Montana and Wyoming, The Red Feather Build

It is hard to stop travelling--for me anyway. New York is a final destination for a lot of people. You come here and give up the need to drive and so your car. I have thought of losing the truck several times, it is such a hassle, such an expense. But to lose the truck would rob us of the freedom to leave the city, to take my sweetie and go. Going to Montana was incredible. We met this amazing group of people who spend their time building houses for deserving families. We got there for the last week of the build and did a lot of finish work and clean up, it was great. I do this for a living and I know that finish and clean up are some of the most important things to do at a construction site. Finish work is the stuff homeowners get to stare at the whole time they are living in the house! And if you have ever seen a construction site before landscaping--let's just say it is the difference between walking into a gravel mine and walking into a yard.
The house is made of straw layered with an inch of stucco on the inside and out. You can see it on our flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/shanandjon . The straw bales make it about 18 inches thick, so it is super insulated and thermally massive. The stucco makes the window and door insets look so pillowy and sculpted I had to run my hands over it constantly. The house was built in 30 days people--a miracle!! I have to do it again, start to finish!! We camped on the prairie and slept next to the earth. We showered with bags of sun heated water. We ate our meals with our co-workers and helped with cooking and cleaning. Lightening threatened us, horses galloped in packs past our flimsy tents at night, rattlesnakes rattled as we snuck by, and the native american nations ran incredible pow-wows the whole time we were there.