Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to move the wettest bales into the sun to dry. Getting the thick needle
through such dense and slightly damp bales was a real challenge. Working
two to a bale, we began developing techniques of pushing and bracing to
get the needle through. Twisting seemed to help, but that produced a new
problem. Twisting the needle while it was going through the bale meant
that the cords could overlap inside the bale so that when the original bind-
ing was cut and the bale was expected to fall into two nicely tied smaller
chunks the two were held together by overlapping ties. Even without twist-
ing the needle this sometimes happened. One solution was a needle with
two holes, one for each thread, but it did not always work either. Finally,
the only way to ensure no overlap was to thread each tie band separately,
but even that did not always work. But we did get better with practice.An-
other issue was the knot of the new tie band.When I found my knots slip-
ping as I tried to keep the tension on the bale the same as that of the
original band, my partner showed me a better way to tie a square knot that
she had learned in Girl Scouts. I was pleased with this solution and adopted
it. However, at the next wall raising I attended, and I was again on the cus-
tom bale crew for a while, the owner-builder preferred that we use a slip
knot that he had learned to tie the smaller bales. Not only does the varia-
tion in these techniques show that they are experiential knowledge, learned
in practice; it also illustrates the distinction between tacit knowledge and
local knowledge, as each region or even each site may have its own way of
solving the problem. Since many variations work, standardization is not an
issue. I also found, working on the custom bale crew, the beauty of the
room for slippage in straw-bale building.Though some practitioners prefer
very smooth walls, and they can be achieved with much attention to align-
ment and trimming, others, including myself, find the wall variation part of
the beauty of the technique, a reference to its vernacular roots. Conse-
quently, when measuring the space to be filled by the last bale in a course,
which is somewhere in the middle to maintain the integrity of the corners,
the measurement cannot be exact, because it will differ if taken at the edge
of the adjacent bales or at the binding.The same is true of the bale, custom
tied to fit the space. If the space is measured at 29 inches, the bale to fit it
can be anywhere from 28 to 30 inches and still fit just fine. Forcing the elas-
ticity of the surrounding bales is just as acceptable as stuffing the gaps with
loose straw. One learns that limits exist, but their edges are fuzzy. I also found
I could not curve a tight bale by kicking it while wearing tennis shoes.
Those who succeeded (women and men) were wearing cowboy boots.
