Dave Knows Portland

July 24: 2010 Tour de Coops

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Tour de coops 2010The 2010 Tour de Coops takes place this Saturday, July 24th from 11am to 3pm.

This is a fun and affordable community event for you, your whole family and all your friends! Chicken owners throughout Portland will open their yards so you can see their coops and meet their chickens.

The Tour de Coops is a self-guided tour; you’ll have the opportunity to visit 25 backyard chicken coops all over East Portland – getting to know your neighbors while learning and sharing urban chicken keeping ideas.

Visit Growing-Gardens.org for information on where to find the $15 tour booklets and how to enter the raffle to win one of two coops!

July 24: The South Park Blocks: The Evolution of a Portland Neighborhood

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South Park BlocksThe Architectural Heritage Center presents The South Park Blocks: The Evolution of a Portland Neighborhood.

Pioneer Daniel Lownsdale had a visionary plan of a greenway that would extend from Portland’s northwest waterfront to the southwest hills. Unfortunately, his dream never came to fruition and Lownsdale’s park block property was lost to litigation after his death.

During the past 130 years, property facing the South Park Blocks—the area to the south of Salmon Street—has consistently been used for educational, religious, cultural and residential purposes. Grand mansions and smaller residences later became boarding houses. Some of these houses were removed and were replaced by surface parking lots. In some cases these parking lot properties were later redeveloped into housing. Portland State University (PSU) has grown to cover most of the property south of Market Street. PSU has re-purposed many properties, including the former Shattuck Elementary School and Lincoln High School, as part of its expanding campus.

Join Portland author Don Nelson, as he discusses the evolution of the South Park Blocks. The lecture is based on his book The South Park Blocks: A Neighborhood History.

The lecture takes place Saturday, July 24th, 2010 from 10am to 12:30pm. For more information visit the AHC website.

May 21-23: Belly Dance, Kenton Street Fair, Lost Oregon, and the Timbers

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Friday

Offbeat Belly DanceOffbeat Belly Dance

Every third Friday of the month, from 7 to 9pm, the Blue Monk (3341 SE Belmont) hosts the Offbeat Belly Dance collective, a club rocking, good timing, genre-defying gang of badass belly dancers.And this third Friday, May 21st, is no different – the Offbeat Belly Dance collectives invites you to Come get some of our awesomeness! [more]

Saturday

Kenton Street Fair 2010Kenton Street Fair 2010

The Kenton Street Fair takes place today, from 10am to 6pm on North Denver Avenue between Watts and Willis.In addition over 60 vendors and activities for kids, the Coaster Car Race and the Mackins Car and Bike Show will be part of the fair. Entertainment includes The Lions of Batucada, Sarah Moon and The Night Sky, Mr. Ben, and more. [more]

Lost Oregon

The Architectural Heritage Center invites us to learn some little known Oregon, history: Lost Oregon. . . The lecture, by historian and author Richard Engeman, takes place this Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 from 10-11:30am.  [more]

Portland Timbers at Crystal Palace Baltimore

After an awful three match homestand the Timbers travel to the East Coast to take on Crystal Palace Baltimore. Match is at 4pm. Watch with your fellow fans at one of the fine establishments you’ll find listed at the Timbers Away Game Viewing page at PortlandSoccerBars.com.

Visit Blogging Portland on the Cheap, Around the Sun, and PDX Pipeline for lots more!

May 22: Lost Oregon

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Pilot Butte Inn Bend circa 1930The Architectural Heritage Center invites us to learn some little known Oregon, history: Lost Oregon.

Lost Oregon looks at a selection of resources from Oregon’s now-vanished built environment. In the past 250 years, Oregonians have built, and then lost, many remarkable structures, from Chinook longhouses to the Capitol Building, from nabob’s mansions to towering wooden trestles. Wood, our most common construction material, is cheap and adaptable; it also burns well and rots easily. Social and economic fluctuations have also driven changes in the built environment, as railroad trestles were superseded by freeway ramps, and country churches gave way to trailer courts.

The lecture, by historian and author Richard Engeman, takes place this Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 from 10-11:30am. Visit the website for more information.

Another AHC event Saturday, May 22nd:

The Fox’s Lady: Holistic Weatherization Meets Historic Preservation

Tour a fantastic 1884 home, learn more about the Clean Energy Works program, and how you can weatherize an older home without impacting its vintage character.

For more information, visit the AHC website.

June 5: Tiny House Construction Workshop

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Tiny HouseSome day I would like to own and live in a Tiny House. Heather and I are researching shipping container architecture, but cute traditional Tiny House cabins, like the one pictured to the right, are intriguing too.

I’d never really thought about building one myself though; I figured I’d let the Tiny House building experts, like the folks at tiny house construction company Portland Alternative Dwellings (POD), handle that.

And they will.

But they also will help you build your own tiny house, if that’s more your style. And their next one-day tiny house construction workshop is on June 5th, 2010 in Portland.

We’ll focus on basic tiny house construction with an emphasis on:

* House-to-Trailer Connection
* Stick-Framing and Construction Techniques
* Tool Use, Safety and Good Clean Fun

This is a hands-on workshop, where you’ll learn how to safely build a tiny house. We’ll construct the foundation and at least one wall of a twenty-foot little house. We’ll also discuss building materials, moisture control, ventilation, and other relevant tiny house issues. Dee’s house will be available to illustrate key building points and the finished product.

Visit the POD website for more information, including how to register.

Photo credit: Photo from (friend of the blog!) RowdyKittens‘ flickr photostream, used under Creative Commons license.