In backyard of The General Store, 1899 Irving Street, San Francisco.
Recycled materials. Cool neighborhood.
New graffiti on beach: the taggers were down there working yesterday. I love this art form. Totally guerrilla, has nothing to do with the art world. Spontaneous, tough, decentralized, no $$$. Look at the lips here, the eyes. It’s on a corner of the seawall.
Vintage whine: I’ve been moping around big-time. My face and head healed up pretty fast from getting hit by a rolling log last week, but the cracked ribs are the bummer. There’s a brotherhood of guys who have had rib injuries. My friend Paul Wingate says, “Please God, don’t let me sneeze.” Can’t run, can’t paddle, Lord, life is bleak when the limbs are stationary. BUT, I’m starting to feel a bit better, going to take the long walk this afternoon.
iPad Stretches: could we have a hit here? It’s been downloaded 1500 times in its first 10 days out there. Rick just wrote me: “It’s currently listed as the #3 free offering in the Health, Body & Mind category of the iBookstore.” iPad users check it out. It’s free.
Tiny house book: I’ve got so much material this could easily be a series. I’m just about ready to start laying out
Read More …
Outdoor classroom at Sustainability Centre in South Downs National Park, U.KOn 5/13/10, I got this email:
Dear Lloyd,
My name is Jack I’m 28 and a carpenter, I live in a town called Bridport in the south west coast of England. I’ve been a fan of your building books ever since a friend showed me a copy of Shelter in Spain when I was helping him build a cob house. I had never seen or heard of such structures before I went to help in 2003, He was using your book as a guide to build his house (which has been extremely successful); since then your other books have been and still are a true inspiration to my love of natural earth born structures. I have been working for a conservation building company for the last 5 years and want a change, something that will lead me to constructing unique and innovative buildings.
Read More …
Shows what you can do with vegetation. Somewhere down around 4th St. in Berkeley. There are tons of great homes in Berkeley and Oakland. I keep jumping out of the car and shooting pictures when I’m in the East Bay.
Our (free) stretching reminder for iPad users is now available. It’s in the “books” category on your iPad. When you click on one of the images shown here, it opens to a page with the instructions for that stretch — a reminder to take a stretching break during your digital day. iPad users, see:
We made it free in hopes of generating interest in our program StretchWare, (“The software that reminds you to stretch”). You can download StretchWare free for 30 days at: . Works great on Mac and Windows.
This round barn is at The Round Barn Farm Bed & Breakfast in Waitsfield, Vermont.
Sun Ray Kelly is building a unique rolling home (which will be featured in our book on tiny houses). Inspired by gypsy caravans, he got a vintage 1984 Toyota dolphin camper vehicle (1-ton rear axle), demolished the camper shell, and built a canted-wall, curved-roof frame out of recycled aluminum. Called the Gypsy Wagon, it’s got a wild new shape and a unique solar/electric/diesel hybrid power plant.
The sides are cedar, there’s a forward solarium, a stained glass rear window, and a back porch. There will be 3000 watts of solar panels (some of which will fold down), two 156 volt banks of lithium iron phosphate batteries, and a 12 inch GE electric motor. The Toyota’s gas motor has been removed and a four-cylinder 1500 cc diesel motor installed that will run on bio diesel.
The batteries will be charged 3 different ways: one, by plugging into a standard 110-volt electrical outlet; two, by the PV array installed on the roof and wings; and three, by a 26-kw Perkins diesel powered generator (a “gen-set”). As SunRay explains, “Trains have for years been run with an electric motor powered by a diesel generator.”
Sunray is a brilliant (and competent) builder. Click on the link below, then go to the slideshow at the bottom of the page and click on the arrow to see some 2-page spreads of his work in Builders of the Pacific Coast: https://www.shelterpub.com/_builders/BPC-book.html
Any green angel investors out there? SunRay, as usual, is working on a shoestring, and could use financial backing. It’s a wonderful project that will enlighten and inspire people to utilize alternative sources of energy and recycled materials. Contact him at: sunray@sunraykelley.com, all and stay tuned in here for progress
Pretty nice huh? Can’t remember who sent it.
I pick up roadkill animals. OK? I’m out of the closet with it now. I’ve been doing so for years. Food and fur. This is my second skunk skin. He was in the outdoor freezer for about a year until I skinned him a month or so ago. Most skunks release their odor when hit on the road. But once in a while one will get bopped on the head and not have time to release its musk oil out into the world.
I’ve got skins of squirrels, raccoons, a fox, a beautiful bobcat, a weasel, and a white spotted baby deer skin. I love the idea of taking something that’s otherwise going to rot on the road, and turning it into a beautiful object.
Technique: I skin the animal, stretch the skin on a piece of plywood tack it down, cover it with salt, and then in a week, ship it UPS to a tanning guy in Pennsylvania. Six weeks later I get back (via UPS) a tanned skin. This one was surprisingly pretty, glossy and rich.
Also, I collect skulls and bones, mostly in the woods, sometimes on the beach, and clean and bleach them. Bones fascinate me. Nature is a marvelous designer and engineer.
In backyard of The General Store, 1899 Irving Street, San Francisco.
