“The motorcycling world loves a barn find, an old, obscure machine wheeled out of the woodwork for the first time. And this is one of the biggest revelations of recent months. It’s a 1930 Henderson that was customized before WW2 by a fellow called O. Ray Courtney and fitted with streamliner bodywork.

One night in March, 1950, O. Ray Courtney worked until two a.m. And drove home discouraged. He was trying to design a better motorcycle. He wanted one with the seat forward, with better cooling, better springing and a more beautiful body. Discarded sketches littered the floor of his shop.  That night in a dream he saw a steamlined beauty skim across a flowered field. Too excited to report for work the next day, he hastily put his dream on paper and he is riding that dream cycle now through the streets of Pontiac, Michigan

The art deco influence is obvious; legendary automotive designer Harley Earl could have drawn those curves.

It’s all the more unusual because the mechanicals are hidden: even at the height of the Art Deco movement, most motorcycles were a triumph of form over function, with exposed cooling fins, brake drums and suspension springs.

The bike is owned by collector Frank Westfall of Syracuse.

It caused a stir in June 2010 when it appeared at the Rhinebeck Grand National Meet, a motorcycle show held a couple of hours drive north of NYC.…”

https://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,59055.msg1358117.html

Wind chimes made from rock oyster shells make nice clinking sound in wind.

1-½” rain last 2 days.

My brother Bob, who plays the banjo, just sent me this. Wow!

Check out Chet and Jerry here too (song starts about 1/3rd thru tape):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLqyNV1SMWE&feature=related

Godfrey always been an inexhaustible bundle of energy. One of his present-day projects is to pepper me with emails about sailboats, which he feels are the ultimate in tiny houses. He is responsible for a 6-page layout we just did (in the now-under-production tiny homes book) on Paul and Julie and their exquisite live-aboard) 41-foot teak sailboat. One day last week he sent me 25 emails. In my “Stephens” folder I now have 464 photos. Help!

Here is a photo taken on one of his many sailboats in the ’80s, when a sea lion jumped on board. Godfrey writes:

Sailing  out of Avalon, anchoring for the Night off DANA point, early in the morning, fired up the wood stove with the espresso pot on top of the Coals, main and Genoa up moving south at about 3 knots —

a Bump, and more bumps and Lo there a determined Stellar Sea Lion, suddenly made it aboard with a Huge wet Thump on the steel deck,  I managed to get 3 pictures with the Spotmatic Pentax, 1982, 

She stayed aboard, sad to see her leave just off the Scripps marine institute, slipping along, one could Feel her heart beat when on deck throughout the whole boat. (I)… had to shoo her off because in a JYBE the boom would hit her.

Tied up to friends that night in the Shelter Island anchorage, now gone (to the “Ponderosa House boat “), a fantastic amount of anchored liveaboards .

Thats where (I) learned how to carve two bladed wind generator blades with the adze, and attach to old computer tape drive Motor/generators… 

•A (sort of) warm rain started falling around dusk yesterday. Rain has become a treat for me. I love everything about it. I just got a pair of rainpants at REI so now am prepared for walking out to the cliffs during big storms that roar in from the south. The air is sweet, fresh, electric. As energizing as getting head under waterfall. Simple joys.

•Solar light bulbs – For 50 years I’ve made skylights with flat (“Filon”) fiberglass, just interleaving it like a big shingle (on asphalt shingle roofs). It’s so simple. and solar-lights the room, free of charge. (I’ve found translucent, not transparent, provides best light.) I mention this because a young builder was here the other day, and this had never occured to him.

•Eatin local – I had 2 doves for dinner last night. One was roadkill, the other I shot. Yes, I do some small-scale hunting, OK? My dad was a serious duck hunter and my brother and I hunted for ducks and doves when we were about 12. Wild duck is my favorite food in the world. We have finally gotten around to eating a lot of local and/or wild foods. Crabs, fish, the occasional abalone, chanterelles, Yerba Buena tea… artichokes, beets and beet tops, chard, salad greens, tomatoes…from the garden. We started out to do this 30+ years ago and it’s all come to pass in the last 10 years or so. Local. Well, duh!

•End of a running (racing, that is) career – Bottom line: I’ve damaged my knees (20 years of fast downhill running) so at this point I’m knocking off the speed stuff. Oh I am so mature! Dumb fuck, I should have pulled out earlier. I should explain that there is a local race, the Dipsea, with tradition and romance and agony all wrapped up in a 7-mile course over the flank of a magic mountain. Me and my running friends (them even more so) have been obsessed with this great race. I’m starting to run differently. Once I give up on speed as a goal, it opens alternative paths. I’m fascinated with “chi running.” Trying to land more on mid-foot than solely on heel, flex knees more for shock absorption, better posture, and the greatest thing: FEELING the trail with my feet. Running as an art, running like an Indian…

•Tiny Homes book – is rolling. Rick, Lew, and I (with page design by David) have this week started turning out pages. 10-12 so far. We’re watching the book put itself together in this early phase. I’ve been laying out pages at random, just grabbing what looks exciting. Every day new material is coming in. Good stuff! There’s going to be way more than enough for one book.

•Rain and firewood – Rain is like, if you’ll excuse the expression, money in the bank. I feel secure when there’s been enough rain and the earth has enough moisture for the year. Same with firewood, we’ve got maybe a 2-year supply now (all roadkill trees), it’s comforting.