I’ll be speaking at the Generation Green Expo at the San Jose Convention Center this June on the Main Stage. I’m speaking both Saturday and Sunday. I have been asked to give an introduction to straw bale construction and I plan to elaborate a little on Sunday. The idea is to present a basic introduction on Saturday and then see what the crowd is open for on Sunday. I may even ask the participants on Saturday what they’d like to talk about the next day and present something in line with that. I like to play things by ear, so I imagine it will be a little free form in the end. It should be a fun event though, no matter how it comes together. Right now the only other speaker I know if is Ed Begley, Jr. I know they plan to release a speaker list soon, so the full details will be out in a couple weeks I would imagine.
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I’m not a big fan of bales in the roof as you likely already know. They are so heavy and there are several areas of concern in regards to using them above head.

1. The frame needs to be drastically increased in size and/or spacing to support the extra load.

2. Plastering over head is VERY difficult and tiring.This can be alleviated by using planking in place of plaster for the finish.

3. The R-Value gained is not anything better than what you can get with regular insulation materials (either blown in or batts and either natural materials like cotton or wool or conventional ones like fiberglass).

Personally, I stick with light weight insulation materials in the roof and leave the bales for the walls; however, if you want to use bales, you can use an assembly that looks something like this:
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Take this time to find within you that which is grateful for all you have, no matter how big or small. Find a moment to thank the Earth for everything that is provided to you. Everything around you: your food, your clothes, your house, everything comes from the Earth.

What can you do to say thank you?

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Below is an email from RaeGina regarding an upcoming film about cob building entitled “Don’t Bank on It! Earthing the American Dream.” If you are interested in cob building and/or are an expert in cob building, you may be able to help with the film and even be on camera. The director is looking for several things to help create the vision of this movie. Please read her email below for more details on how you can get involved.
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Hi everyone. I wanted to let you know about a great opportunity to visit and support healthy construction. There will be a great day of orientation, tours, and site visits put together by Earthworks this Sunday as described below. If you’re interested in earthships or in the Earthwalk Eco Education Center, please consider attending this event. Details are below.

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Everybody likes different things about their house. Some people love their bedroom layout, others like their kitchen design, some are even huge fans of their bathrooms. Okay, the last one may be a bit unusual, but perhaps there’s a reason for that. I’ve noticed over my years as a builder that certain things tend to get overlooked in design. One is lighting plans. Most designs tend to ignore the layout of lights in the house and simply throw some lights on ceilings and walls at the last minute to meet code requirements. This is a bummer as much opportunity is lost in this way. Another place where opportunity is lost is in bathroom design.
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Here’s a great idea that was sent to me on Facebook today. (You may be able to join it here.) The intention is to create a worldwide event where we all (those participating) turn off our power for 1 hour between 8:30pm and 9:30pm. The amount of power saved could be huge and all in just one hour.
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Image from www.GreenHomeBuilding.com

I was recently asked what I thought the advantages of straw bale construction are over earthbag construction. I have not done very much earthbag construction, so my response was somewhat limited. I’d love to hear from folks who have experience with earthbag construction as to the advantages and disadvantages of the technology. All comments are welcome, as always.

This is pretty cool: a solid core interior door made out of straw. With other straw products on the market for some time now, I’m happy to see that some of the larger, more mainstream companies are picking up the ball. I hope they run with it and run the right way. The new doors were officially announced on Masonite’s website in February.
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I just received an email from Jeff Rupert. Some of you may know him from his dedication to the straw bale movement. He is an engineer who works in the field of straw bale construction and has for years. He has created a new blog along with the folks from The Last Straw (Of course you ALL know what that is, right!?) that covers straw bale construction and general green construction techniques. It looks to be a promising blog. Check it out here: http://www.buildearth.org
or here http://tls.buildearth.org.

This is one of the coolest and most beautiful straw bale construction concepts I have seen in a long time. Although not something for the owner builder per se, this technique makes the potential for commercial straw bale construction a reality and can even be used in residential applications if the site location and project scale are right.
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Image of Dongtan EcoCity in China proposed for 2010

This is really cool. William McDonough is shown in the small video below describing the design for a true eco city in China. Although he has a pretty flat and dry delivery, the 3:20 second video is worth watching. There is so much that can be done in development if we are only willing to think outside the box. The before and after photo of the proposed city site is amazing and absolutely gives me hope for what is possible.
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First of all, I want to extend a word or two of support and sympathy for our brothers and sisters down under as the fires of a heat wave have torn through their beautiful land. Having personal experience with wildfire, I know the challenges and hardships they can create. Several years ago, a roughly six thousand acre fire was stopped on my doorstep, literally. The crews were able to steer the flames and squash them down into a manageable slot and snuff them out just a few hundred feet from the front of my house. We were evacuated at the time, and I remember the impact of the flames and smoke on my family and my animals. I remember having elk in my field, something that does not happen around here, because the smoke had flushed them out of the higher elevations. I can imagine what our brothers and sisters in Australia are experiencing and I send my emotional support out.
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Hello everyone. I’m putting out a call for photos of your straw bale homes. I am looking to get a large library of straw bale photos to help promote this beautiful technique. I recently went on to Facebeook and created a group called “Straw Bale Workshops” (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47715717755) that will be a gathering place for past, present and future workshop participants. In the process, I found some other straw bale groups and looked through their pages. Most have very unfortunate pictures of straw bale projects that do not represent how beautiful this type of construction really is. I want to show people how amazing these homes can be and the best way to do that is by gathering and sharing pictures from all over the world.
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Many people have mentioned an interest in building a straw bale greenhouse. I have seen several different approaches to this idea over the years. I have two different column in which these projects have fallen. Some of the greenhouses have been absolute disasters, while others have proven to be beautiful and successful. Just how to move forward and how the design is realized will affect the column into which your project lands.
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photo from www.howthingswork.com

I heard on NPR yesterday that Exxon/Mobil posted the highest second quarter profit of any corporation in history. ANY corporation EVER! Somehow this seems crazy when the cost of fuel keeps rising and the average consumer is struggling in a failing economy. They posted nearly a $12 BILLION profit in the second quarter alone.
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A StrawBale.com reader just let me know about a blog post she wrote on her own blog. I found it interesting and I believe the topic is very important. If you are interested in checking it out, please click the link below.
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Yup, believe it or not, that is the first post I have written in a while. What a way to come back huh? I recently read about the use of earthworms in India to remove toxins from soils. I found this to be fascinating and wonder if anyone out there has additional information about this cool idea. The project in India, overseen by Dr. Suneet Dabke, used 300,000 regular earthworms to reduce the heavy metals in the test soils by 60% in one year! That is impressive.
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Photo by Kessler Woods Homes
I received an email this morning about building with bales in urban areas. Here’s what she said (my answer will follow):

Hi Andrew,
I love your website and visit often. My husband and I are planning to build
our next house as a green building some time in the next three years. We
currently live in a rural area but want to move back to town (Boston). Do you
or anyone else out there have any experience building with straw bales in a
high-density area (like on a 0.08 lot)? We’ve been scouting for the perfect
south-facing lot with no sun-blocking neighbors…a challenge in the city!

Thanks, and keep up the good work. You are an inspiration.
Gwen
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There is a good chance you will have a lot of straw left over when you complete your house. Most of it, if you did your estimating right, will be in the form of loose straw. You will be amazed at just how much loose straw is produced on a building site. As I have said earlier, this loose straw is dangerous to the site as it poses the highest fire risk of any building material on site: dry, loose piles of straw! Be sure to move it away from your structure. But what to do with it all?
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