One Bale at a Time

Work continues at a nice steady pace. I must admit, though, that I have to keep telling myself that it's not a race and that I can take my time. I'm not as young as I used to be and pacing myself is a must.

Here's a gallery of photos of work done to date.

The Straw Boss - Rick after a day's work.

The living room

Rick notching a bale.

North wall

Expanded lath tying the north wall to the garage wall.

Walls going up in the garage.

The garbage bags are full of loose straw. The bales are so tightly baled that when a notch is cut, there's LOTS of loose straw. We are bagging it up to use in the plastering (and mulching of garden).

Looking into the garage

Starting on the east wall. Plastic will soon be added to the outside of this wall.

A couple of things learned about stacking straw bales

The first thing we learned when we started stacking the bales is that they come in all different lengths. They AVERAGE 36" long but vary from 31 to 41".  When Rick designed the layout for the bales he based it on 36" long two string bales. Needless to say, with all the different lengths, the bales don't fit like he planned which means we've been doing a lot of notching and splitting of bales.  We're getting pretty good at it! We bought a nifty cordless chain saw which we thought would make the bale notching task easier but we've found that what we're really using is a good old bow saw.

The bale needle I found on line has also been an invaluable tool. 

Another thing learned:  Wear a mask and cover up as much as possible! Working with bales is dirty, dusty work!

Not to be outdone, Tex decided he wanted to play with straw, too.  Luckily the bale he decided to play with was an old one. Looks like he had fun, though, doesn't it?