My Little Houseboat

My Little Houseboat Join me for life aboard my houseboat tiny home in Canada!
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The other morning, our neighbourhood swan, Chili (N28) came by my houseboat with blood all over his feathers. After feed...
06/24/2026

The other morning, our neighbourhood swan, Chili (N28) came by my houseboat with blood all over his feathers.

After feeding him some dried corn to investigate further, it looked like it was actually coming from a large crack in his beak that was bleeding badly.

I contacted our Trumpeter swan group and then Toronto Wildlife Centre, who said to monitor it and let them know if it got worse.

The next day, Art from the swan group found Chili by the sailing club absolutely covered in blood. He immediately called TWC, and after an hour of effort between him, other swan group members, and TWC staff, they successfully captured the elusive Chili.

TWC kept him for three days to fix the wound in his beak (apparently a similar process to mending a turtle’s broken shell), help him heal a bit, and waterproof his feathers again.

In the meanwhile, his mate, Sarrah, had been swimming around honking for him. After a few days, she was found with another male swan.

Chili was released, and thankfully Sarrah dropped the poor other swan like a hot potato, going straight back to her mate. They’ve been coming back around the floating homes, with Chili showing off his newly mended beak!

Photos 1-3: Chili on the first day with his cracked beak (no photos of day 2, as he looked terrible!)
Photo 4: Sarrah looking for Chili
Photo 5-7: Chili all healed up!

Toronto Wildlife Centre

Poor little Finn went for an unintentional swim.He came home trailing puddles of water along the dock, running inside to...
06/22/2026

Poor little Finn went for an unintentional swim.

He came home trailing puddles of water along the dock, running inside to deposit water on the floors and rugs before I could wrap him up in a towel.

Figuring out what happened always requires detective work. These water trails were close to home, so it’s possible he missed a jump and ended up in the lake…

Or was he pushed in again by a neighbourhood cat or dog? He’s looking mad and ashamed enough that it might be the case… 😆

After he’d somewhat dried himself in a ray of sun, Finn spent some time resting and recuperating in my lap.

Photos from my window planter box project! Not shown: the month it took me to figure out the design plans, wood required...
06/19/2026

Photos from my window planter box project! Not shown: the month it took me to figure out the design plans, wood required, and to find long insert planters!

I wanted it to hide the plugs and water spigot (but still provide easy access to these), and also be sturdy, and to accommodate insert planter boxes so it wouldn’t rot, and be low enough to allow me to still open the kitchen window… so it took more of a thoughtful design than I had originally imagined. But in the end it all came together (with only one or two adjustments along the way)!

06/17/2026

Orioles, cardinals, swallows, robins, seagulls, blackbirds, kingfishers… mornings on the water can be noisy! And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Isn’t it funny when peace doesn’t necessarily include quiet?

Basking in those magical morning sun rays… whether it be with a book, getting cuddles, or watching the ducks from the de...
06/15/2026

Basking in those magical morning sun rays… whether it be with a book, getting cuddles, or watching the ducks from the deck.

A morning paddle past our little float home community
06/08/2026

A morning paddle past our little float home community

06/03/2026

The entrance to my houseboat is now complete - I finally have my dream window box for flowers!!

This feature was part of my ‘white picket fence’ dreams of childhood. When I moved onto my houseboat, this project was always on my list, but honestly seemed a bit overwhelming and outside my realm of expertise.

But this spring I felt like it was the perfect time to launch my DIY passion project. I got out my notebook, took some measurements, sketched ideas, found two properly-sized plastic planter inserts, and finally landed on a design.

For the better part of a month, any free hours were spent cutting wood, borrowing tools from neighbours, drilling pilot holes, screwing together bits of wood, filling holes, and then finally painting and mounting my finished product!

At first I thought the colour was possibly a bit TOO pink, but now I’ve come around to it… what do you think?!

If you’re looking for me, I’ll be standing with my hands on my hips admiring this product of dreams, problem-solving, creativity, and a bit of hard work… thinking of what I can achieve next!

My little feline greeting committee when I come home from a paddle ❤️
06/01/2026

My little feline greeting committee when I come home from a paddle ❤️

Aren’t killdeers amazing?! Every year we have these little creatures nest in the yard among the boat trailers, and they ...
05/29/2026

Aren’t killdeers amazing?! Every year we have these little creatures nest in the yard among the boat trailers, and they continue to delight me with their amazing mothering and acting skills.

A few fun facts about them:
⚪️ They’re named after their call, which sounds like “kill-deeer.”
⚪️ They nest right on the ground and have camouflaged eggs.
⚪️ If you get too close, they’ll fake a broken wing to lure you away from their nest (see video!)
⚪️ They run in quick bursts before stopping suddenly.

I always try to stay away from the killdeer babies so they don’t have to exhaust themselves with an encore performance, but sometimes when I have to sneak by to the garbage bins, I get a little show!

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