Here’s a very early camper vehicle. Side boxes for storage, slide out drawer for a work surface, kitchen, and table. Simple framing holds up mosquito netting and closes down with roll-up canvas walls.
A few more Vardos (sort of) from Around the Web
I’m always keeping an eye out on the web for interesting living vehicles, rolling homes, and related Traveller – Modern Nomad stuff. The right key words and a little luck on historic image sites land a lot of photos, but often with little real information about the vehicle in question. As I was rummaging through my old image files over the weekend I decided to start throwing some of the images up here; for inspiration and ideas if nothing else. Where possible, I’ve linked to the source where I found it.
I like this early fifth-wheel design for several reasons, not the least of which is the hitch. This is the earliest image I have of a “slide-out” expandable space. I suspect they actually fold up but they already deal with increasing space while keeping the traveling width narrow. The final feature is the dogtrot effect created by the opposing doors. I think this caravan was built with summer travel in mind.
The above wagon aesthetic has a Persian feel to the decorations. From the pillows right down to the slippers. Click the photo for an article about this wagon.
Okay, I just posted this cool little goat wagon as I would have loved this as a kid. Who wouldn’t? There is a clear attention to detail on this one down to the wheel spokes and fine paint work. Apparently there is some tie to Kansas City. Maybe a carriage maker’s model?
And finally, the best part of all… exploring a 1914 Dunton Waggon, Part 1 with historian John Pokkett. You can find the next parts on Youtube if they don’t auto-follow.
The Wheel House
A ‘tender, post-apocalyptic love story’…
I want to revisit this minimalist performance art piece with you for the weekend. Extremely clever, “acrobatic virtuosity,” street performance.
from the Acrojou website:
“A tender post-apocalyptic love story…”
– Kate Kavanagh, review, The Circus DiariesA gently comic dystopia, set in a different time where everything has a new value and survival relies on sharp eyes, quick hands, and, above all, friendship. Stunning design, theatrical acrobatics, and breathtaking moments of risk, all housed within an exquisite, hand-built structure. The Wheel House is a narrative show which unfolds inside and around a circular set as it rolls, with the audience walking alongside.
Acrojou’s flagship show, The Wheel House, has been toured and developed by the company for the past 7 years.
In this time it has been seen live by more than 100,000 people, been booked for events in 13 countries, and it’s online video has had more than 90,000 hits. It is steadily gaining the company recognition in the national and international media and has so far been featured in The Times, The Evening Standard and Freestyle Magazine (all UK), and newspapers and magazines in Asia, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. The show has been written about in over 300 blogs and online magazines, including Trendhunter, Design Taxi, Moscow Times, and ABC News, in at least 15 different languages. It has been MSN ‘Picture of the Day’ as well on the Flickr homepage. The image has been used for cover art for an edition of ‘Mr Pip’ by Lloyd Jones. It is still touring and is already penciled to visit Australia, New Zealand and Portugal all for the first time in 2015. It is currently the most widely toured of all Without Walls shows.
Commissioned as a walkabout by Without Walls (2008) and funded for development into a full show (2011) by Applause. With Direction from Flick Ferdinando.
Promotional film by Cristobal Catalan
Grow in the Open Air
“Here is the test of wisdom,
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content,
Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul.Now I re-examine philosophies and religions,
They may prove well in lecture-rooms, yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing currents.”
Get out, travel, earn your wisdom, ignore lecture-room philosophy and religion…
Live life. It’s later than you think.
The Comfort of Slavery or the Hardships of Freedom
He makes a convincing case…
Cigar Box Guitar God?
I saw this link this morning on C.B, Gitty’s music crafters’ supply blog. A video of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven arranged and played by Charles Atchison. Atchison is a remarkably talented musician and general polymath. Definitely worth checking out.
If you are looking for a resource on instrument building he also has an interesting looking book out as well.
Portmanteau
Traveling with some class.
Learn These 2 Pioneer Skills to Produce Almost Anything
Truer words could not be said. If you want useful skills, learn about wood and metal. Everything else is gravy.
by Todd Walker
Read the next two lines and stop. Look around you. Make a mental note of all the useful stuff produced from two resources… wood and metal.
Really, stop reading for a second!
Okay, come back now.
What did you come up with? If you only noted the obvious wooden and metallic items, go deeper. With a little thought, your list should grow exponentially.
The fact is, wood and metal were directly or indirectly responsible for building your house, mailbox, wall clock, sofa, and the electronic device you’re reading from this very moment.
Wood and metal go together like peas and carrots. Metal tools are used to shape wood. But wood creates fire to heat metal for making said tools. And don’t forget about the useful wooden handles attached to metal tools. There’s a relationship between the two resources in which both benefit from the other. In biology, we call this mutualism.
For long-term self-reliance, learning to manipulate and…
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2015 Atlatl Day at Blackwater Draw
Here’s the annual atlatl event I help put on at the Clovis Site.
It’s been seven years since this fell on Halloween and it was great to see people dress in costume to come out; especially the little kids.
Thanks to all who attended and supported the Mu Alpha Nu Atlatl Day again this year. The weather was absolutely perfect. A big thank you goes to Aaron, Lincoln, Trish, Laura, Becky, Mara, and the rest of the club whom I’m forgetting this morning, for picking up the slack and getting things together in a hurry. Corey, as usual, handled the office and business end of things during the competition. Overall, attendance was only slightly down due more to some specific conflicts of date rather than the late advertising. We missed the enormous group that often comes from NMMI and a couple of the groups from the central valley that have participated in the past. It is a very long drive.
There were 76…
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Preindustrial Craftsmanship 