Lloyd Kahn’s books were instrumental in Josh and I creating our very own off-grid cabin. Please consider this an open invitation to visit us anytime! Please see attached photos of our cabin that Josh built entirely by himself, as well some of our favorite treasures!
Peace and copious amounts of blessings upon each and everyone of you for all that you do! Keep up the good work! We love what you’re creating! We look forward to hearing and collaborating with you soon!
Take good care, Jessica and Josh Courson
I shot this in San José del Cabo about 15 years ago. You have to know and love the real Los Cabos — the people, the tropical desert, the ranchos, the beaches — to appreciate how perfect this bug is for the area.
Some interesting insight relating to our new book Rolling Homes. (Due in bookstores in July.) In the introduction, I point out that we don’t have many nomadlanders (people that are “houseless, not homeless”), nor do we have many of the #vanlife crowd that make a living as influencers.
Article in Time Magazine by Annabel Gutterman, February 15, 2021
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Bob Wells discussed the community of modern nomads, and why people are increasingly drawn to the movement. “If the Great Recession was a crack in the system, Covid and climate change will be the chasm,” he said. This lifestyle is not to be confused with “#vanlife” — a hashtag that populates Instagram feeds and accompanies photos of largely younger people traveling in vans. Bruder (author of Nomadland) believes #vanlife is more of a brand than a movement. “There are people of all ages who are living in vans and then there are people doing #vanlife,” Bruder says. “For everybody who can actually make a living or enough to eat and put gas in the tank on the road as an influencer, there are thousands of people who would probably like to be doing that and cannot.
www.time.com/5938982/nomadland-true-story
Shameless Commerce Dept.: Rolling Homes is available for pre-order with a 20% discount: www.shelterpub.com/building/rolling-homes
We will ship as soon as we receive books, hopefully mid-July.
Please note: other books can’t be combined with pre-orders.
This is our best book in years!
Tags: building, California, food, gardening, green building, half-acre homestead, homes, homestead, homesteading, kitchen, natural building, salvaged materials, sauna, small homes 
“Tyringham’s Gingerbread House located on the Santarella Estate in the Berkshires, Western Massachusetts…”
www.airbnb.com/rooms/45687365
Sent us by Jack at Full Circle Farm
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This is our long-time friend Ratty Raccoon (so named because he doesn’t have a tail — probably lost in a fight), acting cute. For some time I would get him to take dry cat food from my hand. He would pat his paws on the ground groping around, as if he couldn’t see until he got to my hand.
I read that a raccoon’s brain is “…highly specialized to interpret tactile impressions,” so it seemed like he was seeing with his paws.
I eventually quit doing this, as it doesn’t seem right to get wild animals dependent upon food from humanoids.
But once in a while now, I’ll get him to take peanuts from my hand, marveling at his dexterity.
Jack O’Neill at Steamer Lane in the ’50s
One of the early wetsuits
Jack had this kite flyer at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, before he moved to Santa Cruz. This thing would get up to high speeds. I was his insurance broker when he opened The Surf Shop on The Great Highway in SFO in the early ’50s. Some time I’ll tell you the story of how Jack made his first wetsuit. Spoiler alert: he did not invent the wetsuit.
