To get to my friend Louie’s house this time of year, you have to ride across the river on a 500′ cable. Louie was the featured builder in our book Home Work. Click here to see the pages on Louie; (you can click on each of the photos shown to enlarge them).
Louie is shown here getting the bosun’s chair ready for the trip. The platform is 30′ above the ground. The other photo is one he took when I was about halfway across the river. (The large object coming down from top is the cable.) It’s a thrill to go sailing across the turbulent water.
We had a goose for dinner, with Louie’s home-made zinfandel that night. Now I had to get back across the river, dark and foggy night. I put on my headlight, climbed the tower on the house side of the river, locked the chair on the cable and with not a small amount of trepidation, let go, sailing out into the black night. It was fantastic, like I was in good hands. Came into the landing platform at a trot, and walked through the fields to Louie’s shop, where I stay.
This is a great Jules Holland show to catch. It’s been rerunning this week (shot May 18. 2007). Not only does Patti completely kick ass, but there’s Simply Red, and Joe Cocker singing a gospel-type number with 4-voice backup. Incidentally, Jules is a hell of a piano player. Patti is pure power with her incredible version of “Gloria.”
Jesus died for somebody’s sins,
But not mine…
Dan Kuehn, author of Mongolian Cloud Houses (a book on yurts) just sent us an email about a memorial this Monday for Japanese poet Nanao Sakai in Santa Fe:
Nanao Sakaki died a year ago on Winter Solstice. Friends of Nanao will attend a one year memorial at Upaya Zen Center next Monday, December 21, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. Carol Merrill wrote: “If you can’t make it… Well, he said it best:”
If you have time to chatter
Read books
If you have time to read
Walk into mountain, desert and ocean
If you have time to walk
Sing Songs and dance
If you have time to dance
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot.
My friend Mike Durrie’s daughter Jessica runs 2 very cool cafe/coffee roasteries in Princeton, NJ, Small World Coffee. When the local Whole Foods, which carries her coffee, asked for something “…new and exciting,’ Jessica emailed Mike: “…the label for the Crispy Hippie…was designed with Lloyd Kahn, of Bolinas, in mind. My graphics guy asked me, ‘what do you want this label to look like?’ And the only image that popped into my mind was Lloyd skateboarding or surfing. So, I showed my graphics guy a photo of Lloyd and told him the story my dad told me of Lloyd getting a ticket or something for skateboarding up at Sea Ranch. So, anyway, Lloyd, I guess, is the Crispy Hippie! I hope he takes no offense.”
Heck Jessica, I’m honored—tote-uh-lee… “…a high density bean that can take the extra heat.” Yeah!
Sent us by Michael Mery
Peter Aschwanden was the illustrator of John Muir’s wildly popular How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: the Manual for the Compleat Idiot, of which Wikipedia says: “…Muir’s self-published edition sold more than two million copies to become one of the most successful self-published books in history, while its subtitle preceded (and likely inspired) the unending flow of “for Dummies” books from IDG Publishing.”
We tracked Peter down in 2001, and he agreed to illustrate our Septic Systems Owner’s Manual. He ended up making a book on a rather mundane subject into a work of art, with drawings very much like those of R. Crumb. The cover he came up with looked like one of the ’60s Fillmore posters. Peter passed away a few years ago, but family and friends have created a website featuring his posters, T-shirts and books. It’s at https://www.peteraschwanden.com:
Steps on Matt Davis Trail up to Table Rock from Stinson Beach. Old auto on Coastal Trail has been there forever, probably since the ’50s.
On Dec. 12, 2009, Ziggy writes: “After the Natural Building Colloquium in Eagle Point, Oregon, I traveled with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley to their home in Coquille, OR: Cob Cottage Company. For those unawares, Ianto and Linda are two very influential cob building pioneers in North America, and authors of The Hand-Sculpted House, the number one go-to book for cob construction. They have been a huge inspiration for me during my house design process, and reading their book sealed the deal for building my home out of cob. Ianto and Linda have decades of experience building with mud. It was an honor to be able to meet them and spend several nights at their place. It was a great experience….”
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Once I got back from Europe and the dust settled, I finally started on our tiny houses book. We’ve been gathering material on the subject for about a year and I’m astounded by the wealth and richness of material. I thought I’d have to wrestle with myself to get rolling on this project in the early stages, but it’s taken on a life of its own from day one. I’ve never had a book take off like this. I’m having a wickedly good time, getting up early in the mornings to work on it. PLUS I’m running across all kinds of other interesting stuff (see blogs of Nov.-Dec.).
There are a ton of books out there on tiny (or “small”) houses and more coming, so why are we doing one? Well, we wrote about building small, simple, non-architect, homes in Shelter, 36 years ago. In fact Bob Easton drew up 5 simple little buildings with these roofs: shed, gable, steep gable, gambrel and circular. We told owner-builders to keep it small, simple, and economical, and to not get trapped in a wishful fantasy (domes, 7-sided, abstract shapes, etc). “Quick to build so you can get on with your life.”
Secondly, there’s an obvious surge of interest nowadays, necessity being the mother, etc.
Third, I’ve been photographing small buildings for 40 years now.
Fourth, we’re doing one of our signature building books, dense with photos and stories, way different from other books, hoping to publish by November 2010. It’s gonna be a good one!
*Click here for gambrel roof page from Shelter (shown above).
I’m not a fan of cooking with electricity, but this is one electric appliance that we use 3-4 times a day, every day of the year. It heats water to tea or coffee (or hot water bottle) temperature in a flash. Our first one lasted maybe 6 years, and we replaced it. While waiting for the new one, it was a drag to have to wait for the kettle to boil on the gas stove. It’s called the Chef’s Choice 685 International Deluxe Cordless Electric Teakettle:
Another one that gets good reviews is the Breville SK500XL Ikon Cordless 1.7-Liter Stainless-Steel Electric Kettle:
David Greenberg is an artist and treehouse designer. This is one of the treehouses he designed in China (it’s in our book HomeWork).
This photo, by Pete Nelson, is on the French website: https://www.lesechos.fr/luxe/actu/300355342-cabanes-la-grande-evasion.htm
