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Published: February 13th 2008
Hummel House
Our Town being a sign for a play Carol directedIt's been a tremendous effort to get over the rain and winds that have been hammering us this last week but it has let up at all the right moments.
On Thursday evening the land trust staff and soon-to-be homeowners of our project met at the Library for a meeting where 6 of the architects from Seattle joined us to watch a slide show presentation on strawbale homes, following a description of the events to come tomorrow. Whether or not you were enthused about the meeting, the weather, or the work coming there was an incredible batch of choc chip cookies baked by one of the attendees.
The next day rise and shine, I was at the work site at 8, thanks to a passerby, Dave, who stopped and asked if I wanted a ride, in fact, all the way there. The day seemed dry enough, though the overcast skies loomed about leaving a bit of pressure on us. By 9 o'clock we had organized fairly well into a group, and half of us split to continue working on preparing the wall, and the other half with myself loaded into a van, and with a big dump truck headed south to
Shall we dine?
My newest home, and view of Hummel Lake our strawbale hideout on an old rustic farm, dotted with 5 anxious sows.
After 4 seperate runs and straw infesting my overcoat, we had loaded a room so full of strawbales at the site that the even the sky agreed it was enough and began raining as fair warning to quit with the work. The rest of the afternoon we met over plans for the following day, looked at some blueprints for the place, and inquired as to what and why we were doing this(not all of this were fully informed on the project) leaving us with a reassured feeling we were doing something not only innovative but doable: building strawbale homes under county code and permission.
The next day once more rising early we prepared the site for our architects' and volunteers' finishing day, and quite a finish it was. We learned slowly, but steadily we progressed after lunch at loading our walls with strawbales, splitting and tying them neat enough to fit in the smaller sections, setting in a window, and even compressing them firmly enough to make the wall a sure hold. We faced some challenges of the wall bending, but with our 'Persuader' we were
very easily able to adjust it. Basically a 2x4 piece of wood we slammed against the wall to level it.
Strawbale is quite a labor intensive work, and I think we all had a good yet diminished sense of how much work this will involve as we continue. It is not just nail and go, but it takes a lot of energy, sweat, and caution to create these cozy natural borders to one's home.
Fortunately, at home, I still have the grand support of Carol and Al who are busying about on their errands, but whenever they are present they are sure to help me with any of my needs. Sadly, with the storms flocking about, leaving only an occasional view of the mountains surrounding us, I haven't had time to flee off or around the island as a good visitor should take advantage of. The time will come no doubt!
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