GIMME SHELTER – Summer 2022

June 2, 2022 at 3:30 am

To anyone receiving this for the first time, I send these newsletters out every few months. They’re different from social media — old-school in a way — in that they go to a select audience (over 5,000 people now), rather than blasting out into the internetosphere.

If you’re not signed up on the list to receive it, you can sign up for email delivery of the Gimme Shelter newsletter here.

Homestead in Spring 2022. See our recent book,
The Half-Acre Homestead: 46 Years of Building and Gardening

Rolling Homes Is Done!

Back cover

Title spread

After a year and a half, dealing with maybe a hundred contributors, thousands (I kid you not!) of emails, many thousands of photos, the book has pieced itself together, as has been the fashion with our building books. The material provided the content, and the book organized itself as it was put together.

I just received (via expensive air mail from China) the first five copies of Rolling Homes: Shelter on Wheels. 7,000 copies of the book are now en route to the U.S.A. and we expect it to be available in mid-July.

Holding it in my hands, I’m seeing it for the first time. And yes, I am prone to over-enthusiasm, and yes, this is my baby — but I think this is our best building book in years. There’s energy, there’s joy, there’s cleverness and craftsmanship and the spirit of adventure. There’s solid information — and fun. The people shine through.

There are time-tested components recommended by these builders, sometimes in great detail. And there’s inspiration — to create, to build, to get out there, to do something different.

But best … check it out in this 50-page flipbook: shelterpub.com/rolling-homes-sample-flipbook

Attention, reviewers:

Want the full book in flipbook form for review? Write rollinghomes@shelterpub.com, telling us where your review might appear, and we’ll send a link (and send us your address if you’d like us to mail you a copy of the book once printed).

Seeking blurbs:

Can you help us publicize the book? We will send you the flipbook version and if you like it, could you give us a few lines we could use for publicity purposes?

Want an early copy? Pre-order with a 20% discount.

Note: Please don’t order other books along with the pre-order.

shelterpub.com/building/rolling-homes

Mr. Sharkey’s Fat-Tire Electric Bike in the Oregon Sand Dunes

February 28, 2022 at 3:30 am

Particulars on my fat-tire e-bike:

It’s a custom build, consisting of:

Soma “Sandworm” chrome-moly steel frame

Single-speed chain drive (no derailleur to need adjustment or break on the trail)

Bafang BBSHD mid-drive motor

Luna Cycle 1,000-watt controller and display, with the controller software reprogrammed to 30 amperes of current at 52 volts (1,500 watts, or 2 horsepower)

Luna Cycle 4p14s 52-volt, 12 ampere-hour lithium battery

Relatively inexpensive after market hydraulic front forks

26 × 4.40 sand tires, running ~5 PSI (pressure depends on sand conditions)

Salsa “Bend” 23-degree swept-back handlebars (for arthritic thumb comfort)

More than I can remember at one sitting

Basically, this bike was custom assembled for riding on sand dunes. It’s also comfortable on the beach, and I even use it around the farm to get from place to place instead of walking sometimes.

The Luna controller integrates nicely with the Bafang motor and allows nine levels of pedal assist, which comes in handy for a variety of sand conditions and terrain slopes. The hand throttle is always available for use when desired.

Much of the riding I’ve been doing lately is going out on isolated dunes and seeking out wind-swept contours to surf, climbing to heights and carving the curves and troughs on the downhill run. Sometimes it’s possible to find formations that mimic a road course with banked turns, deep drops into depressions with easy exit slopes, or moguls, small jumps and the sort for some light trick riding. There’s also a fair amount of coastal forest trails connecting various dunes, which provides to opportunity for obstacle course practice and collision avoidance. Crashes are not uncommon, but the sand is pretty forgiving to the falling rider. Bruises are temporary, but good times live forever!
Read More …

The Flying Cloud Clipper Ship

January 25, 2022 at 9:56 am

At the Maritime Museum at Aquatic Park in San Francisco:

Shipwrecked

January 24, 2022 at 3:30 am

A friend gave me this sleek little surfing kayak; I was excited and suited up and went surfing.

So excited I didn’t think of attaching a leash (connecting me to kayak should I get dumped), forgot a life jacket, and was wearing a 15-year-old 4/5 mil wetsuit that was stiff from age.

You can see where this is going, right?

It was kinda rough in the channel, and I wasn’t in paddling shape, but I went out and got a small wave — and was impressed that the kayak surfed pretty well (which most kayaks don’t).

I was tired, thought I’d go in, but — maybe just one more wave. And got dumped.

The kayak headed shoreward and I was getting slowly swept out to sea in an outgoing current (heading towards a minus tide). Tried swimming while holding on to paddle, but was getting nowhere, so abandoned paddle. Tried swimming to shore but the suit was so stiff I could hardly raise my arms. PLUS the the way it floated me, I couldn’t get horizontal to swim. I couldn’t get closer to the beach. (Same beach where I was a lifeguard 60 years ago — ironic.

I didn’t panic, but was worried, even contemplative: what if I can’t get to shore? How long do I have? I mean, I’m a lifetime swimmer, surfer, swim instructor, lifeguard at Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz, Stinson Beach, and this was the first time I couldn’t swim to where I wanted to go. Shit!

There were a couple of people on the beach. Guess I could wave arms and yell “Help!” but “…the shame of it all” (a la Lee Marvin in The Wild One. Kook!

Well lo and behold, here comes a surfer, towing my kayak out. I was too tired to climb aboard, so I grabbed the back of it and he started towing me to shore. Halfway there, a girl on a longboard paddled over, let me borrow it and I paddled on in.

The kindness of strangers.

My rescuer turned out to be Kater Murch, who I remember as a kid in town and who was now a physicist living in St. Louis and home for the holidays. (This was on the afternoon of Christmas eve.)

Beyond the call of duty.

You saved my ass, I said, and hugged him.

OK, OK, if I go kayaking again, I’ll use a leash, wear a lifejacket, and wear a new stretchy wetsuit.

Solo 94-Day Sailboat Journey to San Francisco from Japan in 1962

January 17, 2022 at 11:34 am

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In 1962, a small sailboat sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. Aboard was Kenichi Horie, a 23-year-old Japanese adventurer, who had left Japan 94 days earlier and with nothing but the power of the wind, crossed the Pacific Ocean. He was at first arrested because he had no passport, but eventually was released and given a key to the city by the mayor.

This is his boat, at the Maritime Museum at Aquatic Park in San Francisco.

If you go there be sure to walk a few blocks to the much larger Maritime museum in The Cannery building at 900 Beach Street.

…Oh yeah, afterwards an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe (across the street from the cable car turnaround)…

From @lloyd.kahn’s Instagram

Account of My Last Trip to Europe

November 9, 2021 at 9:43 am

I got into publishing in the ‘60s when I was building domes and people started writing me from all over the USA, asking for the math.

I started responding, then realized I was writing the same letter over and over. Why not print up something? Would save me from repeating myself.

A little later I got hired by Stewart Brand to edit the Shelter part of The Whole Earth Catalog and the printouts turned into book making, and here I am 50+ years later, still writing stuff so I don’t have to repeat myself. A lot of it is “Hey, look what I’ve found out in the world.”

Here’s an account of my last couple of weeks in Europe. PLUS I, ahem, got to the airport 5 hours early and have time on my hands.

Life In Venice (and Switzerland and Florence)

The first 8 days of my trip were fantastic and well-documented on my blog snd Instagram accounts:

Lloyd’s Blog: www.lloydkahn.com
instagram.com/lloyd.kahn

Then came the rest of my trip:

Driving in Italy

It was just about the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. After a dream of a trip, with my extraordinary hosts, Lukas and Leopold, I ended up in Florence via train and loved the charming city.

Then I rented a car, a Fiat Panda hybrid — fine little economical car, and headed for Sicily. Italian drivers—man! They drive super fast, and tailgate constantly. You’ll have one a car length behind you going 80 MPH if you don’t get out of the passing lane fast enough. It’s constantly stressful for everyone.

Secondly, it was a huge mistake not to bring my Garmin GPS unit loaded for Italy. Instead I had to use the iPhone, which isn’t nearly as good as the Garmin. Had to hold the phone in left hand so I could shift with right (stick shift). Even tho not as good as the Garmin, it saved my ass continually. I got into congested confusing areas in Sicily repeatedly and it (eventually) guided me out.

Third, the Autostrada has toll booths that are stressful and confusing. You might have 3 cars impatiently waiting behind you while you fumble to pay. Also strange, they have no signs telling you how far it is to cities.

And fourth, there are road tunnels. Italians don’t go over the hills, they bore through them. Must have gone through 50 tunnels on the way to Sicily. A lot of them aren’t well lit, so you are a bit blinded doing in, and a lot of them are curvy and everyone is going 80.

I had a really hard time in Sicily. I must have chosen the wrong area, going south from Messina to Siracusa, very crowded, practically no access to swimming spots … I know Sicily is wonderful, I just did it the wrong way.

Left Sicily last Saturday, ferried across the short stretch of water to the mainland, and drove 14 hours until I finally found a hotel south of Rome. And you know what, I just can’t do that at my age.

By the time I got to Rome, I was flatlining and spent most of three days resting, as well as totally stressing about getting out of Italy to my flight home from London. I missed out going to cool places (and visiting friends) in one of the greatest cities in the world.

S-T-R-E-S-S

It was a fabulous trip until I got behind the wheel of a car. Dumbass!
Read More …

GIMME SHELTER – October 2021

October 7, 2021 at 2:04 am

To anyone receiving this for the first time, I send these newsletters out every few months. They’re different from social media — old school in a way — in that they go to a select audience (over 5,000 people now), rather than blasting out into the internetosphere.

If you’re not signed up on the list to receive it, you can sign up for email delivery of the Gimme Shelter newsletter here.

This is my first newsletter in 6 months, no less. Boy, how time has flown. So I’m afraid it’s gonna be a long one.

Rolling Homes

Rick and I have been working on this book for maybe 4 months. Our modus operandi: I write (or edit) text, print out photos, use a color copy machine (a workhorse Brother MFC-371DCW) to resize photos, then paste down text and photos with removable Scotch Tape. These then go to Rick, who uses Photoshop and InDesign to prepare files for printers. As we go along, he makes PDFs so I can print out pages to see how they look. An analog/digital process. We’ve got about 150 (out of 256) pages done.

I never know what a book will be like until we are well underway in production. We start with a theme — here, homes on wheels — and put it together 2 pages at a time, and the book reveals itself as we proceed.

And this one — good golly Miss Molly! — is turning out to be amazing. I’m sure you’re aware of the explosion of nomadic vehicles in recent years. Our book is composed of primarily do-it-yourselfers — the theme running through all our building books — and the designs, ingenuity, and craftsmanship are stunning.

One thing I just realized: there are a lot of surfers in this book — female and male. Below is Yasha Hetzel, who went 120,000 miles in Australia in a Citroën Berlingo van, here surfing at South Point:

BTW, we don’t seem to have any of the so-called “vanlife” rigs here — the young attractive couples with photos of sunsets and the minutiae of their daily lives. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it’s just is turning out that our rigs and people are more real, more hands-on than the “influencers.”

Shelter Books Exhibited at the Biennale Architettura in Venice

This is the big news around here right now. According to Wikipedia, the Biennale Architettura is “…an International exhibition held every other year in Venice, Italy, in which architecture from nations around the world is presented.”

The two architects responsible for the exhibit, Leopold Banchini and Lukas Feireiss, visited here last year, interviewed me, shot photos, and in conjunction with the exhibit, produced a book titled Shelter Cookbook. They have arranged for my flights to and from Venice, and a place to stay there, and after three flight cancellations and rescheduling and Covid preparations, I’m set to leave here on October 6th. I am excited!

The Shelter part of the exhibit consists of three of our books: Domebook One, Domebook 2, and Shelter, which are on display, as well as stick models of buildings shown in these books.

Stick models of buildings in Shelter and Domebook 2. A lot of work went into making these!

The exhibit is in the Arsenale di Venezia, a huge complex of shipyards and buildings built in the 1100s and used for building Venice’s ships.

I’ll be in Venice October 9–11; and on the 13th, I’ll be doing a slide presentation called “60 Years of Natural Building” at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, a school of architecture in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Then to Florence, then (maybe train ride) to Sicily where I’ll spend a week exploring (and swimming). Back home and back to book production end of October.

I’m really excited to be going back to Italy (and seeing Venice and Sicily for the first time). I love the people, the sea, the countryside, the food, the gardens — the Italian way of life — my cup of tea — er, espresso.

I’m going as lightweight as possible this trip, with a Cotopaxi Allpa 35 travel pack with compression bags (fits easily into overhead bin) and my regular daily Dakine backpack for MacBook Air, glasses, pens, etc. Trying something new this trip: the only camera — my iPhone 11 Pro Max. Not taking my Olympus OM-D EM-1 camera and lenses saves a lot of weight, and the iPhone is pretty darn capable.
Read More …

On the Road Again

August 26, 2021 at 12:12 pm

Headed up the coast to hang out with my pal Louie in Pt. Arena yesterday. Was gonna leave at 7 or 8 AM, didn’t get extricated from office biz until noon.

But once rolling, I got the familiar burst of energy. Something about moving wakes my brain up from staying home. The different scenery, the people, the excitement from once again being a traveling photographer. It’s like hunting, whether its scanning the changing landscape for barns and the occasional bit of good architecture or walking down a crowded street in NYC.

I swear, the world is a a place of never-ceasing wonder to me. Photographing, talking to people, letting serendipity run the show, my chi kicks into overdrive.

I’m just gonna write a bit here because I can’t seem to download the 180 or so photos I took yesterday. Hey Instagrammers, remember writing?

At some point in my life I’d like to take trips and communicate (blog and Instagram) as I go, like Charles Kuralt used to do. Come along and ride shotgun with me.

Only problem: how to get paid for doing so?

I stopped at Hog Island Oyster farm yesterday, got a dozen, and left a copy of Driftwood Shacks for Terry and the crew. The woman at the counter said “I love your books.”

Also, along the self-aggrandizement lines, a woman came up to me a few weeks ago at Andytown Coffee in SFO, and said “My daughter still has that mini-book you gave her and she still looks at it.” I had given it to her 4-year old daughter Maggie maybe a year ago, and Maggie had looked through all the pages carefully, asking me which tiny house was mine.

The feedback on our books is off the charts. Everyday, no kidding. The people shown in our building books inspire others to build, or create — something. The idea of using hands to provide (at least part of) their own shelter and food.

On the Skateboard Again
I found a perfect place to ride my skateboard yesterday. Breaking my arm a few years ago was a trauma (first broken bone in 84 years). I’ve felt awkward, cautious, but for the first time yesterday, I felt into the flow. I need to find the right downslope, smooth pavement, feathering out at bottom. No more pushing the speed limit, but rather trying to turn gracefully, like longboard surfing. No slash and burn. For that, I’ll take up skating at age 3 (like my skate hero Jeremy) in my next life, rather than at age 65.

My Mercedes 320E
This is an as-yet undiscovered gem of a car. I bought a ’99 320E with 180K a few years ago, for $4k. Might be up to $7k now with new tires, repairs, tuneups, and I can’t believe not only the design and construction, but the luxury. I would never have thought of myself driving a “Cedes, but this fell in my lap and instead of buying a new Crosstrek (was about to do), I’m gonna stick with this as long as it runs. My first non stick shift ever and I love it. Especially going over the mountain. Gets 22-23 mpg. I read about a couple of 320 E’s with a million miles on motors.

ROLLING HOMES
I’m maybe 3/5 through laying out pages. It changes every day. It’s a book creating itself. I’m not gonna take time to go into specifics, but, in spite of the plethora of books on vans and nomadic living out there these days, this one will be unique, I kid you not. Now working on a couple’s 7-month, 20,000 mile trip through the Sahara desert in 1971 in a Citroen 2CV (Doo-sha-vo) van they bought for $1200 in Paris. Two cylinders, 36 horsepower…

Time to go skating. Sun shining, I love this part of the world. The farther north, the less lameness…

I’ll be putting photos up at: instagram.com/lloyd.kahn by tomorrow (Friday, Aug 27).

Traveling Shepherd with Ingenious Shelter in Oregon

August 17, 2021 at 11:44 am

I can’t recommend Kirsten Dirksen’s videos highly enough. She’s a genius! Hundreds of wonderful videos of wonderful people doing amazing things. Trouble is, when I go to this website, I keep going from one video to another; they are all terrific. I can’t get anything done! youtube.com/channel/UCDsElQQt_gCZ9LgnW-7v-cQ

Re the above:

Aaron Fletcher has grazed his sheep and lived off the land as a traveling shepherd for 12 years. He calls it guerrilla grazing (a step above guerrilla gardening, he says) and he lets his sheep graze — with permission — public parks and side lots. Homeless by choice, he offers his services to small farms in exchange for food or a place to stay (though half his calories come from his sheeps’ milk).

With a tiny metal cart home pulled by his sheep he has a bed, a refrigerator/evaporative cooler, a shower (he uses a pesticide sprayer to pump up the water pressure), power (solar panel), sun oven, a mailbox stove for heat, bicycle tire wheels and a corrugated plastic roof.

Fletcher makes cheese and butter from his sheep milk and forages for seeds, fruits, vegetables and herbs. He’s created a map for foragers in his region. He makes some money with his scythe business — cutting noxious weeds for locals, but he insists he’s not interested in making money and just hopes to serve as an example for other homeless interested in guerrilla grazing.

123homefree.org/about

State of This Blog, July 2021

July 19, 2021 at 3:30 am

I started doing this blog 16 years ago. I now have over 5,000 posts.

I really got into it for some years. I loved doing it. I’m a life-long communicator, and this was a way to write, shoot photos, and bring others along with my daily discoveries in life. By 2013, I had about 100,000 page views a month. But in years since, with the ever-increasing challenges in the publishing world, not to mention doing Instagram, I haven’t had much time to blog. I’m now getting about 15,000 page views monthly, reflecting how much less robust the blog is these days.

I think I’ve written about this problem before.

What I like about a blog, compared to Instagram, is the much larger screen, and the ability to write.

Maybe in the future, I’ll get more time, but right now, I’m active on Instagram 4-5 times a week. You can view it on your computer: instagram.com/lloyd.kahn

adventures (157)