More bales

Stacking bales!

Yeah! We are finally stacking bales.
It is going great so far. There Is a lot of custom bale tying so it
will take some time, but it is very satisfying and fun. Standing by
the straw is no problem, but while throwing it around I have to wear a
mask, because of the straw dust. I will keep posting pictures of our
progress.

Rough wiring done!

We finished all the wiring necessary to go ahead with the bales! I
learned quite a bit about wiring from my brother. I got to run about
half the wiring myself.
The tarps you see in the picture I hung like shower curtains. We can
slide them back and forth in case it rains while we are working with
the bales. I need about one more day of prep and then we start
stacking! Hopefully the next pictures that are posted will be of straw
in the walls...

We have power!

I have been preparing the house for bales. It is just about ready
after built in conduit, gravel between the bottom plates, plaster
stops, safety precautions for fire, and so forth.
We finally got power hooked up to the house! My brother has been
wiring the house for me. This is exciting, we can plug things in now
and have temporary work lights. As soon as all the wires that go into
the outside walls are in we can start stacking bales.
We are taking six more months off now. I still don't think I will
finish the house on this trip, but my goal is to have a protected
shell in place. I want to stack the bales, put in the doors and
windows, and plaster the outside only. If I can get that done we can
leave it protected and finish it up another time.
I am really happy with the progress so far.

Making a hot tub

I keep getting side tracked with little side projects. Now I am making
a hot tub like the Dutch tub. Both straight tubes go into a claw foot
tub. You build a fire inside the coil. Hot water rises, pushing hot
water out the top and pulling cool water in through the bottom. A
green, wood burning hot tub!
I will post more pictures when it's finished.

My DIY geothermal AC

For a winter project I started building a homemade geothermal air
conditioner. Our house is located only 20 feet from our lake. The
temperature of the water at 15 feet is 55 degres even in the summer. I
bought a radiator core from an old ac unit and soldered on some 1"
Hose fittings. You simply pump cold water from the lake, through the
radiator and straight back into the lake. A box fan placed behind the
radiator blows the cold from the radiator into our house. A nice green
and cheap way to cool your house. The only running cost is the fan and
electric pump. This thing is effective but ugly so I gutted an antique
radio we got last summer. The whole unit fits perfectly inside the
radio. My brother is going to wire it for me so when you turn the knob
the pump, fan, and radio lights come on!

We have a roof!

After a few nice days of weather in the 70's and the help of some good friends, we finally finished the roof. We are off to Canada for three weeks, and when we come back it's time to put the bales in! I will post more info soon on when the wall raising party will be.