Sustainable Building

framing the house
building and plastering the straw bale walls
We purchased the property in 2000 and in 2003 we began building our off the grid timber framed straw bale home and timber framed barn. We sustainably harvested 70% of the wood from the property with horses for both structures. We enlisted the help of our local timber framer, Robert Mahardy, to construct the frame of both the house and barn.

In addition, we connected with Paul Lacinski, author of "Serious Strawbale", and he assisted along with community members in applying the first coat of earthen plaster to the straw bale walls. We then proceeded to complete the remaining steps of the home and barn. Our home is powered by a combination of solar panels, wind turbine and a battery bank for storage. We also recently built a bread oven for making artisan bread. We will be holding workshops around these future building projects.