The Last Straw: Back Issues & Full Text of Feature Articles

Sustainable Living
Green or Natural? In a Modern Sustainable Society... Sustainability: Concepts and Perspectives... The Natural Street... Native to Place... Interview/Alfred vonBachmayr... World Hands Project... Teaching
the Three Little Pigs about Sustainability... Nature and Natural Building: Principles of Biomimicry... What is an Ecocity? Building Design Ideas Focused on Sustainability... Better Quality and Ecological Correctness through Sustainable Design... Sustainable Living in California... To Flush or Not to Flush... Gable Wall Assemblies

Water Conservation and Management - Catchwater/Rainwater Harvesting... Greywater... Water Storage... Permaculture... Microhydro Power... Planted Filter Reed-bed System... Rain Chains... Outdoor Showers... Bamboo Design for Affordable Housing... Lone Oak Bale Building (Nebraska)... Bale-wall
Airplane Hangar

Then and Now (This issue includes updated versions of some previously published articles to illustrate how things were Then and how they are Now.) - A straw-bale builder's rules of thumb ... One woman's view about strawbale ... Step-by-step instructions for building your own moisture sensor ... building small, comfortable, livable spaces ... Forty helpful tips for planning and organizing a bale wall raising ... Key solar and environmental design flaws to avoid ... Mixing, masking, sifting, measuring, and mudding tips from a pro ... An update on the evolving world of strawbale (what's changed, stayed the same) ... A mortgage-free, waste-free, subsidy-free, work/live-at-home, low-price way of living (Friland in Denmark)... Earthbag Structures in disaster and poverty-stricken areas ... Finishing bale walls with siding (rain screens) ... Thatching with cattails ... Used Pool Liners as roof membranes ... Waste Wood Columns: Turning scrap into structure ... Lessons of a Mixmaster (with recipes) ... Truth Windows, Mandalas and Straw Bales

Ecovillages, Communities and Cohousing - Housing Our Society: Options for Cohousing ... Ecovillages and Cohousing: Aldinga & Rosneath - Australia, Dancing Rabbit - Missouri, Emerald Earth, Forty Oaks & Two Acre Wood - California, The Farm - Tennessee, Ithaca - New York ... Cohousing and Communities: Sustainable Living Solutions ... The Need to Connect ... Cordwood How-To ... The China Trip ... Strawbale in Pakistan ... ISBBC Canada 2006 ... etc.

Natural Materials and Building II - Earthbag building ... Cordwood Masonry ... Bousillage ... Straw-bale Panel Walls ... Garden Walls ... Fire Test report ... Natural Building Materials Showrooms ... SB over wood frame floofloors ... etc.

The Status of Straw Bale Codes and Permitting Worldwide ... Primary U.S./International Sources and Quotes from Sources ...Links for Straw-bale Codes, Guidelines, and Documentation ... Table of Straw-bale Building Codes, Guidelines, and Mandates in the United States ... New Mexico and The Evolution of a Straw-bale Code ... A Tale of Two Straw-bale Codes(New Mexico and Arizona) ... Straw-bale Codes and Testing in Germany ... Funding for German SB Testing Program ... Excerpts from the Belarusian SB Codes ... McCook, Nebraska ... Ten Years Later: Straw-bale in the Building Codes ... Straw-bale Infill Meets U.S. Building Codes ... Update - 2006 TLS Resource Guide ... Product Reviews ... Common Straw-bale Mistakes

Know Thy Straw Bales: What have we learned? Research and Testing Update - Straw-bale Construction - What Have We Learned? ... Straw-bale Sound Insolation & Acoustics ... Straw Bale Cousins ... Moisture Basics & Straw-Bale Moisture Basics ... Straw Samples Tested by Delmhost Company for Accuracy of Moisture Meter ... Another Evolution of Moisture Sensors ... Seismic-resistant Straw-bale Walls ... Plaster Testing ... Quick In-Quick Out Concept

Natural Materials and Building - Comparison of Building Materials ... The Case for Natural Building ... What is Cob? ... You Can Hand-sculpt Your House (Cob) ... Balecob ... EcoNest (Clay/Straw) ... PaperCrete: An Ecologically Sound Building Material ... Mixing and building with fibrous cement (Papercrete) ... What is the Truth about Papercrete? ... Building Materials from the Sea - Mussel Shells and Seagrass ... Magic Walls(strawbale privacy and garden walls) ... Privacy Walls and Fences (photographs) ... Ecocomposites ... Bamboo Joinery Design ... Bamboo Earns ICC Approval ... Earth Plaster Goes Mainstream ... Eco-Sensible Product Review ... BuildingGreen Announces Top-10 Green Building Products ... Earthen Floor (Poured Adobe Floor Step-by-step) ... Sometimes You Just Need a Little Mud (Clay Preparation) ... An Earthbag/Papercrete House ... Asking the Right Questions

Annual Resource Guide

A Strawbale and Natural Building Sampler ... Tractor Cob ... Strawbale and Natural Building Well Suited to Hybrid Design and Construction ... An Update of Straw-bale Construction Efforts in Mongolia ... The Downland Gridshell Conservation Store and Work Shop ... Australia's Secret! 60-year-old Straw Houses ... SB? Yes! But Differently ... In Search of the Straw-bale Goddess ... Can a Straw-bale Building be Moved? Apparently so ... Lime and Straw: A Symbiotic Relationship ... Jumbo Bale House at ballarat ... Hop Family and Red Feather Foundation Build Straw-bale Home ... A Tribute to Carol Escott ... Straw-bale Construction Certification and Training ... CASBA's Pro Course II

Elements of Design ... Meeting Design Goals w/Straw Bales ... Design without Design ... Designing Small ... Permaculture Approach to Site Evaluation ... Siting to Enhance Building Design ... Checklist for Environmentally Responsible Design & Construction ... Where to Draw the Line (hot, humid climate design considerations) ... Planning & Design Ideas ... Potential Savings from Alternative Construction Methods ... More Cost Saving Ideas ... Selection and Placement of Bath Fixtures ... Walls, Halls and Stairs ... Sun Mapping ... Tips about Bales ... Another Way to Install Wiring ... Bale Preparation ... Cozy Bale-Cob Cottage in Southern Indiana ... Strawbale Emergency Shelter Plans ... Winery at Mount Barker (Australia)

Myths and Realities ... Dispelling rumors and untruths about strawbale: SB is cheap, SB is only for owner/builders, SB walls “breathe,” Wet bales will always dry out, SB is easy, Building departments will not approve bale buildings, SB is appropriate for every climate, A candle oughta heat one of them SB houses, Cement plaster will make your walls rot, You’ll never get a mortgage for a bale house, SB will save the world ... Moisture Discussion: What to do when your walls get wet ... Cutting Bales with Portable Sawmill ... Placing Electrical Boxes ... Exterior Insulation with Straw Bales ... Hop Hills Horse Stable ... Small School in New Zealand ... Sustainable Building Course Features Bale Building ... Resource Guide 05 Update

Sustainable Systems ... The Big Picture: Defining "eco-Sensible" Design ... Annualized Geo-Solar: Heating Our Homes with Sunshine ... Natural Ventilation: Let There be Air, Fresh Air ... Renewable Energy: A Perfect Fit with Straw Bale ... Down the Drain: What About Waste Water? ... StrawHouse Market ... Prefab Bale Homes Part of USDA Demonstration ... The Bale Screws: Keeping Things Tight ... Casein Glue ... Hands for Knowledge Update

Annual Resource Guide

A Summer of Gatherings ... Getting Trained in SB and Natural Building ... Teaching Natural Building to Youth ... Financing Straw-bale Projects ... Tricks of the Trade: Tree Planting Pouches ... Design & Instrumentation of an Experimental Building ... The Rice Hull House ... UK and Continent Tours ... Experiencing ISBBC-04 in Denmark ... ISBBC-04: The Next Generation ... Hands-On and Theory Sessions ... Natural Building Colloquium-East ... 1st European Natural Building Colloquium ... Orofino Vineyards, Dignity Village, Prefab Walls in Alberta

We Build It This Way ... A Simple Top Plate for Load-bearing Walls ... A Rubble Trench Foundation ... Simple Window Bucks and Sills ... Three Bale Wall Connections ... Details for a Light Post-and-Beam System ... A Concrete Bond Beam Detail ... Strawbale and Moisture in the Pacific Northwest ... Research Projects in Austria ... What's Behind Those Damp Patches ... Three Belgian Projects ... Building Vaults in The Netherlands ... A California Mountain Home ... Some Austrian Projects ... Small, Simple and Sustainable: Learning from Squatters ... Living with Straw in China

Living with Straw ... Straw-bale Homeowner Survey ... Telling Comments... All About Cracks ... Natural Paints for Natural Buildings: What and Why ... Living in the Historic Scott House in Nebraska ... Post-Occupancy Evaluation: Learning from Experience ... House Tour Etiquette: A Printer for Visitors and Owners ... A Fire Story ... Living with Straw When You're Living without Straw ... Fire Safety: A Review of Testing and Experience ... Heavy Green Roofs on Load-bearing Walls in Germany ... Strawboard Panels ... Electrical Wiring for Strawbale ... Hanging Around Bale Walls ... Straw Building an the Principles of Passive Solar Design

A World Tour of Strawbale - Australia, Belarus, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Israel, Iraq, Mexico, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Siberia, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, USA.

Annual Resource Guide
Bale Wisdom - Bale Buying 101 ... Finding
and Working with a Designer.

The Case for Clay ... Earthen plasters and why and how we should use them ... Soil science ... Testing ... Recipes ... Decorative Plastering ... Tom Rijven Interview.

New Systems ... All kinds of baled stuff-paper, cardboard, tires ... High-density Straw ... Vaults ... Prefab Bale Walls ... O Block rice straw building block ... Bale-roofed potato cellars un-"earthed" in Idaho ... "Wolfhooks" - new connectors simplify post-and-beam ... John Straube Interview ... Homemade Power Trowel.

Value vs. Cost ... Proper Planning for an Accurate Budget ... Be Your Own General Contractor ... SB Home Construction Costs ... Cost Savers ... Calculating SB Wall Costs

TLS Turns Ten! ... Defending Loadbearing Construction ... Breaking Down Barriers ... Insurance, Codes, Financing, Documentation ... An Infrared Look at Bale Walls in Action ... Project Pages; Wild & Crazy Scheme Column

SB & Education: Annual Resource Guide 2002

Foundations and Roofs ... Foundation Details & Systems ... Trusses for SB Buildings ... Bales in a Roof; Thatching ... Irish Beauty for the Public ... Oasis Ecohousing ... Bora's House in Turkey

Going Commercial ... Building a Sustainable Practice ... SB Spec Homes ... Producing Bales on the Farm ... International SB Registry ... Mainstreaming in the UK ... Natural Building Goes Commercial ... SB Open to the Public

Solar Solutions ... Passive Solar Heating ... Passive Solar Design ... Thermal Mass Applications ... Integrated Design ... Earthship: Thermal Mass & Passive Conditioning ... Passive Solar Resources ... Passive Cooling ... Solar Roof Design ... Backup Heating Systems ... Masonry Heaters ... Window Shopping ... Building Natural Builders

Natural Building & Community ... Cohousing: Building a Community ... Ecovillages ... Creating Sustainable Suburbs ... Community Green Building Policy ... Community Resources ... Human Resource List, Education/Resource Centers, Books, Videos, Catalogs & Mail Order, Internet, CD-ROMs, Building Bale Sources, Physical Resources

Strawbale Like A Stressed Skin Panel ... Thoughts on Good Detailing ... Self-Draining Foundations ... A Pier Foundation ... Rammed Tyre Foundations ... Keeping Strawbale Walls Dry ... Walls, No Windows ... Simple Pre-Compression ... Nailers ... Innovative Bale Needles ... Mechanizing Straw-Clay ... Canadian Military Tries Out Bale Construction

The Function of Finishes ... Earth Building and Moisture ... Designing for Earth Plasters ... Mysteries of Mud Revealed ... Window Detailing for Plasters ... Carbide Lime ... Waterproof Stucco ... Stucco Pumping Iron ... Testing Plaster Permeability ... Earth-Cement Plaster ... Gypsum Plaster on Strawbale

Designing for Cold Climates ... Importance of Being Airtight ... Good Detailing Practices ... Strawbale & Rastra ... Moisture Monitoring the Strawbale Slab ... Cold Climate Cob ... Cordwood, Earthberming & Masonry Stoves ... Warm Floor Heating ... A Strawbale Hot Tub ... Canadian Military Workshop ... Reports from Poland, Turkey, Mongolia & Strawbale Conferences

Pre-Construction Planning ... Hiring a Builder? ... Strawbale Financing & Insuring ... Don't Add Water ... Insects in Strawbale Structures ... Strawbale Compression Testing ... Strawbale & Flame Spread ... NM Fire Test ... Staining Concrete Floors ... Human Resources List ... Reviews & More Resources

Journey to a Small Place ... Making Square Feet Work Harder ... Indian Hand-Baled House ... A Family-Sized House ... Bumps & Curves in Scotland ... Living in Round Feet ... Small in The Suburbs ... Moore for Less ... Why Size Matters

The Role of Wall Coverings ... Selecting Lime Products ... Lime Paste ... Using Waste Limes ... Successful Lime Plaster ... Limewash ... Lime-Ash Floors ... Stabilizing Earth with Lime ... Keeping Strawbale Walls Dry

A Simple Strawbale Home ... Beyond the Strawbale Home ... Natural Systems in Building ... Owner Builder & Contractor Collaborations ... Bare Minimum Structures ... Combining Natural Materials for Energy Efficiency ... Heat Stored in Thermal Mass ... Energy & Strawbale walls ... Composting Toilets ... Constructed Wetlands ... Aerobic Pumice Wick ... Earthbag Construction

Annual Resources Issue: More reviews and resources than you can shake a stick at ... Bau Biologie ... Are Strawbale Homes Healthy? ... Sick Building Syndrome ... A Fungus Among Us ... The Natural Step ... Road to Right Livelihood ... We Built Here Now ... Colorado Natural Building Workshop

European Strawbale Scrapbook: Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Poland, Belarus, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Kosovo, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Northern Ireland ... International Strawbale Conference ... Rainscreen Siding ... Lime Plaster ... History of Cob ... Cordwood Masonry ... Thatching ... Seaweed Roofs ... Wattle-and-Daub

Steve MacDonald/Frank Meyer Interview ... A Simple Sturdy Privacy Wall ... Elephant's Foot Grade Beam Wall System ... Affordable Housing for Rosebud Reservation ... 2-String Load-Bearing System... On Edge ... Load-Bearing Hybrid ... Bearing Bale Building in BC ... StrawCrafter's Wall System ... Notes on Post-and-Beam Systems ... Modified Post-and-Beam System ... A Simple Rough-Buck Frame ... Evolution of a Commercial System ... A Steel-Frame Owner-Builder Kit System ... Pre-Fab Steel Framing ... Uhuru, Spirit House ... Big Bale Big Barn ... Caging A Strawbale Tiger ... Strawbale Veneer Construction ... Keyed Bale Frame System ... BaleBlock(TM) ... Kin 'Ship Blasts Off ... Earth-Bags and Bales ... A Straw-Clay Sandwich ... CASBA Seismic Testing Program ... Staple Pull-Out Resistance ... Exterior Pinning Put To The Test ... Habitat For Humanity West Conference ... Ecomaterials in Castro's Cuba ... Strawbale at The Smithsonian ... The Holliday's House ... The First Strawbale House in Romania ... Steel and Straw Bales ... Bamboo Architecture and The Possibilities ... Bamboo Roof Trusses—A Philosophy ... Bamboo Resources and Book Reviews

Sustainability and the Building Codes ... International Building Code ... Why Even Bother With the Codes? ... Australia's Performance-Based Codes ... Letter From An Inspector ... A Loan Appraisal Listing Strawbale As A &Special Feature& ... Preliminary Structural Test Results ... Strength-Testing of Veneered Strawbale Walls ... Strawbale Arch Test ... Lightning vs Stucco ... Underground Bale-Umbrella ... Basement Bale Walls ... Fuel-Use Report: Mongolia ... The Economics of Alternative Construction ... The Wizard of Oz ... Huntington Estate Pty Ltd ... Pigs Might Fly ... Strawbale In New Zealand ... A Short List of Australian Practitioners ... Baled Paper Blocks ... Baled Kudzu ... Applying Wood Moisture Meters To Strawbale ... Long-Term Moisture Monitoring Results ... Canadian Moisture Investigation Preliminary Results ... Applying Soil Moisture Sensors To Strawbale ... Eastwood Elementary Strawbale Toolshed Project ... Exoskeletons, Corners, Compression, Outlets

Strawbale Buildings Open To The Public ... Regional Organizations Update: CASBA, SBAT, PFSB, Mid-States, Wisconsin, SBAN, NBRC, BSBA, StrawBuild Europe, WWAT, GSBN ... Resources for 1998: Codes, Human Resource List, Organizations, Education, Catalogs & Mail-Order, Research & Testing, Building Bale Sources, Videos & Reviews, Physical Resources, Computer Resources & Reviews, Reading List & Book Reviews ... Addressing Institutional Barriers to Strawbale Construction ... Buying Your Bales ... A Bamboo Future ... Siting A Natural Building

There is no Summer 1998 issue; however, there was no break in publication. Only the names have been changed. Previously, the TLS publishing schedule had it that the "Spring" issue was mailed out at the end of spring, "Summer" at the end of summer, etc. The new editorial staff and publisher decided to go ahead and bump up the arbitrary seasonal designation by one to conform to magazine-style delivery expectations. Now the "Spring" issue comes in time for Spring, likewise "Summer" in time for summer, etc.

Threat To SB Housing ... Moisture Barriers ... SB In Heating Climates ... Stachybotrys Atra ... The Wet Truth ... Wet Hazards ... Baled Floors And More ... Blower Door Testing ... Moisture Monitoring ... Homemade Meters ... Keeping Bales Dry

Ecological Footprint ... Climate Design ... Energy Conservation ... Solar Heating/Cooling ... Rainwater Catchment ... Greywater ... Constructed Wetlands ... Composting Toilets ... SB Retrofit ... Salvaged Materials ... Recycled Materials ... SB Patents

What Is It About SB? ... Buildings with Soul ... Baling Habitats ... Learning With The Land ... HUD, HUD Hooray! ... Owner-Builder ... It Stacks Up! ... Why Help Build? ... Green Reunion

Books, Periodicals, Code Resources, Research & Testing Resources, Computer Resources, Education Resources, Institutions, Bale Resources, Video Resources, Physical Resources, Catalogs, Planbooks, Human Resource List ... Build It With Bales, Version 2 ... Real Goods Solar Living Center ... Goal Oriented Design ...

Belarus: Nyet Problem! ... Britain's Foothold ... Irish Bales ... Scotland: MacStraw ... Netherlands ... France: Paille Building ... Germany: O Muddy Clay ... Notes from Nova Scotia ... SB in Norway ... Spring in Sweden ... Mongolia: "Khan"-vinced ... Down Mexico Way ... New Zealand

Hybrid Techniques ... Natural Composite ... Straw Wattles ... A 100% Grass Solution ... Brick and Bale ... Bale Adobe ... Bale and Cob ... Sticks and Stones ... Green Building Beginners ... Earthen Floor w/Road Base ... Mud Experiments

Good Shoes ... Rocks in Your Shoes ... Notes from the Field ... Stone Shoes ... Earth Shoes: Earthbags ... What About Basements? ... Burned Again ... A Report from Habitat II

Resources for S-B Construction 1996 ... Knowledge in the Making ... Building With Earth and Straw ... Human Resource List, Institutions, Educational Organizations, Books, Periodicals, Research & Testing Papers, Computer Resources, Bale Sources, Tools, Catalogs & Plan Books, Videos & Slides, Financing & Insurance ... Ruminations of Hunter-Gatherer in the Computer Age ... What Happens When You Let the Water In

R&D in Canada ... Code Officials Speak ... RE: Building Codes ... Minimum Codes ... Codes Comparison ... ICBO Certified? ... Research and Testing ... Nebraska Engineering ... Ruminations of a SB Romantic ... Moisture Monitoring ... Vaulting Lessons ... Straw-bale Floor ... Testing, 1, 2, 3, 4 ... Concrete Bond Beams ... Remembering the Goal...

An Ecological Accounting ... Should I Build a SB? ... Designing with SB ... Passive Solar and SB ... Regional Identity ... Building with Mini-Bales ... Sustainability and Codes ... Designing Consciously ... Challenges to Design ... A Home-Built Stucco Gun ... Two-Ended Bale Needle ... Light Clay-Straw ... Thatch and Thatching ... Cobbing it all Together ... Goodness of Mud ... A Burning Issue

SB Comes of Age ... Trading Wages for Sweat ... Community Land Trusts ... Affordable SB Housing ... The High Cost of Housing ... SB Comes to Mongolia ... SB Roof ... The Hair on Your House ... Foundation Connections ... Roofing Options

EarthBuilder ... Sustaining the Revival ... Our Buildings, Ourselves ... Building Lightly ... Permaculture and SB ... Research, Testing & Codes ... Mortgages

Desert Temple ... STRAWomen ... Women Build Houses ... Building Codes Update ... Mud and Ruts ... Strapped In

Glorious Mud! ... Surfacing Walls ... Finishing Bale Walls ... Recipe Exchange ... Preparations for Stucco ... Zen and Stucco ... Lime Renders ... Portland Cement Plaster ... Plastic Strapping

Moisture Control ... Doesn't it Rot? ... Humidity ... Maritime Moisture ... Fire Safety ... To Parapet or Not

The New Mexico Revival ... Bamboo Roof in Mexico ... Navajos Bale for Builders ... SB Privacy Walls ... Steel Frames ... SB Castle

The French Experience ... Hay & Straw-Part III ... How Does it Stack Up? ... Bale Research Network ... SB Tepee

Trailer Retrofit ... Hybrids ... Straw in the Ceiling ... Building Codes ... Testing and Research ... Official's Point of View ... Earthquakes

Documenting the Legacy ... Straw Conference U.K. ... Hay & Straw-Part II ... Gathering in Arthur ... Straw Conference—Cirencester, U.K. ... SB: Where are They?

History of Hay & Straw-Part I ... Lessons from the Fire ... Low-End SB Construction ... R-Value ... Windows and Stresses ... Test Results ... Stud Wall with Straw Infill

Bamboo Pins ... Myths & Legends ... Seismic Straw ... Staining Concrete Floors ... SB Greenhouse

An Architect's Notebook ... Eight-sided Bale House ... First Phase of Testing ... A Forest Sanctuary ... Shed Roof Problem ... Fire Safety