One of Paul’s bicycle-pulled campers is in our most recent book, Rolling Homes. Paul drove all the way down from Washington to exhibit one of his trailers next to our Shelter booth at the festival. People were fascinated with his trailer and he had inquisitive visitors for the entire two days. Here is his video of a bunch of the rigs on display.
Built on an old pop-top camper trailer by Orlando Garcia. Weighs 1900 lbs; trailer max is 2100.
Great cozy little interior space. Alternative to teardrop trailers. Great design.
I like the way he has extended outdoor space with shade.
At the TinyFest Festival in Pleasanton Sept. 10-11, 2022
Our booth at the TinyFest Festival at the Alameda Fairgrounds last weekend, where we sold books and had a great time meeting new friends.
At the booth, we introduced our just-published Rolling Homes book and we sold a lot of copies. Everyone seems to love it. For one thing, the timing — with all the new vans, trucks, trailers and other nomadic vehicles on the roads now.
Two of the contributors to the book showed up and parked their rigs next to our booth: Ben Bloom’s homemade redwood camper shell on his Toyota Tacoma truck and Paul Elkins’ bike-pulled solar- and wind-powered trailer. Both of these generated a lot of interest, with a steady stream of inquiring fair goers
On the first day, maybe 20 people came into the booth and thanked us for the books through the years. Really gratifying.
To anyone receiving this for the first time, I send these newsletters out every few months. They’re different from social media — old-school in a way — in that they go to a select audience (over 5,000 people now), rather than blasting out into the internetosphere.
If you’re not signed up on the list to receive it, you can sign up for email delivery of the Gimme Shelter newsletter here.
Homestead in Spring 2022. See our recent book,
The Half-Acre Homestead: 46 Years of Building and Gardening
Back cover
Title spread
After a year and a half, dealing with maybe a hundred contributors, thousands (I kid you not!) of emails, many thousands of photos, the book has pieced itself together, as has been the fashion with our building books. The material provided the content, and the book organized itself as it was put together.
I just received (via expensive air mail from China) the first five copies of Rolling Homes: Shelter on Wheels. 7,000 copies of the book are now en route to the U.S.A. and we expect it to be available in mid-July.
Holding it in my hands, I’m seeing it for the first time. And yes, I am prone to over-enthusiasm, and yes, this is my baby — but I think this is our best building book in years. There’s energy, there’s joy, there’s cleverness and craftsmanship and the spirit of adventure. There’s solid information — and fun. The people shine through.
There are time-tested components recommended by these builders, sometimes in great detail. And there’s inspiration — to create, to build, to get out there, to do something different.
But best … check it out in this 50-page flipbook: shelterpub.com/rolling-homes-sample-flipbook
Want the full book in flipbook form for review? Write rollinghomes@shelterpub.com, telling us where your review might appear, and we’ll send a link (and send us your address if you’d like us to mail you a copy of the book once printed).
Can you help us publicize the book? We will send you the flipbook version and if you like it, could you give us a few lines we could use for publicity purposes?
Want an early copy? Pre-order with a 20% discount.
Note: Please don’t order other books along with the pre-order.
I apologize for the paucity of posts, but working on our next book, Rolling Homes, has been taking all my time.
I’ve avoided posting any of the material from the book because it won’t be available until June or July, but here’s an exception.
Serendipity materializes at the last moment!
We’ve been working on this book for about a year and half now and were down to one remaining page to fill.
Flash back to 2016 when someone (anonymously) sent us a photograph of this perfect little vardo — one of those rare little structures where everything is perfect. It’s a delight. Like the creations of Lloyd House or Louie Frazier, all the elements are working, and I’ll say to myself, “Oh yeah!”
I posted it on my blog, asking if anyone knew where it was or who built it. No response.
Two days ago (six years later), I get an email from Bulgaria and Cen tells me that he is a mystery builder. Voila!
Here are the details from my new friend and kindred spirit in Bulgaria.
–LK
Originally built as a play space for my daughter and as a guest house, my camping karutsa design has a long heritage and has taken both me and my family on a wonderful journey.
Karutsas, pulled by horses or donkeys, were part of a way of life now disappearing in Bulgaria.
This one was built from recycled materials, and sleeps 1-3 people with comfort and style. A twist on its larger gypsy cousins, its distilled and refined design is a pure joy to be in. Once you enter, you don’t want to leave.
Insulated and weather proof, you can relax comfortably inside, you can view nature, read a book, or just be.
Deceptive from the outside, the inside space is light and airy. The step-up, step-in, sit-down porch, shelves, hooks, and storage compartment provide a nautical style living system. The outside kitchen and bathroom with tarp increase its overall usability.
This prototype has been just that. Its latest incarnation is evolving into what I hope will become a true relative of its Bulgarian cousins. A true modern hybrid, yet sympathetic to its origins and ethos.
They say form follows function — these wagons are like the Canadian canoe: just about impossible to improve upon, yet the design can be tweaked.
As we move into this new sustainable era, I hope to see my new lightweight designs again traveling the Balkans. A rolling, tiny home, fit for purpose, fit for use.
I owe a great deal to you, your work, and passions, Lloyd, and may it long continue — your books now give just as much pleasure to my children as they still do to me. I can’t count the number of people I have lent them to here in Bulgaria — a constant volley of wow and wowwwwww every time.
Thanks again, Lloyd — the biggest hugs from us all in Bulgaria. You are welcome here any time.
–Cen
Travis Skinner, whose 400-square-foot small home was featured in our book Small Homes (pp. 52–53), has written a book about his unique wood-fired sauna on wheels. The book is called AnglerFish Sauna: Material Based Design & Deep-Sea Sculpture, and is available at:
In his introduction, Travis says: “What inspired us to make a 17-foot model of a female Anglerfish that is a wood-fired sauna on wheels? These pages will lead you on a multimedia journey through the conceptual design, the process of construction, and meaning within the sculpture.”
The sauna is beautiful, exceptional, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s also built with meticulous craftsmanship.
The mighty and ever-beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve been to the top (of the south tower), as well as underneath it in a kayak journey from my home beach into San Francisco.
Plus my dad went out on a plank walkway to the south tower when it was being built in 1933.
I got a connection with this bridge!
P.S.: The true designer of the bridge was Charles Alton Ellis, not Joseph Strauss. See John Van der Zee’s book, The Gate, on the true story of this elegant design.
Our truck, “The Greasy Devil,” all set up for a clear, but windy night’s sleep in Wyoming. We have an awning to add over the feet if the weather is raining/snowing or too cold.
Dear Lloyd,
I just wanna say thank you for putting out such great books over the years! I found Shelter Pub by way of picking up a Whole Earth Catalog in a thrift store while in high school about ten years ago and have been a fan ever since. Homework was my lockdown reading of choice last year!
I am writing because my husband and I are currently on a long road/camping trip and will be driving through Baja next month. Our rig is a 2018 6-cylinder manual Toyota Tacoma with a homemade sleeping platform and a Softopper (we jokingly call it ultralight overlanding since the softopper weighs about 40lbs). We just did about 5 weeks throughout Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada, and Northern California. Next week we will leave our hometown of Boulder, CO to travel through New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, and Baja for the next 2 months.
I have gone over your blog posts about camping in Baja and was wondering if you have any tips or recommendations you would be willing to share. It will be our first time there, my first time in Mexico and we cannot wait! Our truck is pretty off-road equipped, with a 3″ lift, an air compressor, and recovery gear so we don’t mind going through tough terrain. We love mountain bikes and motorcycles (even though we are not planning on bringing any, maybe rent for a day or two?) and are beginner surfers with a love for the water (the one problem with living in Colorado!).
Anyways, thanks again for all of the wonderful work you put out. I have gone to multiple lectures while I lived in Oakland during college, always leaving inspired and hopeful. I actually had Marianne Rogoff as a writing teacher my freshman year, who told me she worked for you back in the day! I love following along your posts online, your trip to Rome looked simply amazing. I have always wanted to write to you to say thanks, but felt too shy, until now that I have an extra reason to say hi.
–Jessica Milavitz
SUNSHINE CANYON FURNITURE COMPANY
www.sunshinecanyonfurniture.com
instagram.com/ultralight_overland
Note: For lots of info on Baja from my travels there, see: lloydkahn.com/?s=baja
I got into publishing in the ‘60s when I was building domes and people started writing me from all over the USA, asking for the math.
I started responding, then realized I was writing the same letter over and over. Why not print up something? Would save me from repeating myself.
A little later I got hired by Stewart Brand to edit the Shelter part of The Whole Earth Catalog and the printouts turned into book making, and here I am 50+ years later, still writing stuff so I don’t have to repeat myself. A lot of it is “Hey, look what I’ve found out in the world.”
Here’s an account of my last couple of weeks in Europe. PLUS I, ahem, got to the airport 5 hours early and have time on my hands.
The first 8 days of my trip were fantastic and well-documented on my blog snd Instagram accounts:
Then came the rest of my trip:
It was just about the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. After a dream of a trip, with my extraordinary hosts, Lukas and Leopold, I ended up in Florence via train and loved the charming city.
Then I rented a car, a Fiat Panda hybrid — fine little economical car, and headed for Sicily. Italian drivers—man! They drive super fast, and tailgate constantly. You’ll have one a car length behind you going 80 MPH if you don’t get out of the passing lane fast enough. It’s constantly stressful for everyone.
Secondly, it was a huge mistake not to bring my Garmin GPS unit loaded for Italy. Instead I had to use the iPhone, which isn’t nearly as good as the Garmin. Had to hold the phone in left hand so I could shift with right (stick shift). Even tho not as good as the Garmin, it saved my ass continually. I got into congested confusing areas in Sicily repeatedly and it (eventually) guided me out.
Third, the Autostrada has toll booths that are stressful and confusing. You might have 3 cars impatiently waiting behind you while you fumble to pay. Also strange, they have no signs telling you how far it is to cities.
And fourth, there are road tunnels. Italians don’t go over the hills, they bore through them. Must have gone through 50 tunnels on the way to Sicily. A lot of them aren’t well lit, so you are a bit blinded doing in, and a lot of them are curvy and everyone is going 80.
I had a really hard time in Sicily. I must have chosen the wrong area, going south from Messina to Siracusa, very crowded, practically no access to swimming spots … I know Sicily is wonderful, I just did it the wrong way.
Left Sicily last Saturday, ferried across the short stretch of water to the mainland, and drove 14 hours until I finally found a hotel south of Rome. And you know what, I just can’t do that at my age.
By the time I got to Rome, I was flatlining and spent most of three days resting, as well as totally stressing about getting out of Italy to my flight home from London. I missed out going to cool places (and visiting friends) in one of the greatest cities in the world.
S-T-R-E-S-S
It was a fabulous trip until I got behind the wheel of a car. Dumbass!
Read More …
Doing better today in Rome. There’s just something wonderful in this ancient city, despite tourist madness.
Here are shots from a three-mile walkabout this afternoon.
The Fontana di Trevi is close to my little hotel, which is an oasis of peace and quiet.
There’s got to be 50 small bars (specializing in espresso), ristorantes within a few blocks of here. You just can’t go wrong. Like Manhattan, competition promotes excellence.
You can look up the Trevi Fountain on Wikipedia. Amazing how the travertine stone seems sculpted by nature, no seams or joints visible. Plus the water is clean.
I can’t complain about tourists, because I are one. Besides, they’re fascinating to watch.
Just a bunch of random shots…