The Very Possible End of this Blog

In the ’60s I had a friend is Santa Barbara, a highly-skilled gardener, tell me this about the growth of his pot plants: they’d not grow much for a week or so, then suddenly in 24 hours they’d grow like crazy. We talked about how knowledge was like that. You’ll take in information and ponder something over a period of time and suddenly—eureka!—you’ll get it. You get the whole picture. You see the way forward.

Well here’s my growth spurt of the last few days. It may be premature to write this, but I think I see a new way to get out our “content*”) out to (more) people.

I’ve been pondering mostly Instagram and Twitter, but also Facebook (ugh!), Pinterest, maybe Tumblr as a better way than blogging. I’ve done almost 5,000 posts now, some 7 million page views, I think it’s time to hang it up, or at least quit trying to do a post a day. I’ve been running it like a mini-newspaper, and I love doing it, but it’s taking too much time. Maybe I’ll just do my own material on this blog and not keep posting interesting stuff from other websites.

Small Homes

I’m laying out about 2 pages of this new book each day. Once I get the photos and text on the design table, it seems to assemble itself. Oh this fits here…I’ll put the pull quote here…Line this up both up and across…I love doing it—watching the birth of a book. A lot of material came in today—photos and stories.

I need to put more time into the book now, less on the blog.

Plus it’s occurring to me that blogs may be less significant these days, what with these super-sized phone screens and the fact that people are checking Instagram and Facebook daily whereas one has to go to a blog. I only look at blogs occasionally.

Lloyd’s Change of Direction

The iPhone 6 Plus! Holy shit! What a tool. I’ve run across 3 of them in the last 5 days. Yesterday my friend Jeff said, “Have you seen the billboards with photos shot on the iPhone 6?” I’ve kept saying I’d rather shoot quick photos with my many-featured Sony Cybershot RX100 II—raw files, tons of options not on any phone. But the camera seems v. good on the new iPhone and it’ll allow me to post stuff immediately, without having to shoot pix, load them on computer, use wi-fi, blah blah blah…Just zap from the phone. Immediate communication.

It’s gonna be fun, because I run across so much interesting stuff out in the world.

Looking forward to doing Twitter again. Forced to edit self.

*I have probably 15,000 (film and digital ) photos from 50+years—maybe half of them on homes, builders, building, architecture, most of it never used.

Live Broadcast of Small Homes

We’re going to try publishing excerpts from this book as we lay it out. Need to figure how to do so efficiently…hey, what about publishing quick photos of rough layout like this, along with a paragraph about the builder/homeowners? Would that work? The above layout:

“Jes Nelee’, musician and world traveler, designed and built her own small home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the help of her 80-year-old grandfather and friends.”

We could do that real simply. Get out on theshelterblog plus other social media.

Just sayin…

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Sleepy Man Banjo Boys – Bluegrass From New Jersey Kids

Published on Jul 5, 2013

“All under the age of 16, brothers Jonny, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone are from New Jersey, a US state that’s better known for the rock of Bruce Springsteen than the bluegrass of Earl Scruggs. Nonetheless, the siblings began performing bluegrass covers, as well as their own compositions, at a young age. Here, they play three dazzling songs in three different keys, passing the lead back and forth from fiddle to banjo to guitar.”

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Shelter Looking for Apprentice or Part Time Employee and/or Website Designer

The paradox is that we’re getting this incredible feedback, now daily, and sales of our books have dropped off. We want to:

1. Redesign our website

2. Get Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and our blogs working to reach people. We have tons of “content.”

3. Produce more short videos

4. Consult with internet-savvy people

5. Get word out more broadly about our books

6. Get theshelterblog audience large enough so we get income from it.

Ideally we’d find a person who who understands blogs, “social media,” and how to build a new website.

Contact us if you or anyone you know might be interested in working with us: shelter@shelterpub.com

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Will, Lloyd and the Rainbow Girls

I went to see the Rainbow Girls Friday night and thought they were fantastic. Great vocal harmonies, and they all kept switching instruments. After they finished, my son Will (a drummer) and I were talking to them outside the bar and Will mentioned that I had published Tiny Homes and one of them screamed, “Oh I love that book!” Pretty soon we were hanging out with all 4 of them. They all knew at least one of our books.

Check them out:

People in Oregon: they’ll be there August 26th-30th: https://www.rainbowgirlsmusic.com/

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Small Homes Book Under Production

I’m rolling with layout of Small Homes. It’s like magic: I start with a bunch of photos and columns of text and start assembling. I’ll pick a lead photo and blow it up on my little (inexpensive)  6-year-old Brother DCP-9040CN color printer/copier and start laying things down, getting pics to size on the copy machine, shifting stuff around, adding text, taping it down with Scotch removable tape and voila, it’s lookin pretty good.

Note: we want to hear what people are doing about shelter in cities (other than paying $3500/month for a studio apartment in San Francisco). Email us at smallhomes@shelterpub.com

I’ve got so much going on right now, what with the book production, and also due to the fact that our sales have dropped off (in the midst of incredible feedback), so we’re working on marketing. Goal is to get people in bookstores just to pick up one of our books.

I’m back in the water after about 20 years of running (mostly on the mountain). Swimming and paddling my (12′ Joe bark Surftek) paddleboard, which whisks through the water. The other day I got in a strong outgoing tide, paddling hard, and was going at least 10 mph, if not 15, water spraying from the bow, pretending I was a speedboat. The water in the ocean is uncharacteristically warm right now. Some days 65 degrees. Am I in LA?

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Jay Nelson’s Suzuki Camper Built for Foster Huntington

Jay Nelson’s work has been featured in Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move. Foster Huntington’s Toyota Tacoma camper was featured in Tiny Homes on the Move.

From Foster:

“The car is a Suzuki SJ410. It’s the predecessor to the Samurai and has a 1 liter 4-cylinder engine.

The camper is made out of marine plywood and thin copper sheeting. The camper has a sleeping space that’s just over 6 feet long over the cab.

 Jay Nelson designed and built the camper in two weeks with some help from some friends.”

Jay’s Website: https://www.jaynelsonart.com/

More on Jay: https://www.lloydkahn.com/?s=jay+nelson

Foster’s website: https://www.arestlesstransplant.com/

More on Foster: https://www.lloydkahn.com/?s=Foster+huntington

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Pacific West Coast Ocean Warmer

Hi Lloyd, warm ocean down there! But same up here in BC.  Droughts in the rainforest, this year’s salmon in big trouble.

Readers of your blog can see the ever-changing blob for themselves here:

Drag the view you like and click anywhere to get a reading of sea surface temperature anomaly.  Click on “earth” to get full menus – wind mapping at any elevation too, very cool.

I’ve been tracking this slow-moving ocean heater for months, there were some +5.3C hotspots out there last week.

David Shipway

Cortes Island, BC, Canada

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