Or Beginnings

In the last 3 days, 3 newspapers have called for interviews, and asked the question, “How did Tiny Green Cabins start?” There is a stock answer of starting it in the fall of 2008. And while that is correct, at the same time an ending occurred that brought the birth of Tiny Green Cabins.

However, this answer is not quite correct and it is short, as on interviewer asked if I was always lived or promoted “green.”  And that brought an awareness that yes, and no.

In my teens, my path was forestry and conservation, and giving speeches for contests pertaining to conservation, wildlife, and forestry management.  The talk, “That Wicked Rain” was my favorite and discussed contributing pollution factors along the Peshtigo River as it

Lake Michigan

flowed from its source to Lake Michigan. 4-H was the organization that I belonged to, and forestry was my one of my choices, as well as working the local fairs, playing softball, and attending Camp Bird, Trees for Tomorrow, and many other seminars. I learned a lot about sustainable farming and healthy living as a young man.

And thinking that my career path was forestry engineering with paper and lumber mills, my classes were always preparing for college. Not one shop class. Yes, I loved building small projects around the farmstead, such as an addition, grain bins for feed storage along with chutes to a lower level, picnic tables, and minnow traps.  For each project, my dad would say to figure it out, draw some sketches, and put together a material list. His added instructions were to look at the list and figure out what could be salvaged and what had to be purchased.  The grain bins and chutes were all salvaged material from older builders. It had bins that sat on 2^nd floor with chutes to 1^st floor with a pullout slide for opening the

Canoeing on the Peshtigo River

chute allowing the grain to fall into a bucket. It was metal lined to keep mice out of it and saved a lot of time when feeding the goats, pigs, rabbits, and chickens that were kept on the 1^st level.

Over the next 40 years, I raised a family and followed a career path of college, sales, journeyman carpenter, estimator, quality, senior estimator, and design, engineering, and estimating manager with Universal Forest Products.  All of these careers merged into my starting of Tiny Green Cabins and is coming full circle to what started many years ago on a farm and in 4H in northeastern Wisconsin; living healthy and sustainably.

Following is an An excerpt from an article about Tiny House People on Tiny House Wisdom;

I am learning that Tiny House people are not alike. Some tiny house builders are engineers, like Bill Kastrinos, some are poets, as is Jim Wilkins, some are scientists, Jay Shafer comes to mind,  Abel Zimmerman is an artist, and Brad Kittel is a pioneer.  Of course I could go on, there are philosophers, salesmen and dreamers, and each one brings their own tiny view of the subject. These are inspiring, wonderful people who are creating and rebuilding our country and even pointing the way for sensible living.

” The most crucial piece is the process; communication, known expectations, documented specifications and build plans. A good, well drawn set of plans goes a long way towards getting what someone wanted, and yet leaves a lot of room for,  unexpected “surprises.” The carefully thought out plans connect specifications with the process of building which become a living document that communicates the spirit of the “build.”" - Jim Wilkins

This is from Tiny House Wisdom, to read what others think is a crucial piece to building a tiny house, click here.

After reading the article at Tiny House Wisdom, stop on back and post a comment about what YOU think is the most important aspect of a tiny house. The best answer that Jim likes will be sent the book by Lloyd Kahn, “Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter”

By David Harned

I’ve always loved the appearance of small buildings, especially houses.

black-duck-cabin

Many small things, proportionate to their larger neighbors, have more eye appeal. A small house, or a tiny house, has only the bare essentials to show the world, so the design is spare and direct, not cluttered. Their elements of style are not attached, they’re built right in. A small building is easy to behold in a glance.

Good, small design can also be found in the automobile world. I don’t own one, but a Mazda Miata has been a favorite automobile since it first came on the market. Built from the ground up to be exactly what it is, a two-seat roadster, it doesn’t pretend to be anything more. It’s not a multi function vehicle, and there will never be a wagon version of the Miata. Its shape reminds me of a Dinky Toy I had as a child.

There are at least two camps of tiny house lovers. One camp would adjust their lifestyle to make it possible to live in a house smaller than 500 square feet. Their house would have all the components of larger houses, living area, sleeping area, food prep and bath areas, but the floor plan would be so carefully designed that no space was wasted.

I’m in a second camp: I think about a tiny house as an auxiliary to a larger structure or as a special use building among other small structures.

The appearance of tiny houses is so much more appealing to me than most larger houses, that my ideal home would be a compound structure. It would be a grouping of special use buildings created as needed. There is an excellent example of such a place in Fine Homebuilding magazine and republished in Taunton’s books. The central house has a modest but complete food prep area immediately adjacent to a common living area. Upstairs in the same unit are a couple of small bedrooms and a bath. The office is a separate structure off to one side and connected by footpath; the main bedroom and bath is yet a third structure on the other side of the central building. The combined appearance is not imposing and sits on the land beautifully.

My sister lives in a compound of sorts. She and her husband raised their two sons in a smallish, two level house with a master bedroom upstairs and the kids area below. They shared a bathroom. The kitchen, dining
room and living room were also on the main level. The house is surrounded by gardens, and the whole property is surrounded by a tall hedge. On the property is an office for the family business (a classic tiny house), and just a few feet away is the workshop where her husband has built cabinets for twenty years. The boys grew up trimming the hedge and cleaning the shop to earn their allowances.

Just as the first example had a separate bedroom building and separate study building, this compound living provides all the space necessary without everyone living on top of one another twenty-four hours a day.

A tiny house may never be the place to spend all one’s time. Like the tourist hotel room, “We only sleep there”. This is why the tiny house as a study room appeals so much.

In Lake Vermillion near Ely, Minnesota, there’s an outcropping the old maps call, “Black Duck Island”. The current owners have renamed it after its most famous occupant, the Reverend Bradley, a popular, Baptist
minister from Chicago who spent his summers there.

The tiny island is dotted with several tiny houses and one main house. Reverend Bradley had one tiny building, which he called his study cabin. Built by a member of his congregation, it sat at one end of the island
looking west over the water. It’s about twelve feet wide and sixteen feet long; it has windows on three sides and a front door on the narrow end. Inside are a simple table, bookshelves and a camp bed for napping. Reverend Bradley wrote his summer sermons in the study cabin.

This perfect little building served its purpose well. It had nothing in excess and lacked nothing for its time. Even now it would be an easy task to add the modern essentials and not spoil the demeanor of the
place.

Why do I like tiny houses? They are simple, human sized structures right for their purpose and pleasing to the eye. Their only greatness is achieved by their occupants.

Tiny House Fuel Stop1

Tiny House Fuel stop

Shortly after this picture and coming into Council Bluffs, Nebraska  we hit a brush wolf. It appeared in front of the bumper and I felt it hit and bounce off the truck underside and hit the cabin in tow. To read more of this tale, click here

Tiny House Windshield Time

Tiny House almost there

Tiny House Delivery

Tiny House delivery with Owner

One of the things I always enjoy is meeting the buyers of our cabins in person. A lot of times this occurs on the delivery of the tiny houses to their new home. This delivery had a nice surprise waiting for us. In writing down the phone numbers, we inverted the area code with the local phone number, and my co driver spent an hour surfing the web to get a number. At one point, he asked, “do you know who he is!” and I said, “yes, Alyn Rockwood, why?” John, responded “He is an mathematical genius, painter, and wrote a book, and I think he purchased this cabin to write his next book in!”  And he is right. Alyn purchased the cabin as his writing and painting studio that could be hidden away in the Colorado Mountains to pursue his passions.

The book is “How Noble in Reason” and can be purchased online at Amazon.

Tiny House Author - Alyn Rockwood

Brief Summary

Artificial Intelligence has already pervaded our lives in so many subtle ways, but how will humans react to the creation of a completely sentient super computer: a hyper-intelligent brain without a body who is as omniscient and omnipresent as the internet itself? How will people approach something that is distinguishable from a human only in its appearance? Rockwood imagines the ramifications in this futuristic novel where Dr. Andreas Rasmusson, inventor of Cornell University’s “A,” “B,” and “C” sentient computers, is caught up in a whirlwind of conspiracies surrounding his research into Artificial Intelligence that implicate him in the assassination of his revolutionary sentient computer and best friend, “B”. Tracked by the government and estranged from his friends and wife, Rasmusson exiles himself to his cabin in Colorado, but even there, plagued by fatigue and paranoia, he isn’t safe as he searches for the truth. This fascinating novel explores the controversial topic of our inevitable future with sentient computers.

Alyn has invited us back to Boulder to do an event and press spot for the cabin.

Tiny Green Cabins accepts this challenge

A Pine Forest

When specifying healthy building materials, use the following as a guide. Remember to read product labels and study material safety data sheets (MSDS) to find out exactly what is in a product before you buy it. Don’t assume the government is protecting you from harmful products or that the builder is representing your interests. In fact, government can barely keep up with labeling. It’s up to you to be an informed consumer.

SOFTWOOD CHARACTERISTICS

Through our 40 plus years as a carpenter/builder we have come to really like building with softwoods. SPF is easy to work with, plentiful, and less expensive than other materials; hardwoods or steel.

However, the natural resins in softwood lumber, spruce/pine/fir or known as SPF, outgas terpenes and other organic compounds (VOSs). Terpene vapors may be unhealthy to breathe and for those with chemical sensitivity, terpenes are often intolerable .

The aroma from a cedar closet can often elicit symptoms in those with sensitivity to softwoods. Of the various softwoods available, fir, spruce, or hemlock are a little less odorless than pine or cedar if you can smell or notice the wood aroma such as a pine scent – it is off gassing. The smaller your tiny house or home, the more of an issue this becomes for the occupants.

We build non toxic and healthy homes and will not use SPF in any part of the structure, exterior or interior trims.

CAULK & ADHESIVES

Caulk and adhesive may seem like a small part of a building project, but they can make a big impact on air quality. Solvent-based adhesives have high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCS), making them harmful to work and live with. Epoxy adhesives are noxious during application but relatively nontoxic when fully cured. White glue (polyvinyl acetate) and carpenter’s glue (yellow aliphatic resin) are safe when dry.

Healthy adhesives are solvent-free or water-based. Caulk with a VOC content of 30 grams per liter or less is acceptable.

CABINETS, DOORS, MOLDING, SHELVING, TRIM

These days conventional cabinets, doors, molding, shelving, and trim are often composite wood covered with veneer to make them look like wood. These products contain large amounts of formaldehyde. In a healthy home, cabinetry, doors, and built-ins are made of solid wood or formaldehyde-free wheat board (a rapidly renewable resource) and finished with a low-VOC paint or stain. Formaldehyde-free exterior-grade plywood is an acceptable material choice, or use alternative materials, such as metal with a baked-on finish, for cabinets.

SUBFLOORS, SHEATHING, UNDERLAYMENT

Subfloors, wall sheathing, countertop underlayments, and some types of wall coverings use plywood or other composite wood products containing urea-formaldehyde binders that can offgas for years. When using sheetgoods choose low-emission boards such as wheatboard, strawboard, isoboard, Fiber Tech™, Homastote™ (made from wheat, straw, sugarcane, or recycled paper bonded with nontoxic agents), or exterior-grade plywood. Seal it with a low-VOC vapor barrier sealant and finish with low-VOC paint.

Though plywood is not a healthy choice, exterior-grade is preferable over interior-grade. The phenol formaldehyde binders of exterior-grade are waterproof and more stable than the urea formaldehyde binders of interior-grade, which are only water resistant. It is best to seal exposed surfaces with a vapor-retardant sealer.

COUNTERTOPS

In a healthy house, countertop finish material is installed over formaldehyde-free underlayment and fastened and fastened mechanically, when possible, to avoid the issue of adhesives. Avoid high-pressure plastic laminates. They contain PVCs and are often attached using high-VOC adhesives. Though more expensive, materials like marble, granite, concrete, ceramic tile, and stone are healthy choices. Solid-surface synthetics don’t offgas, but they are manufactured from petroleum, so they are not “green.”

Butcher block makes an attractive kitchen countertop, does not require underlayment, and can be mechanically fastened to cabinets. The porous surface, however, can encourage mold and bacteria growth. Be sure seams aren’t glued with formaldehyde-based adhesives. Finish with odorless nontoxic oil, such as mineral oil.

Stainless steel and copper are excellent choices but present issues with creating electromagnetic fields.

New eco-products are available. Vetrazzo® (made of recycled glass from curbside recycling programs) is touted as a sustainable alternative to granite, quartz, and other quarried stone. IceStone® (composed of recycled glass and concrete) is another option. Both come in an array of colors, are strong like granite, yet not as porous as marble and heat-resistant like stone.

DRYWALL

Though economical and convenient, gypsum-based drywall (also known as Sheetrock®) is not a healthy material for two reasons: (1) adhesives and joint compounds offgas irritating fumes (including formaldehyde), and (2) drywall is subject to moisture damage and mold. Chemically sensitive people often react to offgassing of inks used in the recycled newsprint comprising the paper facing. A less toxic solution is drywall primed with specialty paint or primer to seal off toxic fumes, and joined with no-tox joint and texture compound, such as Murco M-100 Ni-Po, made with inert fillers and without formaldehyde and preservatives.

A new type of paperless drywall by Georgia-Pacific (DensArmor Plus®) is a highly mold resistant gypsum panel, ideal for basements and bathrooms. The glass-mat surface front and back make it a healthy replacement for paper-faced greenboard.

The most natural wall finish (short of adobe) is additive-free plaster. Plaster has the added advantage of blocking VOC offgassing present in the gypsum and taped joints of modern construction. As an added bonus, colored plaster never needs painting. Traditional plaster and lath construction is many times more expensive than drywall-if you can find someone to do it. Fortunately, veneer plaster systems (often called skim plaster) are available that provide many of the same benefits of traditional plaster for a price similar to standard drywall. Veneer plaster is simply a layer or two of plaster installed over special drywall for a smooth, seamless, and impermeable finish.

FLOORING

Because it covers such a large surface, nontoxic floor coverings are essential in a healthy home. There are more choices than ever before, so it’s essential to do your homework.

No matter what type of flooring you choose, if it would ordinarily be finished on-site, consider a factory-finished product instead of one you finish yourself. The factory finish allows it to cure outside the home, thus lowering in-home emissions. IF you choose to finish it on-site, select a low- or no-VOC water-based adhesive.

Healthy flooring choices include ceramic tile, slate, terrazzo, brick, hardwood, pine, natural rubber, “true” linoleum, and colored concrete. Instead of wall-to-wall carpet, cover these floors with easy-to-clean natural fiber area rugs.

Avoid vinyl flooring. Vinyl chloride fumes are a known carcinogen. Vinyl also traps moisture which can promote delamination of subfloors and mold growth or rot, especially in hot, humid climates. In older houses, be careful removing vinyl flooring; they may be a source of asbestos.

Instead of vinyl, choose “true” linoleum (made from wood and cork “flour,” limestone dust, pine resin, and colorants mixed with linseed oil from flax seeds and baked onto jute backing). It’s durable, resilient, thermally insulating, quiet, and low maintenance with natural antibacterial properties. Available in sheets or tiles, it doesn’t show scratches or cuts and comes with a 30 to 40 year lifespan. One type, Marmoleum®, looks and feels like old-fashioned linoleum, is cushy underfoot, available in a variety of colors, and can be cut and inlaid to create one-of-a-kind patterns.

Similar to linoleum is natural rubber. It’s durable, resilient, and easy to clean. Newer types of rubber flooring come in either rolls or tiles and cost $3 to $5 per square foot installed. Be leery of manufactured rubber flooring, though. Some are made of recycled tires which can outgas for a long time.

If you choose a hardwood floor, pay attention to the type of wood. The environmental choice is Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood (FSC). Be sure the underlayment doesn’t contain formaldehyde. An installation that requires no glue (as in most traditional hardwood floors) is best, but if the floor must be glued use water-based glues. Finish the floor with a low- or no-VOC finish. Or, you may find a great deal on recycled wood in salvage yards and neighborhood teardowns, thus reducing the $3 to $8 per square foot cost of installing a conventional hardwood floor.

As a substitute for hardwood, check out renewable products such as cork and bamboo. Bamboo resists warping better than other types of wood floors and is surprisingly firm. Be careful, though. Most bamboo flooring is manufactured in China and may have adhesives and finishes that contain formaldehyde. Do your homework and select formaldehyde-free bamboo. Cork has natural give, thus cushioning the foot, is durable, sustainable, provides acoustic and thermal insulation, and has antimicrobial benefits. When using cork, make sure it it not encased in vinyl. The price of installed cork is at the upper end of the range for wood flooring, and bamboo will cost $1 to $2 more than cork per square foot.

Beware of laminated flooring. The backing may be composite wood. Some are bonded with PVCs, which are harmful throughout their life cycle. Look for laminated floors using natural materials and biodegradable resins.

INSULATION

When it comes to insulation, there’s a mind-boggling array of choices, so you need to be informed.

If anyone in the house is chemically sensitive, stay clear of batt insulation backed with asphaltic coatings. Batts are not the most effective insulation, anyway. Blown-in loose-fill insulation is the better option because it doesn’t settle as much as spray-in insulation does. IF you want batt-type insulation, try a new product made of recycled blue jeans. UltraTouch NaturalFiber Insulation® by Bonded Logic is safe to handle and install, contains no formaldehyde binders, and provides better acoustics than fiberglass.

Though fiberglass is the most popular insulation, home ecologists discourage blown-in fiberglass insulation unless it is formaldehyde-free (such as Climate Pro® or Attic Protector® by Johns Manville Corporation, and Insulsafe 4® from CertainTeed Corporation).

Cellulose insulation has high energy and acoustic performance, and isn’t harmful to the installer, but chemicals in the ink of shredded newsprint make cellulose bothersome to some chemically sensitive people. If using dry or damp sprayed cellulose:

Choose a product made of recycled cardboard; second best is newspaper.

Fire retardant should be boron, not ammonia-based.

Damp applied cellulose must be allowed to fully dry to under 25% moisture content.

In general, avoid polyurethane-based expanding foams for indoor air quality issues. Cementious expanding and plant-based expanding foams (such as Air Krete® and BioBase 501®) are healthy options, but must be installed by an experienced local installer per manufacturer’s instructions.

Similarly, avoid spray polyurethane foam (SPF), which can outgas if not sealed by drywall or plaster, and some chemically sensitive people may react to it. Rigid foam insulation, popular in the 1980s, outgases badly and should not be used on interior applications.

Other no-tox, high R-value solutions include cork and wool (check out wool batts by Good Shepard Wool Insulation).

PAINTS, SEALANTS, STAINS

More than 10,000 synthetic chemicals are used in conventional paints, sealers, and stains; many are toxic solvents, mildewcides, and fungicides. Such chemical-overburdening is unnecessary. You can now find low- and no-VOC paints, stains, thinners, and waxes made from naturally derived raw materials. Choose water-based materials with a low VOC content of 150 grams per liter or less. Ventilate well during and immediately after painting or sealing.

At Tiny Green Cabins we use a walnut oil beeswax mixture occasionally and Tung oil. We prefer the Tung oil for ease of application and ease of applying subsequent coats. if you really want a workout, the Walnut oil and beeswax mixture will bring that satisfaction. You can read more about these finishes here.

A WORD ABOUT CARPET

The healthy home avoids chemically treated carpets. Choose natural fiber carpets and rugs, instead, particularly those made of pure wool, cotton, hemp, jute, ramie, sisal, seagrass, or coir, with a natural backing such as felt or jute. The best are certified organic and undyed. Natural fiber modular carpet tiles (which can be installed wall to wall or as a rug) are decent options. If you damage on tile, you can pick it up to clean it or replace it. Just be certain the product hasn’t been chemically treated.

If you choose carpet, ask the retailer to unroll it in the warehouse and leave it unrolled for a couple of weeks. When in comes time for installation, tack it down instead of using glue. For carpet that needs glue, choose a low-VOC adhesive. After installation, keep windows open and a fan going for two or three days.

Simpler Things in a Tiny House

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.
Charles Langbridge Morgan

Cultivate your garden… Do not depend upon teachers to educate you … follow your own bent, pursue your curiosity bravely, express yourself, make your own harmony In the end, education, like happiness, is individual, and must come to us from life and from ourselves. There is no way; each pilgrim must make his own path. “Happiness,” said Chamfort, “is not easily won; it is hard to find it in ourselves, and impossible to find it elsewhere.”
Will Durant

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it half an hour a day. Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Lewis Carroll

It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.
Soren Kierkegaard

Thoughts from Jim;

The American culture has glorified the benefits of materialism and trivialized the heavy price that many of us pay for unthinkingly going along with the other sheep who perennially strive for ever more stuff. If you travel around the world, or speak to people who’ve done that, you will find folks in other nations who have much less money and stuff than we do, yet they are far happier. I have been involved in service projects in the Appalachians and got to know folks with a lot less stuff that were far happier than a lot of my friends and myself were in Minnesota years ago. So what do you really want? More and more stuff, or more time to enjoy what you have?

Living small in a tiny house, micro-home, or tiny green cabin can give you the freedom and time to make some really creative choices and experiences. Want to write poetry, a book, take up painting, go back to school, or the freedom to live in the North Country and then move your home south with you when the snowbirds head south, or follow a whisper from Spirit to see where that path leads.

Let your mind explore the possibilities, and maybe, just maybe you will have a lot of fun doing what you always dreamt of doing.

The small cabin has long been admired and romanticized. Where else would Presidents be born? What could be a more perfect “love nest?” A romantic hideaway?

Could there be a better setting for quiet contemplation? To think great thoughts?

Where would Thoreau be without “Thoreau’s cabin?” Could there be a “simple life” without a simple structure?

Peace, tranquility, freedom from the mortgage is yours with a Tiny Green Cabin.

The famous Irish poet William Butler Yates celebrates the tiny cabin thus:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

by W.B. Yates

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day,
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Click on the pictures to enlarge and see “more of the story”

To see the interior of the Wildflower II grand tour photos click here

For more information on the Wildflower II, click here

Tiny Green Cabins delivers a Tiny House to Western North Dakota

White Bear Lake, MN-November 1, 2011  - Tiny Green Cabins provides a solution  to the western North Dakota housing crisis -  one tiny house at a time.

Wildflower II

Living in a smaller, sustainable,  healthy home is becoming the choice of many: young singles find an easily affordable home, young professionals on the move or retirees wanting to downsize have less up-keep, and the appeal of creating a custom portable space is also attractive to those who travel frequently,  as well as to the avid sportsman or outdoorsman.

Tiny Green Cabins is excited about shipping its latest healthy tiny house creation - The Wildflower II - to a western North Dakota school teacher.  She has fulfilled  one of her age old dreams: to have a tiny house built to her exact specifications, one that she can take with her wherever life takes her.

The Wildflower II is a tiny house with a main floor that measures 176 square feet,  and a loft of an additional 120 square feet.   This is a house built to be transportable with added features to make it a year round residence, such as custom trailer foundation by Fellings, welded steel framed structure, insulated floor, walls, and ceiling, metal roofing and siding, in-floor electric heat with back-up propane fireplace, incinerator toilet, custom stairs to loft with built in storage, reserve water storage, grey water storage, ash paneling throughout the home sealed with hand rubbed Tung oil, just-in-time hot water system, LG washer and dryer, kitchenette, small front porch, Marvin Integrity Ultrex windows,  smoke and CO/Propane alarms, and a barrel vault roof /ceiling at lofted area.

Western North Dakota is in an interesting predicament with the oil boom of 35,000 workers in less than a year, and an unemployment rate of just 2%. These workers have moved into “man camps,” motels with campers in parking lots, college dorms, and anyplace else that will have them. Housing is at a premium, and with predictions of another 200,000 workers moving in, finding housing is a practical impossibility - where do you put all these people in the Badlands with winter fast approaching?

After careful deliberation, the new owner turned to Tiny Green Cabins for a solution to her very own housing crisis. The delivery of her tiny house this week will assure her of a healthy place to live and call home in western North Dakota, or wherever life takes her.

If you would like to  learn more about Tiny Green Cabins, check http://www.tinygreencabins.com.