Furthermore, in contrast to popular perception, pests are more of an imagined concern than a real threat in straw built housing. Once the walls are properly plastered or sided, there is no way for bugs or rodents to get into the bales. If pests were to get inside, they would find it almost impossible to move in the densely packed bales. Termites and other pests pose more of a problem to conventional construction than they do to straw bale structures.
Straw bale homes provide superior sound absorption compared with conventional houses. This will be especially important in the town homes. The sound absorption between units will help create separation between common wall homes.
During construction, high density bales and proper compression are a must to ensure the bales will not settle under the weight of the roof assembly. In-fill structures rely on the framing to carry the vertical loads. Lateral loads, or shear strength, is carried by the wall assembly as a whole. The bales, the structural wire mesh, and the plaster all play a part in the handling of lateral loads. Recent engineering has shown bale wall assemblies to be structural sound even in the most volatile earthquake zones of California!
Thus it appears that straw bale houses are relatively inexpensive and easy to build. As long as banks and corporations are in charge of our lands, they may provide a cost effective way to reduce housing costs and may be a way to reduce the power of banks and corporations by ultimately getting the power of having our own land and housing in our own hands and not the banks and corporate enterprises.
How many people actually pay off a 30 year mortgage? Who owns the land we live on (if ownership is even allowed in Nature's Law Book)?
More importantly, Emily Niehaus notes that when one walks into a strawbale house, one "feels hugged by it." Could it be that the psychological, spiritual and physical benefits of a warm mothering hug by one's house could result in the lessening of psychological and physical symptoms of distress? Perhaps the first step to creating a healthy and peaceful culture is to build healthy and peaceful houses. The intimate community created during a build among client, volunteer, and professional builders also increases the personal and emotional value of the Community Rebuilds home to its residents.
Straw built housing alongside other creative ways of making housing affordable, high quality' and healthy across all domains (environment and human) are imperative steps to our becoming free of the tyrannical political and corporate structure that we are enslaved in. Organizations such Community Rebuilds are instrumental to our quest for freedom...freedom from the banks, the corporations and their underling governments.
The best way to learn the art of straw bale construction is by taking a workshop (see links below).
The more organizations such as Community Rebuilds that come into existence, the quicker we can come out from under the power of the Corporate world. It does us no good any more to create unions which pressure corporations to behave themselves by giving proper wages with hours of work that are not on the verge of slavery. Nor can we count on the bought and sold politicians to legislate our freedom and well being. We in the labor classes must declare our equal rights alongside our sisters.
What is labor if not a feminine function. We need to get off our backs in a position of powerlessness and take charge of our labor, as well as who enters the depths of our Souls (e.g., the media). We need to be empowered. Not by war. Not by any savior/leader. We don't need another Patriarch. We need to change by changing our lives. Indeed, the more we can utilize the system to bring that same system down, the better. Perhaps this is the true gift of organizations such as Community Rebuilds. It is only in our communities, in our own homes, containing our own families and within the depths of our own Soul that we can take power back.
Kissinger reportedly said, "Control the oil, control nations. Control the food, control people." It's that simple. If we get control over the basics--food, shelter, water, and air--we shall take power back. Thus is the wisdom behind the work of Community Rebuilds and the passionate loving vision of Emily Niehaus.
Perhaps Emily will soon be known as one of the Mothers of the New Dawn...the evolution of consciousness within the human species!
Straw Bale House by Community Rebuilds
Links and Further Information
Workshops regarding straw bale: www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com
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