Is There a Tiny House in Your Future?

I've been following the Tiny House movement for a few years.  Jay Shaeffer, one of several leaders in the Tiny House movement, wrote the following:

"At 2,200 square feet, the average American house now emits more greenhouse gases than the average American car, produces seven tons of construction waste, and occupies more than thirty times as much land per inhabitant as a home in China."

I grew up in Northeastern Ohio, in an 880-square-foot house my parents built. It had two bedrooms and a full basement, which had space for a washer and dryer, my father's workbench, and a paneled "rec room." It had a breezeway between the house and garage and a finished attic where my sisters slept. We had a front yard and a back yard.

I bought my first house in Moorhead, Minnesota, a one floor 860-square-foot one story "rambler" with a full finished basement. There were two bedrooms, a one-car garage, and tiny front and back yards. 

I now live in a one bedroom 350-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn. It's tiny (but not by NYC standards), but I have enough space. While following the Tiny House movement, I dream of my own house that fulfills my need for my own place and my environmental values.. I envision a 250-square-foot cottage with lots of windows, surrounded by a garden. My tiny house would have wooden walls and floor, a skylight, and a two-burner stove. I'd hang a flowering plant outside the front door and make curtains for the windows. My only furniture would be my bed and a cherry secretary desk with bookcase. 

As I downsize in preparation for vacating my apartment when my lease expires in May, I dream of my tiny house.   

Embrace the Darkness!

The days are getting shorter and winter's coming. We had unusually warm weather recently (yesterday I went outside in sandals!) but that's over for the season, I fear!

The past two months have gone fast. I've spent them writing and rewriting short stories.  I'm finding writing prose as, if not more satisfying than writing plays. I do still love writing monologues, though.

As usual, my English as a Second Language students are an inspiration to my writing.  I'm entering my 13th year of teaching English as a Second Language (ESOL)/English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) to adult immigrants in Brooklyn, New York.  I also teach Citizenship Exam Preparation classes. Recently, I've begun to think about branching out into immigrant advocacy.

I continue living green in Brooklyn. My community garden has a fall leaf drive where we collect, mulch, and compost neighborhood leaves.  My street has city-sponsored curbside compost recycling, so as well as dropping off vegetable scraps at the garden, I put out vegetable scraps and other compostable material in a container in front of my apartment building. Last week, I cut my hair and put the clippings in there.

My latest project is making my own blouses. I've rounded up old clothing I'd had hidden away,and am cutting fabric squares which I'll sew together over the winter. I'll make a pattern out of recycled paper and hand-sew the blouses. My clothing budget is only for occasional underwear and socks (when needed), one pair of shoes a year, and a pair or two of pants each year. I plan to make skirts when the weather gets warmer.

I'm crocheting an afghan for my bed for this winter and I've recently completed a lap blanket for my favorite reading chair.

Last month, I made dry skin balm for my elbows and feet.  It's not available yet on my business website, but maybe in the future I'll offer it. In the meantime, Anna's Potions and Lotions maintains a website, etsy, Facebook and Twitter presence.

I'm moving in a few months so I've taken the opportunity to de-clutter. Every move is a downsizing, but in this round, I've gotten ruthless in culling out useless stuff.T he tv has been sitting in the closet for a year and a half, so I'm selling it. I get news from the Internet and other sources, so I have no use for a tv. I haven't watched since May of 2013.

I've been on tv "fasts" before and find I get so much writing and creative stuff done when there isn't a tv in my life.  I borrow books, CDs, and movies from the library three blocks away and that suits me fine.

Winter's coming - embrace the darkness!

                                           Autumn is Here

I don't know where the summer went, but autumn is here1  The leaves are still on the trees here in Brooklyn, but they're beginning to show a tiny bit of change.

In the Cottage Garden I created in the East Fourth Street Garden in my neighborhood, I've begun to cut back the perennials. After I cut back the flowers, I'll put a couple of bags of compost and some vermiculite in the beds to build up the soil. 

In my plot where I grow vegetable and herbs, I make note of what didn't grow.  The corn seeds I planted didn't grow very well -- no ears.  The fennel did well.  So did the parsley.  The rosemary looks good, but the lemon verbena (sometimes a challenge for me to grow) doesn't look so good.  That's too bad, because lemon verbena is just about my favorite herb. It has a strong lemony aroma and unlike some herbs, its lemony odor remains after the leaves are dried.

I have vegetable plots in both the East Fourth Street Garden and in the little community garden in back of the Windsor Terrace library, which is behind the East Fourth Street Garden. 

This year, in the library plot, I grew several hot pepper plants (for a friend from Bangladesh who shares the plot with me).  He loves those hot peppers and the plants produce lots of peppers.  I grew parsley, borage, and a few tomato plants.  This is the second year that the tomatoes have not done well, so I won't be planting any in the future. 

I'll spend the winter planning what to grow in both plots.  More later!

Anna's Awarded Green America's Gold Seal

      Anna's Potions and Lotions & Debbie L. Miller in NYCity Lens article

We were recently interviewed by Asha Mahadevan for an article called "Clothes and Cosmetics Can Be Vegan Too" about veganism in NYCityLens.com.  Here's the link:  http://nycitylens.com/2014/05/clothes-and-cosmetics-can-be-vegan-too/

We have warm weather this weekend here in Brooklyn. The snow is melting and the sun is shining. Through my opened windows, I hear my windchimes tinkling. I got up early today and walked to the laundromat to wash sheets and blankets and I'm washing the smaller things in my hand-cranked WonderWasher" hand-cranked machine. Starting this spring, I'll have plots in two community gardens in my neighborhood. The first one is four blocks away behind a Brooklyn Public Library branch, where two gardeners created six plots out of a small unused lawn area. Here, in this 4'x8' plot, I'll grow vegetables. I have all of my seeds--some new and some left from last year. I plan to grow Roma tomatoes, garlic chives, parsley, carrots, zucchini, squash, and corn. In my plot in the community garden that's three blocks away, my plot is a bit smaller (3'x6'). There, I'll grow Yarrow, Calendula, Cosmos, Coreopsis, Canterbury Bells, Asters, Nigella, Cornflower, Chinese Lantern, and Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate. I'll use this bed as my flower nursery. When the plants are big enough to transplant, I'll move many of them to the Cottage Garden I've started at the garden's main entrance and I'll put a few in the Perennial section. I plan to buy all of the other vegies I need plus fruit from either a CSA or from Greenmarkets. This way, I can get fresh, organic vegies every week. My other big project this spring is to get ready to exhibit at the Green Festival in New York City the weekend of April 26-27. My business, Anna's Potions and Lotions, will have a booth. I hope to reach some 30,000 people through exhibiting at this festival. I hope you can visit if you're in the New York City area. For more information, go to GreenFestivals.org. When you're there, stop by my booth in the Organic Body Care section.

I've been thinking about living a greener life and what I can do to be "greener." Do I have to be as extreme as people believe Ed Bedley, Jr. to be? Actually, I don't find Ed to be extreme. If I owned a house, I'd have more opportunities to be green than I do now as an apartment renter. But, would I still compost? Yes. (I compost now at my local community garden.) Would I still wash clothes by hand as much as possible? I would. (I have a hand-cranking little washing machine.) And, I'd hang them outside to dry, instead of inside my apartment, as I do now. Would I recycle? Yes, the same as I do now. Would I take short showers? Yes, as I do now. If I had a house, I'd have a rain barrel to catch rain water to use in my garden, if I had my own garden. Truth is, I've been doing green things for many years. In recent years, I've added a number of things to the list of "don't use" list, focusing on electric things. I don't have a microwave oven. No electric nail dryer. I don't have an electric blow dryer, electric curling iron, or electric rollers. I wash my hair in the shower, and let it air dry. I don't have an electric can opener. My electric appliances are limited to the electric stove, oven, and refrigerator that came with my apartment, one blender that I use for making moisturizing creams, a laptop computer, and a printer. I have a tv that's sitting in the closet. I haven't watched it since I moved into this apartment in June this year. I don't even know if I would have tv reception if I plugged it in. I went on a tv "fast" from 2006 until 2011 and I'm on one again now. I have a stereo receiver/amplifier, CD player, and pair of speakers in the living room. And, a small radio/CD player in my bedroom. Of course, I have a battery charger for my laptop and one for my cell phone. But, that's it. No electric carving knife, no electric skillet, no electric grill, no electric rice cooker. No electric shaver or electric paper shredder. No vacuum cleaner or electric rug shampooer (I have wood floors.) No electric mixer or food processor. No electric coffee bean grinder or electric Expresso maker (I'm a tea drinker). No electric hedge clippers, leaf blower, or weed whacker. (If I owned a house, I would still not have these things.) If I had a garden, I'd get some of those little solar lights that light up at night.