“The staff at White Oak Farm is pleased to offer our new and improved Comprehensive Natural Building Apprenticship program for summer 2011. Tyler Walter, Taylor Starr and James Haim will lead the program. The Apprenticeship will span five weeks of fully immersed hands-on experience, as well as field trips, lectures, discussions, slide shows, independent design projects and more. It will be an excellent opportunity for people looking to learn practical natural building skills for their future career or owner-builder projects, as well as for college students seeking an alternative classroom experience…”
https://www.whiteoakfarmcsa.org/nb-apprenticeship/
This little bamboo footstool had a ratty cover on it, so I cut out this new cover from an old threadbare Persian rug that someone was tossing out. The rug is nailed to the stool stand with brass plated upholstery nails and I put a thin piece of rubber foam underneath it. Got the idea from my friend Louis Frazier, who covered a homemade stool this way.
I’ve had this little hatchet for a few weeks now. Seldom have I had a tool give me so much pleasure. I love to look at it as it sits by the fireplace. It makes me happy. And using it is a whole other hatchet experience — it’s razor sharp and cuts beautifully. It makes me want to split wood or sharpen stakes. Hey, I think I need to trim the branches on that dead oak I’m about to cut up for firewood.
Once in a while, a tool has just got it.
It’s hand forged, of Swedish steel (not made in China, by golly), by Husqvarna, the chain saw guys. They also make a larger hatchet (this is definitely smaller than a normal hatchet).
$39.95
Yesterday my friend Kent and I rode our bikes up the mountain and down an old fire road. I stopped to pick some mushrooms and Kent went on ahead. When I caught up, his bike was parked and he was in the woods by this gigantic tree. Maybe it was spared by the loggers because it was so distorted. A mighty and awesome presence.
Wednesday at the beach: Look at this engineering disaster plunked right in front of a nice beach front cottage. The monstrosity is actually right in front of the cottage, blocking the ocean view, although it doesn’t show in this perspective. Engineers and regulators once again run amok.
Our computermeister Rick Gordon has done a beautiful job converting Jeff Galloway’s best-selling book on marathons into E-book form. It looks way better than any other E-book on running, and in fact better, in its graphics, charts, and colors than just about anything on the iPad. It also works on the iPhone, iPod, and Kindle.
Runners who travel can take their training charts along, even on the iPhone.
Details: https://shelterpub.com/_ebooks/ebooks.html
Jeff Galloway’s website: https://www.jeffgalloway.com/
Yesterday there was a weather warning for 15 foot waves at a 6.6 ft. high tide, so I headed over to Stinson Beach to check it out. Surf was pounding, but it was more like 6-8 foot wave faces. Foam all over the beach. Not a soul in sight. Just shorebirds and me on the 2-1/2 mile-long sandy beach. Above is, I believe, a Marbled Godwit.
I found a nice weatherbeaten 5′ long 2 x 12, so I hauled it along a path from the beach to the road so I could pick it up in my truck. I discovered this nice succulent garden along the path, which is unmarked.
About a month ago I wimped out on running with my friends in a rainstorm. (We run every Tuesday night.) So last night I was determined to get out into it. The boys went up Frank’s Valley, and I headed south along the coastal cliff trail. The storm was lurking just of shore and boy was I excited. Had on windbreaker, gloves, and warm wool tuque (home-knit cap). The wind was blasting and when I got up to our lookout spot, it must have been 50-60 mph. The few drops of rain falling stung my face, felt like bullets. I had to lean into the wind to avoid being blown over. The wind whipping my jacket sounded like a Harley, or like cards in bike wheel spokes. The raw power of the Pacific Ocean! The storm was pouring energy into me as I breathed. I’m still amped.
After a pint of Guinness with the boys in the pub, I drove north along the coast to get home. The rain was kicking in, wind howling, and on the radio, the bluegrass band The Steeldrivers was playing Good Corn Liquor and I pulled the truck over to an ocean overlook spot and got out and danced a jig in the storm. Seemed like the thing to do.
I drove along the coast yesterday morning, heading for Berkeley. A big storm was brewing out in the Pacific and the air was supercharged. Crows and turkey buzzards were soaring in the updrafts, swooping with the wind. Later in the day, near the Home Depot in El Cerrito, there were like 100 seagulls wheeling around in the air, shooting up and floating and diving. They were playing! You think of dogs playing, but birds do too. The joy of being carried about by the wind. Oh to have wings!
I go to the East Bay almost weekly now and always take a little time out to drive through the residential neighborhoods and along the streets looking at houses and stores. More interesting than Marin with its exquisiteness and preciousness. Oakland, El Cerrito, Richmond — the real world.
I gotta tell you, I love doing this blog. Wish I had more time. I also wish I could do a quick layout of a few pages, say of yesterday’s excursion, with photos and text, but I’m limited to stacking pics on top of each other for internet expediency. Here are a few from yesterday.
Above: check out tiny 2-story house on left. I love the brick red color. All of our many doors and windows on the homestead here are painted this color.
Witty architecture in Berkeley
Nice solid old house
This was either in San Pablo or Richmond.
“Yestermorrow Design/Build School, located in the Green Mountains in Vermont, offers over 170 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design.
Now in its 30th year, Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Our 1-day to 12-week hands-on programs are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.”
https://www.yestermorrow.org/
“The staff at White Oak Farm is pleased to offer our new and improved Comprehensive Natural Building Apprenticship program for summer 2011. Tyler Walter, Taylor Starr and James Haim will lead the program. The Apprenticeship will span five weeks of fully immersed hands-on experience, as well as field trips, lectures, discussions, slide shows, independent design projects and more. It will be an excellent opportunity for people looking to learn practical natural building skills for their future career or owner-builder projects, as well as for college students seeking an alternative classroom experience…”
