Boy, are we stuffed! First we stuffed with straw, deep into any crevice we could find. We stuffed...

And we stuffed ...

And we stuffed some more ...

Then we trimmed ...

And we trimmed some more ...

And then Don got out his new toy, and sprayed...a mixture of clay and water that had been screened so that it would be fine enough to use in the sprayer...

And then we were back to stuffing ... this time, we got suited up in our HASMAT suits and stuffed the seams between the bales with a straw/clay mixture ...

The volunteers then rebelled...saying that once the wall was sprayed, it was too hard to see the seams between the bales...so the spraying stopped...and we stuffed some more ...

The 'Gave It His/Her All Award' for last weekend has to go to our son Don and his wife Vanessa...Don suffered from hay (really straw) fever the whole weekend...He worked with tears running down his face and it made me miserable just to look at him (although he is quite a handsome lad)! Vanessa gets kudos for staying the night in a tent where there was no shower...not even running water!

Jerry Reid and Jeannie St. John get honorable mention for being here every weekend and sometimes in between!

As for this weekend...we're going to get plastered! That's right, we haven't quite finished all of the stuffing, but for those volunteers who have had it with stuffing (apparently, there is a general concensus that it is NOT a fun job)...there will be plastering going on...we will still need rubber gloves and the HASMAT suits (provided)...but this should be more fun than stuffing. Hope to see you here! Our friends Curt and Kathy Hofer have volunteered to bring dinner on Sunday if you're tired of my cooking! Please let us know if and when you are coming by emailing coni.barlow@wayne.edu Thanks!

And now...drum roll please...this is my favorite part...I have REALLY, REALLY, good news!

We had a visit...actually two (and we are hoping for one more)...pictured below is our pole crew...

And our trench crew...

And we can now ... finally ... see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks to the crews from Consumer's Energy ... we may very, very soon...drum roll again...have electricity! No more dark ages...And, no more worrying about our generator going bust...Some may think Don and I are pioneers building a straw bale house...but we would NOT have made real pioneers before electricity and running water! So keep your fingers crossed...we need one more visit from the crew that hooks up the line to the pole...and then we'll move into the 21st century!

One more thing...Don and I became movie stars this week...check out http://homtv.net/index.asp?view=watch&page=archive. Look for Meridian Magazine 915 dated Tuesday, Aug. 25. Go to about 15:30 in the video to see our interview!