Links

In preparation for our straw-bale self-build, from the 11th to the 13th of July 2008 Grandma (my Mum) and I (Sarah) went on a straw-bale building course organised by the Low Impact Living Initiative, run by Chug Tugby (strawbale-building.co.uk) and hosted at Unstone Grange.

There was a very good balance of theory, research based information, and practical.
Even though the building we did was only for demonstration / for us to have a go – we all had chance to learn about and try our hand at most parts of straw-bale building – both weight bearing and infill.

Chug’s knowledge of straw-bale building is astounding, he has gather so much knowledge and her is great to listen too – a very good story-teller whilst imparting his wealth of knowledge too.  See the course details for more information.

The only improvement really would have been working on a real straw-bale building, but the one that was lined up fell through unfortunately.

The staff at Unstone Grange made us all very welcome, the food was great and the rooms were comfortable, but the Grange needs lots of work on it – so it was good to be able to support it financially.  The Unstone Grange gardens are also Soil Association certificated and we were give a great talk on the gardens and the wine they brew (with a tasting) too!
They are having an Organic Gardens Open Day on Sunday 12th August.

A wonderful weekend – its given me lots of confidence for project managing our building, answered my questions and given me vision for the home we can create.

We have also been on Amazon Nails Straw-bale building courses which are great too.

Photo’s coming soo