One of Our Tiniest Fans

July 7, 2018 at 2:44 pm

This is Brielle, one year old, fascinated with a mini copy of Small Homes.

(I’ll be playing around with layout for a week or two in this brand new incarnation of my blog. I’m excited about now using WordPress instead of Blogger. Plus at last I can go BIG with photos.)

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New Blog Format

July 6, 2018 at 2:43 pm

Rick has been working for months to coordinate the changeover from Blogger to WordPress and we’ve finally arrived. I was partially inspired by Cabinporn, with its large images. I also have more control over layout, but it’s going to be a learning curve. Here I go.

At left is a driftwood shack at the Mattole River beach. I’m in the midst of revising and expanding my book titled Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the California Coast.

I know everyone knows this but in case not, click on the photo.

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History of the Whole Earth Catalog and The Birth of West Coast Publishing

June 25, 2018 at 3:30 am

A copy of the first WEC. 1,000 copies were printed, according to Stewart. Very rare these days; used copies run from $250 to over $900.

A few weeks ago, I said I’d post more on The Whole Earth Catalog, which is having its 50th year anniversary party this October, and I ran across this post from 3 years ago: www.lloydkahn.com/…

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Circle Madness

June 22, 2018 at 4:27 pm

Old guys at work. 153 years of age total here. Billy and I have worked together off and on for 47 years.

I’ve wanted to build a curved roof for a long time. I finally did it, with help from Billy Cummings. For the 6 rafters, we glued together 4 pieces of redwood bender board — 16′ long, 1″ by 4″, ⅜″ thick, using a jig laid out on the floor, with Titebond wood glue, and clamping every foot or so. It was a pretty tedious process, we could only do one a day.

We got the rafters in place, Billy did the blocking on the plates, and we used 1×8 rough redwood fence boards for the sheathing. Yesterday we put down the flooring — used shiplap pine from Heritage Salvage. It looks (and feels) great.

There’s nothing like a curved roof, especially with a tiny home; it gives you a feeling of spaciousness. This is the roof shape in gypsy wagons — vardos.

This is 10′ by 10′. If I did it over, I would make it rectangular, like 8 by 12 or 8 by 14. I’m going to put a bed inside on wheels, that can be rolled out on the deck to sleep out under the stars. I’m still figuring out where to put windows.

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Tuesday Morning Fish Fry

June 20, 2018 at 9:03 am

Last week I went down to my secret beach in San Mateo county for the grunion run. These little fish come in at the highest of high tides to lay their eggs on the beaches, about twice a month in spring and summer. In between waves, you scoop them up with your hands — no nets allowed. It was a misty night, and there were two great herons down there for the feast. I followed the herons — they didn’t see me in the mist until I got very close, and they were invariably where the most grunion were.

I got 30-40 of the beautiful silvery little fish. I finally learned how to cook them. They’re so small they don’t need cleaning. Plus they don’t eat when spawning so there’s very little in their guts. I put them in a shallow bowl with olive oil, soy sauce and garlic, put them in a fish basket, and grilled on the Webber at high heat — delicious.

This time I made some little fillets and pickled them — haven’t eaten these yet — waiting a week or so.

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