i spent most of the day today up at the yurt helping ken & carol and their friend jan put some more layers on the interior wall. it was amazing! the yurt is made of straw bales, and coated with a cob mixture (sand, clay, straw). ken & carol have been meaning to finish the layers, but with the house on the market they weren't putting as much time and effort into it. now that it looks like they may be sticking around for a while, they decided to try to finish it up. their friend jan does this sort of stuff for a living, and helped carol build their house as well. yes- the house we live in is straw bale!
so ken called me up and asked me to come up and sift sand. the sand got mixed in with clay, water, and cottontails! ken and i got elbow deep mixing it while jan gave us guidance on texture and thickness. carol and jan worked on smoothing a layer of the mixture onto the wall of the yurt. the interior used to be a smooth plaster but with a lot of hay showing through, so the layers we put on today cover the hay. eventually jan invited me to try smoothing on the plaster- i wasn't sure if carol would trust me to mess with her walls, but she did! it was so cool. my section wasn't quite as smooth as jan (the expert)'s or carol's, but i would say i did pretty well. we did a lot of spreading, and then ken and i mixed up some thinner clay for the final coat.
brett had checked out some books on cob cottages, straw bale, and other organic & natural structure systems from the library, so i had some background info on what exactly we were doing... and i've learned a lot also from ken just talking about their home & their philosophy on straw bale homes. it was very empowering to be a part of the experience today & also made me think a lot about home construction. a straw bale home is very green & natural, and can be made with local products. it requires less energy and is naturally well insulated. the ingredients are cheap! the experience of building it literally with your hands is so special- you are building your home out of love (and hay, and manure, and sand....).
i went for a walk later this afternoon and walked past two other houses that are currently being built in the extended neighborhood. one of them has gone up just in the past couple weeks. the digging and foundation happened in about a week,and then the frame of the house went up in the following week. the walls have come in pre-cut and pre-constructed pieces that so it has popped up quickly. i'm sure they are trying to get it all up before the snow comes in force, but it feels a little unnatural for it to pop up so quickly! this house is right on my drive, so i see the progress daily.
the other house is on the next street over. one day i went for a walk and noticed that they had flattened out a field. apparently i haven't been walking enough recently, because today there was an entire house sitting in the space! i'm not sure if it was a prefab house that came in on a trailer or if they just built it insanely quickly. it is a simple ranch house, but it seems very fast.
both of these homes feel a bit unnatural both in their construction and timing. i value the sturdiness, slowness, and organic aspects of the straw bale house. if and when i find myself considering builingd a home, i will certainly consider straw bale.
in the meantime... my arms are so tired! it certainly felt productive and exciting to see my progress, but now i am totally exhausted. i have been lying on the couch reading ever since i got back from my walk. i suppose it's time to cook some dinner!
