Tiny House Jamboree - People

I know, there's supposed to be tiny house photos since it was the Tiny house Jamboree. They are coming, I promise. 

But here's my favorite part of the weekend. The people. Some I'd met before, some I knew only online before, and some were totally new acquaintances. Some are missing. Moose and some others were not their sadly. And some who were present, I did not manage to get photos with. If I don't have a shot of you, don't have your name with your photo, or am missing a link to your site/blog, I apologize. The whole weekend was such a whirlwind and I really am terrible with names. Why I can remember details about someone's house plans and life goals and draw a complete blank on their name, I don't know. It's embarrassing. So please, just comment with the info I am missing (or if I got it wrong!) and I will add it! If I'm missing a photo of you, I guess you just have to come visit my place and I'll get one. ;) There were many other cool and famous people there, just too little time.

 For starters, here are two of my favorite Tiny House People group ladies, Macy Miller and Thea Tapson. Neither of which had I met in person before, so like a lot of other encounters this weekend, this was kind of like facebook coming to life. Which is pretty sweet!

The Tiny House People group ladies in dresses and sandals.

Sean David Burke and I had met last year and he was even able to swing by my house and visit once. So it was nice to see him again and to have the time to listen to his talk on health and building houses. 

An amazingly sweet young nurse who I was able to chat with for a while about her tiny house plans.

Tim Tedesco was another previously online only acquaintance. He's done a lot of cool things, but one evening he built his own tear-drop camper in something like two hours. Which I happen to think it amazing!

B. A. Norrgard got married during the Jamboree! I've always thought her name stood for bad ass since that is how I think of her, though I was pretty sure that wasn't actually what her parents named her. Andrew Odem was one of the mc's for the event, had a large role in producing "Turning Tiny", and is part of putting out the Tiny House Magazine. And he's an all around fun guy to be around. Nina Zamudio I'd not met before, but she's another author in "Turning Tiny."

Suzanne Sprinkle Ayres was another FB come to life meeting. I thought there might have been more Tiny House People group members there since there are 30,000 of us after all, but it was great to meet the few who were able to attend!

It was great to see Byron and Dot Fears again since they are some of my favorite builders. Other than the one evening, they were mostly too busy and I didn't get to see as much of them as I would have liked. Hopefully at least Dot, and maybe Byron will be able to swing by my house for a visit in the next month as part of their larger travel plans.

I know she was already in a photo at the top, but here's another shot of Thea Tapson and I.

It was also wonderful to get to spend a little time with Christian and Alexis again. They also have tentative plans to come visit my place so I'm hoping that will work out. I had to opportunity to watch part 1 of their 3 part film series called Living Tiny Legally. They did a wonderful job and I can't wait to see the next two installments. 

Michelle Bredeson Boyle was the other MC for the speakers.  And Anita Howard has a lovely and unique tiny home that I've loved the layout of.

Lindsey who actually lives near my home and is working on her own tiny!

Kai Rostcheck I'd met last year and this time he had his lady friend with him. He and Ola are a sweet couple and it was nice to see them for a minute.

Anita Howard again chatting with the famous Kent Griswald also of the Tiny House Magazine. The magazine is pretty cool. I've written for them several times, and if tiny houses interest you at all, I do recommend buying a subscription.

Susan Joslyn is another formerly online only acquaintance and fellow Tiny House People group member that I got to meet in person.

Ryan and Hannah Corson are an amazing young couple I met, along with their super tiny little boy! I forgot to get a shot of all of us together, but it was great to get to know them just a little and to meet other folks with so many of the same goals and plans in life.

Jay Shaffer and I. If you don't know him, see my whole last post.

Famous Freida concentrating on the speakers. I loved her home made book jacket for her copy of "Turning Tiny." The front said "This book belongs to Famous Freida, sorry about that," and made me laugh.

Jewel Pearson (Mrs Gypsy Soul) who has another lovely tiny house that I have really enjoyed.

And Darin Zaruba, who I barley saw, much less got a chance to snap a photo with because he was so busy making the whole event happen. Many thanks to him and all the others who were behind the scenes working like crazy to make everything go smoothly!

Thanks to all of you for the opportunities to meet, hang out with, and get to know so many amazing folks!

Tiny House Jamboree - Room mates

Finally, some thing about this amazing past weekend! There will be multiple posts on the Jamboree, so this is just the start. ;) If you were not there, I'm sorry. Make your plans now for next year! I really enjoy being home again, but I had a wonderful time and am so glad I was able to attend.

I have never lived in a house with a TV. I was homeschooled. I am the single most pop culturally illiterate person I know of. I might know more about ancient Grecian culture than the one most of my generation grew up in. In general, this is a situation I like. I've never understood the general fascination with what some celebrity is doing or eating or wearing, etc. But there are a few areas that involve things I am into where I am somewhat interested in the big names. The tiny house world is obviously one of those areas. And Jay Schaffer (here) is one of those people. If you don't know who he is, lets just say he pretty much started the modern tiny house movement. Yes, I know, people all over the world have lived in small spaces for ages. But as far as what I and a lot of others are doing now, living in stick built houses on a trailer, he's the one that got it going. So he's about the closest thing to a celebrity that I care about.

On my way to the Jamboree, I learned, thanks to the Jamboree connections FB page, that Jay needed a ride from the Denver airport. I was driving right through that area anyway, so I offered to pick him up. Someone else actually beat me to the airport, but he still replied and then noted that it was late, dark, and raining, and was kind enough to ask if I had a place to stay lined up? I did as I was planning to stay at the free campground and had my van and tent both as options to sleep in, so I told him that. But he said he had this huge hotel room (yeah, you could have put both my and Jay's entire houses inside it and still had some room to spare) with two queen sized beds, and it seemed way too big for one person. And so I ended up being room mates for the weekend with Jay Schaffer!

Not only is he able to design beautiful and functional houses, inspire multitudes with new dreams and goals, and speak to crowds, he is a really amazing person. Very open, genuine, willing to put himself out there to help others (often forgetting that he needs to make a living too in the process) and just a really wonderful person to get to know. While we both were busy much of the time with various commitments and people, and a few other guests came and went from the room through out the weekend, the few times we were in the room at the same time, we had some wonderful conversations. 

And thanks to his generosity, this weekend was not only a lot of fun for me, but one of the most relaxing times I've had in a while. I love camping, but having a air conditioned room with a comfy bed and a shower that can run forever without running out of hot water, is really nice sometimes! Not to mention that little bit of a fan girl side of me that does exist finds it really amazing that I got to be roomies with a celebrity for a few days. But the best part was probably just having the opportunity to get to know another amazing person in my life. Thank you Jay for everything you do!

So that was cool. I am sorry all that meant that I missed the chance to hang out with all of you that were at the campground. Probably next year! Now on to posts about the event it's self and all the beautiful homes that were there...

Moose

Ok, ok. I know I am supposed to be posting Jamboree photos folks. But, I did have this post partially done, and I unfortunately forgot to bring my cord to connect my camera and computer with me. So I've been unable to download photos. Maybe by tomorrow evening I'll have some up depending what time I get home...

 In the mean time, check out these beauties that I saw, all three pretty close to each other, a few evenings before I left to drive down to CO.

Full House

In case you ever wandered, you can host overnight guests when you live in a tiny house! My friend Seth's sister Katie and nephew Caleb came to visit the mountains and stayed at my place along with him. So we had three adults and a child sharing my little place for a few days. 

It was fun even while being crowded. I and I think everyone else enjoyed the time. But I don't know how some of you with families do that full time. It was crowded and while I realize that if you were all living there full time, some of the people would not be living out of suitcases and such. Still, I'd have to say, that's a little tighter than I'd prefer to live long term.

We had a lot of dinners around the fire pit outside which of course gave us plenty of space.

Seth and my neighbor Clay helped Caleb catch his first trout on fly rod.

They also spent a lot of time looking for obsidian and arrowheads along the river banks.

Roasting cherries over the camp fire (the healthy alternative to marshmallows) also consumed some time.

It was fun having guests and I hope to do it again before long!

Wildfire

There is a wildfire burning close to my house right now. My location is in no danger from it because the fire would have to totally change directions and then hop a major river, but depending on the wind direction, there has been a ton of smoke at my house. At times making it hard to breath and leaving my throat burning. And even making the trees around my clearing look hazy from the house. Above is a shot I managed to snap of the full moon through some smoke. That spot in front of the moon is a firefighting helicopter with a water bucket below that's headed to dump a load on one edge of the fire.

Here you can see a few little clouds in the sky, but the ones on the horizon that look like thunder heads are all smoke.

The same thing with the moon rising through the smoke and haze.

One of the times the smoke was rolling across the valley towards my place, almost totally obscuring the opposite mountains. 

It's pretty early in the summer for big fires and hopefully we get some rain. The forecast is all hot and dry right now though, so it's not looking promising.