Hi Lloyd,
Love Shelter and ever since a friend showed me your book a decade ago I’ve been dreaming of taking a copy of it with me to a hillside somewhere in Europe and seeing what might be possible haha
I’ve done bits of labouring and landscaping and walling over the years here in Cornwall, and have never quite managed to earn and save up enough to get a foot on the ladder towards some land here or even elsewhere as life has been quite hectic. However, I somehow managed to come away with enough money to buy the old ruin I’d dreamed of since being 15.
It’s not on a hillside somewhere sunny yet, but that might be the next one, but it is a very special place in an incredibly beautiful and historic area within a world heritage site.
It was built in the late 1700s to early 1800s and the archaeologists that we have to use here in the preliminary stages of the build because of the surrounding ancient history even found a couple of shetland pony shoes (that were often used by the coast here to pull up carts full of seaweed). We also found an old pair of sugar tongs and a half penny from 1861 which was really cool.
From the patchy information that we’ve managed to find in some of the old records it’s likely that it was lived in by mining and agricultural workers as there is an ancient farm 100m down the track and many disused copper and tin mines scattered all over the fields and into the valley.
I’m probably only one third of the way through the works (with some help along the way) towards reinstating it traditionally and working it into a cosy tiny home that will sleep 2 to 3 and maybe even a couple more outside in a small yurt or something.
Read More …
Read and weep, fellow native San Franciscans.
Factoid: California population 1940: 7 million; California population 2021: 39 million
www.snopes.com/fact-check/my-trip-to-san-francisco-in-1940
From Bob Kahn
254032
World’s largest log cabin, the Forestry Building in Portland, Oregon. Built in 1905, burned down in 1964.
@lostfoundartny
Full details (from Shari Dell): rarehistoricalphotos.com/world-largest-log-cabin-portland
This all started by finding two rusty cast iron wheels in the nettles whilst on a lockdown ramble during the Covid pandemic in January 2021. I had workshops sitting empty since retirement as a woodworker and was looking for a project.
I decided on a ‘Shepherd’s hut’ seeing as I had a partial starter kit. These were originally moveable temporary night shelters for a shepherd during lambing time on the higher marginal land of Scotland and northern England. The modern incarnation appears to be a lucrative Airbnb rental in which I have no interest, although addressing the chronic housing shortage for local young people does.
Our youngest son, Lewis, was due to return from Canada in the autumn and needed a place to live. That crystallized it. It was now April.
I started with the notion of using locally sourced and second-hand materials but the realities of the world markets were there from the start. Steel for the chassis, plywood internal walls, pine T&G exterior cladding, galvanized sheet for the roof, plus components, fixings, finishes and most of the rest. Only the sheep’s wool insulation and timber framing were local … and the rusty wheels. Two matching rear wheels were specially cast in England at eye-watering expense.
The chassis, 420 kgs of steel channel, was the only detailed plan drawing. The rest was make-it–up-as–you-go according to the dictates of found or bought components.
After four months of working alone, Lewis turned up just as the interior was getting a start. He’s a competent carpenter, so the pace picked up and we were finished by the end of October, 7 months since the first weld on the chassis.
Lewis and his cat now live in it locally.
Location: SW Scotland
Internal footprint: 2m × 5.7m
Height: 2.2m
Power: 12-volt solar panel
Propane cooker. Cat flap. Water collection from the roof and an additional tap supplied by a refillable onboard tank for drinking water. 2 kW wood stove. Double folding ‘Murphy’ style bed, from the underside of which is a drop-down table. Seating on the wheel arches.
–Lewis Crosby
Photo at San Onofre by photographer Leo Hetzel yesterday. Leo and pal Steve Pezman were having takeout lunches at the beach and Leo caught this non-wetsuit surfer arching like Mickey Muñoz or David Nuuhiwa were doing 70 years ago at Malibu.
Leo on Instagram: instagram.com/p/CBSDUFzFAxl
My Dad bought this print for $1 from the photographer (name unknown) during the depression, about 1930. it’s printed on textured paper, hence the pattern.
It shows the Golden Gate before the bridge. Note Fort Point on the left.
Tons of photos of housetrucks and house buses at www.housetrucks.com
This website is based on Roger Beck’s classic book, Some Turtles Have Nice Shells. If you scroll around, you’ll find many photos in different categories. (These are in the “Vintage” section.)
Thanks to architect Rod Freebairn-Smith
See also: google.com/search?q=nashtifan+windmills
West Portal Grammar School, San Francisco circa 1941. That’s me, second from right in front row. At left in front row is Bill Floyd, who I see at the semi-annual lunches of our Lowell High School (class of 1952) lunches. He looks exactly the same, 79 years later — you could pick him out nowadays by looking at this photo.
