Tomorrow, April and I head east. I’ll be attending a PDC at Whole Systems Research Farm in Vermont for 10 days. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this trip since the spring, and the timing couldn’t be better. This fall, we’ll be moving onto our new land and the next year will be full of visioning and designing and making plans for the land and the future. I suspect a lot of the new knowledge I come home with after the PDC will be very helpful for our design process.
Think about the transition between your straw bales and foundation early in the design process
In one of my recent posts, I talked about details at the top of the straw bale wall where it meets the roof. Now I’d like to talk about some considerations where the wall meets the foundation. This is another critical point in the straw bale wall design, and planning from the beginning of the process is essential for a clean and durable finish surface at the bottom of the wall. Here are some tips to think about regarding the plaster and details between the bales and foundation.
The Whole Systems Research Farm, where I’m headed in August
I’m awfully excited about the upcoming month. In August, I’m headed to the Whole Systems Research Farm in Vermont to take a Permaculture Design Certificate Course (PDC). In this case, it’s an intensive workshop and immersion in designing and maintaining resilient farms and homesteads, based on the principles and techniques of permaculture design. Basically… it’s 10 days learning about forest gardens, water management, perennial plants, scything, self-sufficiency, and maintaining high yield / low input food landscapes.
Okay, that’s still a lot of words, but you get the idea. This is rich stuff, and I’m thrilled to be able to see Ben Falk and co.’s living examples of permaculture in action. The timing couldn’t be better, as we’ll be moving onto our land this summer/fall, and making grand plans over the winter and in 2016 for turning our own 28 acres in a slice of perma-paradise.
Note the tar paper “air fin”, a secondary barrier to air infiltration at the top of the bale wall
When we look at a building, we tend to focus on the finish details: the curve of a wall, the color and texture of the plaster, the tidy trim around a window or door, decorative mosaics, the feel of the floor underneath our feet. However, finish work is just one aspect of a good building. Often, little construction details go entirely unnoticed and unappreciated, yet it’s the details that can really enhance the actual performance of a good building. For example, unless windows and doors are sealed well, they may be an entry point for cold air or driving rain. And that’s a “feature” that no one really wants. Good window detailing is more or less invisible in the finished product, however, and it takes a lot of time to do well.
The top of a straw bale wall is another one of these areas that poses a great design challenge and a good opportunity to improve the overall performance of the house. This is true wherever two different materials meet. You need to consider the fact that the plaster will likely pull away from where it meets the roof surface as it dries and inevitably shrinks. This is a problem, because air will have a convenient point to infiltrate the wall, and that means decreased thermal efficiency. So what do you do? Ignore the problem, or address this issue from early on?
The octagonal straw bale cabin, site of our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop
Yesterday was the finale of our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop outside Berea, Kentucky. Our team of participants made it through a week of straw bale building, clay plastering, and more than our fair share of rain. Despite the far less than ideal weather conditions, everyone stayed remarkably upbeat and we achieved a lot of good work. Apparently even record-breaking rain couldn’t stop us from having fun.
I am so grateful to our top notch team of participants who joined us this year! Here’s a look back at some of the construction work we accomplished this past week.
Nice dry bales under a big roof for protection in storage is critical!
We’re mere days away from the start of our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop. This summer’s weather has been surprisingly wet — we’ve had some amount of rain at least every other day (if not every day) for the past two weeks or more. I’m hopeful that things will settle down by the weekend. If not, we’ll be able to cope, I do believe. At least the mushrooms are happy. This season’s high levels of rain have brought some important straw bale building lessons to the forefront.
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Our new homestead site along Clear Creek in the Appalachian foothills
I’ve been greatly anticipating writing this post for a long long time. Today, I can proudly report that we are officially landowners! We’ve finally found and purchased a piece a property outside of Berea, Kentucky, where we’ll begin the exciting and challenging work of building a permaculture homestead community and natural building school. Getting to this point has been a long time in the making.
As the temperature rises, so do our activity levels. Summertime can be hysterically busy as we juggle all of the projects and work commitments that we’ve taken on. This year is no exception. We’re at the brink of several exciting things here… but I digress. I know I’m being vague, but I’ll have more to say about all of that soon.
During our downtime at home, the newly released The Art of Natural Building has been inspiring lots of conversation. This new book release is a much improved second edition to the original published way back in 2001. The 2015 edition is a major and well-organized overhaul, containing a diverse spread of essays and articles about natural building materials and techniques, building history, best practices, and personal stories.
Scything grass on a hillside — a beautiful scene in the film INHABIT
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to view a rather poignant and inspiring recent film, INHABIT. INHABIT is a documentary detailing the permaculture model as it has been explored and practiced by a number of farmers and food producers across the US, in a variety of settings and climates. The strength of the film lies in the excellent portrayal of diverse individuals using permaculture design principles to guide their work in a variety of locations, creating more resilient food growing systems, a healthier relationship with the land, and stronger communities in the process.
Looking into the house from the porch side
Here’s some of the latest photos from the off-grid straw bale cabin site that we’ve been busying ourselves with these past few weeks. The earthbag stemwall is basically complete, other than the finishing details. Yep, there’s always something else even when you think you’re ready to move ahead. But things are shaping up nevertheless. Check it out…
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Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
