“…These are the wandering writers June and Farrar Burn and their sons North and South in their homemade camper in 1928.”
Photo from Shorpy here. Sent in by Anonymous.
June’s book Living High is listed in the upcoming Tiny Homes on the Move bibliography.
For details about their wonderful lives, including homesteading on an island in BC, see The Skaggit River Journal here.
It’s an impossibly beautiful morning, just exquisite. California blue skies. Fields on ridge have blush of green — early rains. Nights getting colder. Stars. Moon a week away from full. Red apples in trees, blue in sky, green on hills, warm morning sun. I’m taking a break from (the final stages of) Tiny Homes on the Move (I swear it’s getting better by the day) to write this.
More reggae I’m listening to “Train to Skaville,” archived on https://www.dancehallreggae.org, thanks to a comment by Gill. I missed out on most of this music back in its day. It just feels so right. I love it. Makes me happy. What a great site. Free.
“S.F. man lost in woods, survives on squirrels, lizards
A 72-year-old San Francisco man was recovering Sunday after he spent 19 days lost in a remote canyon of Mendocino County, surviving on squirrels, lizards and berries, and wrapping himself in leaves and grass to stay warm.…”
Techies in San Francisco I hear (and read) a lot these days about the rich techies pricing out the less affluent in SF.
From Socketsite:
“The average rent for a studio in San Francisco is now $2,312 a month, up 8.7 percent year over year …
The average rent for a San Francisco apartment in general is $2,899 a month, up 3.4 percent from the first quarter of 2013 and 6 percent higher year-over-year, with one-bedrooms averaging $2,782 a month and two-bedrooms with two baths up to $3,791.”
I wonder what % of these people are techies. What about lawyers, financial wonks, other corporate fat-checks? Whatever, it’s too bad. $3k per month rent is 100K in 3 years. Tiny homes, anyone?
On being native I was talking to a Mill Valley cab driver a while ago. He was thinking of leaving. I said, Look, you’re a native, you’ve got to use your knowledge and experience to figure out how to stay. You know your way around. Don’t give up. Be creative. Hang in. Whenever I meet a native San Franciscan, I say so am I — we’re an endangered species, always gets a laugh.
Bounty from beach These days if I’m not getting mussels, I gather seaweed and crab shells, stuff into plastic bags in my daypack, throw on compost pile when I get home, chop up with machete, turn into compost — which I’ve finally got figured out. This pile (5’x5′, 2-3′ high) is steaming, worms are thick. Every single scrap of food (that doesn’t go to the chickens) from 40 years is in our soil, which gets better each year. Speaking of which:
Symphony of the Soil, DVD by Deborah Koons Garcia
Was reviewed in NYTimes last week by Jeannette Catsoulis here. “Infused with an infectious love for its subject, ‘Symphony of the Soil’ presents a wondrous world of critters and bacteria, mulch and manure. Maintaining this layer in all its richness and diversity is, the film argues, perhaps our most critical weapon against climate change. At the very least, you will leave with the profound understanding that feeding our soil is the first step in feeding ourselves.”
“We don’t grow plants, we grow soil. And the soil grows the plants.”
– A farmer talking about composting
(So titled after San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen’s Friday columns, called “Friday Fish Fry;” Herb was master of 3-dot stories. I started reading him at the bkfst table at age 15. In the ’70s, he answered a couple of my letters with his Underwood upright typewriter. Wonderful man…
Sunny Monday Morning We’ve had 3 days of real hot weather, now cooling. Blue skies, glassy ocean. Swam last night… Once in a while I try to throw together fragments revolving in my mind, a la Herb C…
Tom Clancy on Writing “I tell them you learn to write the same way you learn to play golf,” he said. “You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired—it’s hard work.”
That’s why I’m so slow at posting stuff…
Now listening to The Abyssinians Super reggae vocal harmonies. Gimme that old time reggae! “Jason White” here. (I only like about half the songs I hear on “The Joint,” Sirius Radio’s reggae station. A lot of insipid or preachy stuff or songs you’ve heard 100 times.…
Great Music on KWMR Our local station has really good music programs around 7-9 PM (West Coast time). Blues, bluegrass, reggae, cajun, R&R, eclectic mix of DJs. I listen to it on radio while doing dishes (and sneakily dance when no one’s around), but think it can be streamed…
Free Books to Prisons We have always sent free books to any prisoner who writes us. Letter received a few days ago:
“Shelter Publications,
I wish to thank you for your gift of books. they have been a blessing, not only for…me, but to the many I have loaned them to who are trying to dream and create a future as they leave prison…Thank you for your gift and the many hours of studying, dreaming and contemplation these books provide.
-J.M., Palmer Correctional Center, Palmer Alaska”
Thrilling feedback.
I wish there were some way to get our (fitness and building) books into prison libraries (if there are such). Any researchers out there who can find a list? Or if you know someone in prison, let them know they can write for free books.…
Tidelog Tide Tables I have this posted over the sink and look at it every day. A lot of surfers and fishermen do the same. A graphic view of tides, with art by M.C. Escher. For east and west coasts, including BC. Here
Blues on the Canal Rich Jones sent this link to houseboat moving along an English canal with blues band playing:
Tiny Homes On The Move We’re gettin there! About 90% complete. This has been the most complex book ever, the most people ever to deal with, in many parts of the world. USA, Canada, UK, France, Australia, China, + sailboats cruising the high seas. Two main categories:
Wheels: vans, trucks-with-camper-shells, housetrucks, house buses, and trailers
Water: sailboats, houseboats, and tugboats
There are some 90 of these units in the book, either rolling on the road or floating on the water. They are used as either permanent residences or for trips of varying lengths upon life’s highways and waterways. Book should be out in May 2014…
I love the life I live,
And I live the life I love.
-Muddy Waters
Deek is multi-facted in the tiny house field:
-Author of Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts: And Whatever the Heck Else We Could Squeeze in Here
-Proprietor of the Relaxshacks blog
-Featured in Tiny Homes (and the upcoming Tiny Homes On The Move)
-Creator of a ton of videos on tiny homes
Here’s a workshop he’s doing next month:
“HANDS-ON BUILDING AND DESIGNING- TINY HOUSE WORKSHOP #5 (with an emphasis on budget and recycled-material building)
WE WILL ALL BUILD A TINY STRUCTURE TOGETHER!
November 15-16-17 Canton, MA
-Deek Diedrickson”
Click here.
I read this book straight through last night. It’s a charming and informative account of Kelly and Rosana Hart’s many nomadic vehicles over the last 4 decades: trailers, a van, a pickup-truck-with-camper, and several buses.
Kelly’s first bus was covered in our book Shelter (p. 89) in 1973, and his earthbag/papercrete house was in our book Home Work (p. 88) in 2004. He’s been creating new mobile (and stationary) homes ever since. Plus running the info-packed website https://greenhomebuilding.com/.
The tone of writing is conversational and friendly, there are building tips for those inspired to do likewise, there are details and photos from a bunch of trips (including to Mexico), and there are a few hundred color photos. A homemade book in the best sense, made in the USA, $12 at Amazon here.
“If you want to travel through a country on a budget and still sleep in a dry place while it rains, a small camper is perfect. However, I wanted to have a fuel efficient car that could be used as well on a daily basis. I decided to go for a used white Renault Kangoo 1.5dci mini van. It’s highly fuel efficient (5.2l/100km – 45.2mpg / effective range around 1000km – 621 miles), pleasant to drive and if you take the seats out it is an astonishingly big transporter for sport or daily use.
I planned everything to be modular:
While camping you take the back seats out and are left with two seats and a camping mobile.
You can leave the back seats in the car and install the kitchen box and you have your kitchen with you if you want to go climbing with your friends.
Or you take both boxes out and your car is a normal mini van again.
The main goal was to build a small camper that is very fast and easy to put into a sleeping position.”
Click here.
From Anonymous
Tiny homes are the rage now. Tons of media on the subject. From which we, of course, benefit with our book Tiny Homes (50,000+ copies sold in last year.)
But you know what? Much more realistic for someone who can’t fit into 3-400 sq.ft. of living space, or who doesn’t have a piece of land, and who has a full-time job, are the small fixer-uppers in not-so-stylish towns. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, forget SF, Berkeley, Alameda, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Palo Alto or even San Mateo, but check out Richmond, Hayward, El Cerrito, San Leandro—towns that are either rundown, but improving, or towns that are not hip and don’t have B&Bs listed in Lonely Planet books.
There are 1000s and 1000s of little houses in towns that are not of the hip- or destination-persuasion , with backyards and neighborhoods that may be on an uptick. The crack houses have gone. The meth dealers have moved elsewhere. Home prices are WAY lower than the sought-after areas.
Just sayin…
Great selection of models here from Flying Tortoise Blog
Check out this really nice magazine on Tiny Houses from Kent Griswold, maestro of The Tiny House Blog here. For iPad or PDF.
“1968 Owens cabin cruiser restored on land. No utilites involved. Rain water is collected and used for exterior use. Nearby spring used for interior water. Solar panels, wood stove, and propane used for other sources of power.”