Home For The Holidays

We are spending this winter holiday season at home in East Central Minnesota.  An early December snowstorm delivered 14-1/2" of snow and a Monday holiday from school to enjoy it.  Around here the roads have to be pretty treacherous for a "snow day" to be called by the school district.  When that happens we do a happy dance, make another cup of coffee and enjoy the falling snow through the picture window.  Later, it's time to put on snow pants and play in the drifts.  Fill the woodstove, put some bread to rise, pour a glass of wine and then we retire to the hearth to enjoy the evening.

One of our holiday traditions is to unpack decorations that have been handed down from Ken's grandparents and parents.  We also trim the house with natural objects and cut down a Christmas tree at a local tree farm.

A favorite cozy escape from the winter chill is our sauna.  This was the first structure Ken built on our property, originally a tool shed.  Since then it has been retrofitted into a chicken coop and a small art studio before its present sauna status.  Completely relined in aromatic cedar, you'd never know chickens once roosted here!

We had planned on going cross-country skiing at Wild River State Park, but by 1:00 it had only just made it to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.  A hike down the river bottoms seemed like a better idea.  Behind our home, and down the bluff you come to the north branch of the Sunrise River.  We found that it was solid enough to walk on, and in some areas was frozen as clear as glass.  We spied some live fish and insects clinging to the bottom side of the ice!

Tiny frost clusters resemble miniature icebergs.

A view of the back side of the house from the river trail.

Minnesota Autumn

Sunlight angles through the woods casting our home in a glow.

Nights cool enough to grab a sweater and mid-day temperatures that cause you to run the air conditioning in your car, it's autumn in Minnesota.  The turning of summer to fall is a brief, but beautiful passage in our region.  The red and gold colors of the leaves and the crisp edge of the early morning air alert me to my favorite season.  My attention turns to the vegetable garden.  Is there a frost warning tonight?  Can I cover the tender plants or do I need to bring them in?  (Oops, I lost some basil).  The herbs next to the house last the longest, as they benefit from the heat sink that is the massive amount of stucco plaster covering our strawbale home.  I recently made the first fire of the season in the woodstove, mostly for ambience, but it did take a chill off.

Another fall chore is to give the windows their last cleaning before cold weather sets in.  Our large south and east facing picture windows in the dining room give us a view of the changing seasons and wild turkeys that pass through as well as provide passive solar heat energy.  The house is backed up to the northern edge of the clearing to protect us from the northern wind while allowing as much natural light as possible in the winter from the south.

A dining room view into the woods.

This picture of the dining room gives you an idea of the mass of the strawbale walls.  There is a peeled pole in the corner that is a structural support in the post and beam framework.  To the left of the pole is a "truth window."  Truth windows are a traditional feature in strawbale homes that give you a peek inside the wall structure.  The chicken wire mesh (lathe) and straw bales are exposed and invite you to try to poke your finger into their depth.  Ken put built-in window seats with storage drawers below these windows.  It's a favorite place to sit in the sun for people and cats.

Minnesota children return to school on the day after Labor Day.  That holiday weekend is a traditional time to sharpen pencils and have one last summer fling if the weather cooperates.  The weather did cooperate, so we packed coolers and fishing gear and headed to the St. Croix River with my brother's family for some paddling, casting and a last swim in the river.

Canoeing the scenic St. Croix River in September.

We are fortunate to live close to the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, a part of the National Park Service.  We usually access the river through Wild River State Park, about 20 minutes from our door.  It's a great park and we use it for activities throughout the seasons: hiking, biking and skiing.  I am hoping for a more generous snow fall than last year so we can make use of the ski trails.  Although I am not eager for autumn to end, I do look forward to cozy time around the woodstove.

Fruits of Our Labor

The first structure we built on our 9 acres was the tool shed.  (After it served its purpose for storing tools it became a chicken coop, then a mini art studio and is now a sauna!)  The second structure we built was this outbuilding that we call The Shop (pictured above).  On the ground floor is Ken's custom cabinetry workshop.  He is a true craftsman.  www.woodwrightworkshop.com  The upstairs portion is used for storage, although I imagine a remote guest quarters or art studio as another use for that space.  What I really want to write about today is the fabulous veggie garden that is adjacent to the shop.

Ken doesn't fool around.  This garden began with an excavation 2 feet below the surface for the purpose of lining the pit with chicken wire to prevent gophers before backfilling it.  Landscape fabric was laid under the gravel paths and new soil was brought in to fill the galvanized steel raised beds.  A drip-irrigation system was installed.  A fence with 2 gates was erected.  The irrigation system also runs past the veggie garden to the apple trees and raspberry canes.  The raspberries have just finished their mid-summer fruiting.  We will get a second, sweeter fall harvest.  This morning's work included assembling fruit pies for the freezer and baking one to eat tonight.  SWEET!

http://christiescorner.com/2011/03/28/recipe-raspberry-pie/

Earth, Wind and Fire

Moisture and fire are concerns for all homeowners.  This morning I heard the sad news that a friend's beautiful, historic farmhouse was struck by lightning and gutted by fire.  At the same time we are enduring high humidity and temperatures near 100 degrees Farenheit.  As strawbale home owners we are frequently asked about fire risk, and per our location in the humid Midwest United States, moisture control.  In the mid 1980's fire safety tests of plastered strawbale walls were performed by the National Research Council of Canada.  In 1993 The Development Center for Appropriate Technology in New Mexico carried out similar tests.  Summary of New Mexico ASTM E-119 Small Scale Fire Tests On Straw Bale Wall Assemblies 

In short, both tests showed that plastered strawbale walls are extremely fire resistant.  The New Mexico test results found that plastered strawbale walls resisted fire penetration for 2 hours.  Impressive!  You can read more about testing and results from actual fires in The Straw Bale House, by Athena Swentzell Steen, Bill Steen and David Bainbridge with David Eisenberg (1994), considered by many to be the strawbale "bible."  Fire resistance is inherent in this type of wall construction.  Moisture control in our environment required more planning.  My husband Ken Geisen will remark on this in a later post. 

(In this photo,you can see the exterior stuccoed walls that are strawbale insulated and non-load bearing.  The walls with cedar siding are traditional framed walls.  The highest portion of the roof line is a stair tower with clerestory windows).

Welcome To Our Strawbale Home Blog

It's ironic that we live in a strawbale home in the middle of the woods.  Strawbale homes were originally built in the plains of Nebraska over one hundred years ago because there was limited lumber for home building and the railroads weren't bringing it there yet.  Last week a huge oak on our neighbor's property fell across our driveway, its crown blocking passage.  It took several hours to cut, drag and clear.  That oak will go into our woodshed.  It takes only 2 cords of wood in our Jotul stove to heat the 2000 square feet.  We rarely need to use the radiant floor heat except in the coldest parts of winter.  Right now, in July, we appreciate the thermal qualities of the strawbale insulation for keeping the house cool.  It was 90 degrees Farenheit outside, but only 65 degrees inside the other day.  Opening the windows fully overnight to catch the nighttime low, then closing them upon waking we can keep it cool!