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Another page from Everybody’s Enquire Within, published in mid-30s
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Photos from yogan carpenter of his friend Robin’s workshop in SW France, with a zome roof. Again, yogan has photographed a building shown in Home Work (page 49) but gotten better shots. This is really a nice idea: using a dome as roof on vertical walls. It’s in a section in the book on countercultural builders in France. (A friend of ours who lives in Amsterdam says that France is the California of Europe.)
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An ingenious tool. I’ve had these sitting around for years, and as a result of doing this video, I decided to make a chair, using old redwood fence posts for the legs, with crosspieces of manzanita with tenons. You can get them at the excellent Canadian woodworkers’ tool outfit, Lee Valley, same price as Amazon.
I did a virtual presentation of my book, The Half-Acre Homestead on August 20, 2020) at Bookshop Santa Cruz, one of my favorite bookstores in the world. I usually do a bunch of bookstore appearances for each new book; this year I just got the first one done at City Lights, before Covid closed things down.
It was recorded. About 30 minutes are me doing a slide show from the book. The last 30 minutes are questions from the audience — what do I think of domes, A-frames, underground houses? How to build nowadays? Cob and strawbale and Hardy Board? Chickens. My image looks blurry (at least here) and I suspect this is because of our slow DSL connection. (C’mon Horizon, ride to our rescue!)
www.crowdcast.io/e/bookshop-santa-cruz-7
Two more photos from Mill Valley Yurts in Cornwall, U.K, as shown in previous post.
I recently got an Instagram post from Lisa Mudie at Mill Valley Yurts in Cornwall, U.K, along with some photos. (They rent yurts and cabins in a rural setting.) I asked her to email me, and she wrote:
“Thirteen years ago we started a rustic campsite in our beautiful Cornish Valley a few miles from the rugged Atlantic coast which has evolved over the years into a crazy mix of hobbit huts, wooden yurts, cabins, and gypsy vardos. All handmade by us using reclaimed materials and all Cornish timber. Our latest purchase is a mobile sawmill and 26 tonnes of local oak … now we can really start building!”
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Surfer’s shack built by Bruno Atkey on the “Wild Coast,” about 40 miles by north of Tofino (reachable only by sea–no roads), on the west side of Vancouver Island. We went in Bruno’s 17-foot aluminum fishing boat, with 50 HP rope-pull-starter outboard motor), stayed there a couple of nights, fished, surfed, drank whiskey, and took a driftwood-fired sauna when I was shooting photos for Builders of the Pacific Coast. Bruno was one of the first surfers on Vancouver Island.
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The Heddal stave church in Norway, is 25 meters long, 17 meters wide, and its 3 turrets are 29 meters tall. Built in the 13th century, reconstructed in 1849, then again in 1950. “An architectural masterpiece of the Middle Ages.”
Roger Warren just sent this, along with this description of his studio on an island in British Columbia:
Lloyd… The studio was put together from scrounged everything, total investment under $300 that was mostly for floor ply. Size is 8 × 12.
Something you have never mentioned in any of your books (I have them all): Any building should be designed around multiples of 4. This fits in with standard construction lumber; i.e.: If you build 10 × 10, you (have to) cut off 2 ft. of floor ply.
I also designed and built the house, shown in my website.
www.rogeronsaltspring.com/gallery-iii
I also have the same tools you do.
Cheers Lloyd,
–Roger
April 6, 2020
Dear Lloyd,
A photo of our daughter’s house
I have been reading your books for years (and have given them to my kids) and, more recently, your blog. I studied architecture in college (in the 70’s) and when your Shelter book came out I wore it out reading it. It has influenced the last forty years of my life as a builder/carpenter.
Ours is a relatively sustainable and self sufficient lifestyle, and one our kids have adopted as well. Our daughter has been living for the last 5 years in a 7′×10′ house she built, with no electricity or running water, and is building a traditional Washington County peapod (a double-ended wooden rowboat). Our son is currently living in a 42″ wide × 10′ long shelter he built to live in, while building a tiny house for a college acquaintance. before that he was living on a 36′ sailboat he fixed up and sailed solo across the Atlantic to the Azores.
We are preparing to sell the house in which our two kids were born and grew up, and on which we have worked for the last forty years. My wife created a website so we can sell the house ourselves and I thought, perhaps, you might like to see the photos of the house.
Here’s a link to the website richmondmainefarmhouse.com
Thanks for all the inspiration — just wanted you to know that you’ve had quite an impact on our lives.
Best wishes to you,
Joe Stanley
