kit
• Defunct air freshener 
• 1 copy of Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue

BACK SEAT – DRIVER'S SIDE

• 1 Broken hand fan
• 2 Small ziploc containers, one badly cracked (clean)
• 1 Pyrex food container with plastic lid (clean)
• 1 Bag containing an unfinished crochet project
• 1 "Frankenspanker"

• 1 Microphone "pop" screen
• 1 pillowcase 
• 1 small bag containing odd socks
• 1 piece of drycleaner's plastic containing one sock (Hunh?)
• 1 mason jar
• 1 facecloth
• 1 literary journal
• 1 
• 2 empty cardboard boxes which used to contain tea bags
• 1 long lost cookie
• 1 cordless phone
• 1 plastic cap of a USB thumb drive (I think I lost the drive a while ago)
• 1 quarter, 1 dime

EMPTY!

And now my car is basically empty. Here's photographic proof of the (almost entirely) empty trunk:

As long as this post was, there was still a fair bit more stuff that I found in my car. For the sake of efficiency, I have arranged the "too numerous to mention" items for you in a bar chart. 

And too numerous to even put in the bar chart (it would have dwarfed all of the other bars to insignificance) was the large amount of mail, both opened and unopened, mostly damp, puckered and stained. There were dozens and dozens and dozens of envelopes and flyers.

PS: Total amount of money found: $8.32. I plan to use all of that at the car wash. The outside of my car is just as dirty as the inside used to be.

2014 Year in Review: In Better Perspective

It is very easy to lose one's sense of perspective

After I wrote yesterday's post, about planning for 2015, I realized just how down on 2014 I was feeling. I assigned it the word heartbreak, talked about mistakes, consequences, struggles.

My feelings about 2014 have been feelings of defeat, disappointment, depression, de-regulation, depletion, and just about every other "de" and "dis" word you can think of.

This is not the way I want it.

Yes, the year contained a lot of stress, sadness and disappointment. Yes, a lot of things didn't go the way I wanted them to. And yes, I wound up feeling pretty awful about myself, about my choices, about EVERYTHING!

And therein lies the problem. 

Because that is not the truth.

When I look back over the past year, I can see just as many things that went right as went wrong. Blessings were heaped on me and I accomplished, contributed to and enjoyed a great deal. 

So here's a timeline of awesome for 2014:

January

• Dear friends offered me a place to put my tiny home and have my wired office

February

• Many friends helped me try to prepare to move my tiny home (albeit unsuccessfully, but that was the weather's fault; sometimes things are simply outside of our control)
• Against all odds, the lovely fellow who created my tiny home succeeded in moving it to its new location

February onwards

• A close family member made an excellent recovery from a serious health crisis
• I took a bold step by enroling in an online course called Transform Your Relationship with Food; I began to finally make some breakthroughs in an area of my life where I have been stuck for many years

March

• I moved into my tiny home; my adorable and very beloved cat, Salinger, came to live with me

February and March

• I had lots of work, which was both enjoyable and helped me to financially recover from the work drought I experienced in the summer/fall of 2013

March–April

• A number of friends, on a number of occasions, helped me move my things from my rented house to my tiny house

April–October

• I helped a friend run the West Dublin Market for another summer; we continued to create something fun and beautiful in our community

April & September 

• I emerged from my performance sabbatical, briefly, twice, to play lovely shows with Shawna Caspi, one at Rose & Kettle Concert Sessions and one at the West Dublin Hall

May–August

• I helped friends run a concert series that culminated in the Pennybrook Festival in August; the festival was a hoot and all of the music that we brought to the community throughout the summer was excellent

July

• I met my Dad for a trip to New York City, he treated me to a couple of days of relaxing hotel living, two Broadway shows, gourmet shopping and some great meals; we had a good visit after not having seen each other for a couple of years
• I volunteered as a stage manager at the Harmony Bazaar Festival of Women and Song; I had never stage-managed before — it was a bit nutty, but fun

August

• I had much more work than I expected; I feel very grateful for ongoing opportunities both to earn money and grow my client base

September

• I think the weather was nice and I got to go to the beach frequently (September was kind of a write-off; I was pretty depressed and I don't remember much)
• I decided that I didn't have it in me to over-winter in my tiny home; a friend hooked me up with a sweet winter rental

October

• I realized I was depressed, told folks and received touching support from many people (both expected and wholly unexpected)
• I took steps to devise and implement a plan of self-care; I began to experience some improvements to my mood and health
• The generosity of a family member enabled me to meet my goal to decrease my indebtedness by 12.5%!

November

• I went to Happy Valley-Goose Bay as one of the visiting artists for the Labrador Creative Arts Festival; an intense, interesting and fun experience

December

• Almost over (I really don't like December; but it's ALMOST OVER—hooray!)

As we say in my family, "It's all in the way you hold your mouth." 

I would rather smile than scowl.

I'm glad I caught myself, became aware of my negativity and took another look at 2014. I find it very comforting that I can see so much good in a year that I found so difficult. I learned a LOT and hopefully those lessons will help me move onward and upward .

I offer up my thanks for the blessings of this past year.

And I look forward to 2015.

Here's a song for moving on with, A Plea from a Cat Named Virtue by The Weakerthans (Listen, all those bitter songs you sing, they're not helping anything. They won't make you strong...):