Here’s a message I received this last week. Don’t know how long these will be around so call soon if you want them.

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• Barn stored straw bales for sale. Intermediate Wheatgrass (2′to 3′ stems).
• Have used this type on my own straw bale house.
• Contact Scott at 308-672-0877 or Scott@supremehay.com.
• Trucking can be arranged.

www.tm.org

I was recently talking with Gabriella about our business and we both realized just how lucky we are. There are a number of reasons that we consider ourselves lucky, actually a better way to say it is that we are grateful, but one big one came to the forefront during our conversation. It is that we love what we do. The more we spoke, the clearer it became that the reason we love what we do is that we are passionate about it. We truly believe in what we are doing and that makes our “work” not really work.

In this realization, I had the thought about other people in the world. How many of them are living their passion and how many are simply living to survive? So many people have gotten stuck in the machine of our culture, so stuck that they don’t even notice it anymore. They go to work each day at a job they don’t like so they can make enough money to pay for all their stuff (flat screen TVs in each room, multiple cars, a closet full of shoes, and so on). Beyond their stuff, a huge portion of their paycheck goes to pay a mortgage or rent on a house that’s bigger than they actually need. Wal-Mart and other corporations would have them believe that they are living the American Dream, but if they stop long enough to take a look from “outside their life” they may tell you otherwise. A friend of mine once asked me “are you thriving or surviving?” and that’s exactly the question I have for you. (more…)

I am trying to compile as much information as I can about two major subjects as they relate to straw bale construction. The first is mortgages and other straw bale funding options. The second, which I will discuss in another post, is insuring a straw bale project. It’s no secret that the mortgage industry is not what it used to be. I imagine that we could have a long conversation relating to the reasons for the sudden decline in available financing; however, that’s not what I’m most interested in. What I really want to know is: how do we move forward under current conditions? I would love to hear what you know about how to make financing a straw bale project happen. Consider that the lack of straw bale lending can stop projects in their tracks and your input could be the difference between success and the abandonment of a dream.

Perhaps you recently started, or even completed, your own straw bale project. Did you get financing? Did you get a standard mortgage or did you have to get creative? What was your down payment percentage? Were you able to use local financing or did you have to shop around to a larger, more national scale market? Any and everything you can share with me is appreciated. (more…)

Regardless of what you think about the insurance industry and how they help or hinder our economy, one thing is true for right now: home owner’s insurance is required in almost every scenario imaginable when building a house and living in it. Of course one can build a house with cash and choose not to insure it; however, if you plan to get any type of financing, you will be required to show proof of insurance. That’s easy when building a conventional house because insurance companies don’t think twice about insuring them. It’s harder when building anything outside of the “norm” of conventional thinking. And guess what…straw bale construction does not currently fit into the “norm.” That’s why I need your help. (more…)

This is a rather personal blog entry and I hope that you can “hear” it without your filters on. You may agree or disagree with me and that’s fine. I am not trying to convince you of anything nor am I trying to change your mind about anything you currently hold as true. What I do hope is that you will ask yourselves some questions and that you will look deeply in what is true FOR YOU.

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Here’s a note I recently got from Surkhab abd Darcey at PAKSBAB, the Pakistan Straw Bale Appropriate Building organization I’ve mentioned in the past. Please take a minute to help them out.

PAKSBAB is competing in the GISTech-I competition for innovative solutions to economic development problems. Please click on this link to watch our video and then vote for us by clicking on the YouTube “like” button!

Please help us spread the word. Forward this email, post the link on Facebook, Tweet it and/or or share it on your blog. Voting ends Nov. 17, 2011.

Thank you for your support!

Surkhab and Darcey

Surkhab Khan, C.O.O.
Darcey Messner Donovan, P.E., C.T.O.
Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (PAKSBAB)
www.paksbab.org

I’m currently in Baja Sur, Mexico on a 4 month adventure and research journey. As I travel this beautiful part of the world, I am struck by how perfect this area would be for bale homes. Unfortunately, there are very few around, and I mean VERY few. I have heard from some who have built with bales here and have heard from others who tried but were told it wasn’t possible by local builders. One reason they were told no is that there are no straw bales in this part of the world. I have not been here long enough to discover if this is actually true, but I can say that I have not seen any so far. There are indeed straw bale homes in Northern Baja, so I know that the technology and expertise to build these homes exists in Baja overall, it’s just not obvious if that has moved into Baja Sur or not.

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How often do you stop doing stuff? I mean really stop doing stuff. This would look like disconnecting from your TV, your email, your computer, movies, and everything that’s not directly related to you or something you can touch. I’m in the middle of doing that for the first time in a long time. Here’s what I’ve learned so far in the first two or three weeks of a roughly 4-month journey.

It’s not easy to do, at least for me. I should mention that I decided to not only stop all the “extras” but also moved with my wife and 11-year-old daughter into a REALLY small pop up tent trailer and moved to Baja, Mexico. (There is a plan, yes, but the reality in the immediate time frame is that things are very taxing for us all.)

When all of the distractions go away, I find I’m left with a lot of time to think and feel. Think and feel the things that are otherwise blocked out by the ‘busyness’. Much of what I’m finding, thinking and feeling is amazing and beautiful and some of it is painful and ugly. I believe that we all have those places that are not so fun to look at or experience. I’m currently experiencing some of mine. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do so, no matter how uncomfortable it is, and I want to encourage us all to take the time in our lives to stop and experience life, for real, in its unedited, uncut version.

As we all know, world financial markets have taken a beating in recent years. “Taken a beating” may be an unfair statement. Perhaps “imposed a beating upon themselves” would be a better way to say it. Personally, I feel like they have created their own fall and should be responsible for their own actions, like the rest of us, but that’s another topic for another blog.

One thing I have heard more and more often recently is that banks that used to fund straw bale construction are no longer funding. Why? Because they say such projects are “too risky.” Again, it’s not green and/or alternative projects that are risky, it was the banks’ inner workings, but I digress… This unwillingness to fund green projects has put a pinch on the green market and has made it much more difficult for owner/builders to get the financing they so need to complete their homes.

I know that some of you have been able to secure financing for your straw bale projects. I also know that those who are struggling to attain financing would LOVE some guidance from those of you who have been successful. If you have a success story, can name a bank who will make loans on bale projects, or otherwise have some great advice, please post it here. We all need your help. Thanks.

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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Here’s a message I got from Ryan Thater (or12ange@yahoo.com) about a bunch of straw bales he has for sale near Springfield, Missouri. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact him directly at his email (above) or phone number (below).

Here’s the message:

“I was wondering if you are in need of buying straw bales? We have almost 4,000 stored in the barn from this summer’s wheat harvest. They are very clean and baled tight. Each bale weighs approximately 40 lbs. We don’t use any sprays, they are all natural. If you would like to talk more about possibly purchasing some feel free to contact me (Ryan) via email or even call me at 417.536.6292. I am based out of southwest Missouri around the Springfield area. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

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

Bay area architect Martin Hammer and civil engineer Henri Mannik will present and discuss their work for Builders Without Borders in Haiti, where a prototype of their straw bale building design was completed in March.  It utilizes rice straw, bamboo, earth, recycled rubble, and salvaged wood, along with efficiently-placed steel and Portland cement to create a resilient and durable building system for Haiti.

If you’re interested in attending or want to learn more, please click here.

Jill Plumer and David Clark were married 10 years ago and soon after the joyous occasion, began dreaming up plans for the home in which they planned to spend the rest of their lives.  They decided on a beautiful timber framed house design and eight years ago, the construction process began.  David is a carpenter, and for those years, the couple tenderly built their home, even felling their own trees to create the timber, while living in a trailer on the property to be close to the build.  The home was nearly done and they planned on moving into it this fall.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans in store.  On April 27, 2011, the tornado sirens seemed to go all day long.  In Chattanooga, where Jill works as Human Resources Director for the YMCA, there were 5 warnings and staff spent much of the day shuttling members down to the tornado cellar.  Jill made the decision to stay on site for the night to help remaining, rather than drive the 45 miles home to their property.  Upon telling David this, he agreed whole heartedly, noting that it wasn’t worth the risky drive to make it back to their land.

Meanwhile in their trailer home, David lay down to sleep, unaware that life as he knew it was about to change.  To say that David’s survival is a miracle is an understatement.  In fact, no words can truly describe or explain what happened that night.  As a mega EF4 tornado barreled down on their property at 9:28pm, David found himself at the mercy of fate and the paper-thin walls of his trailer.  In no time, the roof and walls tore away around him, flying into the surrounding woods and landing as a tangled web of twisted debris.  In the end, the only remaining unharmed object was David.

The tornado passed and David found himself outside in the pitch black of this horrific night, cold and battered by the driving wind and rain that consumed the landscape.  During the tornado, David’s emergency flashlight had been tossed into oblivion, leaving him with nothing but the sporadic flashes of the lightning storm to light his way.  He was disoriented by the darkness as well as the devastation of his property.   He turned in circles, looking for the house they had spent the last eight years building.  To his disbelief, he finally realized that he couldn’t find it because it no longer existed.  The home lay in complete collapse.  The next day they would see that the tornado had been so powerful that it had flung the four principal trusses, each weighing 1.5 tons, up to 50’ from the structure’s original site.

Sadly, others weren’t so fortunate, and that night Jill and David lost not only their dream home but also friends, neighbors, and some of their alpacas.  Jill shares that she and David have been affected greatly by this sad turn of events.  Going through this experience has been a major turning point for both of them.  They are touched and moved by the outpouring of support they have received from people in their small community; people with nothing extra to spare, showing up at their property, chainsaws in hand asking, “How can we help?  Where do you want me to start?”  They are deeply grateful for how embraced they have felt and are not taking an ounce of this generosity and kindness for granted.  They are even more committed now to rebuild their dream home as soon as possible so that they can start giving back.  David and Jill have no intentions of moving away and plan to remain in this amazing community for a very long time.

Since the tornado, the couple has been moving from place to place, staying with friends while they figure out how to rebuild on their land.  Recently they stayed with an artist friend, Frances McDonald, in Chattanooga, who is the first person to have built a straw bale home in the area.  Jill and David were so taken by their experience of staying in the straw bale home that Jill says, “There’s no way I can build a conventional home after living in a straw bale for a week!”  They love the look and feel of straw bale construction and are amazed that during their stay, when it was so “beastly” hot outside, whenever they came into the bale home, it was like stepping into a “cool, dry cave.”  They’ve been bitten by the straw bale bug and recently contacted us about hosting a straw bale workshop to build the Applegate Residence on their beloved property, which we will do from September 22-28.

There remains a lot of clean up on their land, once heavily forested and now littered with fallen trees.  Friends and family are still coming in from out of town to help in the clean up process and slowly but surely, things are getting done.  Stories such as this remind us of the fragility of our lives here in this beautiful and sometimes harsh world, where have no control over the elements and can only rely upon the generosity of friends and neighbors in times of great need.  We wish Jill and David all the best and look forward to being a part of their rebuild.

To read a newspaper article that was written up shortly after the tornado about David and Jill’s experience, click here.  To find out more about the workshop to rebuild a home for them with the Applegate Residence, click here.

I work with people from all over the world who are looking to build their own dream straw bale home. One thing is always a concern: the cost. I know that times are tough for a lot of people these days when it comes to finances and building a home is a large undertaking to be sure. It doesn’t matter if you live in Australia, the United States, Canada, Europe, or anywhere else on the planet, housing is still a major part of the cost of being human. How to build a house for yourself that fits within a budget is always a challenge and one thing that ends up being lost very often in that process, is the architecture. After all, it’s cheap and easy to build a box.

Many of us don’t want to live in a box though. In fact, we want to live in something that has style, clean lines, and architectural interest. That’s not to take anything away from a simple design, as I also love simplicity and believe there most definitely is a place for it in home construction. For me, however, it’s simply not what I want. Because of this, Gabriella (my wife for those of you who don’t know her) and our friend Chris Keefe (Organicforms Design) have come up with a great design for a simple house that has a fantastic “curb appeal.” Take a look for yourself…
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This is from the host of my Caledon East, Ontario seven day straw bale workshop which we completed in May. We applied the exterior plaster of the building during the workshop; however, the host is looking to complete the interior with the help of a class and instructor (a local plaster teacher from Ontario). I will not be on site for this class, but wanted to pass it on to you all as a way of helping Rainer and Pauline (the hosts) get their workshop structure completed. Hope you find it interesting and can join them.

Here’s the deal in the host’s own words…

Come join us for a weekend of fun and mud in Caledon East just north of Toronto, as we apply earthen wall finishes to a timberframe/straw bale workshop. Topics covered will include sourcing and processing of ingredients, and their mixing and application, with an emphasis on hands-on learning. Tools and materials are provided. Please bring good work clothes and boots and rain gear and prepare for all to get muddy. Fee includes instruction, camping space, and meals.

Location: Caledon East
Date: Saturday, July 16 to Sunday, July 17
Time: 9:00am to 5pm each day
Instructor: Georgie Donais (www.busygirl.ca)

Plan on arriving Friday night to allow for a quick start Saturday Morning
Meals will be provided on Saturday and Sunday

Accommodations: Camping (BYOTent and sleeping supplies). Indoor Washroom and Shower facilities are provided.

Other activities include:

Saturday night: Communal meal, fire

Sunday morning: Morning stretch

Cost: $200/participant

Accompanying Children: $20

Discount of $50 per additional participant

Registration: Contact rainer.vollmerhaus@sciex.com or call 647 203 8248 for more details

This is an awesome opportunity to help city kids experience the natural world around them more directly. The Fresh Air Fund is in need of 1200 host families for this summer. (more…)

Hi everyone. Gabriella here. The other day I received a call from a customer wanting to place an order for our Post and Beam DVD. We got to talking and I pretty quickly realized that I was speaking to someone with an extraordinary story. Excited to hear more we scheduled an interview and I trust that you will love the story of how Cheryl W., a 61 year old, single mom living in the second poorest area in the US, with a home building budget of just $10,000, came to decide to build a straw bale home.

Cheryl spent her formative years living in California. Her life changed dramatically at 19 when her parents moved to a rural area of British Columbia, Canada. When visiting them she met a sweet, local boy at the square dance function and they fell in love, prompting Cheryl to leave her city ways and nestle into a rural lifestyle to raise a family…a really big family of 7 children. Cheryl home schooled each of them and her focus and love in life was to take care of the home and family.

Rather unexpectedly though after 29 years of marriage, Cheryl and her husband divorced. She shares that the experience was the most challenging time of her life. Her whole identity as an adult had revolved around being a mother and wife and she now found herself not only without a husband, but also without a college degree, experience in the work place, and without much of a way to make an income. One thing that you need to know about Cheryl is that she is an extremely kind and loving woman filled with a strong knowing of how to survive and make the best of things. So, she adjusted and got herself out into the work place and adapted so that she could take care of herself and her youngest daughter.

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So you want to host a workshop and experience a community building project on your home. That’s awesome! It will be one of the best weeks of your life and you will sleep like a baby when the week is done. But what’s it going to cost you? What’s the building department going to say? How about your neighbors? There are many questions to consider when hosting a straw bale workshop, or any workshop for that matter. Let’s explore a few of the bigger questions.

Costs Associated with Hosting a Workshop

Perhaps the first question on many potential workshop hosts mind is “what’s the bottom line?” That’s certainly a fair question and one you should ask yourself, or the person offering any service, during your entire construction process. If you don’t know what the cost of any aspect of your job is in advance, you are setting yourself up for trouble. I can’t speak for everyone out there who offers workshops, so I will speak for myself. The costs associated with hosting a workshop are absolutely minute when compared to the amount of quality work that gets accomplished during the class. In other words, if you were to a) hire out the same amount of work that gets done or b) do it by yourself or with a few friends, your costs would be huge. Professionals charge a lot for their work (rightfully so as they have lots of experience and overhead to manage) and if you do it yourself, the time it till take you is worth a lot of money, not to mention the massage therapist you’ll need when you’re done!

Imagine, if you can (and I know you can because you are interested in hosting enough to read this blog post!), what a labor force of 20 to 30 people lead by an experienced straw bale builder and teacher can accomplish in one week. Now that you have that image, expand it, because my guess is that you’ve missed a lot of the details that get handled during a class. (more…)