Natural Building (97)

First driftwood photo of trip, near Mattole river yesterday

I took off at 8AM Sunday, driving through Petaluma to get on Hwy 101. The Nicasio lake is full to the brim, the hills a verdant green — both from late rains. The fog of the beach gradually gave way to the sun of inland. Orange splashes of poppies amidst the green … Roadkill — during the day: two skunks (neither smelling), a fox, a raccoon, two deer, today two squirrels; must be spring fever … giant piles of redwood logs in Cloverdale lumberyard … Hwy 101 narrows down to two lanes north of Willits. It’s relaxed, very little traffic, you can make a U-turn in middle of road … it clears the head to get out of the Bay Area where everything by comparison seems congested, every inch spoken for and/or ridiculously high-priced … south fork of the Eel River is turquoise … getting into crackpot roadside territory with rock shops, bears-carved-out-of-chainsaws shops, kind of like the reptile farms that used to be along Hwy 66…

Ended up camping at the Mattole rivermouth, then drove through back roads today to Shelter Cove … tomorrow 8AM, I’m getting a ride back to Mattole, will then backpack along beach 30 miles back to Black Sands Beach near Shelter Cove, hoping to find driftwood beach shacks to photograph … have decided to expand and reprint the driftwood shack book … just had great fish and chips down at Shelter Cove boat ramp…

• From www.lloydkahn.com/…

After breakfast in Boonville, Louie and I drove through the giant redwoods back to the coast and went out to Navarro Beach, a driftwood mecca. Here’s the inside and outside of one of the shacks.

(I’m thinking of taking a two-week trip up the coast in May, including a three-day backpacking trip along the Lost Coast beaches, photographing shacks — and doing a larger driftwood book.)

Louie collected select pieces of driftwood to make a chair while I ran around shooting photos. Before we left I jumped into the Navarro River for a moment. The rivers up here are beautiful right now, plenty of water, and emerald green in between the rains…

• From www.lloydkahn.com/…

Hi, Lloyd,

Thank you so much for all your inspirational work, your books, and thoughts.

You have been filling my passed father’s role as a motivational teacher for the last decade. A simple image of your kitchen was enough to make me reach out. Ten years ago my young family acquired 6 amazing acres of land in South Australia. It had a small cabin with solar light still glowing from the last owner and lined with insulating corks.

Ever since I learned of the stability of the Earth’s temperature 6 feet down, my dream has been to build a earth-integrated home. This is what I have done, slowly, by hand, using the earth, rock, and free or cheap materials. A living earth roof, earth and kangaroo-poo floors, off-grid solar system, well water, incredible wildlife, no debt. And a Vitruvian chill space — what more could you ask for?

If you are ever in Australia, drop by.

Cheers and thank you,
–Will

We just completed my latest book, Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the Northern California Coast (82 pages, 8½″× 8½″). It’s the first in a series of short-run, digitally printed small books. This is a way for me to publish some not-ready-for-prime-time books, ones that we may just sell via mail order.

• Available at www.shelterpub.com/building/driftwood

Along the same lines, we have just finished our small book Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the Northern California Coast. When we have copies ready to go, I’ll make an announcement.

• From www.lloydkahn.com/…

Driftwood beach shack from 64-page book I’m just finishing laying out: Driftwood Shacks Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• From www.lloydkahn.com/….