Louie Frazier

I got up at 4 AM yesterday and drove up the coast to stay with my friend Louie for a few days and get some away-from-the-office writing done. Louie lives in a river valley 5 miles back from the ocean and I have this beautiful little room in his shop to sleep and work in.

(Louie is the first builder in the book Home Work.) His house is across the river from his shop and to get there you go in a bosun’s chair 500 feet on a cable across the fast-moving river. I worked until the sun went down, then walked down the road to the cable. Every time I do it, I’m astounded at how beautifully it works. And not a little scared.

This pic taken in the near-dark with my little Olympus Stylist 1200 camera, ASA set to 6400

You climb stairs of this 30′ high platform, attach a bosun’s chair to the cable, check fittings — and zing — hanging from the chair, you roll across the river, apply the wooden brake, and come into a landing platform, powered by gravity. This ain’t for the faint-hearted. Louie is 80 years old and still coming across the river like Tarzan. We had wild duck for dinner, with cole slaw. A few shots of tequila with lime before, but no wine during dinner. We’ve both cut back on the booze. Hung around the fire, it was cold outside.

Louie

To get back across the river that night I climbed the steps to the platform on this side, clipped the bosun’s chair onto the cable, checked and re-checked fittings, switched on my halogen head flashlight (it was pitch black), and pushed off into the darkness, river rushing below, I can’t believe I’m doing this, sailing across, coming into a perfect landing on the other side of the river. Louie’s a wizard.

Louie’s wood-fired clay oven with fire bricks on oven floor, 8″-inch thick layer of cob around one layer common brick for the dome. Door height 2/3 height of oven ceiling. No chimney. Cold air goes in bottom of door, smoke out top of door. The design called The Crouching Beaver.

On the subject of stoves, Louie asked if I’d heard of the Rocket Stove, so I looked it up and came up with this website on the Winiarski Rocket Stove It’s a low-tech, homemade stove designed for efficient wood cooking.

Surfing at Pt. Arena

I love it on the Mendocino coast in the winter. Pt Arena is a hairy surfing spot. Cold water, long paddle-out, a big flat rock in the surf zone, but this day the sun was out and surf coming up. Here’s long-time local Jack Williams, who has the place wired:

I’d noticed this little bird several times before, hopping around in one of my compost bins. This morning (sunny for a change), I took out some crab shells from last night’s dinner to bury and there he was again. He let me get within 6 feet, highly unusual. He had this enormous eye. I just stood there and he hopped around, as if he was performing. Perky. Up, around, he fluttered in the air once like a hummingbird, and gradually hopped closer to me. He had poisonality. I just stood there in the sunlight, enjoying the moment. I ran back for my camera and he was still there, so here he is. I thought it was a bushtit, but two people wrote in to say it’s a female Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. Once in a while something wonderful happens with a wild animal. Thrilling when it does.

Female Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Latest to go into our forthcoming book Builders of the Pacific Coast. Wood spheres are made of two laminations of wood strips over laminated wood frames. The outside is then finished and covered with clear fiberglass.

The “Spherical Tree House” concept borrows heavily from sailboat construction and rigging practice. It’s a marriage of tree house and sailboat technology. Wooden spheres are built much like a cedar strip canoe or kayak. Suspension points are similar to the chain plate attachments on a sailboat. Stairways hang from a tree much like a sailboats shrouds hang from the mast.

Built by Tom Chudleigh.

I’m blowing the whistle on a huge ripoff of homeowners that is going on across the country: homeowners being forced into very expensive (30-50K) septic systems when in many cases they are not necessary. Read all about it. Get the February issue of Mother Earth News or check it out online at:https://www.motherearthnews.com/Homesteading-and-Self-Reliance/2008-02-01/Truth-About-Septic-Systems.aspx

I recently upgraded from on Olympus Stylist 800 to a 1200. These are small cameras that I keep in my fanny pack so I’ve got a camera with me at all times. (For serious shooting I use a Canon 20D.). The 800 was great, the 1200 is better. Smaller, slicker, and an ASA setting of 6400, the latter great for me because I shoot in a lot of low-light situations, like music in night clubs and I neve use a flash. The light sensitivity on the 6400 is unbelievable. About $300 from BH Photo.

Olympus Stylist 1200

I shot a very dark corner of a room and it looked like the camera had painted it with light. Here’s a shot (panorama of 2 actually) of our kitchen last night: