What a jet setter! Home 2 days and then on an airplane again. To the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, Oregon (about an hour south of Portland). On Saturday, June 6, at 11:30 AM, I’m doing a presentation on Tiny Homes on the Move; and on Sunday, June 7, at 10:AM, “50 Years of Natural Building.” Both at the Renewable Energy Stage.

These Mother Earth News Fairs are great events. Good vibes. Lots of things I’m interested in. Chickens, sheep, gardening, farming, building, homesteading, cooking, renewable energy, to mention a few. They’re like super-size county fairs.

Info: https://www.motherearthnews.com/fair/oregon.aspx

I’m getting in 2 days early, and taking my skateboard. Renting a car and probably heading out to the coast and driving south. I’ll be looking for hills to skate and hunting for barns to photograph. Quite a different kind of trip than NYC.

As usual I have a ton of photos and notes from my NYC trip and will try to get some of it out before too long.

I have a big note next to my keyboard, “No appearances rest of 2015.” I’m going to take a break from publicity/marketing when I get back and get a bunch of things done at home, including homestead chores, crafts projects, more fishing—and getting going on layout of Small Homes, our next book.

Music del día: Phil Spector, 1961-1966. What a genius! (at that time of his life). Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah…

I’ve shot photos of this tree over and over. Sculpted by the wind.

Friday I did a slide show on Tiny Homes on the Move at the Napa Bookmine bookstore. A great bookstore, a wonderful crowd, all of us on the same page. Made me think of Sam Cooke saying to the audience on his “Live at Harlem Square” album, “I can see you’re with me tonight.”

Rapport has been wonderful lately. 45 years of doing these building books; there’s a thread through these books and people who’ve read them. A tribe of us interested in a certain kind of shelter, warm, inviting, full of life, the antithesis of the Dwell magazine aesthetic.

“…all rooms ought to look as if they were lived in, and to have, so to say, a friendly welcome for the incomer.”

-William Morris

And working with our own hands.

Shot a lot of photos of mostly small homes in Napa. After dinner, store owners Naomi and Eric and I and a bunch of their friends headed up into the hills and had a marvelous meal prepared by master chef (and carpenter and musician) Steve Hutchinson. Wine flowed, 2 of the guys worked for wineries, it was a real treat. After everyone left, Steve and I got in the hot tub, yes, with glasses of wine, yes a hot tub in Napa, snark away, Californians in their hot tubs, etc. It started to rain — hard — and here we were at 2200 feet on a mountain, in hot water in the pouring-down rain.

Lucas’ bus was featured on pp. 70-71 of Tiny Homes on the Move. Here’s the latest:

April 3, 2015

Hey Hey there Lloyd, I wanted to give you an update on the bus. Also, I really appreciated you working with me for the timeline and putting my bus in your book.… So, for the update: I’ll attach a few pictures of the bus. Naturally it’s not finished. It most likely will never be, but as we know that is the joy of a custom mobile life.

Since the past pictures I’ve rebuilt most of the interior using wood I’ve cut, milled, stacked and dried (all done a few years back), or wood that I’ve salvaged. There’s a 400 watt solar system, 12v lighting, converted freezer to fridge (not in the pics), deck on top, pull behind trailer/porch, and concrete shower. The floors are plumbed with radiant heat pex tubing.  I have a thermal solar panel although it’s not installed yet. The grey water tank is in, and finally some curtains are being hung.

In just a few weeks I’ll be taking her on the true maiden voyage. Granted I’ll be driving back to where it was about 6 months ago but, I’ll be living in it this time for the foreseeable future. It will be a short stay in Kentucky before heading to Maine, which is my final destination. In Maine I’ll be attending a metalwork school for the rest of the year followed by a fine furniture making school. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy.

    Lucas Sweeten

Read More …

When I’m on the road, I fluctuate between giddy delight and morose depression.

“Best day of my life.”

“I’m so homesick.”

One day will be the sweet spot in time* when it all comes together: the right people, places, climate, food, feng shui…Another day I don’t know where I’m going to stay, where I’ll eat, what I’ll do. The volatility of it all.

Yesterday was a good one. I came back to Kapaa from the south, went to a yoga class that was perfect for this body, which has had long and hard usage, then hung out with some wonderful people in the afternoon. Swimming at Anini Beach, beautiful sandy bay inside a reef, got $95 hotel room at the Kauai Shores, which I really like, then good dinner (camorones mojo de ago) at Mariachi’s (there’s a real chef at work here), watched the sun rise from the beach this morning, now having fine latte, warm cinnamon roll and savvy wi-fi at Java Kai…

During the down periods I try to let serendipity take over. Valleys often followed by peaks. The best is often unplanned. The grand sequenter…

*The Sweet Spot in Time, by John Jerome is about that moment in sports when everything comes together. The 85-yard punt return, surfing on a day when the water’s warm, the waves perfect…I read it years ago and thought it applied to life in general.