I like running in the rain. Not at first, but after I get going and warm up, it’s exhilarating. Plus the smell of the air and the negative ions.
So I set out last night around 6PM, heading south along the coastal cliffs from Muir Beach. I had on my one layer of Maxit tights and a rain parka tied around my waist. The storm was just starting.
By the time I got up to my lookout spot (a point of land projecting out into the ocean that feels very much like the bow of a ship), the wind in front of the storm was blowing at maybe 30-40 mph, and I put on the parka and faced into it, taking in the wind energy and the sweet smell of fresh storm air, leaning into the storm and it holding me up. The lights of San Francisco across the water.
As I headed up on a fire road inland, the rain started. It got foggy and pretty soon it was like being in a tunnel, darkness all around and a six-foot circle of misty light in front of me. These small owls (actually, I’ve been told they’re not owls, but related to whippoorwills) fluttered up from the sides of the road as I ascended; I think they wait for mice to cross the road.
It was getting darker and rainier. I got to the top and started back down. I could hardly see. I was sending good thoughts to my Black Diamond headlamp, because I hadn’t brought any backup light, and if I lost my light in this gloom, I’d be out there all night.
If you believe in family farms, local food production, and — yes — environmental responsibility, I urge you to sign the petition to allow the Drake’s Bay Oyster company to renew its lease in the National Park. It’s the very best type of food production — no chemicals, fertilizers, watering, soil or water pollution. Plus the oysters actually filter and clean the water. Go here to sign the petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/secretary-of-the-interior-ken-salazar-renew-the-lease-for-drakes-bay-oyster-company
When Bill Steen was here Friday I was showing him some of my office workout stuff and told him I might do a YouTube video on the subject. Homemade and/or cheap/effective ways to get some physical benefit while in the office (or at home). Bill got out his iPhone and we shot this quick video. I need to show these things and a few others and have a link to where you can get the straps, or the Lifeline Gym. Coming attraction…
Bill and Athena Steen are authors of The Strawbale House Book, which became a best seller and started the strawbale building movement in North America. The Steens live at the end of a road in the desert south of Tucson (not far from Patagonia, Arizona), a lovely compound of strawbale and adobe structures built of natural materials. I’ve been down there 3 times and this is the 1st time they’ve visited us in California. See their website here: https://www.caneloproject.com. Their work has been featured prominently in our books Home Work and Tiny Homes.
Bill and I have gone out on a few photo shoots together in Arizona, he with his Nikon, me with my Canon. In recent years Bill has switched to shooting almost everything with his iPhone; he’d told me about it, but this time I got a chance to see it 1st hand. I didn’t even realize that my iPhone had an HDR (high dynamic range) option (if you’re shooting a scene with two sharply different contrasts — like an interior shot of the kitchen, with light streaming in through the windows). HDR takes 2 shots at different exposures and sandwiches them togetherv — right on the iPhone. Voila!
Bill uses these iPhone apps:
-Photosync to load on to computer
-HDR3 which takes the pic
-Bracket Mode
-True HD
-SnapSeed (which he used to shoot this photo of Lesley and me):
“Based in Seattle, SunTime Yurts imports Mongolia’s highest quality handmade Gers (yurts) to the Pacific NorthWest. The Mongolian Ger has been tested and tried for thousands of years in one of the most remote and harshest climates in the world. Over the years, the Ger has slowly evolved into a practical modern day living space.…
During a 7 month stay in Mongolia I fell in love with the nomadic culture and the thousand year old felt home of the Mongols. After returning home to cookie cutter suburbia USA I decided to add some culture and sustainable alternatives to our neighborhoods by dotting them with the white felt tents of Mongolia.”
“Hey Lloyd, I recently discovered this blog on the trials and tribs of a small house life from the beginning thru construction to living the life…quite inspirational..unknown if you want to post it or not..just spent the better part of my evening going from one ‘newer post’ to the next…
Last week, Gill sent in a comment on a post I did last year. It was a link to an old Popular Science Magazine, and I replied that I had looked through the entire issue. To which Gill responded as below:
Dylan Friedman stopped in at our booth at the Green Festival yesterday and said that his Mom had given him Shelter when he was 4 years old. He said he had called it “my picture book,” and it and Winnie the Pooh were his two favorite books. He said he’d looked at the pictures when he was tiny, and built his 1st yurt when he was 21, and was now, as a result of that early inspiration, a green builder in NY.
