Building Riverstone Studios Retreat Centre
|
|
Past Photo Updates
Audrey in the Craik Eco Centre
Standing in the "front yard" of Riverstone Studios Retreat Centre the day we purchased the lots.
Our
back yard is filled with 64,000 fast growing Towering Aspen.
These trees grow 7 - 10' each year. Pictured here, they are 1 1/2 years
old.
Our newest addition to the team...A girl named Allis. 22 horses of raw power...OK, well, after a tune up she'll be 22 hp.
Once upon a time...
A
creative husband and wife duo dreamed of sharing their talents with
others. Within a year of this, Riverstone Studios was born out of 600
ft2 of their home space. During this time they talked about
environmental issues and how there must be something that they could do
other than just recycling their newspapers and pop cans. Building a
straw bale house had always been in their hearts and minds and the more
research they did, the greater the desire to make a change.
Shot down...
After
researching and asking around the Saskatoon area, they were met with
very little support for pursuing this type of a building structure.
Building with straw bale is not covered by the national building code
and because of this, banks and cities are not interested due to
liability issues. The sad part is that building code will only be
changed when the method of building is proved to be viable...but the
building can't be built because it is not recognized by the code
that it is trying to change.
Happy Anniversary...
On our third anniversary, we decided to spend the day touring the Eco
Centre in Craik. During the tour, it was mentioned that an eco-village
was being set up and lots were being sold for $1. We felt so welcome by
those whom we met that day that we went home with hopes of a future
straw bale home.
Bigger than life...
After three months, our proposal to be part of the eco-village was
finalized and submitted for approval by the steering committee in
Craik. After approval we began designing the layout and
floor plan for the new home of Riverstone Studios. Through
various sketches and mock ups, our tiny dream kept growing from a
modest home to a 4,500 ft2 studio, 3,000 ft2 house and 4,000 ft2 of
retreat houses.
With the same heart we began with to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, we
began collecting and reclaiming old doors, windows, and building
materials throughout the summer and fall of 2006. As a result of
this, our kids swing set looks dwarfed amongst the path ways of
construction yard we once called our back yard.
March 31, 2007
Spring is nearly here and we are anxious to get out to the land and
begin breaking ground. Blueprints are now complete. Structural numbers
are run and a model is being built of our straw bale facility. Through
various ups and downs of engineering, we have included some very unique
features into the retreat centre that will eventually become our home
and studios. Gentle curves will flow in and through the building as the
studios lead seamlessly into one another. Ten foot high outer walls
lift majestically along a reciprocal roof line reaching 20' at the top.
Thirty five foot long beams rest upon each other to form this self
supporting roof. Upon entering the studio, guests will be graced by a
majestic field stone fireplace 8' in diameter. This focal point and
subsidiary heat source will be central in the design as the chimney
climbs 20' through the open ceiling concept. Earthen tone adobe walls
are accented by rustic wood trim and floors. Wide, custom built
French doors with rounded tops give a very open flow from room to room.
A plenitude of soft natural light will flood the open areas
through a series of sky lights and southerly exposed windows. As
evening falls and the lights come on, guests will notice the abundance
of soft light as compact fluorescents bounce off walls and ceilings
casting a uniform fill throughout the studios. In the background you
may hear the quiet thump thump thump as the wind turbines capture
air from the evening breeze turning it into electricity. Everything
about the building sings of simpleness changed to magnificence and
materials once cast aside will be transformed into works of beauty.
There is only thing more beautiful than finding your purpose in this
life...and that is helping others find theirs. We invite you to
come along on our journey of building. We are planning on making
mistakes, making changes, and making new friends as we begin helping to
shape a new community and change the way we've always done things for a
way that is gentler on this gift God has given us that we call earth.
If you are interested in helping out, please call us at (306) 384-4410.
We will be constructing every weekend throughout the spring, summer,
and fall until completion.
May 30, 2007 Update
2500 bales used to create a 1:50 scale model (each bale is .75" x
.25" x .375") ....yes...insanity DOES run in the family :)
Glen Hymers gives a tour of the Eco-Centre the day of our ground breaking
Guests from Regina stop by to check out the ground breaking. It was nice to meet some of the people from the community
as well as others passing by who share a similar heart for the environment.
Movin' dirt! Let the games begin.....Not the typical ground breaking with a spade like you see in all the pictures,
but rather with our 60 year old Allis and front end loader. (We've got way too much dirt to move with a shovel :) )
Our youngest son Josh enjoying an afternoon camping on the acreage.
A windy, cool spring day...looks like a good day to own a wind generator.
Audrey (in addition to the bright idea above her head) learns the fine art of fillin' up at the community well.
Hilton Spensor from the RM of Craik comes to save the day after a frustrating day of tractor break downs.
As the sun sets gently to the west, cowboy Kelly rides furiously (to the east) trying to get a few more yards of dirt moved.
June 30, 2007 Update
Construction is underway on-site of the new Riverstone Studios
location. It is turning out to be a tremendous walk of faith as we
discover daily just how much we can not rely on our own knowledge and
strength. In six short weeks we've discovered that relationship and
perspective is everything and that compromise would be so much easier
and faster than doing what is right for the environment and our health.
Three days after our kick off weekend, we
received a phone call that our 20 foot by 12 foot Coverall tent didn't
do too well against a plow wind that went through our site. In addition
to tearing our shed apart it also took down the top ten foot section of
a neighbour's wind generator tower. This was our first devastating blow
we felt as we walked the two km stretch the following weekend with our
friend Jesse, picking up broken pieces of the tent . After a
short deliberation we decided that we need to do something a little
more permanent to house our supplies while we are building. We looked
at the options and decided to build a pole shed consisting of 4x4
treated posts sheathed in plywood .
We spent two weekends digging holes and tamping posts. We
discovered rather quickly that there are no shortage of rocks...in
fact, pockets of the site give indication that we could be
building on top of a gravel pit. Good for foundation, but slow going
for drilling holes. We finally got the poles in the ground and
purchased the plywood to sheath with, but before we started nailing it
on, we thought we'd do a bit of research on the products we were using.
To our shock, we discovered that plywood, OSB, K3 particle board, and
MDF are formed using Urea Formaldehyde Resin. Urea
Formaldehyde is listed as a known carcinogen or a highly possible
carcinogen depending on who you research through. We at this point
halted everything and said, "If we wouldn't use this in our house, why
would we use it in any of our other buildings?"
We changed plans mid stream and decided to leave the posts (they were
way too much work to put in only to take out again!) At this point, they will be
cemented into a footing capable of holding a straw bale
structure. Building a 24'x24' garage will be a good trial for the
build to come on the studio. All of the plywood we purchased for the
shed has been cut down to be used for cement forms for the footings on
the round buildings.
Almost every weekend, we've had the blessing of meeting many new
people, some of which are destined to be our new neighbours. During one
conversation, a bit of an eye opener happened while we were talking
about how unusual it was that folks who aren't construction
gurus are working on building houses in the middle of the field. We
discovered that its not really that unusual! At the turn of the century
as this country was being formed, all of our great grandparents took
chances coming to farming communities with no guarantee of water,
unknown weather conditions, no electricity, no power tools...and every
last one of them built their own houses...many of which are still lived
in to this day. Somewhere along the way in the last 100 years, a
lot of us have forgotten our roots and fell into the belief that we
can't do something simply because we've never tried. We give up all of
our rights our past generations fought so hard for. We know
nothing about any of the food that we eat...most of us don't even know
what country our food was grown in much less what chemicals were used
on or in it. We never question any products we use, simply because
there are supposed to be governing bodies doing that for us.
And when costs of living sky rocket, we get upset and say, there
is nothing that can be done. All of us can make choices.
They can be as large changing your entire lifestyle or as simple as
looking at the label to see if your orange was grown in California,
Florida, or China...something to think about (I'm stepping off my
soapbox now!)
Our heart from the beginning of this project was to recycle and reuse
as much as possible. Over the course of the last two years we've been
keeping our eyes open for anything of salvage that was perfectly good
that we could reuse. We've had huge blessings in this area lately as a
garage door and hardware came our way very inexpensively as well as 28
4'x6' windows ready to set into frames. The company was replacing the
windows simply because they were changing from wood frames to PVC to
reduce the up keep over the long haul. (ie painting frames).
Everyday is a new challenge and nothing comes easy without some
type of cost. We are finding that "easy" and "fast" usually means
compromising quality for cheap or using products with huge
environmental impacts. No one can change the world by themselves,
but we can start becoming less of the problem by simply looking at our
choices with better knowledge.
Audrey & Kelly after a long hot day
We're not sure if our name should be Riverstone or Fieldstone. This is an average 6" hole.
Rocks are not hard to come by!
Kelly and a friend Steve working on trusses for the garage.
spruce. This allows us to keep an open concept on the garage ceiling while still having good load bearing
capabilities on the trusses (much nicer to look at than a bunch of machine built rafters)
Bringing in the heavy equipment. You always have to have the right tool for the job!
The forms start being laid for garage footing.
Unlike a conventional 8" wide footing, this base is built 24" wide by 10" high to accomodate an 18" straw bale.
This by far is not a cheap way to build but we'll never have to stretch to try to meet minimum code.
Definition of brute labour = 1 friend, 1 hand turned post hole digger, 12 posts, and several dozen rocks.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. This hand built cement mixer is capable of 4.5 cu ft of cement
with a torque conversion of 30 hp. All built in less than 10 hours.
Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12. 14 have all been sold. Construction has begun on all of them except lots 1, 2 and 7.
One of the many reasons we choose to live in Saskatchewan!
July 23, 2007 Update
After spending a full week on site, our family is tired and proud of
our accomplishments. Most families wouldn't think a vacation spent with
6:30 am mornings and 12 hour workdays in 30 degree heat the
picture of ideal fun, but we grew closer as a family than
any trip to Disneyland could ever do in a million years. Our children
were full of excitement as they spent their days collecting rocks and
catching butterflies; playing with frogs and discovering
what crickets are. The smell of wild alfalfa and sweet clover
filled the mornings while making coffee and toast on the Coleman stove.
After long days of work, Audrey, I and the kids would spend the
evenings playing or swimming at the regional park. It just doesn't get any better.
We had great times visiting with family and friends who came to help.
And we were so blessed to have the help. Day after day and weekend
after weekend we continue to labour without much to show for, but there
is wisdom and truth in the midst of all of it. Audrey and I spent an
evening talking about how we've spent so much time this summer working
and yet you can hardly see any advancement on the building site only to
realize that some of the most important things we've done will never be
seen by anyone.
Building a strong foundation begins with having all the tools you need.
Power, water, food, shelter are all basics that we take for granted
until you are placed in an open field with non of them available to
you. They all take time to establish and work through. Next is removing
all the debris and top soil that will come along and de-rail your
building later on in life. All of that "stuff" has to be scraped clean.
A healthy amount of good solid material has to be put down on a solid
base and then it has to be pounded into that base until there is no
chance of movement. Only after all this is done, do you begin to pour
the foundation.
We realized that there are no shortcuts, and just like our personal
lives, cheating on building a rock solid foundation will only lead to
disappointment years down the road. Most of my time is spent
working on building the foundation while most of Audrey's time is
taken up transplanting and caring for many small seedlings. Although
not much can be seen right now, that foundation will stand for
generations to come, and Audrey's seedlings (which can't be seen
through the wild clover) will one day be 50 to 60 feet tall and Matthew
and Joshuah's children will be climbing them.
In an "instant world" we are learning what quality and workmanship mixed with relationship can build slowly and surely.
Camp "Riverstone" from about a half mile east coming from the regional park
Audrey on cementing day.
One of the many challenges we face...no utilities...no water, no power. Everything we require we need to bring onto site.
Shown above, we use a 10 KW gas generator to power our equipment. Water is stored 220 gallons at a time. A sprinkler pump
provides good working pressure while compacting and mixing.
everyone is sticky and hot. Using discarded pallets and a few inexpensive tarps, we created
a bathroom facility and shower stall. The shower works off of solar heat. 12 gallons of water stored in dark coloured
tanks above the shower warm to about 30 degrees Celsius through out the day. Come supper, this system provides
a very refreshing shower enough for our family of four with water to spare.
Kelly's Dad, Edward, graciously helps with the brute labour of mixing cement .
Another shot of mixing cement.
The homemade cement mixer earned more than its keep. Over two days it mixed 6 cu metres of cement
Each spin yielded two wheelbarrows worth of cement.
A hot day and a dry mix, wetting the fresh cement and covering it to retain moisture was a must..
Pieces of heavy gauge all thread were anchored deep into the footing.
This all thread will be used to tie and compact the bales
from
the roof all the way to the foundation. This process creates an incredibly strong building.
No cement pour is complete without an inscription that will be there for life.
Psalm 23 from the bible is what keeps us going on tough days
Now that the foundation is complete for the workshop, we can focus once again on the studio site. After leveling to grade the
75' x 150' site we staked and painted foundation lines.
The next step will be to compact the base before setting forms for cement.
September 10, 2007 Update
The summer has been full of surprises - both good and bad. Most of
August for us was spent in and out of the hospital with our oldest son.
Born with prune belly syndrome, he has struggled with UTIs (Urinary
Tract Infections). Because of the internal damage caused by the prune
belly as well as the fact that we are catheterizing daily, a UTI
becomes a serious matter and 3 out of the 4 this past year have
resulted in week long hospital stays and home intervenous drugs for
another week after getting out of the hospital. These family matters,
although tough to walk through, also have a positive side to them in
that we become more aware of how fragile our lives are and bond
tighter as a family. It also gives you time to appreciate all the
blessings you have that all the money in the world can't buy.
So we are back in the saddle again and pushing hard to get cement
poured before freeze up. Cutting rebar and setting forms is high
on the list of priorities. Unfortunately, so is replacing about $2000
worth of stolen tools. Did I happen to mention this summer has been a
bit of a challenge? Never-the-less, we have all that we need to
continue building.
We've found a wonderful couple willing to bale for us. This is an
answer to prayer as they are located only 5 miles from our site.
Our hope was to build and support local community, not just drop a bunch
of stuff off from somewhere else. Craik is steadily
becoming our new home and it is very important to help each other
in the community to grow. Having said that, depending on
hardest, weather and break downs, we should have several stacks of
bales before long.
A harvest moon greets us on a warm August evening.
Growing up in rural Saskatchewan, seeing the Big Dipper was a common thing, but showing it to our 6 and 3 year old boys
is a treat that can't be seen with as much spendor from a city street.
Seen in the background is the foundation for our garage ready for bales. In the forground is the start of our rock
collection to be used for flooring and fireplaces. Most of the rock is commonly found granite also known in these
parts as "field stone". Granite weighs in at 185 lbs / cu ft. The average size of the rocks shown is 3 to 4 cu ft
which means each of those stones averages 600 to 800 lbs. Thank goodness for front end loaders.
"grey water" to be used again to fill the toilets. The average North American flushes 5 times each day. This means a family
of four can use an average of 75 gallons of water each day just for flushing. Using a very simple double plumbing
system will potentially save 25,000 gallons of water each and every year just by re-using "bath water".
The foundation lines begin to take shape. Pictured above is the multipurpose, pottery, and music studios.
Another shot of of the forms beginning to go in.
This shot is taken looking left from the main entrance door. Note the rebar in the background. We will require 3000 ft
of rebar just for the footing alone.
Another shot of the forms going in.
Its hard to imagine now that nothing existed here three and a half months earlier.
What better way to end a hard day of work in and out of the rain than with a game of freeze tag with friends
backdropped by a beautiful sunset to the west and a breathtaking rainbow over the hills to the east.
The next step will be to finish forms and hang rebar. Pouring cement will be a challenge.
The footing will require 34 cu metres of cement to complete.
October 8, 2007 Update
Our warm weather is quickly departing and frosty mornings are more the
norm these days. Last weekend we finished up cementing as far as we'll
be able to get this year. To this point we have mixed and poured almost
two cement trucks by hand. And in case you can't picture that...how
about 25 tons of cement (on a rough calculation).
The summer has flown by and we are pleased with how far we have gotten.
We are so grateful for all of the help we've received to this
point. The foundation is the most important part of the whole building,
and we truly believe the people who have been available to help to this
point are also foundational people in our lives.
At this point, we have bales beginning to arrive week by week, load by
load. We've been blessed dearly by Cliff and Debra Luther who own
Stillwater farms just south of Craik. Our heart was to buy local bales,
and it looks like we will be working with Cliff and Debra for many
years to come.
Even though weather has stopped us from proceeding any further on the
foundation, we still have a lot to do for gravel work. We will
also be continuing to finish off the garage and anticipate completion
of it before Christmas. After that, things will slow down a bit and we
will be working on gathering plumbing supplies for finishing off the
rough ins in spring as well as beginning to build window frames, roof
beams, and a tower for assembling the roof that will be later used for
a windmill tower.
Rebar is hung and the forms are shored to take the weight of the cement.
Note the rebar jutting through the forms. This will help tie the interior floor to the outer footing.
15 Tons of cement get mixed and poured into 144 linear feet of forms.
Building a building is more than cement and walls...its about building community. Friends also living off grid, Paul and Crystal
help with the heavy task of mixing and pouring cement.
Building a foundation is a family affair. Everyone gets to play a part.
1 part cement, 2 parts water, 5 parts aggregate. Like baking a cake, its a pleasure having lots of cooks in the kitchen.
Areas where doors will be installed are dropped lower into the foundation to allow for part
of the footing to become a stem wall. This will protect the straw walls in the event of a flooded floor.
In everything we do, we try to reduce the amount of waste. In preparation for the arrival of the bales, a back board is
created from the garage to "catch" the bales as they unload from the bale stacker.
After searching two years for a local supply of 2 string bales, the first load makes its way from Stillwater Farms located
only 15 km from our site.
The bottom of the hill on our 11 acres, is home to a small herd of deer. Every week we go out to work on the
acreage, we are blessed by various wildlife.
October 31, 2007 Update
The Cold is upon us, but there is nothing to complain about. We've been
blessed with a fantastic fall that has allowed Cliff and Debra to get
us a fantastic number of bales ready to go for spring.
We now have the forms pulled off the first third of the studio and have
come to the decision to scrap the plywood forms and look for an
alternative method of building the form boards. We've discovered the
plywood to be slow and difficult to work with as well as not being able
to withstand the moisture content from the cement. Some of the forms
are beginning to delaminate and others are taking on considerable warp
that will only get worse. Although we are not big fans of putting more
plastic into the world, we're looking at possibly using recycled
lexan plastic. If we can source a good amount from old signs destined
for the garbage, it may be what we need for our solution.
The bales have arrived...and then arrived...and then arrived some more :)
We now have just over 1200 bales on site and hoping for more to
come.
The kids are loving them but are quite disappointed they are not
allowed to climb to the top of the 12 foot high stack. They like to
think of them as "really big Lego blocks" and have been trying
everything to get us to allow them to jump and climb on them.
We are planning to work through winter until the garage walls and
roof are up. After that, we'll be starting to concentrate on building
window and door rough-ins as well as roof beams for the studio.
The summer has been a very tiring experience and at times, we've felt
like nothing was happening, but a lot of careful planning mixed with
tons of prep work is beginning to bear its fruit. Looking back at
the photos from May and walking around the site now, it is incredible
to imagine that it was a barren field six month ago.
God bless everyone who has helped so far on this project and we will continue to keep you posted as the progress continues.
Matthew & Josh enjoying a wagon ride around the acreage.
As you can tell by both blurry photos, Josh never stopped jumping up and down he was so excited!
The are about 800 bales shown in this picture. Since that time, 400 more have arrived. Cliff and Debra Luther have
been doing an incredible job of getting us oat straw bales. The moisture content has been coming in at 12 - 14% which
means we should have no problem wintering them to use in the spring.
Audrey standing in the centre of the first pour of foundation footing.
Now we just have to do this twice more...then the bales can start going up.
November 25, 2007 Update
Winter is officially here! Some tell tale signs of that are...ready for
this...ah, white stuff on the ground...runny noses...ice on the
sloughs, the smell and crackle of a wood fire in the fireplace and oh
yeah, we are officially back to building again :) .
After taking a month off to catch our breath, we regrouped our family
yesterday to begin raising the walls on the garage. This is our pilot
project to prototype and experiment on building technique. We figure
its better to learn on 300 bales and 560 sq feet than on 3000 bales and
7000 sq feet.
Yesterday was a pretty low key day and we took a slow pace of work.
Friday was our first day home from a four day hospital stay with
yet another UTI with Matthew. This is the fifth time we've been
hospitalized since November of last year and each time we find it
quite taxing on our emotions and physical moral. Anyone who says a
hospital is a place to get rested has obviously never stayed in one!
Our Matty is on the mend though, and so we press forward with the build.
2,800 straw bales paint a "larger than life" picture of the size of the project. The bale stack stretches 150' long East
to West and another 59' North to South. Tarping the bales has proved to be a task in itself. Holding down 40' x 30' tarps
to withstand 100 kmh wind gusts has resulted in many trips back and forth from the city to salvage the torn and
frayed expensive tarps.
The last load of bales came toppling down. We planned on re stacking but after many shed tears by our children,
we opted to leave their "bale fort" for them to run and jump in. These will be the first bales used on the garage.!
Audrey sweeps the snow off the garage footing.
Next
we laid a bed of bubble/foil/bubble down on the footing. The foil
provides a radiant reflector to keep the warmth in the bales,
and the cold in the cement. The double layer of bubble wrap provides insulation to either side of the foil as well as a double
vapour barrier to prevent hygroscopic wicking from the cement to the bales.
After a few hours of doing this, your toes get very wet and cold.
Again, to prevent moisture from coming up through the cement, all holes and seams are sealed with
a sealant tape meant that is built to withstand moisture.
Coupling nuts are added to the all-thread that was anchored into the footing. Another section of all-thread is then screwed on.
Our 6 year old son, Matthew, did a wonderful job of tightening the coupling nuts. Believe it or not, he did such a good job
torquing them that when I double checked, no other tightening was required..
With the all-thread extensions added, we are all set to begin setting bales.
The very first bale gets set on the the footing.
A reciprocating saw is used to notch and fit bales around obstructions. Building with straw bale is something
that anyone with a understanding of why vapour barriers are used in Saskatchewan
and a little bit of construction savvy can do.
January 20, 2007 Update
I've once heard it said that patience is a virtue that comes with a lot
of "wait". It is also said that if you pray to God for patience, He
will give you the opportunity to be patient. After a wonderful
Christmas visiting family in Chicago, we've come back to hospital stays
again with our oldest son. Things are finally settled back down
and now we are back into the swing of building again.
A trip to Chicago found Lowe's and Menard's to be our new favorite shopping stores. We brought back as many building supplies
as we could possibly fit into our truck and not tip over. In addition to luggage, Christmas presents, and five people,
we managed to squeeze in 14 spools of wire, 2000' of radiant floor pipe, 2 electrical service boxes, breakers, track lights,
3 eight foot parking lot lanterns, a 4' bull float, 30' of magnesium handles, and a case of electrical boxes. The Canadian
dollar was very favortable for building supplies.
A door frame rough-in was built from 2x8's. Note the vertical peice running up the first 3' along the side.
This will help anchor the frame into the bales.
The bales are split to fit around and anchor the door frame. This method seems to be working well..
The walls begin to take shape.
Audrey on top of the fourth course of bales.
We decided the easiest and best scaffolding was the home made kind.
Bales don't always fit the way we need them. A chainsaw makes quick work to sculpt the bale
to be the shape we need it to be.
The garage walls are starting to take shape.
March 9, 2008 Update
Spring is just around the corner and God's grace continues to be
abundant in our lives. Each day we continue to bear witness to how
God's hand is at work in our lives as Riverstone Studios retreat house
and our family's new home slowly begins to take shape. Pondering this
past year and now this past winter, we are learning so many important
life lessons. Things like, how to fight fairly, how to forgive,
how to think through complicated planning and engineering, how to
budget for projects with a million unknown costs, and most
importantly...how to enjoy every single one of those moments.
We are now at the point of being about a month away from finishing the
straw bale garage and have begun planning our attack with the spring
thaw. We have figured out a simple "plug n play" truss system for
building the round forms, purchased a 20' deck trailer for safer
transport of lumber and finished parts of the building, purchased three
lifts of 2x8x16' lumber and 15 gallons of non toxic,
environmentally friendly, Elmers wood glue :)
As we fit the bales to the walls, some bales need to be cut to a custom size and re-tied. This is an extremely easy
yet complicated task. A specialized slip knot makes a self tightening noose, but if done wrong can waste a
lot of time and leave you with a sloppy bale.
The last straw bale goes into the wall of the garage.
The walls are finally up!
Audrey & Crystal place the vapour barrier over the top course of bales.
Audrey's Dad enjoying the day.
Doubled 2x6's are torqued down to form a top sill plate over the vapour barrier on the top course of bales.
Even though we've had our share of fun with load bearing bale walls, we feel it is important to compress
any type of straw bale wall. Compressing this 9' high wall brought it to 8 1/2' high when compacted. It's better
to have settling now that over the next 20 years. The top sill
plate also ties the header beam and all four walls together.
The kids always have a blast when they are out for the build. We find the city to be a challenge to keep them entertained,
but out here, there never seems to be a shortage of imagination and fun made from straw, dirt, or piles of snow!
Audrey puts the finishing touch on the header beam across the front of the garage door opening.
Audrey and her Dad finish "beefing up" the trusses.
Using the tractor, Kelly gives the truss a little love tap to move it over.
The first truss raised goes smoothly and gets put into position. Note the sun quickly departing...time to call this one a day!
May 11th, 2008 Update
Happy Mother's Day! As we woke up this morning in a lovely little Motor
Inn in Davidson, I wished my wife a happy Mother's Day. Her response
was one that makes a man's heart melt when you think you've got you're
family in over their heads..."There's no where else I would rather
be!". So we spent Mother's day hard at it building. This construction
project is more than just a building, more than just a business, more
than just a home...we are working on something that will hopefully be
here longer than we will and longer than our children will.
Everyday we cringe at the waste that we see in our world. Nothing
manufactured comes without a price to something else. Even this retreat
centre costs the environment and our health. Yet we are building
something that will intentionally not go out of style. We are not
choosing to slap together something just to "get it done". We are
choosing to build something with detail and difference. Something that
our children will enjoy...and something their children will enjoy.
Kelly drops the last roof span into place on the outside truss.
It felt like it took forever, but the roof structure is finally framed in.
Another view of the roof beams.
The completed roof frame..
Kelly begins sheeting in the roof. Because of the health risks of Urea Formedehyde, we've chosen not to use
plywood or OSB to sheet over with.
An inside view of the new roof.
The garage is finally coming together. Note the open strip across the top front of the peak. A row of windows will be
framed into this area.
Our new crew foreman takes charge of the situation.
The rebar is laid and ready for the pour.
David and Ashley, up to the challenge of back breaking work..
Concrete never really seems like that much weight until you add it all up. The floor used 31 bags of cement at 88 lbs per bag.
We used 300 gallons of water with another 50 gallons for cleanup. We used 13,600 pounds of gravel...all shoveled by hand.
This equals about 16,300 lbs of concrete in two days!
Half of the floor set from the day before and the new pour the next day.
Audrey defines the edge of the new pour and trowels the perimeter following a chalk line to establish a screed line.
Kelly uses a bullfloat to bring the cream to the surface of the concrete.
June 2, 2008 Update
A few weeks ago, we had the wonderful privalage of sharing our vision
of off grid living with about 80 exchange students from around the
world. Pictured below are two of the groups who toured our site as
well as other off grid families and building projects around
Craik. In the photos below and including the group not shown, you
will see 37 Countries represented. Audrey and I were both
honoured and privledged to help with the tours and were extremely
impressed with some of the tough questions asked about both sustainable
and off grid living.
July 3, 2008 Update
Summer is here and construction is going full speed ahead.
Someone I greatly respect once asked me how Audrey and I do all
of this...that is, take on such a tremendous project and
not tear our hair out...my answer...we've learned to micro manage very
well! And learning that can only occur by God's grace. We tackle
what we can when we can and never over think the situation. Currently
we divide and conquer our days starting at 7:30 am and usually
shut down construction when we can no longer see day light. This
involves the ongoing saga of landscaping, calling for line locates,
continuing finishing work on the garage, forming and mixing cement for
the grade beam on the studio, organizing work crews, beginning
beam construction for the walls and roof, and starting some
construction site clean up.
2 Corinthians 12 says "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." This
is our verse to live by this spring and summer thus far. We have
learned very well that you only have so much control over
your circumstances, so you make the very best use of each moment you
have and learn to embrace every stiff muscle, every cheque written from
a meager bank account for more and more supplies; embrace every good
friend and acquaintance who stops by to help, cherish every kiss from
your wife as you reach across to get your hammer, every truly
magnificent, thunder and light show followed by a glorious down pour of
rain after a hot and sweaty 34 degree C day, and especially, spending
the day pushing and spinning your son on a tire swing after and in
between every cut you make on the table saw. In this season of
our lives, this is what the Taylor-Faye clan calls family...and there
is no where else anyone of us would rather be.
The
top picture shows what the land looked like as of May last year. Above
picture is taken in the same spot July 1st, 2008
The overhead door and top glass are in on the garage and some of the flashing installed.
Stuffing, hammering and straightening bales, as well as
trimming excess straw has to occur before we wrap and parge the structure.
Grandpa's old used tires make the best swings!
Be it ever so humble, the garage offers everything we need, bathroom, shower, kitchen, beds, and living room.
Although I do have to chuckle when our 4 year old Joshuah quite earnestly asked mommy why we had to share our "house" with
the scissor lift.
On a bitter sweet note, our 60 year old Allis tractor said good bye to us with a puff of black smoke followed by a seized
engine caused by a broken connecting rod which resulted in destroying the engine block, rings, bearings, and crankshaft.
In case you didn't follow all of the mechanical jargon...what that
means is until a new engine is found for her, she don't work no more!
This resulted in an emergency blitz to find another tractor, preferably
one that worked more hours without stopping to fix. We found a nice
refurbished one shown above. Kelly's dad, a back-hoe operator for fifty
years, has some fun checking around for underground gas lines :)
Audrey with Kelly's mom.
An aerial view of the 10 acres behind the studio. Shown is Audrey's 1/3 acre garden and tree nursery along with the 32,000
tree forest which borders our land and the Arm River valley in the distance. This year we have planted about 500 trees
including more than 130 maples, 100 choke cherries, and 100 Saskatoon berry bushes.
An aerial view of the front of our lot. Shown in photo are two cement rings which make up 2/3rds of the studio and house
as well as our straw bale garage in the front right edge of the
photo. Also being constructed this year will be a water feature at the
front entrance which will connect to a tiny 2 acre man-made lake via a creek running under the entrance drive way.
The lake will border the retreat house on the south side
(the retreat house will be built just to the left of the driveway
shown above). The adjoining creek will run through the fruit tree orchard which is currently being established.
The goal for opening the doors on Riverstone Studios - Craik is Spring 2009.
September 8, 2008 Update
Summer is quickly
departing and although we've made a great deal of progress on
construction, it just doesn't feel enough. We've had a major set
back to construction with both the health of Audrey and to our oldest
son Matthew. Currently Audrey is awaiting exploratory surgery for
severe abdominal pain that she has been living with since the last week
of July. Day to day functioning is difficult and she is currently
on 7 medications to control the pain including narcotics. Waiting lists
are absolutely intolerable as are dealing with overburdened medical
specialists. Anyone who says our medical system isn't broken obviously
has never had to use it. Matthew as well has continued to be hit with
monthly UTI's which we can't get on top of. The labs have been having a
very difficult time culturing the samples to find out what we are
fighting, and none of the antibiotics have been hitting them hard
enough to knock out this bug or chain of bugs. As of today, he is also
fighting an ear infection. I always go back to my old stand by saying
of "God never gives you more than you can handle...but I just wish He
wouldn't trust us with so much :) ".
Having said that, as we enter into fall, we need to take stock of what
we have accomplished and take a moment to reflect on how much we
actually did get done:
1. We purchased a 3 KW wind turbine.
2. We closed in, roofed, poured a floor, and are currently plastering the walls of our garage.
3. We completed pouring another 300 feet of grade beam on the studio/house.
4. We dug a basement.
5. We dug and buried sewage lines for studio and house.
6. Planted and harvested a huge organic garden.
7. Built and Installed an indoor shower.
8. Planted close to 500 fruit and maple trees
9. And most important, we built a ton of memories we will never forget.
Mark Deschnieder from Holdfast came out and installed about 300 feet of sewage pipe for us. Kelly dug and buried in about
the last 70 feet or so.
The line is buried about 7 feet deep but needed to be lifted up about a foot and a 1/2 to tie into the pre-laid
rough-ins Kelly installed prior to pouring the cement on the grade beam. Part of the job included carefully excavating the area
around the grade beam until the pipes were uncovered without disturbing the soil at the grade beam.
In the right hand photo, an over zealous Kelly backfilled just a little too much with lifting up the trench
height which resulted in having to "get the machine" aka "shovel" going
to dig back down about three feet. Trust me...I'll never make that mistake again!
Uncovering the service pipes out of the studio and house to tie into the new sewage line. Note the two lines.
One is for black water going to sewage, the other will be tied into a grey water tank. That water will come from the pottery
room sinks as well as the bathroom sinks and showers and will be filtered and re-used
to service all of the toilets in the studio and house.
As the evenings get colder, we are shifting gears from the studio/house back to the garage to get it finished for winter.
After some experimentation, we've found a recipe for the plaster/stucco
we are very happy with and are trying both with wire
and without wire over the bales. Above pictured, Kelly is shaping the bales with an electric chainsaw.
This is a very dusty process.
In addition to being very dusty, it also produces a tremendous amount of straw. This straw is left in place while the walls
are plastered. The fallen straw protects the floor from getting stained
and any plaster that falls to the floor is scooped up with
the straw and used as a cob mixture to fill in any gaps or holes in the bale walls. The remaining straw is reclaimed for mulch
around the trees. Nothing goes to waste.
Welcome to pain. To finish a 10' high x 8' wide section of wall requires about 750 lbs of stucco/plaster.
Every last pound is applied by hand. The end result is about a 5 cm thick coating of portland cement, lime and sand
with texture and rustic beauty that no acrylic stucco house comes close to comparing to.
After each coat of plaster/stucco is applied, we use a broom to "scratch" the surface. This gives some substance
for the subsequent coats to adhere to.
The finish on the walls is absolutely gorgeous! We applied a scratch coat and brown coat. It takes about
4 hours to complete a 10' high x 8' wide section and as this is our secondary priority, it will probably
be a few years before we get to putting the finishing coat on.
Another view of the inside of the garage. We purchased some pallet racking to help with storage...What a blessing!
With the grade beam almost complete, we are teeing up to start placing beams. There is a lot of work to do before that
which unfortunately means another cold winter of working in the snow...but remember: What doesn't kill you, makes you
stronger....Did I ever mention how difficult it is to work in the snow at minus 20 degrees?
January 9, 2009 Update
Happy new year!
As another year passes us by, we say goodbye to it with both an
embrace as well as a good riddance! This past year has been
filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly...mostly the ugly! We are
caught between a rock and hard spot in trying to build in Craik, and
trying to work full time in the city. Its a love / hate relationship as
we are torn between needing to work to pay the bills and needing the
time to build and protect our investment in bales slowly composting in
the open field.
Audrey too was out of commission for the entire building season this
past summer awaiting surgery in November for severe abdominal and hip
pain. After the exploratory surgery we were met with yet more
disappointment from the medical profession telling us that it was being
caused by large amounts of adhesions that had developed from a previous
surgery a few years back. The surgeon was able to cut away enough of
the adhesions to get her pain from requiring morphine to using Tylonel
3. The statistics that followed were pretty bad...there was
nothing more medically that could be done, go home, have a nice
life...oh, and by the way...70% of people who suffer with adhesions
have them return to the same or worse severity within the 3 years
following surgery. Luckily, our Faith is stronger than that, and she is
now on the up swing of recovery as she is working her way through
massage therapy treatments which are working with great success.
Our son Matthew too has had a fantastic recovery from being plagued by
re-occurring UTI infections. He has not had one since the
summer and as a result is spending much more time in school and
catching up to his classmates academically and socially quite quickly.
Kelly thought he'd try sympathy pain with his wife by falling seven
feet off a ladder while building in Craik three days before
Audrey's surgery. Luckily, his head hit the cement 1st , thus
protecting his body from any damage :) What ensued was six weeks
of recovery highlighted with 24 hr headaches , nausea and ringing
ears that no pain killer would touch. Slurred speech,
vertigo, and not being able to say what I'm thinking I think were the
hardest parts of the head trauma to deal with. I was so blessed
that a good friend of ours, Crystal, was there to get me to the
hospital where an insuring battle took place between the doctor and
myself as to whether or not stitches were necessary. In the two
other times I've required stitches, they have been terrible ordeals and
horrible scars...needless to say, the doctor won out and didn't really
listen for a moment to my persistence in not requiring them. PS...I'm
glad the doctor didn't listen to me :)
So as our family is on the upswing and recovering well, we've had a few
months to reflect on God's goodness in all this mess; and it has given
us time to prepare our house in Saskatoon for Rental which will
allow us a bit more breathing space financially on building the Retreat
Centre.
Currently we are working on building the box beams which will help to
form the walls. There are 41 to build which is a lot of work. We have
chosen to construct them in the city and then take them out to erect
on-site. There is very little left of our tarps protecting the bales,
so it is of up most importance to us to start placing the bales into
the walls sooner than later before the spring thaw brings moisture in
the form of rain and melting snow.
So with all that said, we can only place our Faith and our Hope and our
Trust in God, and continue to press forward as we can. If you listen to
the news broadcasts, the whole world looks bleak and down trodden, and
they are absolutely right! This is a horrible world filled with
uncertainty, financial problems, and no hope...but for those with Faith
and Purpose, this is a reason for change, and the right season to
begin. Nothing will grow without planting a seed, and nothing will come
to completion without a bigger vision.
All the best,
Kelly
A warm up in the Eco Centre after closing up the build site in late fall
January 21, 2009 Update
Two steps forward...and one step back...
That is the best way to describe this week. We got a beautiful after
Christmas gift in the form of a week of unusually warm weather right in
the middle of January. Taking advantage of the break in the weather, we
quickly began building box beams to help form the walls, and rushed to
get them out to the site to install. The travel out was borderline
safe, but taking it slow, 2 hours of travel resulted in
being able to drop off the beams at the site...that is after we spent
the entire morning and a good part of the afternoon clearing snow from
our yard, the neighbour's yard, and off the road so that the loop
on the end of our roadway could actually be used.
We had a fantastic day and even got a chance to get some well needed
visiting done with friends in the area before heading back to Saskatoon
after supper. The problem with warm weather in January though is that
it is very abnormal and brings with it blowing snow and pavement frost
which is extremely unpredicable for ice. We found the highway to be
icy, but manageable with reduced speed so we buckled down and prepared
for a 2 hour slow drive back to the city. Forty km after leaving, we
felt the trailer we were hauling wiggle slightly behind us followed by
the back end of our truck sliding out. In a split second (which
felt like an hour at the time) I made the decision to help keep the
greasy side of the truck facing down which meant taking the ditch
with straight wheels. It was by far, the best choice and the
right choice at the moment, but resulted in the light weight frame on
the trailer not being able to take the snow and caused the deck
to seperate. We had to leave the trailer there in the ditch till
morning, drove out in 4x4 and retreated back to Craik for the night.
The trailer frame is repairable and the deck needs to be rebuilt, but
thankfully, no one was injured and as accidents go, this was pretty
minor.
Even the next day, a friend and I ventured out with the larger
trailer to pick up the remains of the small one we were towing and we
still found the highways to be dangerous to be on at lunch time. On the
way back to craik with the damaged trailer loaded behind, we passed a
SUV that was flipped on its roof just minutes before we got there.
Davidson Paramedics and Fire Crew were trying to free the driver.
Highway crews were just beginning to salt the roads so we decided to
hold off a few more hours until finally being able to get back to
Saskatoon.
Pushing the weather to get home was an unnecessary risk we chose to take and thus the consequences.
The saving grace about this is that no one was injured, we weren't stranded, and I just commented that day about
how I'd like to change the box design so it would tow and load better...Now I have a reason to do it!
Welcome to Saskatchewan winter. Some of the snow drifts are as high as we are which means working through and
around them just takes that much longer. It is great to see all the moisture it will bring to the area in the spring. We just
wish so much of it wasn't right next to our bales!
The first set of box beams go into place and finally something is working out right. These beams hold the bales together in
the walls as well as tie the roof line to the foundation.
Another photo of the box beams ready to erect. To date we have 18 of the 41 box beams built for the first floor.
Planning is everything. The bolts were set into place using a jig back in the summer. The same jig was used to drill the
holes in the bottom of the box beam. The result is a perfect match.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
