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!

We have come so far from where we started, and again, we could NOT have done it without the help of friends, family, and our new neighbors!

Jerry Reid came through for us again...he introduced us to our neighbors, Don and Margaret Brown....what a Godsend! We were counting on 18 inch bales but we forgot to check with the farmer about that and ended up with 19 inch bales. We needed some way to cut 5 inches off of the top of a bale of straw...not one bale of straw...but 75 bales of straw! Well, there's the old fashioned way...the hand saw...oh my! There's a more modern tool called a chain saw but we weren't sure what kind of job that would do on a bale of straw. And then there's Don and Margaret's portable sawmill! Yeah! We were saved! It's a wonderful machine...now my MOST favorite power tool!

And look what a nice job it did to finish this wall...

And again, thanks for our small Saturday crew: Jeannie, Jerry, Lynda, and Nancy...

And to our larger Sunday crew, pictured below:

Alex (Michael's friend), Michael Hofer, Don, Kathy Hofer, Curt Hofer, Coni, Don Brown, Jeannie St. John, Jerry Reid, and Margaret Brown. Much thanks for a job well done!

Please RSVP to coni.barlow@wayne.edu if you are interested in helping this weekend...we will be stuffin' the holes in the walls to prevent that cold north wind from blowing between the bales....maybe we'll even start plastering! Hope to see you there!

We are going to be out there again this weekend finishing the walls off and stuffing! (and I don't mean the kind that goes inside the Turkey at Thanksgiving) So if you are interested RSVP to coni.barlow@wayne.edu to let us know you are coming. Everyone is welcome at whatever skill level you are... bring a loose long-sleeved shirt and gloves (if you have them). We will be up to our elbows in straw!

We had our first work crew out on Saturday and they were troopers...those that came worked all day in the rain...we were soaked! But our thanks goes out to everyone (I've never seen so much rain...)!

Below is the Saturday crew:

Pictured from left to right are: Linda and Dennis Brack (Dennis was Don's college room mate), Winston (sorry Winston, I don't know your last name!), Nancy Bissell (Don's sister), Jeannie St. John (best bud since junior high), Bernie Ethridge (a fellow honey bee person and Zoo volunteer), Wayne Appleyard (our architect), me, and Fred McGlaughlin (a future straw bale builder)

Below is the Sunday crew:

Pictured from left to right are: Jeannie St. John, Lynda Waldecker (a future straw bale builder), Linda Schober (best bud at WSU), Missy Neff (best diving and roller-blade bud), Renae (one of the 'cow girls'), Shelly Goetcheus (our daughter), Pearl (the other 'cow-girl'), Fred and Don, and Jerry Reid (a new neighbor)

Thanks goes out to all of our help this weekend...it was either wet or hot and sticky, but they continued to toil... Special thanks to Jerry for his ideas...we changed how we were tying bales together mid-stream...to a faster (not especially green) way using electrical ties. He also took our bale needles home and modified every one using his bench grinder...so now they go through the bales like butter!

And Ta Da .... walls of straw!-

Hopefully, more pics in a few days!