This is the story, in pictures, of Our Straw Bale Home:

Love to all our relations
From Turtle Island -

Atrayew, Bhavani,
Luke, Shayan & Delsin

2 rows cinderblock foundation - total width 2ft.	Filled with sand in between - ready for the grout pour.	Notice the rebar spikes coming out of the foundation to stab the first course of bails on and then some.
"Silent Floor" cross joists.	Four piers for the center beam.	Bird's-eye view of laminated "5x12" center beam.
A fun day of lifting 5-gal. buckets of cement ... clean & jerk!	Walls up, window bucks in, header poured and truss plate in. Like building with big "Legos."	Trusses up with the help of the Snowflake crane.
Jim.	And now to the fun part of sheathing & roofing.	I love the view of the bales in this shot.
A layer of R-30 and a layer of R-38 stacked insulation in ceiling.	The R-factor in the walls is 52 to 54 depending on the density of the bale.	Front of house.
I like this shot also.	1 ft. shelves inside every window; 10 in. sills on the outside.	Spraying gunnite (thanks for the help Bart). Spraying concrete at 100psi, penetrating the bales about 1-1/2 in. ... another tough day.
Nice shell.	Our little cave above ground.	Lotta finish work to do yet.
.	Partial frame and drywall. Bhavani and I did the entire ceiling alone. She is one tough little cookie!	Tape, texture with random skip trowel, primer and then paint.
Kitchen on the right, bedrooms on the left & right, master bed & bath at the end. Standing in living room with pantry & laundry behind right.	Nice hand dug ditch for the propane lines ...	... Through a little bit of rock!
Held pressure for days.	House entry for gas.	We will have hot water ... and not from the top of the stove!
5000 gal. water holding tank. The well pump puts out 18 gpm.	450 watt wind generator and 8000 watt gas generator backup.	1000 watts in solar panels and the 450 watt wind generator.
Solar panels on sun tracker.	Had to hire a drilling rig to come in and do the holes for wind and solar posts. They had to be put into solid rock!	The control panel for the solar system with a 4500 watt inverter, a C40 charge controller, main breaker, generator bypass box and circuit breakers.
	Twenty 12 volt batteries wired as a 24 volt system.