(The title above based on San Francisco columnist Herb Caen’s 3-dot journalism wrap-ups of recent doings.)

Well!

State of this blog (and my ongoing compulsion to communicate) In the early years of blogging, I put heart and soul into it — a lot of writing. As time has passed, I have a lot less time plus I’ve switched to more photos/less talk. Once in a while, though, I like to explain what’s going on. Life is very rich around here right now. I’m 83 and feel like I’m just getting going. I need a clone or two to do all I want to do.

Books

Driftwood book We just printed out proofs yesterday and I am beyond thrilled. What started as a short-run digital printing for friends has turned into a full fledged book. The book has doubled in size, now includes photos (and words) from my trip along the Lost Coast, and lots of full-bleed photo spreads. I like the small (8½″ by 8½″) format … it’s totally different than all my 9″ by 12″ building books, each with over 1,000 photos. Here the photos are larger, and fewer … here there’s consistency in that all the photos are mine, and Rick has brought out the best in each with his Photoshop skills. … I’m stoked!

Half-Acre Homestead book I’m about to start doing layout.

Galloway’s Book on Running Jeff Galloway has revised his classic book (650,000 copies sold) and we’re starting to put together the 3rd edition. Jeff, a 1972 Olympian, along with Bill Rogers, Frank Shorter, and Kenny Moore, were the first generation of long-haired runners in the ’70s, largely responsible for the running craze that’s still with us. Jeff held the American record for the 10 mile in 1973 (47:49), ran the mile in college at 4:12, and at age 35, ran a marathon in 2:16. He’s also a charismatic teacher and in recent years has popularized the “run-walk-run” method of training.

Stretching, which has sold over 3½ million copies worldwide and is in 23 languages (including Latvian), will have its 40th anniversary issue in 2020. Next year I’ll hang out with Bob and Jean Anderson at their home in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and we’ll put together the new edition.

The ’60s Whenever I get the chance I put up another chapter on this era. They are gathered under the button (above), “The ’60s.” It’ll take maybe a year to get it all posted, and then I might turn it into a book.

Non-profit books I have a bunch of scrapbooks I’m starting to print via the digital, short-run process. The first one is Pop’s Diner, 48 pages, a scrapbook of a 2-week trip I took through the Southwest in my Toyota 4×4, 5-speed, stick shift, 4-cylinder truck in 1989. Remote hot springs in Nevada, backpacking in the Paria Canyon, waterfalls and petroglyphs in Utah, hamburgers at Pop’s Diner in Arizona, and friendly Americans. I worked nights putting together a scrapbook — pasted down 4 by 6 color prints, hand lettered the text, and painted on some of the photos. I had a 2 copies made on a Canon photocopy machine at Krishna Copy in San Francisco (in 1989), paid $100 to have it bound. Print run of two! … I’d either loan it or ship it to friends in a plywood box, and they would return it in a few weeks.… the idea was to take the reader along with me, riding shotgun … when I travel like this, I pretend I have a passenger riding along … it’s a relief to do a “book” like this, with no worries about sales … purely to give to people when I see them.… this one printed by Lightning Source, 40 copies, costs about $6 each.… more to come when I have time…

Publicity

L-r: Lloyd, Chris Ryan, Evan Kahn (Evan set up the interview.)

A bunch of stuff lately: Chris Ryan did a one-hour interview of me here for a podcast to be put up soon on his Tangentially Speaking podcast site. A delightful, insightful guy … Surfer’s Journal is doing a feature article on me, probably some time early in 2019. They’re also considering an article on my driftwood shacks photos … this I’m excited about because it’s such a classy publication … I got interviewed by people from a Japanese magazine for an article on wood … they interviewed artist/builder Jay Nelson in San Francisco for the same article, so I’m in good company … Monday I’m getting interviewed about tiny homes by La Leche, an Italian magazine for children … next week I’m getting interviewed by Alan Solomon for a book to be published by Abrams on reclajmed lumber, a subject dear to my heart … I’m doing all this and a bunch of “social media” things to make more people aware of our books.

Check out what Mari Lillestol and Evan are doing with Shelter’s Instagram and Shelter’s blog (the latter different from mine in that it’s focused entirely on building).

Shameless Commerce

I’d prefer that we could just produce books and they’d sell like crazy forever, but it doesn’t work that way. We encourage everyone to patronize independent bookstores (there’s nothing like browsing), but if you ARE going to buy books online, we’re now offering discounts on our website — we’re cheaper than Amazon with 2 books or more, plus free shipping. We’re also setting up to sell the entire “Shelter Library of Building Books” — 7 books —at a 60% discount. They cover the years from 1973 to 2017 … over 7,000 photos. We’re making an effort to get our books out there, so more people will see them. Our website: www.shelterpub.com

Miscellany

Entrance to Shelter’s worldwide headquarters. Wow

Got my 15 HP 2-stroke Evinrude running fine now, going crabbing tomorrow and when I put my two pots out, I’m going looking for a black bear that’s been spotted in the nearby woods, with a telephoto lens … Whole Earth Catalog 50th anniversary party in SFO October 13th, public invited … a lot of us have sent in photos from the ’60s to be on display … Music du jour: Linda Gail Lewis on tour in France: Rockin’ My Life Away: www.youtube.com/ …

Ground control to Major Tom,
Ground control to Major Tom,
Take your protein pills,
and put your helmet on …

These nests are pyramidal, about 3 feet tall, all over in the woods around here. Woodrats are kinda nice critters, compared to disgusting Norwegian city rats. They’re like big mice, live communally, are craftily smart at getting bait off traps without springing the trigger. The ones around here are dusky-footed woodrats, often called “pack rats,” have white belies, and bigger ears and eyes than city rats.

They are herbivores and according to Andrew Santos:

“Their lodges are architectural marvels with many entrances and lookouts. Ans interior rooms that service nests And pantries. They generally live solo in a matriarchal society of several lodges, comprising neighborhoods. Nests can get 6 to 8 feet tall.”

–From Homegrown: A Year in the Life of a Humboldt County Guerrilla Grower

My book Driftwood Shacks is just about to go to the printers in Hong Kong, and now I’m starting to assemble the next one: Handmade: The Half-Acre Homestead, which covers 50+ years of building, gardening, cooking, foraging, fixing, and other aspects of creating our own shelter and food. In coming months, I’ll put up preview photos from this book.

This is our kitchen. The stainless steel sink was $100 at a salvage lumberyard. A key feature is that the sideboards drain into the sink. Most kitchen sinks have a rim around the edge, and the sideboards do not drain into the sink.

The dish rack at the right was designed and built by Lew Lewandowski about 20 years ago; after the plates and saucers and glasses are washed and rinsed, they are put in the rack to dry — and they stay there.

There’s a 5-gallon electric hot water heater directly under the sink. I don’t like the idea of electric heat, but in this case, it’s a small amount of electricity and moreover, you get almost instant hot water.

Here’s a YouTube video I did of our dishwashing system: www.youtube.com/…

If you like this blog, please email your friends about it: lloydkahn.com We need to generate more traffic so more people will know about our books.

In Berkeley Tuesday. It’s so heartbreaking to see what’s going on in the cities these days, a result of the great transfer of wealth to the upper 10%.

The name of our company is Shelter. When we started in the early ’70s, it was a positive thing to build your own house or somehow create your own shelter. Don’t pay rent; don’t get locked into a bank with a mortgage. Because I’ve built my own home(s), I’ve never paid rent or had mortgage payments — think what that’s meant over a 50 year period!  These days, things are desperate. You see it everywhere, but especially in housing, as the politicians in charge of the US government continue to skew things in favor of the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class.

The principles, as shown amply in our 7 building books, are still the same these days:
1. Keep it small. The heart of our book Shelter, published 45 years ago, was a section with plans for 5 small homes. Shelter II has plans for another 5 homes.
2. Look around in cities and towns for small fixer-uppers.
3. Do as much for yourself as possible, with your own hands. You don’t have to do it all. Do what you can — it’ll pay off in increased independence and savings (and satisfaction).

Shameless Commerce Dept.: Shelter is 30% off for the rest of September, with free shipping. Two or more books are 30% off at any time. We encourage you to buy books from independent booksellers, but IF you buy books online, buying them from us is cheaper than Amazon.