Allan Lomax Global Jukebox Goes Digital

"The folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax was a prodigious collector of traditional music from all over the world and a tireless missionary for that cause. Long before the Internet existed, he envisioned a “global jukebox” to disseminate and analyze the material he had gathered during decades of fieldwork.
A decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online.

Jasper Netting Herring in Sausalito Yesterday

Top to bottom Jasper casting net; one net's catch; tiny herring eggs on rocks

Herring Are In

I've read about the local herring runs in the papers, but never seem the phenomenon  up close. Yesterday I was driving through Sausalito along the waterfront and things were hopping. Hundreds of seagulls wheeling and diving, and a bunch of flat bottomed aluminum fishing boats pulling in nets. I stopped and  started shooting photos when I heard someone yell "Lloyd!"It was my friend Jasper Monti, hunter and fisherman extraordinaire. He had on waders, and was carrying a net and two 5 gallon buckets.

   He explained that he was going to freeze the herring for salmon bait, and showed me how to cast the net. He pointed out all the tiny herring eggs that had been deposited on the rocks and seaweed on the shore. Well, right up my alley! I'm getting a net next week in San Francisco will be ready next year. Going to try making pickled herring.

Roundwood Timber Framing by Ben Law

This is a review I wrote for the Mother Earth News in December:
If I’d had Ben Law’s book Roundwood Timber Framing (Published by Chelsea Green) back when I was learning how to build in the ’60s, I would have been inspired to plant and tend trees suitable for house framing — I could have framed several buildings by now as a result. Filled with beautiful color photographs and detailed drawings, this one-of-a-kind, practical guide will likely evoke the same “if only” reaction in many of its readers.
One of the unique features of this book is its step-by-step description of the process for creating your own building materials. Another is that every building shown within was constructed using a modified cruck frame. This method consists of using two or more A-frames, and was used in medieval times to build houses, barns and halls. Law has adapted it structurally to triangulate, and therefore brace, rectilinear buildings. In the back of the book are sequential photos of the construction of seven different round-pole buildings.

Volkswagen Van Vagabonds

Email from Kevin Kelly yesterday:
"Classic, but with some good stuff. They have a book, too.
Van: http://shltr.net/vwvankk1
I like their tools: http://shltr.net/vwvankk
-- KK"
   "Driving some of the worst roads that Mexico, Central America, South America and Africa could throw at us the van never left us stranded for long. From high atop the Andes to the dry Namibian deserts to the foothills of Kilimanjaro, it thrived on whatever fuel we could find and happily chugged along as the third member of our team.
    The pop-top roof and the camping equipment made us a spectacle from Nicaragua to Uganda. Inside our tiny van Amanda created a miniature rolling abode by sewing throw pillows and adding those special touches that create the feeling of home.
   Within our cocoon we made a comfortable life for ourselves with very limited resources. We cooked our own meals, and by the end of the trip had slept more than a thousand nights in our cozy pop top bed.…"

From the Land of the Setting Sun

In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
With beauty all around me, I walk.

It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

~Traditional Navajo Prayer

Sunday night at beach

'I have the biggest concentration of tree houses in the world…"'

TINY HOMES in Today's Wall Street Journal

Here's a link to getting the whole article (for 7 days) without subscribing to the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203363504577187231003879046-lMyQjAxMTAyMDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html?mod=undefined
Excerpts:
"It may be one of the most intriguing trends in homebuilding: do-it-yourself tiny homes.Š Lloyd Kahn's 'Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter,' a quirky photo-rich book that preaches the benefits of a 'grassroots movement to scale things back.' It has already sold 5,200 copies in the U.S. and Canada since going on sale Jan. 15, making the title a genuin e hit in a distinctly niche market.
   'It's about fantasy,' said Jonas Kyle, one of the owners of Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers in Brooklyn, N.Y., which reordered it after a modest initial order sold out.…
   'What all these books reflect is that people are interested in living more simply,' said Patricia Bostelman, vice president of marketing at Barnes & Noble Inc. "The economy declined, and people are finding ways to downsize." Barnes & Noble is carrying "Tiny Homes" in several hundred stores in major markets.:
   'What I'm saying with this new book is don't get a mortgage, don't pay high rent, and don't go into debt,' said Mr. Kahn. "If you're young enough or you're just starting out and don't want to work 12 hours a day, here's an alternative."
There are 6 photos from the book in WSJ online

Houses For Sale in France

This French website has everything from châteaux to farms for sale. This one is 151,000 Euros: "Charming traditional Perigourdine cottage situated in a secluded location in a pretty little hamlet in the Foret de la Double. The property has been renovated ot a high standard and boasts period features throughout including feature fireplace, exposed beams, colombages.…"
http://www.seymour-james.com/

Creative Tiny House – Shipping Container Cabin in Sri Lanka

From Tiny House Listings

"This shipping container house is located in Sri Lanka and has beautiful views of a the mountains and overlooks the lake it sits next to. The cabin was built in less than a month by a crew with no previous building experience that simply followed the instructions of Damith Prematikake, the architect for the project.

What’s great about this tiny house is that while the inside space is limited, the deck above makes the home have much more usable space without having to heat or cool it. The scenic views are of course an added bonus.…"

http://shltr.net/thsrilanka

23-year-old Ella Builds Own Tiny Home

From Tiny House Blog: 

"I’m Ella, a 23 year old musician and artist just out of college and I’m in the process of building my very own Tumbleweed Fencl. I’ve been in love with tiny houses from the moment it came to my attention they existed in 2010, and I’ve been saving my money ever since. Finally, last September, I bought a trailer and my step-dad and I began the grand construction!…"
Photo: Ella Jenkins
http://shltr.net/ellathb

Young Hawk on Chicken Coop Yesterday

Luckily our coop is buttoned up tight with aviary wire. With our previous funky coop, we lost 5 hens to one of these beauties. Is that a scary eye or what? I believe this is a young Sharp-shinned Hawk, what with the yellow legs. There's something noble looking about raptors.

On the Road 3 Days Ago

 I love hitting the road in my go-anywhere 8 year old Toyota Tacoma (4x4, stick shift, 5 speed, 4-cylinder) truck, armed with cameras. This time I forgot my Panasonic Lumix G1 serious camera, just had the little Canon PowerShot G95. I breathe a sigh of relief when I get to farm land and I start scanning for pix. After splitting enough oak to fill my truck at my brother's, I headed up to Middleton and Harbin Hot Springs. There's something strangely relaxing about the funkiness and occasional white trash homesteads in lower-income counties.

I was reflecting on finding a balance between computer work and the physical world. I love all the email and blogging I've been doing lately. It's an exciting time, what with the popularity of this new book, and sometimes I get so involved here at the Mac that I forget about two necessary antidotes:
1. Working out (including hiking, anything outdoors and physical) for the body. Getting circulation going, stressing muscles, and stretching. I always feel better.
2. Doing something with my hands. Making a table, turning the compost pile, splitting shakes. Deep-down satisfaction to make something with hands.

Funky lightweight farm building looks like it's floating.

I When I see old farm buildings like this, I think of converting them into places to live. In Big Sur in the '60s, I lived happily in a converted chicken coop for a year. 

Nice steel sculpture at a place with a sign "Art Forms" on Hwy 121, south of Sonoma

Thomas Dolby's Solar and Wind Powered Recording Studio on Lifeboat

Thomas Dolby's recording "…studio on a solar and wind powered lifeboat moored in Dolby’s garden in Suffolk, England.…Dolby named the boat Nutmeg of Consolation, after a book from Patrick O’Brian’s naval fiction series and transformed it into a sustainable recording studio, powered by a 450-watt wind turbine and two solar panels on the mast and renovated with interior with reclaimed wood."
This is a great article, at:
http://www.treehugger.com/green-home/thomas-dolbys-sun-and-wind-powered-musical-lifeboat.html
From Lew Lewandowski

Old Scale

On my brother Bob's farm in the Napa Valley, He bought it for $80 in Wyoming and rebuilt it. It's a beautiful object.

Farm Shed in Napa County Two Days Ago

Pedal Powered Bicycle Camper

http://shltr.net/xUnFJc
Thanks to Anonymous

jonaven's Treehouse in BC

`jonaven moore says this about the photo:"…photo of the treehosue that I got by hanging from a rope, walking out on a branch 30 ft up an adjacent spruce tree. I only just this fall got connected to the power grid, so i built everything there off grid, and the powerstation in the caboose sustained a lot of it."`
Photo: Jeff Patterson

GIMME SHELTER Newsletter, January 2012

Sunset at Stinson Beach, California
GIMME SHELTER is an email newsletter I send out to about 600 people every few months. It used to be my main form of communication with people in the book trade and friends until I started blogging. We also post them on the Shelter website. Here's the latest, from mid-January: http://www.shelterpub.com/_gimme/_2012-01-19/gimme_shelter-2012-01-19.html

Tiny Homes Madness, Splitting Firewood, and SunRay Kelley's Temple in the Woods

Things are popping around here. Tiny Homes is selling like mad. It's been reviewed on about 20 blogs and/or websites. It's coming up in two of the biggest newspapers in the country (my lips are sealed until articles appear) next week. We're scheduling a tour for me with slide show and book signings in Feb-Mar-April-May June. Gadzooks! I've never had a book get this kind of attention.
   The other day, it occurred to me that this book directly addresses the overblown wasteful indulgent home building industry. I've been saying to people, "No, you don't have to live in such a small space, but it's the direction that counts. How can we do things better? How can we use materials that do the least damage to the planet? How can we heat water and living space most efficiently?" That's in addition to all the poetry of building in the book.

I took off from the madness yesterday and went up to my brother's farm in the Napa Valley to split (oak) firewood. A chance to do something physical. Exciting to get on the road with camera (yesterday only the Canon Powershot G-95). Afterwards I went over to Harbin Hot Springs to take a look at SunRay Kelley's temple (pp. 65-71, Builders of the Pacific Coast), and it looked in great shape, cob and all. It's a beautiful building, and it should have a little brass plaque on it saying : "Designed and built by SunRay Kelley," but the Harbin management is a weird bunch, and they give no credit to SR. There were about a dozen people inside doing yoga, and it was a lovely atmosphere, the wood and the cob and the lighting all in a soft glow.