Photo Trip This Afternoon

May 4, 2012 at 10:22 pm

I went uplake with Bill and Bryan after my talk at the school today. Here are some pics. The brilliant colors are the Naniboujou Lodge on the shores of Lake Superior, which was “… was first conceived in the 1920’s as an ultra exclusive private club. Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Ring Lardner were among its charter members.…” The fireplace is a stunner, with 20 tons of lake rock. https://www.naniboujou.com

St Francis Xavier Church on outskirts of Grand Marais, built in 1895

Yes, I know. I am, as they say, all over the place. Can’t help it.

Tags:
Post a comment (3 comments)

North House Folk School

May 3, 2012 at 1:33 pm

It turns out to be a wonderful place. I don’t know how they manage so many classes. Craftsmanship everywhere is high quality. Boat building, timber framing, weaving, basket making, blacksmithing. I’m about to take off in a canoe with Peter, the timber framer, in the Boundary Waters, so I’ll throw a few photos out here and post details later. The building is their blacksmith training shop, which contains 4 forges.

  I’m doing my “The Half Acre Homestead” tomorrow (Friday) and Tiny Homes presentation Saturday.

Tags:
Post a comment (3 comments)

5-Min. Video Shot When Tiny Homes Was in Production

May 2, 2012 at 4:50 pm

This is a 5-min. video by Kirsten Dirksen of me talking about the Tiny Homes book, books of the ’60s like the Whole Earth Catalog, and showing bits of our half acre homestead including production studio.  It was shot while we were in production. Kirsten and her partner Nicolás Boullosa run faircompanies.com, (in Barcelona), which has an “embarrassment of riches” in tiny homes videos.

Tags: ,
Post a comment (2 comments)

Tom’s Logging Camp

May 2, 2012 at 1:58 pm

Maybe a quarter of the way from Duluth to Grand Marais, yesterday, in a drizzling rain, I stopped in at this place (5797 N. Shore Dr.), and bingo! The trading post is filled with stuffed animals, old tools, guns, and skins on the walls, plus a ton of trinkets, moccasins, Native American-oriented stuff, what have you. I talked to one of the owners, Bill Weckman, about a bunch of things and we were on the same page, as they say. After a while, he said, “Have you got 10 minutes?” “Well — yeah,” and he took me out in the back where there are a number of buildings with old logging tools, a blacksmith shop, a sauna (Finnish loggers), all giving you a clear idea of what life was like right here back in the day. Also a beautiful flock of chickens and two mystical black llamas. Below are some pics. (Wish I didn’t have to do this kind of dumb layout; such is the fate of a non-programmer.)

The Big Horned Sheep was huge. As was the  buffalo; look at the mystery and majesty and power of that head. Cattle are so lame by comparison.

The horse contraption holds a horse immobile while it is beings shoed. That’s a wooden (horse-drawn) school bus.

Tags: ,
Post a comment (3 comments)