Tiny Home Tuesday ~ Out and About

There is a wonderful, impulsive sort of quiet explosion going on in the world of tiny and small homes. While there seemed a long rut going on for awhile of mobile trailerable fairly look-quite-alike tiny homes - and many of them were and are brilliant, mind you - there is a sense of the movement blossoming/morphing/expanding even as the size of the homes stay small to tiny. 

Oh, there is pretty much nothing new under the sun or moon; people have been living in small dwellings since cave days. Of course, they might not have outfitted their caves quite like this. This isn't really quite a cave; rather an under hill / into the earth sort of dwelling. With lots of light.

Located in New Zealand, you can see a lot more photos and read all about it here.
Thanks, as often the case, to Keith of The Flying Tortoise for mentioning it!

If you haven't enjoyed a video by Kirsten Dirksen of Faircompanies, you've been missing a whole segment of the tiny house movement. I don't know if this video on a 'tiny house hamlet' in France is the latest work she's done, but it was new to me and certainly worth a look at the video on Solar Burrito's blog. 

People have NOT been living in vehicles since the dawn of time, but probably since 10 o'clock on the timeline of vehicles. I read The Grapes of Wrath, bucko, and you can bet those folks weren't choosing this lifestyle for the charm of it. People still aren't choosing vehicle living for the charm at times, though many are embracing a rolling mobile life, including me, because it ticks off a lot of boxes on traveling and living. 

Don't ask about all the boxes it ticks. 

A photographer, Andrew Waits (which is a very cool name), did a series about people living in a variety of vehicles, for a variety of reasons. Though rolling homes roll (usually, not always), the composition of this mobile across the country neighborhood is about the same as your own: the happy people, the generous people, the bitter ones, the hermits, the troublemakers and the not quite able to define just generally a little crazy, a bit of whackadooly. Ok, maybe your neighborhood isn't like that, but you might be surprised.

photo & text credit: Andrew Waits

Tex. Shaver Lake, California 2012. "After my stroke, I was completely mute for two years. The doctors told me I’d never do this again and my heart was crying. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t curse. I had someone bring my RV to the therapy parking lot and I ended up staying in that. Once I started talking again, I told the doctors I had better things to do than fart around here and I took off. I think I would have died there if I had stayed. I’ve laughed for 20 years with RV people. They take care of me. We’re just a big family. "

There are more photos and stories captured by Andrew Waits in his American Boondockers series on his website.  Go. Look. Listen.

The above just scrapes the surface of what is going on with the tiny house movement these days. There are pods and containers and tree houses and cabins and houseboats and rolling homes; even a girl on a Harley with a teardrop trailer she calls TicTac as well as home. 

When it comes to tiny and small homes, nothing is too small, though there are sometimes heated debates about what makes too big. As much as I love a good debate, I ain't touchin' that one. Who cares? If you are home and you are content in that home, that makes it pretty much right in my opinion. As long as it didn't and isn't breaking someone else's back or part of land devastation...there is that. Otherwise? As the children say, Peace out, man. Do they still say that?


There used to be, not so long ago, maybe one company (which I think was just one person) searching out and listing tiny homes. Now check it out, they are thriving alive alive O! There's a reason for that. While plenty of people are out there whinging on about their plight (some valid, some not so much), there are plenty of others out there figuring out solutions and tiny homes often play a part in that, freeing up money, time and resources. 




Have you ever noticed that when one link in a chain of events turns out to be a good one, more seem to follow in fairly rapid order? Yes, it works the other way too, but this isn't about that. 

This is about life. It's fast. It's slippery. It is worth savoring. Not in an Anais Nin sort of way (at least, not my take on how to enjoy your life without being a remora), but also, certainly not just drifting along, with words of 'someday' or 'I can't' riding on your lips. 

Have a take tantalizing topside Tuesday. Do something tendereyezing.