Mid-Year Update

The 100% reused outdoor shower/garden!

The last day of June was a rare day.

Hence, the just-as-rare post- ha! Life has been moving along swiftly, tossing a continuous string of challenges and chores our way. My lack of posts is in no way indicative of my level of passion for this way of life. We are on year three of the tiny off-grid life and we have settled into our rhythms nicely. It's to the point where it does not usually occur to us that how we live is any different. Often times, a lively conversation with a new fan of tiny houses gets us to rub our eyes and refocus. After each encounter like that, we find ourselves reveling for a moment in how unique this lifestyle is and how thankful we are that we dove in.

So we are still loving this tiny homestead, but life has a way of pulling you in directions you couldn't possibly plan. I have slowly started to master the one-woman-band that keeps TLB rolling. As a result, just about all my energy and focus has gone into this venture. Not much time to play around at the Pod. :/  I'm quickly outgrowing my current production space, and that's a good problem to have! I've got a couple of different ideas on how to get us to the next level, and I'm excited to share them when I know for sure! 

Back to the last day of June... It was truly a rare day for me. I had an open morning and afternoon before baking that night. I also had an open mind! Lately it seems that my every thought is somehow related to business needs, but on this day, that voice was silent. I had a break from business brain. I stood on the deck, breathing the fresh air, and memorizing details of our lovely view.

Suddenly, inspiration struck and I felt like building. I knew exactly what to work on: outdoor shower 2.0! Some of you may remember the cool, re-claimed shower stall we made with fallen timbers. Well, our timing really sucked. We completed the shower last September and it promptly got cold outside. Through the winter, we looked at it wistfully, all covered in snow. Finally, spring was upon us! Hooray! Showers at the house! Wrong again. It's been an incredibly windy year- which I will come back to- and an especially fierce wind storm in April thrashed the stall to pieces. I was so peeved that I apparently needed a two month time-out before trying again. 

Humungo compost heap, full of freely sprouted veggies!

You're comin' with me, tomato.

I set up some music and got to work. I certainly wasn't about to pay for materials, so I looked around at what I had to work with. I pulled out the hammer and the drill, going about things lazily, as it was a hot sunny day. Using 100% reused or reclaimed materials, and no measuring tape or saw, I put together our new shower stall. 

I didn't plant a garden this spring, which makes me sad. This spurred me to incorporate a living wall to provide privacy....eventually. HA I used our self-watering buckets (also 100% reused) and scouted out some veggies in the farm compost heap. No buying seedlings for this gal! I got three tomatoes, some kind of squash, and a cucumber. It was a bit of a rough transplant, but they all made it, and are growing nicely now. 

Garden just transplanted...looking sad.

After finishing the shower stall, thoroughly burning my back, and soaking in sweat- I took the first, and oh so glorious, shower outdoors. Let me say- it is freakin' great to shower outdoors....at home! Not having to go elsewhere (gym, etc) to shower is quite a treat after that two month time-out. There's just something about bathing in fresh, open air. The other night, I showered under the stars and went to bed feeling more refreshed and more relaxed than I have in months. 

Aside from the outdoor shower, we have been doing little touch ups inside- replacing bunny nibbled trim and refinishing cabinet doors. It's amazing how just a few key details can make the place look super new again. These touch ups were inspired by a very exciting project we will be doing, and I can't wait to share more details! I think you all will be pretty excited! 

Big changes are ahead for these two peas and their pod. It seems like no coincidence that it has been such a windy year already- we are certainly feeling the winds of change swaying our life in new, undreamed of directions. I find myself holding tight to every moment before letting it pass. I understand that change is an inevitable part of life, but it won't stop me from wishing we could stay just like this. 

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The 100% Recycled Outdoor Shower - And Other Little Projects

This summer's tiny house projects are meager
compared to the last two years.

But, that is bound to happen as you near the end of that "Must Have" list and start venturing

into the "Nice to Have" list, which seems can always be pushed to a later date. Couple that with a new business and generally active/social lifestyle and you don't see the same kind of pace as in years past. C'est la vie! I have learned to embrace the constant juggling of projects rather than the neat, clean chronological completion that the anal retentive side of me so desperately craves. 

Shower stall wood, ready to go.

Last year we spoke often about getting an outdoor shower together, but we had too many other far more pressing needs. This season we had a little help and inspiration. One thing I didn't mention about our week in VT at the Strawbale workshop with Andrew Morrison was the awesome outdoor shower set up that our hosts, Tyler and Tara, created. I wish I had taken a photo...it was a simple and quick set up. They wrapped tarps around a small circle of trees, filling the ground within that space with small smooth pebbles. A wonderful treat for achey feet! A small cement circle stone stood just below the shower head. A tankless water heater, 20 pound propane tank, huge water tank, and a shower head were all hooked up to provide us bathing capabilities.

Love working with fallen trees!

Let me tell you- after putting in an 8+ hour day of straight busting ass, your body covered in dust and dirt and straw, that shower experience was other worldly. There is just something about being out in the elements as you wash away the grime that brings a level of refreshment unlike any other shower. After that week, Dan and I were determined to get a shower going at home. As with all of our projects lately, we used all recycled and salvaged materials. 

Dan's Dad was doing some work on his store roof, so more free wood was available to us. We picked the best pieces, organized and chopped them into relative lengths and planed them. Some pieces still have remnants of paint, but I plan to paint a funky mural inside the stall, so we didn't spend excessive amounts of time getting the paint off. 





Next, we headed out into the woods and collected several fallen trees. Dan got his first taste of working with a hatchet and how to properly chop wood. I'm always amused in a special kind of way when I teach someone a skill that any kid in the Northern woods learned by the age of 10. I appreciate my upbringing more and more as the years go by. Isn't that always the way?! 

After collecting enough fallen logs, we headed back to the house. We gave each log a clean chop so they would rest flat on the cement. We cleaned out the small section of the dairy barn remains just behind our tiny house. Conveniently, this slab of concrete has a drain right in the middle with a sloping floor.





We held up each small timber and nailed boards one at a time, then we would connect the next timber, then the next set of boards. Given the floor was slanted for drainage, we said to hell with levels and built the stall to work with the floor. This thing isn't meant for a hurricane shelter, just scrubbing stink off.

Next we searched through the old dairy barn and snagged a few pieces of old metal dairy equipment. One slid perfectly into the wall remnants next to our shower and provided exact placement for our solar shower bag. We dug through our scrap pile and created a little raised platform to stand on while showering. 

We both giggled with glee as we used the shower together for the first time, and discovered some of our hilarious design oversights....like the gaps between boards being a little too big....and lining up on all the wrong places of Jess's body. It was too funny to be frustrating. If I stood in the right place, it's like a black bar was placed on all the wrong sections of the body. Good thing I'm not a prude! Flopping my towel over the side of the stall fixed this problem pretty quickly. 

We still need to add some hooks, a shelf or two, and a door, but we have a way to bathe people! Outdoor showers rock! 

Shower stall!

In other news- we also managed to sand and stain all of our recycled pallet siding (the stuff that's on the house anyway) so it's looking WAYYY better and behaves much better when it rains. Before, the pine pieces would swell and at times cause some rubbing on the front door. 

The perfect hanging point for our shower.

Ahhh! All stained and protected! Thank goodness!

We also took our home gym up a notch by installing a hang/pull up bar. Again we used part of a fallen timber and some heavy duty rope. We drilled holes in the loft edge and the bar, simply knotting each end of rope to serve as the stopper. This thing has been a lot of fun since the moment we installed it. We are both considerably stronger even just a month later. I can now do 5 full extension pull ups! Not to mention all of the other gravity resistance moves we can do!

Next up, I will recap the awesome weekend at Deek's Tiny House Summer Camp 3 this past weekend!

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