The Half-Acre Homestead - 46 Years of Building & Gardening

In 1974, Lloyd and Lesley started building a home and establishing a garden on a half-acre piece of land in a small town on the northern California coast. Here is their story, along with over 500 photos of their home, the garden, pantry, kitchen, greenhouses, chicken coop, and animal visitors.

The book also covers cooking, foraging, fishing, crafts, birds, butterflies, and tools. Their main theme is that this was all done by hand.

“We both wanted to create a home and grow our own food. I’d been working as a carpenter for about 10 years and had built a homestead in Big Sur in the ’60s. Lesley had been gardening, sewing, and practicing crafts most of her life.

“We wanted to do as much for ourselves as possible, and we wanted to avoid paying rent or getting a mortgage. And we both wanted to have a home built of natural materials, that was functional, practical, and good-feeling.”

List of contents

Introduction

The House

Dining Area

Curved-Roof Shed

The Kitchen

Cooking

Foraging, Fishing

The Production Studio/Office

Crafts

Small-Scale Farming in the ’70s

Gardening for Two People

Pond

Living Roof

Flowers

Geometry from the Garden

Greenhouses

Garden Tools

Chickens

Birds in Our Lives

Animal Visitors

Butterflies, Caterpillars, Bees, and Other Insects in the Garden

Pests

The Shop

Skins and Bones

Appendix: Building a Home

Epilogue

About the author

Lloyd Kahn started building more than 50 years ago and has lived in a self-built home ever since. If he’d been able to buy a wonderful, old, good-feeling house, he might have never started building. But it was always cheaper to build than to buy, and by building himself, he could design what he wanted and use materials that he wanted to live with.

Lloyd set off to learn the art of building in 1960. He liked the whole process immensely. Ideally he’d have worked with a master carpenter long enough to learn the basics, but there was never time. He learned from friends and books and by blundering his way into a process that required a certain amount of competence. His perspective was that of a novice, a homeowner, rather than a pro. As he learned, he felt that he could tell others how to build—or at least get them started on the path to creating their own homes.

Through the years, he’s personally gone from post and beam to geodesic domes to stud-frame construction. It’s been a constant learning process, and this has led him into investigating many methods of construction. For five years in the late ’60s to early ’70s, he built geodesic domes. He got into book publishing by producing Domebook One in 1970 and Domebook 2 in 1971.

He gave up on domes (as homes) and published his company’s namesake Shelter in 1973. Since then, Shelter Publications has produced books on a variety of subjects and returned to its roots with Home Work in 2004, The Barefoot Architect and Builders of the Pacific Coast in 2008, Tiny Homes in 2012, and more.

Building is Lloyd’s favorite subject. Even in this day and age, building a house with one’s own hands can save a ton of money and—if you follow it through—you can get what you want in a home.

Lesley Creed (1947–2023) moved out of San Francisco in the early ’70s, intent upon a back to-the-land lifestyle. She worked with Shelter Publications as a consulting editor, while maintaining a vegetable and flower garden and pursuing an interest in how things are made. She lived with her husband and co-author, Lloyd Kahn, in West Marin County, California, until her death in 2023.

Summary

Discover the benefits and joys of simple living in this coffee-table book that presents the homestead of Lloyd Khan and Lesley Creed.

If you’ve ever researched a DIY home-building project, then you’ve probably come across the books of Lloyd Kahn. If you’ve ever been curious about self-sufficient living, The Half-Acre Homestead is for you. Lloyd, the former shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, has published several books—including some of the most definitive titles on owner building, such as Shelter and Tiny Homes. Lloyd has showcased hundreds of builders in his books. Now, for the first time ever, he spotlights the work of himself and his wife, Lesley Creed.

Starting with a vacant half-acre piece of land, back in the 1970s, the couple built their own home, created a garden with vegetables and fruit, and began raising chickens, bees, and goats. This book presents every aspect of their homestead, from the kitchen and dining area to the shed and workshop. It also introduces several fascinating aspects of their lifestyle, such as crafting and small-scale farming. It goes on to cover cooking, foraging, fishing, birds, butterflies, and tools.

Book Features

• Detailed look at a homestead built entirely by hand


• More than 500 full-color photos, illustrating every facet of home life


• Tips about building skylights, greenhouses, living roofs, and more


• Section on unique kitchen tools, as well as useful tools for construction

Lloyd and Lesley have never paid rent and never had a mortgage. This coffee-table book is their story of building and maintaining their own home, over a 46-year period, on a small piece of land in Northern California.

Foreword

• Presentation and Mother Earth News fairs in Nashville (May 16, 2020) and in Seven Springs, PA (September 25, 2020)


• Possible feature article on book in The Mother Earth News (as was done with Small Homes after its publication)


• Bookstore appearances (dates to be determined): City Lights, San Francisco; Bookshop Santa Cruz; Powell’s, Portland, OR; Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, BC; and other appearances in Marin County, CA


• Abbreviated flipbook version


• Heavily promoted on social media: Shelter’s Instagram (10,000 followers); Lloyd’s Instagram (6,000 followers); Lloyd’s Blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page

Product details

• Authors: Lesley Creed, Lloyd Kahn
• Publisher: Adventure Publications
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 03.03.2020
• EAN: 9780936070810
• ISBN: 978-0-936070-81-0
• No. of pages: 168
• Dimensions: 217 mm x 220 mm x 17 mm
• Weight: 519 g
• Subjects: Guides > Hobby, home > Home improvement, DIY; Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; Non-fiction book > Nature, technology > Nature: general, reference works