Paso Straw Bale Construction Blog

Lightning Speaks for Itself...

2010-10-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

So much to say...

2010-07-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yet I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Off the Road...

2010-03-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Interesting facts, experiences and opinions from the road:

Aircraft flown in order since 2/22. Boeing 737, 747, 777, Airbus 320, Boeing 777 and 767.

Upper Deck Business Class on the 747 makes flying a different experience

Never fly the low cost carries in India or China unless you are a midget

People line up differently in different countries. India has been the worst so far. There is no allowance for personal space

Terminal 5 at Heathrow is amazing in it's design and architecture.

There were more people at the Chennai International at 3am on Sunday than at San Jose International at 5pm on Friday

Thee should be a place to exercise on flights longer than 2.5 hours.

Winding down...

2010-03-13T04:10:00.001-08:00

On the road in Greece. Just a few snippets:

Theater on the walk up to the AcropolisBackside panorama of Acropolis

Acropolis at night

2010-03-12T09:10:00.001-08:00

Still on the road...

Goodbye Terminal 5...

2010-03-10T08:03:00.001-08:00

Everyone may hate the baggage handling at T5 at Heathrow but it is a good looking Terminal.

Leg 2 of Hoofing it...

2010-03-05T05:32:00.000-08:00

Hoofing it is taking on a new meaning. Having traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Chennai, and Pune the past 12 days it was humorous to see these little guys outside the hotel in Chennai:
I was able to sneak in some sight seeing on 2/28 and visit Mahabalipuram:

The pictures do not do the place justice. Also the traffic getting to some of these sights makes rush hour on the 405 Freeway in L.A. look likea Formula 1 race.

And here was the sign greeting my last stop in sightseeing:

For Sale: Marble Arch in London Contact Royal Bank of Scotland

2010-02-26T01:44:00.001-08:00

Hoofing it...

2010-02-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

Another round of travel is close at hand. As I will be hoofing it, this find in the front yard seemed appropriate:

Someones pet deer did not make it.

The rain has arrived...

2010-01-23T12:08:00.000-08:00

and it is wet
But turns everything green

Before the Rains...

2010-01-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

As blogged about on July 11th, 2009, El Nino is here and getting stronger. This photo shows the difference in sea surface height(which corresponds to sea surface temperature)

There are 3 storms lined up for a direct hit on California and Saturday may be the last time a clear day like this shows up for quite a while. Let's hope the road work and erosion control works as planned.

Paso, 7 and Staples

2009-12-30T12:04:00.001-08:00

Spending a few quiet days in Paso for the holiday break and 7 decides to run into rocks. These are the before and after pics. The vet in Paso rocks. Big props to Dr. Deb and the whole staff at Paso Vet for Pets. They not only saw 7 on short notice but stapled her nose, gave her antibiotics and medication for her heart murmur for $120.00. To put in perspective, a big city vet would have charged that just for the office visit.

Thanks

Year of The Creatures

2009-12-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Not the name of a bad 'B' movie but my experience at the Paso Straw Bale House.

Views from my part of the world...

2009-12-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

A fire in Morro Bay
and a fiery sunset in Paso

Can someone tell me what this bug is?

2009-11-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

After seeing this,I needed this:

4 years

2009-10-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

It has been four years since the occupancy permit was granted. This is what the house looked like Oct of 2005:

And this is what it looks like Oct 2009:Getting there.

Hot and Humid

2009-10-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Harvest weekend has come and gone. The leaves are turning
the tarantulas are using iPhones to stay connected

and as always the sunsets are wonderful
Even with the temprature in the high 80's and humidity in the 70's, the house stayed cool and comfortable.

Harvest Time

2009-10-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Harvest is in full view:
The house is a constant 72-77 degrees this time of year. Which is perfect for just hanging out on the couch and watching the sunset.

9/11 in New York

2009-09-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

I am in NYC this week. Remembering events of 8 years ago. On that day 8 years ago, over 3000 people were killed by extremists. Unchecked and unchallenged extremism leads to extreme actions. Fortunately, hope and optimism challenge and frequently defeat extremism.
Hopefully the extremists who yell 'You Lie', spread false rumors about "Death Panels and want to maintain the status quo are challenged and put in check.

Joe Wilson and Sarah Palin can:

Views from the WebCam

2009-09-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the more interesting views from the webcam this year.

Apocalyptic Sky

2009-08-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

This was the sky last weekend. One of the more amazing sunsets in recent memory.

Straw Bale Troika

2009-08-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

I find it odd that I can walk to two other straw bale houses:
and drive to 2 more within 10 minutes. Not to mention the proliferation of straw bale wineries.

Since straw bale is not the most obvious choice for building it is kinda cool.

Landsnaking...

2009-08-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

The majority of the landscaping is complete. The design is fairly close to what was designed.

Here is the almost finished product:
for the visually astute, there is a visitor from a previous blog posting in the picture above...

in the lower left corner in the picture above, is the snake from my April 19th, 2009 post.

Here is a closer look:
and here:
This snake is not camera shy...

Sometimes I forget...

2009-07-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

how much thought went into certain aspects of this house. From the light covered 'cool roof' that reflects a majority of the solar gain and keeps the house cool:
The drought resistant plants and ground cover that keeps the ground cool:
and forgoing rain gutters to allow for run off to water the landscaping during the winter.

In addition to the Low E, reflective windows:

the interior has stained concrete flooring that keeps the house cool, high ceilings to allow for heat to rise and clerestory windows that open to let the heat out at night:
These design features keep the house comparatively cool during the summer. On average the house stays 25F-30F degrees cooler than the outside temp in the summer. When it was 109F+ this weekend, the house stayed 79 degrees.

7/18: Outside 105/Inside 83
7/19: Outside 109/Inside 79
7/20: Outside 112/Inside 80

Overall, the design of the house is meeting or exceeding the expected summer performance.

Let's talk about winter performance in 12/09.

Weather or Not, El Nino is coming....

2009-07-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

They say that California does not have seasons. As a Californian I offer that we have two seasons. Drought and El Nino. Here is a description of El Nino from NOAA:

El Niño is an oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. Among these consequences are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia
El Nino's usually bring heavy rain to the west coast of California with frequent flooding and mudslides. Mostly in the first 3 months of the calendar year.

Why this is of interest to me is because it usually means rain in biblical amounts. At least for California. The average rainfall in the Paso Robles area is between 12-14 inches per year. The past 5 El Nino events produced yearly rainfall as follows

1978 23.38 inches
1983 26.46 inches
1993 23.01 inches
1995 27.95 inches
1998 20.65 inches

This may not look significant but in 4 of those years over 14 inches of rain fell in January and February alone. This causes the ground to become saturated and mudslides occur like this one in La Conchita, south of Santa Barbara:

The recent work on the road here:

should mitigate the erosion and mudslide that blocked the road that in 2005 after 14 inches of rain Jan-Mar.

I sincerely hope this is my only post on El Nino.