Waste Not...

Stricken [love the dramatic word] with a cold-flu bug, I'm desperately searching for some positive thoughts. The past week brought a lot of extra demands - we'd pushed hard on the long weekend to get the exterior fill coat of plaster done, our jobs were particularly demanding and, in the midst of it all, a dear friend of ours passed on. It helped shake us from the surreal world of building a house briefly. The extra pressures bored through our stamina a bit, hence my cold (despite my stellar immune system) and Dave strained his back during some plaster mixing on Sunday. We'll bounce back in a few days time, but in the mean time, here's my positive, uplifting note for the day:

People have remarked on the small amount of construction waste a straw bale home produces. In total, we'll take about a dozen bags of bits and pieces of foam, metal, packaging and general every day waste (including food packaging...yuck) off our site from several months' work. Wood pieces leftover from cuts are given to family and friends for home heating fuel. Trees that were salvaged from the site will be used as fence posts and some have been given to friends for milling. Leftover soil and rocks will be used for landscaping. After that, all we have left is our composting straw. No need to rent a dumpster!

Excavation will be complete today, so photos will follow once I'm back on my feet.