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Honey House Being Built

The Honey House is an earthbag project built by Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer, inspired by a hands-on workshop taught by architect and visionary green builder, Nader Khalili.

The method is called "Flexible Form Rammed Earth," utilizing earth-filled plastic bags which can be arranged in molded, sculptural and curvalinear forms.

Honey House Finished

Coffee cans were used to fill plastic bags (rejects because of misprinting) with a 25/75 clay/sand mix (also refuse obtained for $1/ton from gravel production operations). Bags were laid in layers, or courses around plywood and chickenwire forms, with strands of barbed wire laid between the courses to hold them in place and provide tensile strength.

The exterior was covered with straw-filled plaster/cob, yielding a whimsical form reminding me both of the natural stone dwellings of Turkey's Cappadocia region (see JIMWICh piece on Cappadocia from June 2001) and the mud Ghorfas of northern Africa (See JIMWICh piece on Ghorfas from September 2001).

This type of construction is extemely strong and durable. Based on similar historical types of rammed earth construction, it's capable of surviving 500 to 1000 years. The Honey House was built by an average of four people, working 5-6 hours a day in about a month. Total materials and backhoe excavation ran under $1000.
- posted by JIMWICh on 3/7/2002 12:31:54 AM

I evolved my very own calligraphic TrueType font, MANWICh (click to download), using The Alphabet Synthesis Machine. It's an interactive online artwork allowing you to create and evolve your own imaginary language system. You can then download your creation as a PC-format TrueType font, and have it entered into the site's archive.

Starting with a seed gesture, the Machine's various parameter variance sliders allows the exploration and evolution of patterns, chaos, letterforms, and the gestural rhythms of abstract expressionism.

Here's a sample of fonts created by others.
- posted by JIMWICh on 3/4/2002 12:02:33 AM

Springtime Foothills Palo Alto, California ©2002 Jim Leftwich

I think Spring is officially here on the San Francisco Peninsula. At least the verdant views from Pagemill Road seem to indicate so.

Today I was out driving around and couldn't help but think I ought to finally photograph the view from near the intersection of Pagemill Road and Foothill Expressway. For years, around the beginning of March, I've noticed how gorgeous this view is, but I've never taken the time to photograph it. I parked off of Old Pagemill Road, and walked over to the corner where I set up my tripod and took a number of shots.

Beyond the foothills you can see Black Mountain, one of the higher points along this section of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

California Poppies Palo Alto, California ©2002 Jim Leftwich

While photographing the emerald green foothills, I noticed that the brilliant orange gold California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica)were beginning to bloom as well. This is surely among the most intense colors found anywhere in nature. The California Poppy was made our official state flower in 1903, and every April 6th is California Poppy Day.

There are few sites more beautiful than an entire hillside or field covered with California Poppies.

Driving a half a mile or so over to Deer Creek Road, I saw another familiar feature of this part of California, the numerous Oak trees which dot the hills. Their broad canopies and gnarly limbs strike stunning poses against the sky. I stopped near the horse riding stables and took the photo of the two hillside oaks below.

Hillside Oaks Palo Alto, California ©2002 Jim Leftwich

Sadly, in the last few years, California's oaks have come under attack by a little-understood pathogen. Sudden Oak Death, first spotted on Tanoaks in the Marin County community of Mill Valley, has since claimed tens of thousands of trees across California, leading authorities to scramble to understand the problem and take precautions against its spreading.

The disease is caused by a fungus-like brown algae called Phytophthera ramorum, which is related to the algae that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1800s. University of California researchers managed to conclusively identify the culprit in June 2000. They discovered that it invades susceptible trees through the bark, killing portions of the tree and creating an ideal environment for insects and other fungi.
- posted by JIMWICh on 3/2/2002 8:14:57 PM

Moon Valentine Palo Alto, California ©2002 Jim Leftwich

I'd stepped outside just a few minutes ago to put out the trash and recyclables when I noticed that the moon was glowing irridescently through the high thin clouds. The night sky was uncapturably beautiful, but I went back in and grabbed my digital camera and came back out to see what I could photograph.

I maybe should've taken the time to set up a tripod, but it was pretty chilly and I was just wearing bike shorts and a tshirt.

When I pointed my camera up I snapped and came back in to see what I caught. To my surprise, the moon and clouds made a cool, colorful heart.

Wow. I'm in love with the moon.
- posted by JIMWICh on 1/28/2002 2:05:08 AM

Long Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains California ©1998 Jim Leftwich

Long Ridge
Mid-Peninsula Open Space Preserve
Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Clara County, California
Sunday, January 25, 1998 4:45pm

Long Ridge is the name for one of the Open Space Preserves, a patchwork of land that's been purchased and permanently set aside in the mountains and foothills of the San Francisco Peninsula, which extends south of the city of San Francisco. By the time you've driven the thirty miles down to Palo Alto, the Peninsula is about thirty miles wide, meaning the ocean is about thirty miles or so due west from Palo Alto. Along the Peninsula is the upper range of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The hightest points in thei ridgeline are about 2500', and from those points you can look west to the ocean and east down on the Silicon Valley with all the various cities that stretch unbroken from San Francisco fifty miles south to San Jose. Palo Alto is almost exactly in between, and is located on the west side of the southernmost tip of San Francisco Bay.

There are magnificent hiking and biking trails throughout many of the Open Space Preserves. When I first moved to Palo Alto twelve years ago, I remember my first trip up to Long Ridge. I was stunned speechless. It seemed like the most beautiful place I've ever been. I'd describe it as pastoral grandeur.

I had reason to think of this particular photograph as it was taken almost exactly four years ago.

In the picture, you're looking northwest. You are looking up the San Francisco Peninsula along the ridgeline, which you can see in the distance at the far right side. Going to the right, down the eastern side of this ridgeline are the cities of the Peninsula and the Bay. Visible straight ahead and to the left (when not obscured by clouds, as in this picture) lies the Pacific Ocean, about fifteen miles away. Scenes like these stretch for almost seventy miles north and south along the Peninsula.
- posted by JIMWICh on 1/20/2002 10:32:53 PM

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