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Lovely Log Round Floor

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Bernie Fritchie, a reader, send us this picture of his recently completed log round floor. He had this to say about it: “I harvested the rounds from my property, and dried them last winter. I used sanded grout in the voids and applied 5 coats of Bona poly. The rounds are Douglas Fir winter wood … Read more

Code-approved Strawbale Building Systems

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Code-approved post and beam strawbale house. Note tarpaper on wood frame.
Code-approved post and beam strawbale house. Note tarpaper on wood frame.

“The current code approved method for straw bale construction that can resist wind and seismic forces is not shown in the International Residential Code, IRC or the International Building Code, IBC.

However, it is shown as an appendix to some state residential code such as Oregon Residential code, appendix R, Straw-Bale Construction. The provision of this appendix is applicable to single family detached structures and related accessory structures as defined in Section R101.2, utilizing straw-bales in the construction of wall systems. So, if someone wants to build a straw bale home without the need to hire a licensed Engineer or Architect, he/she will need to check with their local building department to see if they have adopted the appendix.

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Explosion Green

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Explosion GreenLittle did David Gottfried know back in the early 1990’s, when he conceived of the idea of creating a council of organizations and industries devoted to exploring ways to make our buildings greener, that his dedication to manifesting this vision would blossom into what is it today. The U. S. Green Building Council is the preeminent model for similar councils around the globe and David also spawned the formation of the World Green Building Council, with over a hundred countries sharing their visions for sustainability.

David’s book, Explosion Green: One Man’s Journey to Green the World’s largest Industry is his story of how all of this came about. He tells how, as a young Stanford graduate, he embarked on a career as an upscale real estate developer in Washington D. C., complete with all of the trappings of expensive clothes and furnishings. Eventually he began to listen to an inner voice that reminded him that there was something more important for him to focus on. He realized that he needed to try to move his development projects toward resource conservation and the use of non-toxic products and materials.

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Energy Globe Award for Haiti 2014

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Patti Stouter wins big for her straw wattle designs in Haiti.
Patti Stouter wins big for her straw wattle designs in Haiti.

As Haitians continue building with alternative materials, straw wattle projects near Gonaives received international recognition with an Energy Globe award this year! At the award ceremony in New York City Patti Stouter met Carline Seide-Murphy, three-time winner of the award for Haiti. Her projects dealt with the plastic trash problems and providing solar power to clean water.

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Rock Dust for Gardening

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I’ve combined five sources in this blog post about the amazing properties of rock dust for soil remineralization. Anyone with a garden or planning a garden needs to know about rock dust. Specialty brands with the widest range of minerals such as Azomite can be ordered online and through garden shops. You can also get rock dust very inexpensively from gravel quarries. It’s the powdered residue left over from crushing and processing gravel. As explained in the video above, 8 lbs./sq.yard of rock dust lasts 10 years!

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