luluiswho

2010-08-04T10:59:00.003-04:00

2010-05-06T10:11:00.003-04:00

Family Band who are Kim, Johnny and my dear friend Scott have just released their new video Children. Totally shot in our magical little part of upstate staring my beautiful friend Winnie—Juliette's daughter. To boot, the video was directed by my friend Luke from SeeThink. I'm in awe of these friends and miss them terribly. This video makes me long for upstate, summer is not coming fast enough.

2009-08-03T22:16:00.002-04:00

2009-07-30T10:16:00.000-04:00

2009-07-30T09:50:00.010-04:00

2009-07-29T18:17:00.018-04:00

I wonder how tomorrow could ever follow today.

2009-07-09T15:28:00.001-04:00

2009-07-09T15:16:00.011-04:00

How we do the 4th.

2009-07-02T13:42:00.002-04:00

Peace out civilization.

2009-06-08T10:11:00.006-04:00

Shanty styles.

2009-05-12T17:31:00.001-04:00

2009-05-12T17:12:00.008-04:00

2009-05-03T21:35:00.002-04:00

A turkey laid 21 eggs on my land! Baby turkeys?! Duuuuuuuuuuuuude.

2009-04-22T17:28:00.002-04:00

2009-03-12T16:01:00.001-04:00

Now my heart is full.

2009-01-02T23:18:00.000-05:00

Winter wonder.

2009-01-02T23:00:00.008-05:00

This will be our year, took a long time to come.

2008-12-25T17:45:00.002-05:00

2008-11-10T11:47:00.010-05:00

The city is my mistress, the forest is my love.

2008-11-07T13:10:00.002-05:00

Fall in the city, sure is pretty. But I'm gonna go see me some woods.

2008-10-09T11:19:00.005-04:00

Grant swung by my place this past weekend. My heart aches from the pictures. I love upstate in the fall. I might resort to hitching. (Peep the second picture, another bear!)

2008-09-24T21:11:00.015-04:00

Ten guesses as to where I'm spending my birthday. Hint: it's a TREE paradise.

2008-09-15T10:30:00.011-04:00

The weekends upstate are dwindling as the summer weather wanes. I headed up this weekend with Marc and Justis and had some perfect upstate days. The kind where you've planned on doing absolutely nothing and yet you get up to so much. We spent some time at Justis's place and I'm sad to say my camera died right as I got there but it was SO beautiful. A dramatic yet small cabin in the woods that he's been working on all summer. Post and beam with hand-hewn/burned wood, single pitch, tons of windows. Incredible. Seeing his place renewed my sense of purpose and has wholly inspired me to keep on. What will I build next? I had huge dreams that night.

2008-08-23T11:04:00.004-04:00

I suppose I should have mentioned the stellar line-up for the festival as opposed to just basking in it's glory. Family Band played though they aren't on the poster (which Mark Ohe of Endless Boogie designed!) Johnny also sat in on Hiss Golden Messenger's set which was...well.. . ..indescribably good. Pretty sure I unintentionally fell into some jam-band-dance-trance during that set, please no one remind me.

2008-08-14T20:50:00.001-04:00

2008-08-14T13:48:00.007-04:00

The pictures from this weekend are endless and beautiful. Check out Kim and Johnny's house... it's so cool it gives me house envy. Born of their own hands of course.

2008-08-11T18:07:00.007-04:00

2008-08-10T20:06:00.005-04:00

So, our annual music festival killed it. Mike, Julie and Julian made it off the charts special and unspeakably fun. Who's the handsome fellow bracing the port-o-let in the back of the pick-up you ask? My brother! More to come. (p.s. check Dusty in her yoda duds. Totally unintentional... preeeeetty darn cute)

2008-07-29T07:38:00.004-04:00

Treehouse, Vallery style. Now if only Kursten were here.

2008-07-24T23:49:00.003-04:00

2008-07-19T10:49:00.003-04:00

2008-07-14T13:00:00.002-04:00

I'm miserable at embedding video so click below for some rad stop animation videos my friend Eric took while upstate:

Fun Factory

2008-07-14T12:34:00.013-04:00

Can you die from fun?

2008-06-20T12:04:00.003-04:00

more photo porn. grant was attempting to smoke us out burning all kinds of blackberry bush that likes to take over my land. i may have smelled of smoke for a week, it was awesome.

2008-06-09T22:06:00.003-04:00

I have to post this picture of Dusty and I because my memorial day weekend would truly be nothing without the epic dance party Dusty and I conjured in the wee. She would reject all songs melodic and tender, demanding nothing short of The Stiff Little Fingers, Billy Childish and the punk-esque like. A tiny anti-angel after my own heart.

2008-06-02T23:09:00.002-04:00

Photographers always make it look so easy.

2008-05-28T13:46:00.002-04:00

Oh...and we saw a BEAR!

2008-05-28T12:21:00.026-04:00

This memorial day we held an epic treehouse party...or parties rather. And it was awesome. I invited all my friends in town and we feasted on indescribably good food, played some music, drank and laughed till we thought we'd pop. Thanks to everyone who came out and hopefully this is the beginning of a long line of parties to come.

2008-04-30T21:55:00.002-04:00

um....what?!?!?! the treehouse from satellite?? my brother sent me this today, i'm reeling.

2008-04-10T12:38:00.009-04:00

I managed my first spring trip to the wee last weekend and it was magical. We came in around 11 at night in the densest fog I have ever seen up there, pretty sure my friend Levon brought it from SF. A little whiskey, some hot water bottles and my makeshift propane heater took care of the rest. And a little soul comp turning on the old iphone. It was epic.

2008-02-16T15:58:00.002-05:00

Marc and I were perusing some beautiful old land camera photos he has taken. Eeriest one of the wee. The staircase looks a mile long.

2008-02-14T11:04:00.010-05:00

The wee is in Domino magazine's green issue this month. There's a corresponding online slide show where I've written some detailed captions describing the building process: click here.

2007-12-28T00:26:00.000-05:00

I miss this. Winter is long.

2007-11-18T01:14:00.000-05:00

A California angel dropped in to see me, amidst my very chaotic life, and we headed straight upstate. Animal sitting in the SNOW (it is winter... finally). 7 chickens, 3 ducks, 2 cats and 1 dog, amazing.

2007-10-08T18:57:00.000-04:00

Best weekend ever.

2007-10-08T16:44:00.000-04:00

When in doubt, hack it out.

2007-09-21T18:44:00.000-04:00

So I know I'm always on about how amazing everything is but let me just reserve this moment to really say how amazing the treehouse music festival was! The festival, despite the name, wasn't actually held in the treehouse but it was held just down the road in Julian and Juliette's barn. The usual venue for such an event. The performers were P.G. Six, Meg Baird and Hiss Golden Messenger and their acoustic lilts were all perfectly matched with a cold upstate night and a christmas lit barn. Meg even brought her dulcimer for the occasion!

2007-09-05T01:04:00.000-04:00

oh yeah... did i mention?

2007-08-19T23:25:00.000-04:00

Made a solo trip upstate this weekend on a whim. More of the same, but so fun. I filmed the ducks and chickens: weird.
I also found an enormous spider in the wee and may or may not have sprayed him with RustOleum. Must have been all the talk of brown recluses earlier in my day, I feel pretty guilty.

2007-08-07T16:15:00.000-04:00

Kursten gave me this beautiful picture of the treehouse. It really captures the unassuming magic of upstate and my land, I love it. If you ever wondered what it was like to be up there, this picture says it all.

2007-05-29T10:57:00.000-04:00

Alexa took this hideous video if you can bear to watch it: eeeeeeew I know, I know they're just bugs but they need to go away already.

2007-05-27T20:11:00.000-04:00

Ladies and gents, the weehouse is officially open for summer. I made a short trip up for memorial day weekend and it was beautiful. I spent most of the time walking my land trying to decipher all the lovely medicinal plants in their spring proliferation. We also took to clearing some ground cover and planting some not-so-native medicinal plants, let's hope they take root. Also... Winnie has two new baby ducks! Nothing quite as cute as a baby duck.

2007-02-18T00:51:00.000-05:00

A snowy, waist deep weekend with a lovely trip to Bovina's new cafe Heaven. Where it is, indeed, teacup heaven! The picture of the pink cup is for my good friend Ruby Pruett.

2007-02-14T15:48:00.000-05:00

Leaving a very snowy Chinatown to head upstate. Hopefully we will make it! Stay tuned for pix of a very snowy weehouse.

2006-10-08T20:44:00.000-04:00

p.s. Jude also has a corresponding treehouse quilt blog if none of you have have snooped through my comments: http://onebyjude.blogspot.com/

Amazing!

2006-10-08T20:00:00.000-04:00

Hi kids. Just fyi... I've been on the west coast for two weeks (family trip) and since I've been gone my apt was robbed. My lovely little computer and every shred of treehouse documentation is now dust in the wind. I am much preoccupied with robbery follow-up things so check back here in awhile for updates and such. I emailed these pictures, luckily, to myself so I could post them while I was away. They are pictures of a treehouse quilt(!!!) that Kursten's mom Jude selflessly hand stitched for the treehouse. My photos barely do it justice, I see something new every time I look at it. It's unbelievably beautiful. Jude, forgive me for saying so in such a public forum, but you are TRULY an artist. Make no mistake.

2006-09-24T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hurray for roofs!! Spent only four days upstate but it was was a great four days. It was supposed to rain but the weather gods blessed us with the most beautiful fall weekend. Sun and mist and a little rain but truly perfect. And I have a roof. I was also given the most amazing gift for my treehouse that I'm dedicating an entire post to (tomorrow) because words can't really describe it as it is the most magical thing anyone has ever put a hand to.

2006-08-24T10:17:00.000-04:00

I'm all moved in kids! These photos are about as final as we're going to get for now. Mind the tarp as the little guy has no (tin) roof and it was all we could do to save from getting flooded.

2006-08-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

We're here! And I just might have to tease you a little with a final picture. Let's just say you won't believe your eyes. These pix are us having a campfire in my firepit the first night in. Last night we unfortunately had to crash at India's on account of the treehouse flooding in a torrential rain (hence my internet access). The roof isn't finished and the poor little guy just couldn't hack all the water. But waking up the last two mornings 30ft up in the trees has been indescribable I can barely begin to tell you. So with that, I'll be back.

2006-07-23T15:48:00.000-04:00

So you're probably wondering if I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere... I haven't. I'm just mired in some loose ends and workland. On my last day upstate I was attempting a photo frenzy of the wee house and my camera died. Ideally, I'll be up again next weekend though right now work is dictating my schedule. What's above is my first lame attempt at a final photo and me nuzzling Tiborz new kittens. Good times. Please check back as I'll be posting some amazing photos real soon.

2006-07-10T12:12:00.000-04:00

Today is my last day here until August, how will I manage? I'm going to attempt a final photo of the treehouse before my departure but until then, chew on these. Last night was clearly... amazing.

2006-07-09T16:15:00.000-04:00

So it's a slow day and also my last day before I'm meant to return to the city to work. The house won't be finished but it's soooooo close. Kursten will stay behind to finish the rest. Tonight though, we're throwing a big party! It's Julie's birthday and my good good friends from California, The Court & Spark, will be stopping through to play her barn. Should be wicked. More to come...

p.s. we heart copper.

2006-07-08T22:13:00.000-04:00

2006-07-07T23:15:00.000-04:00

Hurray for glass.

2006-07-03T20:57:00.000-04:00

Dad and Barb are here! No work today so we just kicked around. The gypsy moths are having a renaissance so Dad took to feeding them to the fish. The insides of the house are done and it's off the charts cute.

2006-07-02T08:52:00.000-04:00

Last night we celebrated. It started with a ride in the back of Kursten's truck. Looking up at the sky I was mistaking lightning bugs for shooting stars. Twenty of us then rolled up to some new yorker art critic's house who put on an UNBELIEVABLE fire work show. The ones that look the lamest were by far the best. They ended it with a bonfire. Steve Martin was there... but we opted to go back to India's to have a party of our own. Last night was the kind of night that will make it hard to ever return to the city.

2006-07-01T20:01:00.000-04:00

2006-06-30T22:28:00.000-04:00

Longest day ever! This is coming together so quickly my pictures barely do it justice. We made the mistake of starting to drink three hours before we finished. Marc may or may not have been teetering off the roof with a corona in his hand. Don't tell his mother. I'm roasting a chicken, it's 10:30 at night. Kursten set off into the ether with a log tied to his truck and has yet to return.

2006-06-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

More doing, less saying.

2006-06-28T22:06:00.000-04:00

Boo.......... yah.

2006-06-26T09:57:00.000-04:00

I didn't get to see the third wall go up cause I had plans to come back to the city. The third wall will include the front door [framed out with 4x4s!] and a lot of windows so clearly... I can't wait.

2006-06-24T20:50:00.000-04:00

Walls in the trees? Unbelievable. All I could say today was wow. Check the post below, the text is linkage to a ghetts video.

2006-06-24T14:24:00.000-04:00

So I'm not a computer genius, so sue me. xo

2006-06-24T14:09:00.000-04:00

2006-06-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

So my camera died today, just before the most epic moment in our building. The deck was laid loosely down and I climbed just atop it. It was magic. I'm going to attempt to post a video tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

p.s. The top photo may or may not be an example of a step in the folked out staircase.

2006-06-22T18:33:00.000-04:00

Not much to speak of today as we spent most of our time calculating the rest of the lumber for the house and the deck wood. We also attempted to clean J&J's on account of them coming up tonight [yay!]. Marc and Kursten did however wander over to the land just now to chainsaw up some of the HUGE logs left by the loggers for the start of what could be the most folked-out staircase you'll ever see. I hope they make it back before sundown. Ian also comes up tonight so we'll have eight hands tomorrow, just imagine what could get done. Below is a picture I took yesterday of 'burls' which are the knots cut off a tree when it's logged. They have to cut off the knots so the tree can be planed easier. They're EVERYWHERE on my land. So I've decided to collect them and start me a little art project. I'm going to call it 'gnarls and burls', but only Jon and Kara will remember that one. No one else has known me that long. Either way it's a title that reminds me of being young...

2006-06-21T20:03:00.000-04:00

2006-06-20T21:38:00.000-04:00

Marc and India pulled the talons from the dead falcon on my land and are drying them for a special treehouse present. I can hardly wait.

2006-06-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends, It's all coming together. Yours, Sara Winchester

2006-06-15T20:52:00.000-04:00

Progress is so rapid with this thing, it's hard to post what all has been done. Also, I can barely keep my eyelids open at the end of the day much less post. SO... holes are dug, posts are cemented into holes, beams are built, two GLs are mounted even! GL, short for 'garnier limb', is a really fancy and really expensive wood anchor... meets lag bolt (see picture). Basically they will hold the outside beams from tree to tree and bear the weight of the entire deck and house. The poles are extra support for the beams, in treehouse language poles = cheating but with what this is costing I'd like it to last longer than one summer. One swift winter wind will have nothing on this thing.

p.s. I sanded and painted steel plates all day.
p.p.s. We did most of this in the rain!

2006-06-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

P.S. These are everywhere. I think they're beautiful.

2006-06-12T12:19:00.000-04:00

Hole digging has finally come to a close. We stumbled on some bedrock (well kind of... not really) that desperately wanted to be jack hammered, so we obliged. Unfortunately on the way home from renting the tiniest jackhammer you ever did see we hit a deer. Out of nowhere (I know all deer accident stories start that way but it's true) she jumped onto the road from a ditch just off the shoulder. We hit her straight on, sadly, and beat up Kursten's truck in the process. He swears the rock is bad luck, I say we jack hammered the bad luck right outta him. Weather permitting we'll pour cement next week and mount the beams that attach to the treeeeeees.

2006-06-09T23:15:00.000-04:00

Today we dug holes.

2006-06-07T21:25:00.000-04:00

My upstate boyfriend.

2006-06-06T19:27:00.000-04:00

Outside, pretty good. Inside, even better.

2006-06-06T17:14:00.000-04:00

We again spent the day clearing more bramble. Which is really just the branches of all the trees that were cut. So it's less brush-like and more young tree-like. We cleared a path to better transport the huge pile of pressure treated lumber (bleh) that was dropped off today to the building site. We'll use that wood to build our foundation. The driver of the lumber truck was sure to describe to us in detail the infestation of 'worms' that only happens every 20 yrs. 'Worms' bka gypsy moths. He said we had it pretty good. Le zikes. They build these big nasty nests. You might think I'm dwelling on these little bastards but I kid you not they drop from the trees. We're maybe a day away from starting which is great cause I'm getting bored and more broke as the days pass.

2006-06-05T20:54:00.000-04:00

Marc and I spent the day clearing the bramble from where the loggers drove in and cut down my trees (long story). As fate would have it, the path where the loggers drove in can now serve as a good drive in for the lumber trucks. The little blue fellow is a gypsy moth, they're EVERYWHERE, which is gross. And they eat trees! So it's safe to say I don't like running into them all day long. I like my trees, I don't want them eaten (much less cut down... still a long story). The last photo is the tree house site. I've attempted to show the distance and relative height of the platform that will hold my house. Can you imagine it? I can.

2006-06-04T20:17:00.000-04:00

This is where I stay while I'm here. J&J just built a new kitchen, it is something of a wonder.

2006-06-02T12:16:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,
As you may or may not know I'm building a 100 some odd sq ft treehouse.. guesthouse... camping house (call it what you will) on my land for the next month and I'm going to attempt to document the entire thing. My much overpriced elph is en route as I type. This sketch barely scratches the surface of our elaborate plans but it's a taste. Anyone interested in helping or camping or just plain saying hi, let me know. There are many options, lots of land, a decent number of ponds and a world of stars to look at. I'd love to see you. Otherwise just check back here to see how the truly insane really live.
xo Linda