Hi Lloyd,
Thought you might be interested in this Instagram feed by M Molloy (an illustrator with a love of old Irish houses) that’s been gaining a lot of attention here in Ireland:
instagram.com/
There are so many amazing old properties just waiting to be loved and renovated.
Best wishes,
Deborah
Fisheye of the interior of a plywood and vinyl geodesic dome built by teenage students at Pacific High School in the Santa Cruz mountains, California, in 1969. The window patterns were great, and made for striking photos, but the domes leaked. I’ve always thought that our work at PHS was in the aesthetic realm, not in the practicality of our designs.
I’m going through my photo archives these days. I realize I have a wealth of building photos accumulated over a 50+ year period. I can’t recall where I shot this; it was somewhere on the several trips I took through Ireland and England in the ’70s. I was on a journey to study real building, after giving up on geodesic domes. Going from mathematically derived buildings, often built with highly processed materials, to studying construction methods based on local materials, site-specific experience, and fine craftsmanship was a revelation.
This stone barn, for example, is almost unreal in its simplicity and master masonry — both in the walls and stone (slate?) roof.
Note: See the wonderful thread of comments below.
BTW, I’m in a new mode these days of trying to put up blog and Instagram posts at least 5 days a week. I’ve sure got a lot of “content.”
Look at the stone masonry! Built in the 1870s, I believe by Italian masons, they were used to make charcoal for processing ore. In the ’80s and ’90s, I used to go on 2-to-3-week camping trips in my Toyota Tacoma 4×4 to the southwest, hitting hot springs and enjoying the wilds of Nevada and Utah. I’m going through photos from those years now, will post from time to time.
On Tuesday, I went with Bob Anderson on a hike in the Colorado (Rampart Range) mountains to the site of a 1952 plane crash. It was a tough, up and down, steep, rough terrain 8-mile round trip, and at 9,000 feet more of a workout than I’ve had in a long time.
Capt. Sidney Harrison was flying a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and crashed in a snowstorm. It’s really remote, no trail markings, but Bob has been there multiple times. It made me realize I need to get back in shape.
On back road from to Denver to Palmer Lake yesterday. On my way to work with Bob Anderson on 40th anniversary edition of his book Stretching, which will include stretches for “tech neck,” the poor posture people have developed by using cell phones. (Look around at posture of people on their phones.)
Spotted this in San Francisco last week. Lots of interior space, sliding doors both sides. 178 hp. 4-cylinder, 9-speed automatic, 24 mpg, about $24k; half the cost of Mercedes Sprinter van (altho the dodge is neither 4 wheel drive nor diesel). Looks like a pretty good base for building your own RV.
Hi Lloyd,
I’ve been digging through your books hard lately. We bought a house with 3 acres about an hour north of Boston and I’ve been homesteading it up. Building terraces for the garden, stonework, improvements for the sawmill barn, and extensive landscaping. I’ve yet to dig into the inside house work.
Anyway, I first heard about your work while up on an 80-acre parcel with a homestead in the deep interior of Alaska. My buddies dad quit architecture school just before graduation and got a big chunk of land under the homestead act in the late ’70s. Out of Anchorage, I took two small planes to get picked up by a boat for another 1.5-hour boat ride upriver.
Anyway, my buddy who summers there, said you gotta look at this book. It was: Shelter. I was intoxicated. That was 15 years ago. You know in life we seem to find things at the right time in life? Now sorting through your recent publications (early 2000s on) it’s the perfect tonic as i dig into new crazy projects. I’ve got a sauna and a treehouse on my mind right now. I run a fancy-pants tree pruning company and run a backyard sawmill operation while also a full-time high school arboriculture teacher. Well anyway, thanks for all your work on these magnificent publications. The Builders of the Pacific Coast book was possibly my favorite for my needs right now. I liked seeing you really dig into some talented individuals.
What is next for you? One book that I think would be interesting is some exploration of East Coast modern homesteaders. I’ve got a bunch of friends in the Maine/NH area that are doing some pretty special things. A book I started, but shelved was interviewing Massachusetts Sawmills and photographing sawmills today and discuss the changing paradigm that sawmills are faced in a world lumber market. It’s a weird world.
Anyway, I’m just rambling, but just wanted to say thanks.
I document some of my homestead efforts on instagram @sherwood_homestead.
Chris Wood
Ravenswood Tree and Landscape LLC
Newton, NH 03858
Mickey Murch turning lemons into lemonade yesterday — stylin on a new design in mediocre surf.
Everyone on the beach was transfixed. In the eyes of an old surfer, it looked like science fiction.
This has a carbon fiber foil, is built by Axis/Flying Dutchman, about $2K, a beautiful design.
Some photos from the building of a Suzuki copper camper by Jay, Foster Huntington, and Lane during the summer of 2015, at Foster’s treehouse hideout in Washington.
Go to Jay’s Instagram account for more photos of the building process.
