Winter is Coming . . .

Here it is the last day of October - Halloween! - and while so far this fall we've had very mild weather (except for a short cold snap) winter weather is not far away. All through the roofing process it was my hope that we could finish the roof and get the straw bale walls up with at least one coat of plaster before the arrival of snow so that we could have a nice enclosed space in which to work through the winter months. Pressure!!!!! This time of year the weather can turn very quickly. I really didn't want to get into the process of putting up the walls just to have the weather turn really cold and snowy. But, at the same time, I REALLY want to be able to work through the winter. What to do!!!

We decided to wrap the whole house with plastic which will not only protect the stored bales and give us an enclosed space where we can work out of the weather but it will also allow us to put up the walls! A couple of years ago we were give a ton of plastic that had been used to wrap another house.  We have kept it stored and protected and now we have put it to good use! (I'm sure all the locals are wondering what those crazy gringos are up to now <G>!)

The prevailing winds and winter storms come mainly from the west and north so we focused on those two sides.

Here you can see all of our bales stacked and protected.

We haven't decided whether we will enclose the east and south walls yet as the odds of getting blowing weather from those directions is very slim. However, I did put plastic in the windows of the adobe wall to keep the inside of the wall and all the windows stacked there dry.

Now I just hope that the plastic is strong enough to withstand wind and keep things protected for the next 5 or 6 months - until spring.

The other thing that we are going to do is put a cement and rock splashback that will be about 16 to 18" high all around the base of the house. That's what that pile of rocks is for. I have started collecting them from around the property. There's always something to do!

The next steps are to finish the soffit vents and build window bucks. I'm gonna stop writing now and go get to work!