WWOOF #8 - Amberley

Jan. 18 – Jan. 27

We decided to change gears slightly for our next WWOOF. A little tired of vineyards, we wanted a more holistic organic setting, one with a massive and diverse vegetable garden, orchards, breadmaking, and the likes. When we came across an ad on the WWOOF “Hot List” (hosts needing help immediately) for a strawbale house building project with a family that owned “Brew Moon” Brewery, we couldn’t pass up on the opportunity, especially after being inspired by strawbale structures at our house in Blenheim.

The day we showed up, everything was prepared for the concrete foundation to be poured the following day, so we helped out in the garlic patch for a few hours. For the first time at any WWOOF, there were other WWOOFers staying during the same time. A couple from Alaska had just arrived as well. At first, we were a little worried about the new dynamics at the house having extra guests, but we became very close friends with George and Louisa throughout our stay.

Keris helping with the garlic patch. Pull, clean, snip roots, hang to dry.

Inspecting the strawbale concrete framing in place for tomorrow's pour.

The morning of the concrete, we made a few last minute preparations, and then the truck arrived with its giant hose. The forms were simple, just bales of hay arranged to keep the concrete where desired. The whole pouring process took about an hour, with minimal finishing since this was, after all, a strawbale wall – perfection not required (that became our motto). Small mistakes would get “smoothed” out in the end.

Ready for action!

The pour is underway. Just point and shoot with the concrete hose.

While the concrete dried, we took up weeding and other small projects, more garlic harvesting, and plenty of beer sampling at night. In addition to our host Kieren running the brewery, his wife Belinda was a winemaker for Muddy Waters, so we had much wine sampling at night as well. The accommodation was a very cozy barn-style house, and our sleeping quarters were our own room in the loft. Great food and funny stories abounded, and for the first time, we actually hadn’t planned how long we would stay. We just figured we would decide about that later, and there was no pressure on us to leave (ended up staying 9 days, our longest stay anywhere). In fact, Belinda and Kieren were quite keen to have all 4 of us WWOOFers stay on to finish the project, especially since we had taken charge, even to the point of studying their “How-to” book cover to cover and giving project improvement ideas.

A little rain couldn't stop us or our power tools.

We built wood rails and filled the gap with gravel for some extra protection against moisture along the bottom of the wall.

Happy to finish the rails, we had a little celebration. Now it was time to build the wall.

It was still a steep learning curve when it came time to construct the wall. The first section seemed to go up okay, but framing the windows were a challenge, and there wasn’t enough support in place at the end of day 1, so the winds blew down most our first days’ work within an hour of stopping! We left it for the morning cleanup crew (us).

Placing the bales on the long rebar reinforcements, and then sliding them down into place.

Oh no!... isn't there supposed to be a wall there? Our supports were too late, part of it fell.

Hurray, the first complete wall section in tact.

For a solid week, we worked diligently on the wall, not just placing the bales in the correct locations, but also pinning them together, inserting windows, and we had to wrap the walls in chicken wire (good for plastering), and then sew the bales together with wire for extra strength. We really started to push it once we announced we’d be leaving after only 9 days at the property. The last 2 days of work saw about 50% of the wall go up and we had a minor celebration. All in all, we had a great time, learned a lot, and made some great friends. There was still much work to be done, but the heavy building was complete, and just the finishing touches remained. We can’t wait to see pictures of the finished project! There were so many cool touches added into the design, like the built-in seat in the corner, a couple really nice iron windows, the arch over the cellar entrance. We might just have a go at a whole house in the future. One of the example houses in the book was actually from the Austin area.

A typical afternoon once the work was complete.

The final bale is placed! Time for a beer.

Keris is adding some finishing touches, plastic along the top for moisture control, chicken wire for plastering, and now sewing the bales together for lateral strength.

A snapshot of the near finished product.

George and Louisa next to the archway leading to the cellar.

A view of the house with the wall.

Congrats everyone!

Good luck, and thank you so much Belinda and Kieren!! We’ll stop by for a BBQ when you put in the outdoor pizza oven! Can't wait to see the final product once the plaster is dry.