April 30th - Volunteers Weekend
Hey the sun shines - the Straw Bale Gods are with us. With a lovely bunch of Volunteers the build races forward, with window frames being completed, walls shooting up, huge amounts of tea being drunk - hazel chips fly, blue tarps crackle, trailer loads of bales come up the lane from the barn, baling needles sew, spirit levels check, sills blossom, Phoebe cooks us delicious food. A perfect baling day which only ended when the horizon went cloud black at about 6.00pm and we flung on the tarps ready for Sunday.
April 20th
Made some frames to cast window sills. Want to have really wide sills so I can put out window boxes.The frames are cast out of concrete (yeah I know - not very Straw Bale stylee) reinfoced with iron bar. Becuase they're going to be under the veranda they shouldn't attract too much moisture.
April 16th
Making a doorway - honest, never before in my life. I've put up architrave and made a pig's ear of the bathroom door (several times), but this is my first whole door thing. I first put together the pillars using 4 X 3 spruce posts set in half inch OSB board. I got the pieces pre sawn at the local wood yard and was amazed to find that they'd cut them wrong ! I thought it was me. They didn't fit ! So if you get wood cut, take a tape measure with you and make sure they've done it bleeding right. Apart from that it was fairly straight forward, banged together with 3" nails and the holes stuffed with loose straw. The posts are wide because I want to do double doors (internal and external) for sound proofing.
then
assembled 
Took a lot of time to make the thing square to save crazy-making jiggling later. At first it was crooked and I nearly settled for it, mumbling artistic comforts to myself. But in my guts I knew it was no good, so set about squaring it, using little shims of ply, lots of love and care. When it was finally right I made a cup of tea and spent a good half hour admiring it, standing it, asking my bemused wife to admire it. My doorway. Next thing, the window frames. Another adventure. I got to say I woke at 5 this morning full of doubt abd feeling totally overwhelmed by the what I was taking on.
Apr 13th
Rain and tarpaulins, strawbaling in English Spring. I've drilled eye hooks at three foot intervals all the way round the foundation walls to tie the tarps to. This follwed a night of flapping tarps and chaos and much head scratching for a solution. It works great and is my TOP TIP for UK strawbalers - what ever your foundation material is. Take your end of day tarp wrapping really seriously, buy good tarps, put in eye hooks.
April 10th
Walls going up in fair weather
Helped
again by Beccy 
.
April 2nd and 4th
Beccy and her Dad
Kiwi Beccy and her Dad, Barry came to help me out. We brought a couple of loads up from the Barn at the bottom of the lane (my trailer takes about 12 at a time) and stacked them on the pallettes on the hard standing. I'm seeing the pallettes as the RAM (day to day store) and the barn as the Hard Drive (the main store) - its a boy thing. Huge pleasure - smelling the wonderful fresh scented perfumes from the bales and feel their reassuring bulk on the ladder. It reminded me of making play houses in the barn on the farm in Cardigan (Parc-y-Pratt) where I grew up. Very familiar. Got a bit bogged down making a tiny bale, but we'll improve with time. I had picked up the needles this morning from the Blacksmith so its our first go.. Also the Joiner from down the road, Steve, called in. I'm going to make the window apertures whatever size they naturally turn out, and have Steve make windows to fit. More expensive, but an easier way than fitting the bales to the frames. I've already got some windows but they look a bit modern and I'll use them for something else. We did three hours and then it rained.Quick ! Out with the tarpaulins. Eeek, panic.Becky kept on singing a song called Rainbow Connection, by Kermit the frog, and its got in my brain. When she sings she looks like Kermit. I'm telling you Straw bale stories.
April 3rd
Aaah, at last the first bales ! Wonderful moment after so much preparation - I began to wonder if I'd ever get there after so many diversions and red lights. Phoebe came over and took this pic of me.
