We all get plenty of invites through FB and so many have to go ignored. We just can’t make every band, party, celebration and event that shows up in our inbox.

What caught my eye was the large selection of Yoga and music being offered. Something everyone on the claysandstraw.com crew can appreciate. It also was not going to compete with fireworks, an orchestra or the family on July 4th.

The more I investigated the more I liked the shape the festival was going to take. Love ATX has a mission statement which we feel has merit. Mainly that it tries to use local collaboration and idea exchange as a conduit for creating healthy communities. And for a donation instead of charging admission, anyone can go.

The more I wanted to go the more attention I began to give to the schedule of speakers, workshops and musicians. I quickly realized that they needed a presentation on shelter, specifically Natural Building, a community that addresses shelter through the lens of locally available, sustainably harvested materials that can be used to build healthy shelters. Not to mention it’s most attractive componet, the super awesome beautiful aesthetic.

So I signed Kindra and I up to give a slide presentation and discussion on the merits of Natural Building and invited a bunch of friends.

You are invited too if you happen to be in Austin on July 3rd or feel like making the trip.

Love ATX / Interdependence Festival

John

Thank you Janet for being so incredibly thoughtful.

We have recently started work on the straw bale infill for the Gray Residence. A project that has been in the planning stages for nearly a year. Once all the pieces fell into place, Roland Luna, the General Contractor began work on a design by architect Ben Obregon for the Gray’s rural property west of Leander, TX.

The design, post and beam on a cement slab with straw bale infill, is approximately 3500 sq. ft. It features a pottery studio, dog run, large southeast facing porch. It will have a lime exterior plaster and earthen interior plaster on the bale walls.

We will participate as a crew placing and shaping bales in the exterior walls and then finishing the interior with an earthen plaster. Frank Meyer of Thangmaker Construction will provide the exterior lime plaster. We expect to work on bales and netting for several weeks, then move to the earthen interior plaster while finishing the bale details. Once the windows and doors are placed work can begin on the exterior plaster.

Our crew of several veteran members, a few new members and one volunteer consists of Kindra Welch, John Curry, Aaron Ralls, Lucas D., Jaime Hutton, Michael Blaha, Joshua Jude, and Jennifer Love.

Wylie strawbale home – 3500 sqft multi-generational residence designed by architect Ben Obregon of the Sustainable Design Center (http://sustainabledesigncenter.com/)   Fully permitted under Austin’s own strawbale code!

July 14th – After some normal construction delays (rain, rain and more rain   we had our first bale delivery to the future home of Tom and Mari Wylie in central Austin.

Baling team (LtoR) Kyle Vurrow, John and Twinks, Jess, Brenden, Tom and Mari, Jami, Aaron, Kinny, Alan, Sara and Kindra(photographer)

Almost a dozen of us worked to pull 315 bales from the trailer and stash them under the roof.  A week later we took the second delivery from farmer Ron Stehling of Fredericksburg, TX.

Stacking bales is fast work!  Getting the fluffy walls straight, trimmed and ready for plaster is where the real time comes in.  Our team of eight or so was composed of four experienced balers… Kindra, Sara, John and Aaron, and four paid “apprentices” Jamie, Brenden, Alan and Kinny.

The method here is “bale-infill” meaning the bales are not structural.  They are stacked vertically between studs 3′ on center. This reduces the ‘top plate’ to a double 2×6 instead of the double 2×12 more typical in post and beam framing.  Other advantages incude: solid anchoring for windows and doors (floating bucks can be tricky), the whole system looks more familiar to building inspectors,  and its easier to replace bales if anything needs repair in the future.

Bales between studs 3' o.c.

The big picture of this project is a bit unique for us: we are one subcontractor among many.  It was interesting for us having to work with various standards of quality and safety.  We often had to remind each other that we were there just for the bales.  Many times we had to turn over minor carpentry fixes that we could have solved quickest by just knocking it out ourselves.

We loved working for owner-builders Tom and Mari Wylie!  Besides managing the day to day process of a busy construction site Mari spoiled us with breakfast tacos on Fridays and a little swimming pool to help baby Twinks enjoy the heat!

Construction site swimming hole

we finished bales and stucco preparation Aug 14th.

On to New Mexico

so long Texas heat and humidity…crisp mountain air here we come !!

We will finish up the Hunt Cob Project this week leaving a few things to dry and tie up.

We will move to an Austin Straw Bale Project that will involve us placing bales and lathe that should only take two to three weeks.

Our Fall Straw Bale project appears to be taking shape. The foundation was poured last week. They should have the framing done by the time the our portion of the Austin Straw Bale Project is complete. We expect to start shortly after the first of August.

We may not get the opportunity to visit New Mexico this summer. We are hoping to establish the solar hot water for the radiant floors. Our friend Thomas at TechSun is designing the system.

]]> http://claysandstraw.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/status-update-june-27-2010/feed/ 2 curryjc Aaron details beneath the window sill. Note sill made from milled red cedar. Nice touch Aaron and Kindra. Kindra with the electric chain saw shaping bales like a sculptor. Kindra and Donna split bales. Trimming bales for window and door headers. Rusty munches on some clover during a free moment in the front meadow. Assembled tools to clean up finish plaster on floor and prepare for alis. Beets and carrots at the Taos Valley Farmers Market. Our first stop every Saturday morning. Bob relaxing with some coffee underneath his handy work. Black Lake, NM http://claysandstraw.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/punchlist/ http://claysandstraw.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/punchlist/#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:17:55 +0000 curryjc http://claysandstraw.wordpress.com/?p=36 ]]>

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “punch list,” here is a little wikiness for you. A Punch list is generally a list of tasks or “to-do” items. In U.S. construction industry, a “punch list” is the name of a contract document used in the architecture and building trades in the United States to organize the completion of a construction project.

For us a punch list is basically a flow chart showing tasks in the order that they need to be completed. It is good to have someone around like Kindra that enjoys creating good punch lists.

Punch lists can be pretty intimidating. After all who likes to look at an exhaustive list of tasks to perform before a certain date. I am only going to share with you the “short” punch list for this week.

• pour earthen countertops (kindra, sara, aaron)
• pour finish floor in straw bale bedroom (kindra, sara, aaron)
• pour finish floor in living area (kindra, sara, aaron)
• seal concrete finish floor in kitchen and bathroom
• screen sleeping porch (john, kindra)
• install paver tile porches (lucas)
• electrician visit
• utility company visit

This list doesn’t include all tasks, some major, that might be required to complete the larger task. For example to pour the living room floor will also require that sand and clay be procured and processed. Sand is purchased, hauled, and then screened. The clay is broken up into small golf ball sized chunks and then processed through a hammer mill and screened. These can be hard time-consuming processes that take place in the background.

Usually the most qualified crew member that is free takes on the most urgent list item and enlists other crew members as they become available to help. You might notice that my name is noticeably absent from most tasks. I am lucky enough to be sick this week. I will be working even further in the background doing administrative work.

The current crew consists of Kindra, John, Aaron, Sara, and Lucas. It is a good thing the days are long right now as there is a formidable amount of work to be done each day.

A special thanks to Aaron Ralls for the photography of the “Hunt Cob Project”

-john

Our current project is a cob and straw bale house on the North Fork Guadalupe River near Hunt, TX. We have three floors and some plaster that remain.

We meet Friday with a client in Austin, TX to finalize a straw bale infill project. This project will start up in the next week to week and a half and last for a few weeks.

After that we will tie up any loose ends so we can spend the rest of the summer in the mountains of Northern New Mexico working on the ‘mountain cottage’ with our family before our next project begins.

After a rousing discussion of topics as varied as websites, social networking sites, blogs, emails, all their failures and advantages Kindra and I have decided to add a blog.

The purpose of this blog will be to publish frequent stories with images of our current project, crew and tasks at hand during the week. It will be interspersed with occasional stories related to Natural Building techniques and ideas as well as topics of import to Natural Building including permacultrure.

Enjoy