Choose this day whom you will serve...

Fences, animals,straw houses and future plans...

I talked to Dave last night about future plans for fences and animals and building a house. I suppose I have neglected to mention it for fear of you realizing I am insane, but all that is hidden will be made known. When I said straw houses in the title, that was not a figure of speech.

We live in an old double wide trailer house. We had to fix a lot of things just to make it livable, but there is a lot of work that still needs done and how much work and money can you really pour into something that is goind to fall apart anyway. I mean they weren't exactly built to last. We did a lot of research on this and decided that what we want to do is build a straw house to replace the trailer.

Are visions of the three little pigs running through your heads yet? It really isn't anything like that. Straw homes are beautiful, easier and cheaper to build, and have an R value  of approximately 50. A new stick built home has an R value of about 13.

 Bale Watch

Strawhomes.com

Greenbuilder.com

These sites and many more have some great info on straw bale, earthen, cob, cordwood and many other interesting non-traditional types of houses. Check them out before you decide I am certifiable, okay?

Anyway, we (especially Dave) do have some concerns and are not ready to rush headlong into this. So after talking about fences and where to put them and what kind of animals we do (or do not) want to get back, we decided we are definitely getting goats, pigs and chickens again. However we will not be getting 125 baby chicks like last time. Ever tried to butcher 100 roosters before their testosterone gets the best of them? Not fun.

The biggest undertaking though is building a strawbale barn to house these guys. It is after all, cheaper and easier than traditional building methods. Besides....I know this sounds like animal cruelty, but it isn't...if we screw up, I would rather screw up on the barn than on the house. For example if the roof falls in on the chickens, that would be preferable to having it fall in on my family. We figured this will be good practice.

So, does anyone out there have any experience with building this type of structure? Any helpful hints (besides don't do it, or seek professional help immediately) to offer? Wanna come and help? Okay, enough desperation. Actually I am really excited about this. It should be uummm...interesting, to say the least.

Untitled Comment

{ 10:57, 2005-Dec-30 } { Posted by NewHarvestHomestead }

Hi Jenn!

I can relate to trailer living! When we first moved on to our place it had a single wide trailer with a couple of added on rooms. We lived in that for 10 years before it began to seriously fall apart.

I have heard of straw bale housing and read about some projects in magazines like Backwoods Home and Countryside & Small Stock Journal. You may try checking the archives of these publications for more info. I know Backwoods Home has a really good internet archive.

Blessings!

Lisa

Straw Bale Houses

{ 11:48, 2006-Jan-3 } { Posted by Grandma Rosie }

I am fascinated by the articles I have read on this subject. I think it is a very good idea. Please keep us posted on what you decide. ^..^