Dieter is an adventurer after my own heart (see below post), If he lived closer I’d be hanging out with him. All the stuff he does “resonates” with me, from sailing on a catamaran in Baja California to cruising in Alaskan wilderness waters. He finds ways to have fun out in the natural world. Top pic is Dieter, lower pic is Anne Lee.
Dieter Klose was one of the featured builders in Builders of the Pacific Coast. He recently sent us photos of him and girlfriend Anne Lee collecting moss for a living roof in his boat out of Petersburg, Alaska. He writes: “It’s a renewable resource, and doesn’t house any creepy-crawlies, none that bite anyway.…”
They also collected bark, as a base layer, for moss food. I asked about the boat and location: “The best harvesting comes off of downed dead trees, and boulders, but low branches often have a good load, and even hold what we call “Boa’s”, which are about a foot wide, 6″ thick, and 4′ to 7′ long. They’re the best!…Location is at Scenery Cove, about 18 miles from home by water; total wilderness, although theres all likelihood they will put a hydro plant in that otherwise untouched cove.
The cruiser is custom made for me by a friend, of welded aluminum, and her name is FANG (named after my daughter, Wrenna, whos nickname is white-fang, or Fang for short).
The boat is 21ft long w/ a 150hp outboard, a double bunk, small settee and mini galley. Its a perfect rig for around here, as it goes up to 40mph, comfortably 30mph, as this is not the best place for sailing: too much or too little wind, with lots of tidal current.”
More pics tomorrow…
“The staff at White Oak Farm is pleased to offer our new and improved Comprehensive Natural Building Apprenticship program for summer 2011. Tyler Walter, Taylor Starr and James Haim will lead the program. The Apprenticeship will span five weeks of fully immersed hands-on experience, as well as field trips, lectures, discussions, slide shows, independent design projects and more. It will be an excellent opportunity for people looking to learn practical natural building skills for their future career or owner-builder projects, as well as for college students seeking an alternative classroom experience…”
“Yestermorrow Design/Build School, located in the Green Mountains in Vermont, offers over 170 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design.
Now in its 30th year, Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Our 1-day to 12-week hands-on programs are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.”
“…The dragon seat! The seats are able to transform and change the space to a large open space for yoga. Creative mixed use design.”
“This structure was designed in a group setting, with input from architect Mark Lakeman, builder Scott Howard, and school headmaster Maitri Erson, among others. Construction was lead by Scott Howard and Joshua Klyber, assisted by architect Gabriel Prost. Completed over two consecutive years during the annual Village Building Convergence with the help of hundreds of enthusiastic people. Scott created this work with many artistic elements inclduing: Stained glass windows depicting local landscapes, woodcarvings of animals and plants, and colorful mosaics.”
The Wabi-sabi sub-community (Ziggy, April, Thomas, and Ali) at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage are seeking individuals to help with building our cooperative kitchen and maintaining our organic vegetable gardens for the summer of 2011.
Are you interested in roundwood timber framing? Do you want to get some hands-on experience building using natural materials? Would you like to experience community life in an off-the-grid, sustainable ecovillage?…
Wabi-sabi wants to host excited work exchangers during April to October 2011 to help with the construction of a timber frame, straw bale and cob kitchen.…
The Wabi-sabi kitchen is a oval structure composed of a reclaimed urbanite foundation, a local roundwood timber frame, and eventually, a reclaimed metal roof and straw bale/cob walls with an attached greenhouse and outdoor cooking space.…
We are seeking builders with timber frame or carpentry experience.
This season, building work will largely consist of helping to design and construct a timber frame from locally harvested roundwood using hand tools. Logs will be cut, split, hewn, mortised, and shaped to build the frame for our kitchen. The ideal candidate would have experience using hand tools to shape logs (saws, adzes, chisels, etc.), but a candidate with more general carpentry experience could be a fine candidate, too. Ultimately, we are seeking an individual excited and enthusiastic to experiment and learn about timber framing techniques and methods!
https://small-scale.net/yearofmud/2011/01/17/timber-frame-and-natural-building-work-exchange/
Great video discovered by Lew:
“Birch bark has been used in Finland for centuries as a construction material and as material for making small objects like baskets and shoes. One of birch bark’s features is good thermal insulation. The surface is water repellent and it can be gently washed with water. Some components of birch bark also protect it from decomposing.
Finnish architects Teija Losoi, Anne Varsamäki and Ilari Pirttilahti used the technique to build a lightweight sauna – basically a huge traditional birch bark basket turned upside down. The light walls are supported by a wooden structure that is hidden inside two layers of braided birch bark.…”
https://tuohisauna.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/saunakonsepti/
In our driveway last week, on their way to Mexico
