French carpenter Yogan and his friend Menthe have made their way up the coast to SunRay Kelley’s compound in Washington and say:

“SunRay make a new crazy project , we work with him, very cool…”

Above: Yogan’s photo of SunRay’s solar/bio=fuel powered diesel truck

More on Yogan’s trip: https://yogan.over-blog.com/

Yogan started his trip here a month ago; read about it here: https://www.lloydkahn.com/2015/09/04/yogan-carpenters-pacific-coast-journey_4/

Chris McClellan,AKA Uncle Mud, is a prolific builder, designer, teacher, dad, photographer, and computer wonk who seems to get a superhuman amount of things accomplished every year. Here’s an e-mail from him on April 11, 2015:

Hey Lloyd, On my way to get kids muddy at the Asheville Mother Earth News Fair I stopped by these guys to discuss the rocket heater we’re building as a workshop in their new strawbale octagon in September. I went from Cleveland where we had snow last week to 80 degrees sleeping on the porch of their old cabin. The stream roaring by a few feet away kept me away pleasantly through the night. A couple weeks ago I made it down to Greenville, AL to teach a cob oven building class. My friends James and Gert are living in a military tent in one of the poorest counties in the US surrounded by an amazing array of free and almost free building supplies–cob, pecan slabs, small diameter cedar and pine posts, $1 pallets. This summer they are collecting materials for a building workshop in the fall. Great fun. My daughter Sarah and I hop on a plane the day after she graduates in June to head for the Mother Earth News Fair in Oregon then visit Breitenbush and Ianto and SunRay before we take the train back. Will we see you there? Building another strawclay cottage in Cleveland in July. Great fun.

Chris

Blog Posts I just did 2 posts for our new blog — they’ll be up within a week — https://www.theshelterblog.com/, as I transition to a different blogging mode. Not as much stuff as this (although I can’t resist blabbing now and then). More material on building, the home arts, gardening, farming. Especially building.

I feel like I have a lot to communicate with builders after all these years of non-academic study of carpentry and other methods of construction.

Back in the saddle with this new blog.

Coming off 5 years of building domes, I set about to learn the most practical methods of building homes, small buildings, and barns. It can be so simple.

Sample future posts:

•Drawings of 5 tiny homes (including every stick of wood in framing (from Shelter)

•Barns of my acquaintance

•Timber Framing

•Master Builders of the Middle Ages

•Architecture: architects need to know that the definition of architecture is “…the art and science of building.” Building.

•Dwell magazine: occasional comments on this paragon of soulless living

•Rad Rigs: More tiny homes on wheels

I’m really excited to be shifting to this mode. I have something like 70,000 photos, both film and digital, to draw from.

Today’s New York Times has a terrific science section, including a stunning photo of the moon by the Lunar Orbiter V, and an article about a combo robot/man diving suit that will be used to explore a Roman ship believed to have sunk in the 1st century BC, and which carried “…the Antikythera Mechanism, a mechanical device for predicting celestial movement.”

Serena was just superb on Saturday. Power and grace. Beautiful.

Surfing Without Catching Waves Went out on my 10′ Haut Surftek board the other day, too many surfers for me, just got a couple of krappy rides in the foam. Then a few days later could not get out through 6′ surf with my surf mat BUT as I get older I settle for just being in the ocean AND I’m gonna get waves — going to Kauai in November with surf mat and fins.

Over & Out I’m leaving tomorrow for Pittsburgh, then to Seven Springs, PA to do a presentation Friday,  Sept 12 at the Mother Earth News Fair. Anyone know if Pittsburgh is worth exploring?

Photo: grapes at Louie’s

I've Got You Under My Skin by Diana Krall on Grooveshark

The Good Life goes on! Couple who spent five years building an eco-home in the country have been allowed to keep it despite not applying for planning permission

Matthew Lepley, 34, and Jules Smith, 54, left London five years ago to build their dream house in the countryside. They decided not to apply for planning permission because the process “uses too much paper and electricity.” They used railway sleepers, lorry tyres, and scrap metal to build the house in Beaworthy, Devon, but no power tools. The home has an outdoor compost toilet, no power or running water, and an underground pantry instead of a fridge. The couple were told by Torridge District Council they may have to tear down their home after neighbours’ complaints. But now a government planning inspector has ruled that the house may stay because of its eco-credentials. Angry local residents say: “It’s disgusting how some people are treated one way and other people treated another way.”

Click here for complete story and lots of photos.

Photo: SWMS.com

Sent us by Anonymous

This thing is huge — 50,000 people. And fun! Surprising to me because I’m hardly nerd-oriented. There’s a wide range of things going on here, from ultra-geeky to downhome funk. This’ll be the 4th time I’ve gone and I always have a great time. It’s savvy, friendly, interesting, and very well run. I wander all over the large fairgrounds with my camera. It’s great for kids, all kinds of robots wandering around, ingenious mobile vehicles, 3D printing (hot right now), the “HomeGrown Village” hall for gardening, homesteading, building, food preservation, etc.

   I’m doing 2 presentations on Tiny Homes On The Move:

    -Saturday May 17th, 3:30 PM on the Maker Square Stage in the Homegrown Village

    -Sunday May 18th, 3:00 PM on the Center Stage. Click here.

-Kevin Kelly will be talking about his best-seller Cool Tools at 1:30 PM Saturday on The Center Stage.

-Snowboarder Mike Basich (our star builder in Tiny Homes) will be talking about his remote mountain homestead and homemade ski lift at 2:30 Sunday on The Center Stage (just before me).

One thing: traffic is heavy. Check out the Faire’s suggestions. You can bring a bike and park a mile or two away. General Faire info here.

Finally: Lew and Evan will be manning a Shelter Publications booth in one of the maker halls on how we make books. They’ll be giving away free copies of the Tiny Homes on the Move mini-book and selling copies of the full-size book for $20 apiece (cheaper than Amazon).