Gabriella recently connected on Planet Straw Bale with an American man living in Thailand  who had built his own straw bale cottage. She asked him to share his story and he has accepted that request. Below, you can read how his interest in straw bale construction, which started some 20 years ago in Texas, finally came to fruition in Thailand. It’s a cool story. As you can see in the photos, this is a humid area of Thailand, so I’m excited to hear how the building fairs over the years with no special or mechanical dehumidifying additions. This will truly be a test of straw bale homes in humid climates. Here’s his story…

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I’m Paul Younger, an architect and associate with Hewitt Studios LLP in the UK. Our practice focuses on high-quality, non-traditional sustainable design – just because its green, doesn’t mean it has to be twee or old-fashioned!

Our practice approached by Herefordshire College of Technology to extend and refurbish the refectory facilities on their Holme Lacy agricultural campus to create a 100 seat student cafe.  In visiting the site and talking to the users, two things struck us: The first was the abundance of natural resources that the campus possessed (it is effectively a training farm, set in acres of fields and woodland), the second was the enthusiasm of the College staff and students to get involved.  It was agreed that, rather than just build an ‘extension’, the new project should be a social ‘hub’ at the heart of the campus. The College would be involved in the design, construction and ongoing maintenance of the building, using as many of their on-site ‘riches’ as possible.
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I was sent a link to a great video today that I want to share with you all. To me, this is a perfect example of simplicity. Why over think the problem? Address the issue with simple solutions and you will likely find success. In this case, the issue was a lack of light in homes in the Philippines. Because the homes in the neighborhoods involved in this story are made of tin and are not outfitted with windows, even the brightest days of the week don’t affords the inhabitants much, if any, light indoors. With the cost of electricity too high, many are left to live in the dark day in and day out. I hope you enjoy this inspiring video on how plastic soda bottles became the simple solution to brightening the homes, and lives, of these people. There are other equally inspiring videos out there that speak to this same solution. In one of them, it is said that the bottles actually provide light equal to 55 watt bulbs! That’s amazing. You can see the happiness in the faces of the people who have received these “lights.” It’s amazing what a simple solution can do to change someone’s world.

Check out this great video from our good friends Dennis and Leslie. It shows you how to build a simple and super efficient fire that not only burns stronger, but gives off less smoke.

It’s not unusual to end up with extra bales after building a straw bale house. In fact, I recommend it.  Those extra bales are great to have around as steps or scaffolding supports when plastering. Furthermore, I would always rather have a few too many bales than not enough when building. The question is, what to do with the extra bales when the project is done?

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If you are interested in different ways of creating a sustainable community, this website may be of interest to you. Here’s some information I pulled off of their website (I hope they don’t mind, but I want to let their own words inspire you).

PURPOSE
To be the open-source blueprint for a sustainable civilization.

MISSION STATEMENT
To demonstrate a new way of living that addresses the pressing problems of today and prepares the world for the challenges of the next century through a duplicable model of large-scale sustainability for the complete human experience founded on a simple celebration of what we are capable of: completely sustainable lifestyle practices, inspired collaboration and global contribution, zero-waste living, and unconditional love for each other.

VISION STATEMENT
At One Community our vision is to transform the world by being the change we wish to see through a thriving culture of seamless cooperation, creativity, contribution, spiritual growth, meaningful relationships, personal expression, partnerships with like-minded businesses and individuals, and abundance that we happily share with the world.

As many of us know, it is time for our cultures and communities to come together in a new way, in a sustainable way. The One Community Ranch has a vision of how that can look. I hope you enjoy visiting their website and that you decide to help in some way to speed up the transition to a more aware way of being.

 

Here’s a guest article by Paige Taylor. Paige is a creative writer from the University of Texas El Paso. As an aspiring writer she specializes in writing about travel detestations and tourism. I hope you enjoy her perspective. If you too would like to write a guest article for us, please let me know. Here’s Paige’s article… (more…)

How amazing would it be to send your kids to school in a building made from straw? Imagine if all of our public school systems actually took that kind of care when designing and building new structures for our public schools. Here’s the good news. Some school districts, including the Upper Grand District in Ontario Canada, are doing just that. In fact, this could become a trend and may already be poised for that. There are several schools and learning centers (or centres since we’re talking about Canada) that are implementing straw bale construction in their comprehensive plans for school expansion. It’s very exciting. Check out the article below for more about the Upper Grand District School Board’s decision and implementation of straw bale construction on campus.

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I received this today from a woman looking to feature a straw bale home on her enviro-blog. If you;re interested, please contact her directly.

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My name is Melissa Baldridge, and I blog at www.yourgreenspot.com/blog.  I write a periodic column called “Living Outside the Box,” featuring cool energy-efficient housing and the great people who build and/or live in them.  For example, I recently wrote about Masdar City, a clean-tech community outside Abu Dhabi.  We’re also starting a video component to “Living Outside the Box” which could also be useful for the straw bale feature. I would like to do a feature piece on straw bale construction and the people who either live in or design/build these amazing homes.

If you know of someone with a straw bale house in metro Denver who’d like their house featured, please contact me.  Builders and architects, take note!  Same goes for any of your clients who you think might be interested.

Thanks in advance!

Melissa Baldridge, LEED AP O+M

Melissa@yourgreenspot.com

303.394.0202

I am no fan of Monsanto. In fact, I think it’s safe to say I actually hate the company and the massive destruction they cause the world over. I wanted to forward to you some information about the Canadian Organic Growers and what they are doing to take on Monsanto. Please get involved if you value healthy, NATURAL food because when Monsanto gets its way, food is no longer “natural” and that’s a scary reality.

 

 

Canadian Organic Growers (COG), Canada’s largest organic farming organization has joined 59 other farming associations, seed companies and farmers in a legal action against Monsanto to challenge the chemical giant’s patents on transgenic (genetically modified) seed.

In a law suit filed Tuesday, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a Manhattan-based public interest law association, asks the court to consider whether Monsanto has the right to sue farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s genetically modified seed lands on their farm. Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director, said “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer whose land is contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

One of the goals of the suit is to demonstrate that the biotechnology patents issued to Monsanto, the manufacturer of DDT, Agent Orange, PCBs and a host of other toxins, are not in the public interest. In 1817, U.S. Justice Story wrote that to be patentable, an invention must not be “injurious to the well-being, good policy, or sound morals of society,” and “a new invention to poison people … is not a patentable invention.”

COG member and organic farmer Arnold Taylor said “I’m thrilled that Canadian Organic Growers and other farm organizations are not afraid to stand up to the most dominant chemical company on the planet to defend the rights of farmers. Genetically modified seeds threaten the diversity of our seed supply, farmers’ rights to save seed and jeopardize the livelihoods of farmers who could lose access to international markets.”

According to Laura Telford, National Director of Canadian Organic Growers, “Organic standards place the responsibility to produce crops free of genetic contamination on the shoulders of organic farmers. Farmers are required to take appropriate measures to ensure that their crops are not subject to contamination from neighbouring fields. With the proliferation of patents for new transgenic crops from Monsanto, including most recently, a patent for Roundup Ready herbicide tolerant alfalfa, farmers’ ability to grow organic crops is becoming increasingly difficult”.

The full legal complaint is available at:

www.pubpat.org/assets/files/seed/OSGATA-v-Monsanto-Complaint.pdf

For more information, contact:

Laura Telford

National Director

Canadian Organic Growers

613 216-0742

613 298-8848 (cell)

laura@cog.ca www.cog.ca

If you have not already heard about Colin Beavan’s blog and lifestyle dubbed “No Impact Man” then I strongly suggest you check it out. He and his wife and young child are living a life that has as close to zero impact on the planet as possible. It’s pretty fascinating stuff. I imagine all of us have considered walking instead of driving, or using cloth grocery bags instead of plastic or paper, but how many of us have taken it to the next level? Not many.

There was a great documentary about the Beavans on PBS a few months ago and I really enjoyed watching it. I was amazed at how many people actually got mad at them and pointed what seemed like hatred in their direction. Why? Because they are living a life with no impact (or really close) on our planet? It’s weird how the human mind can find a way to get angry when someone else does something that in truth has no direct bearing on them personally. I mean, when a guy decides to use cloth instead of toilet paper, does that affect any of us in a way that we need to get mad at him? I don’t think so. Any way, I think his story is fascinating and I hope you’ll check him out and find inspiration to green up even a little more from where you are today.

Last month I challenged myself as a result of watching the documentary. Nothing huge, just something I can actually do. If I find myself at the grocery store without my reusable bags and I can’t carry out the goods without the use of a bag, I will buy a new reusable bag and skip the paper or plastic. Then, when I’m next at the store with my new bag and my old bags, I will donate my new bag to someone who is about to use paper for their purchase. I hope it will inspire others to stop using thrown away bags. I’ve already had to buy and donate two bags, so either my level of inspiration will stay the same or get higher, or my memory will improve and I’ll start bringing my bags EVERY time I go shopping!

Here’s another thing I am planning to bring to my local grocery stores. Charge for every bag that a customer uses. I was just in Ontario, Canada and while there I noticed that people at the supermarket were charged $.05 for every paper or plastic bag they used. I like that. Here in my part of Oregon, you can save $.05 when you use your own bag. The problem is that people in this country seem to respond better when they are charged for it. I believe that if people knew they were going to be charged $1.00 for the 20 bags they use on a large shop, they might actually start buying the reusable bags and start saving that dollar. After all, if they clip coupons, they understand what it means to save, a little at a time.

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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