It’s June in Texas, and it’s… hot.
This weekend I finished stuffing loose straw in the gap between the top of the strawbale walls and the ceiling framing. I hold them together by stapling a piece of burlap. Then on Sunday I started plastering the top of the bale walls. Before we can install ceilings, we need to completely enclose the tops of the walls in plaster, so that the straw within are protected from fire and moisture.
Plaster sounds like something fancy (at least to me) but it’s mostly clay. Mix in a bit of sand and shortly cut straw, and we added a bit of Borax for extra protection from fire and bugs. This (without Borax) is the same ingredient as cob/adobe. Just different ratio and more water. The same stuff works for different purposes, I guess.
The bees are still all over the place, new nests popping up everywhere. I’m going to be working around them all summer long. I wish if I could have a friendlier co-existence, but that may be too much to ask.
