Patrick Dougherty

This dude is the bomb - http://www.stickwork.net/installations.php

The Good House Book - Clarke Snell

http://books.google.com/books?id=xwLKa8-FRVoC&dq=Marc%2BAnd&ie=ISO-8859-1&source=gbs_gdata

This is an excellent book that addresses the concerns of natural building and alternative building without being crippled by fanatic idealism, or carried away by unrealistic whimsy. This could be a 101 course textbook for these fields.

The whole natural building, eco-community phenomenon, for all the attributes and good intentions, still leans toward escapism. I'm convinced, and even more so after reading this book, that the best approach is to leave any remaining untouched land untouched and instead focus on a remodeling/rebuilding project. Read the book yourself and see what you think.

Incredible Houses

Just found these examples of Indonesian traditional architecture -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5FCgfmDaMs

Irene

Well, the greenhouse roof is now "in a heap on the ground over collapsed posts" (as I feared in the earthquake). The hurricane took down the 3 largest persimmon trees in our backyard, two of them fell onto the greenhouse and took it down. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. However, the ranch-like arch that I put over the entrance to the goat pen caught one of the trees and kept it from smashing the fence and probably the chicken coop run. So... that was good.

Some photos Crystal took of our yard after the storm...

 

Antidote to Capitalism Gone Wild

http://www.lewishyde.com/publications/the-gift

This is the best half of a book I've read. In the first half, Hyde examines the role of the gift in various traditional cultures and contrasts that with it's commodification in ours. Second half was less interesting to me - two separate essays, one on Walt Whitman, the other Ezra Pound. In fact, I think I tapped out about three quarters of the way through Walt Whitman, skipped the piece on Pound, and re-read the first half. How's that for a book review?

Leonard Knight

I first learned of Leonard Knight through the film God's Architects (http://www.godsarchitects.com/)

Here's a virtual tour of his Salavation Mountain:
http://www.snubble.com/niland/

Jim Bishop

Here's a good video introducing Mr. Bishop and his work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQsy7aiVD0&feature=related

This is a link to a feature-length documentary, "Scrap", that splits time between Jim and a Wisconsin sculptor:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/scrap/

Official Web Site:
http://www.bishopcastle.org/#

Ferdinand Facteur Cheval

C'est Incroyable - http://www.facteurcheval.com/video.html

Two Fearless Builders

Lars Vilks - Creator of Nimis and Arx in the country(well, not exactly...) of Ladonia:
http://atlasobscura.com/place/nimis

Nikolai Sutyagin - Creator of a wooden skyscraper. Ultimately a failure as it's been torn down but no lack of ambition here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1544827/Gangster-who-built-worlds-tallest-log-cabin.html

Thank you internets.

No Mow Lawns!!

Something's wrong here -

http://abcnews.go.com/US/vegetable-garden-brings-criminal-charges-oak-park-michigan/story?id=14047214

The only thing more ridiculous than the case against her is the number of people chiming in to say she's actually in the wrong.

I can see getting irritated by a lawn with old washing machines, a collection of car parts, and some shopping carts (even then I don't think anyone should have legal recourse), but she's growing her own food. Something everyone is most likely going to be forced to do very soon. I wished I lived in that city, I'd have a front yard that would really give people a reason to complain (think 'abstract art').

P.S. - This issue grew into it's own blog - http://nomowlawns.blogspot.com/

Faulkner-White Invasion

Chris and Stacey came down from Brooklyn for the weekend to meet the goats. We got to hang out with them, too. Hank liked Chris. Julien didn't care much for Chris, but he liked Stacey a lot. He was hanging out with her while she took photos. Even the bottom one.

Hank goes climbing

Hank clears the big chicken

This one doesn't really need explanation, as you can see.

The Tompkins in Park Hall!

Jess and John came over with Dylan and Ryann. It was fun watching the goats run so we played "Ready, Set, Goat!" and got them to chase.

The kids gave the kids their bottles. Ryann fed Hank (Hank Williams) and Dylan fed Julien (Julien Donkey Boy). Hank finished his bottle first. He's won every bottle race so far. Goats really like to climb. They don't even care what they're climbing on -- tree stumps, fences, people. We decided if you get the urge to climb, like Dylan did, it means you have Goat Fever. Dylan and Ryann were yelling, "I have Goat Fever!" and climbing up on John and me.

The Bravehole

Behold the Bravehole. I made it out of the art supply box I used back when I was a jerky art student. I was going to call it ArtBox Guitar but then I chipped the face when I was cutting out a normal-sized soundhole. So, I cut around the damage and the Bravehole was borne. Check out the adjustable neck tension turnbuckle in the last photo. That was designed out of necessity when I made the neck joint too weak to support the tension from the strings. It sounds almost as sweeeeet as it looks. Almost.