Strawbales!

 

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We have another long work weekend here, and the addition is really progressing.  Last weekend, Caleb got the roofing metal on, so the roof is complete.  It went faster than expected because our WWOOFer's father came for a visit and gave Caleb some extra hands for the weekend.  

 

This weekend, including Friday, he got the chimney put in from the ceiling through the floor, to the basement.  The addition is over the wall that the chimney exits the house by, so he boxed it in and ran it on down so that we can put the retired woodstove down in the basement and have a heated workspace when we need it.  Also on Friday, the strawbales were delivered from a farm in the valley, and Caleb and our newest WWOOFer got them placed in the walls.  Next is quilting bamboo poles (delivered Thursday, everything was beautifully timed!) onto the inside and outside very tightly, to solidify the bales as a single unit.

As mentioned, we have a new WWOOFer as of Wednesday - and she comes with a mini-WWOOFer for Liam :)  He loves having a 4-year-old to play with (even if she has called him a girl for two days) - they are outside entertaining themselves for hours, leaving us adults wonderfully to ourselves.  

Thursday, Liam and Caleb went to the exotic livestock sale, and it lived up to its name.  In addition to Zebu cattle, Scottish Highlands, and others, there were pheasants, kangaroos, camels, spider monkeys, nutria and/or capybara, just to mention a few.  Kind of like a zoo where you can buy the animals if you want!  They weren't there to buy anything this time, just to get a feel for how it worked, how the auction prices compare to retail prices, etc.  My thoughts were confirmed - that (at least for unregistered cattle) we're probably better off butchering and selling the meat than auctioning the live animal.  Also, animals have to be delivered the day before the sale, and the owner is responsible for feeding them until they're sold, and with the sale 2 hours away, that's not really doable for us.  It was still an interesting experience for them, and was helpful to solidify our plans for the cattle.  

I just - finally - got a new photo gallery added for Fiona, with a few pictures of Malachi riding her.  Hopefully I'll get a few more up, but the ones there are pretty cute :)

Comments

Fiona and Malachi photos

Wonderful smiling Malachi on Fiona. I can see why you say he loves riding her. I've never seen him smile that big. magical. And great news that Liam has his own mini-Wwoofer. Good to see progress on the addition. All good. Hooray.

Straw Bale addition

This is so cool, Amy, that you folks are doing a straw bale addition to your house. I learned much from what you posted here. Keep us in the loop about your progress. Curious about how you plan to finish the exterior and interior surfaces,.... L.

Thanks Leslie! We really

Thanks Leslie! We really like the first addition we did in strawbale. That one we finished with mud plaster both in and out - well, we finished it with mud plaster out and 1/2 of in :). We've still got one wall that never got the final coat.
This time, in the interest of speed (it's going to be cold way too soon) we're going to use board and batten on the outside, and mud plaster inside. We may return at a later time - you know, when we don't have anything else to do - and replace that with plaster. But probably not...
I'll get another post up soon with progress. It's been a while because - well, there's not really been any progress recently :). At least on the house - but soon!

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