How many times can a person listen to three little pigs jokes before going bonkers? On November 3, 1997, when my sister called to say that our family had decided to finance the construction of a straw bale cabin on our 70 acres of land in SW New Mexico, we had no idea that there was only one joke in existence about straw houses, and everybody we know was determined to tell it to us!
	Construction site Thursday Nov. 13
Paul & I had been thinking long and hard about straw bale construction. Here in our corner of NM, summers are pretty hot, winters pretty cold. We have a strong wind many months of the year, and need a well insulated structure. Also, we were quoted a price of $22,000 per mile to bring in electrical power - with the nearest power pole a mile away, we knew we were going to be using solar electrical power and solar gain as well as a wood stove for heating. Thanks to our family's generosity, construction would start sooner than we had thought, but we were still on a tight budget. So, straw bale construction seemed the best to fit our financial as well as our heating/cooling considerations. Also, since it was already November, even though the weather was pleasant during the days, nights were already down below freezing, and winter was rapidly approaching. If we were to move in before the snows hit, we needed super quick construction. Straw bale construction fit the bill!
My wonderful brother-in-law, Jeff Bode, was scheduled to arrive November 15 to help us with construction. He's an accomplished builder, but never with bales! So we all were going to learn as we go.
I had many sets of cabin plans that I'd been drawing for years, and now was the time to settle on one design. Lots of phone calls were required to locate the bales & arrange for their transportation to us. It turned out to cost more to have them hauled to us than to buy them! As Nov. 15 got closer & closer, things started getting frantic. Of course it had to start snowing, and when the deliveries were scheduled, we worried - needlessly as it turned out - that the trucks wouldn't be able to get in over our 5 miles of dirt roads.
Paul on the left, Jeff on the right	Straw, lumber, Jeff and good weather all arrived by the 15th of November. We were ready to begin!