If I am eating pretty much only things that I grow, and don’t want money, or to have to go to the grocery store…. what will my cats eat?  This is a problem that I’ve thought about only for the past few days.  It had never occurred to me before.

Walking home from the gym today, I was thinking about the fact that I will have chickens for my eggs.  I’m thinking I’d want between 6-8 chickens.  I had done some research about making my own cat food, but they requires weird things, and protein powder and stuff.

Beth from Fake Plastic Fish wrote this as enough food for one cat for one day:

4 ounces of cooked white chicken meat
1/4 cup of cooked mashed sweet potato
1-1/2 teaspoons of butter
1 red scoop of Balance It supplement

Then there are more recipes on the No Cans site.  Lots of different recipes, which is useful.

Here is one with fish:

1/3 cup white rice

1 tbl margarine or low-fat spread

3oz canned tuna or smoked mackerel, skinned and boned

1/2 hard-boiled egg, shelled and finely chopped

yolk of 1 egg

1/2 tbl pouring cream

Uh, so I guess I also need a cow to get butter and cream.  And milk for my Honey Bunches of Oats! And also whatever animal rice comes from.

But, all these foods require meat.  And I was thinking “Oh, hmm.  I didn’t really plan on eating meat.”  But then I thought, “oh, I have chickens that lay eggs.  Are those the same kind of chickens that I eat?”  And then I thought about it, and pictures the hens clucking around the farm and laying eggs, and then I pictured food that has chicken meat in it.  I swear to god I had to think about live chickens and then compare it to chicken meat in my pasta.  Really.  I had to think about that.

So anyway, after I figured it out that I would already have chickens for my eggs, I realized that I could just use meat from one of them for my cat food!  But if my cats each need 4oz a day, that’s a lot of meat.  I don’t know how much chickens weigh, so I don’t know how many chickens I’d have to kill to feed my cats.  I would like to get some recipes that do not require meat, but so far all I’ve found are meatless cat “treats.”  And cats can’t live on treats!  (Patrice, do you have any vegetarian recipes for cats??)  They must be able to live without meat.  If humans can, cats can, too.

So now I’ve realized that I can’t feed my cats, and I can’t eat my cereal with milk.  I’m going to have to go to the store.  So I can’t really live off the grid.  I’m going to have to work, to get money for the grocery store.  That sucks.  But I guess it doesn’t really suck…. because it’s good to work.  I just better enjoy my job.  But I guess, even if I DO need money… I can make it in anyway that I want.  I can sell my eggs and some of my produce.  If I have a private practice then I can choose what clients I see, and I can choose my own hours.  That sounds like it would be the best of both worlds.  In my mini house, I could have a small room that would be my office.  It could also turn into a guest bedroom very easily for any guests I may have.  I think that sounds awesome!  That would be my absolute ideal life.

Here’s a break down:

• Have a lot of space to grow my own fruits and vegetables.
• Have chickens for lots of eggs and occasional meat
• Live somewhere warmish where I can grow lots of my own stuff
• Know someone who has cows that I can get organic milk products from.  Either payment/bartering
• Have a small guest room/office to see my patients and have guests stay over (but still living in a very small space)
• Have cats that can magically eat the same food that I can.  Do cats like Honey Bunches of Oats and egg whites?  What about soup?  Stupid cats!  Be more human!  But smaller…. like…. a baby.  Oh wait, I’ve already written about that.
• Have my own private practice in my own home, where I will see about 10 patients a week.  It could be spread to 3 days with 3-4 patients a day.  I could also be very flexible and see people on the weekends because I can do whatever I want, it’s my practice!  People like flexibility.  I will also do house calls for the agoraphobics.
• I will own a car, but it will be a little crappy old car that simply gets me from point A to point B.  My main way of traveling will be my feet, and my awesome bicycle with a basket.
• Do something that allows me to have enough money to pay for my house, my electricity bill (I hear it’s under $100 a year for a mini house), my Internet (cause I need the Internet), and money to buy enough clothes so I don’t look like a ragamuffin (where on earth did I learn that word?)
• I will spend the majority of my time gardening, cooking, eating, exercising, reading, writing, and doing various crafts.

Tomorrow I will post about tonight’s dinner (boring old Lasagna), but I was proud of it.  Jeanne came over and we watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  We both said, “I didn’t not like it, but I wouldn’t really want to see it again.”  We also drank red wine (to help in our futile attempt to fight cancer).  It was nice to see her.  We should hang out again and cook sometime.  Now it’s bedtime.  I’m babysitting in the morning, and my dad is waking me up at 6:30 to run as long as the roads are cleared.  It snowed again, and I’m thinking it’s too cold for the roads to be clear. Until tomorrow, live long and prosper.

The chili came out really good!  I started it kind of late - around 2.  It simmered on the stove for three hours!  But it was good, and everyone really liked it.  Trevor said it was very good for my first chili, but he would recommend adding in celery when I am sauteing the onions.  I thought it was a good suggestion - it will add it something fresh, and a nice crunch.  There’s a lot left over, so when we got home, I packaged some up in tupperware for my dad and Larry for lunch tomorrow.  I guess it will freeze nicely, and we can use it for a nachos topping, or as a filling for burritos.

We were at Liz’s house watching the game (Liz is a member of Beers For Good, and helped organize Brew Year’s Eve).  She somehow got on to the topic of energy, and solar power, and she mentioned that she had a solar powered water heater!  It’s been in the house for a long time, and still works.  We all went into the room and saw how it hooked up.  It was pretty neat, and I told Trevor that I would want one of those in my mini house.  We started talking with Liz about my mini house, and I pulled up the plans that I liked from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.  The three of us looked at the plans, and found that it actually lists specifics about the width and height, and how large each room is and everything.  Liz got out her tape measurer, and we decided to see just how big my mini house would be.

We were able to measure it out perfectly in her house so we could all visualize where the house would be.  Liz pulled out 18 feet (the length of the house) and stood down at a weird end, (where there is a piano and a wall in the way), so I had her move down to the other end so we could get an area that was open.  She had a wood stove in her basement (we were in the basement which is finished), which was the exact point of our measuring.  The 18 feet went out to the end of the stove, and then it cut across to the wall perfectly the other 13 feet (or so).  It was big enough for a full sized couch, and I was able to see what it would look like to cut into the room with the bathroom and kitchen.  We were also talking about what it would look like if the loft didn’t extend the whole floor, but was cut open, so you could see up into the loft.

Kind of like this, but on a smaller scale:

I would also want the one wall (right near where that hanging light is), to be a lot of windows, especially up top, to get some light into the upstairs loft.  I could also do a skylight over that open area.  Then, it could look down over the living room area.  Also, with a banister like the one in the picture, it could be removeable, so that I could hoist furniture upstairs.  We started talking about the loft because I was asking how I would get a bed and desk upstairs.  Trevor said that I would have to build the house with the furniture already up there.  I mentioned that I wouldn’t even need a bed (he was talking about me having a big bed that I’d have to put together, with a head board and everything), and I said I would just get a mattress and boxspring and set it on the floor.  He didn’t like that idea, and said “Yeah, or you could just live in a trailer.”  He thinks that not having a bed makes it even more white trash-ish, I guess.

We all decided that once it gets nicer out, we’ll go out in our side yard and measure out exactly the size of the plans I’m looking at.  Then we will get a real feel for what will fit where (will a double bed really fit where they have it pictured?).  Liz also said I should take a look at her shed, because it’s about the size I’m looking at.

Or, I could just buy this house from Home Depot for $10,000.  It’s 240 sq ft, but probably no loft.

I was reading in the Boston Globe today that living in the city is bad for your brain.  I guess that nature is very beneficial for the brain.  They’ve done studies that say that hospital patients do better when they can see trees from their window.

It says “While people have searched high and low for ways to improve cognitive performance, from doping themselves with Red Bull to redesigning the layout of offices, it appears that few of these treatments are as effective as taking a walk in a natural place.”

They even said that a long time ago, they realized this, and that is why Central Park is in the middle of New York City.  People need trees and nature.

This is why I think it would be absolutely wonderful to live in a tiny little house out in a field somewhere.

This house is only 681 square feet.  That’s pretty little.  It has two bedrooms, and is a little bigger than their teeny tiny houses, which are around 100-200 square feet.  I would want enough room to not feel claustrophobic, and also enough room to entertain for dinner.  I think the first floor would need to be an open layout for entertaining.  I would love to live in South Carolina, and grow my own fruits and vegetables.  I think these houses only cost about $20,000 to build (and $700 for the plans), so that’s a very tiny mortgage!  Also, I think I read that it’s only about $60 in heating and electricity bills.  Even if it is ten times that amount, $600 a year isn’t bad.  I would want a full size fridge, (or almost full size), because I know that Megan has a hard time with a mini dorm-size fridge in England.

If I had this house, and grew all my own food, I think I would only work as little as possible.  With my Mental Health degree, I could see patients two or three days a week, and the other days would be for my enjoyment only.  I think I’ve decided I’d like to live a very minimal life.  I know it’s very hard to believe, because I love shopping, and my Coach bags, and my iPhone.*  I would love to be able to live my days and do things that I enjoy.  I would knit, and I would write, and read.  I would cook fabulous meals, and run, and invite friends over, and drink wine, and eat cheese, and other wonderful things like that.

I think that I am very very worried that I will end up working at a job that I hate.  And I will wake up every morning not wanting to get out of bed; not wanting to go to work.  I figure with a mini house, and growing my own food, I won’t need a crappy job, because I won’t need that much money.  Maybe Megan and Mac (my sister and brother-in-law, who live in England) could live with me, and we’d live on a lot of land, and we’d each have our own mini house.  Megan and I could look into making organic things and selling them… either organic soaps and shampoos, or organic clothes.  We could have our own line, and money wouldn’t really matter, because we’d make anything we’d need.  We could work if we needed to, but what would be the point?  We’d have food, and a house with no mortgage, it would be awesome!

Thinking about that sounds absolutely fabulous, and it makes me wonder why more people don’t do something like this.  Is it because land you can grow on is super expensive?  Maybe we could live somewhere inexpensive, but still warm enough where we could grow things all year round - like Alabama or Tennessee.  We’d have our own land and our own community, so it wouldn’t be like we were really in Alabama, because we wouldn’t be going to the Piggly Wiggly or Billy Bob’s Country Cookin’.  We could still have cell phones and internet, but a TV wouldn’t be necessary (I’m going with Megan on this one - when I get my own place, I don’t want a TV).  We’d also need a good local library, because with a mini house, we wouldn’t have much room to keep our books.  I would say e-books would be good, but I’m reading the final Twilight installment as a PDF document, and it’s a huge pain in the ass.  I’m just clicking the down arrow constantly, and the clicking noise is driving me insane.

You know what else I would have with my tiny house?  Cats.  And a hammock.  Hammocks are wonderful.

I could go on for hours about how awesome this mini house idea is, but I have to go to the gym.  Then, I need to come home and help around the house.  My mom is being really wonderful, and is just letting me lounge around all day without saying anything.  I’m taking some well deserved time off, but I need to get my butt in motion and help out for the second half of the day.

*This past summer, I walked to the local farmers market, and I brought my Chico Bag with me, and I was being very eco, and was buying fresh produce, and supporting the local farmers, and I was walking!  But as I was walking home, I realized that I was listening to my iPhone and carrying a Coach purse.  It was quite the contradiction.  But, I was able to take this beautiful pictures with my phone, and I only noticed it because I was walking: