Straw Bale

Tiny Straw Bale Village Getaway

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Recently I had the opportunity to work closely with Strawbale.com to introduce to you the new Applegate Residence, a small straw bale home that can be built for around $20,000. I am very intrigued by this type of construction but I have never actually stayed in a straw bale home. As I was learning more about Strawbale.com I stumbled across a page that showed some tiny straw bale homes for rent. I contacted Gabrielle Morrison to learn more about them and she wrote back with the following information and photographs. I’ll let Gabriella tell you more.

Over the course of about 3 years we built a series of 4 charming and beautiful straw bale cabins, all at 200sqft to create a mini “Straw Bale Village.” Three of them serve as sleeping cabins and have plenty of space for queen size beds as well as desks.

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StrawBale’s Applegate Residence

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I am excited to introduce a brand new small house straw bale plan. I have been involved with Gabriella Morrison wife of Andrew Morrison of Strawbale.com to design a straw bale home for the Tiny House Blog readership. The new home has been named The Applegate Residence. These plans are … Read more

Straw Bale 101

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Guest Post by Andrew Morrison Straw Bale construction is an old technology that has grown to become a respected and viable building option in most locations and climates. Not only is it beautiful and energy efficient, but it is also three times as fire resistant as a conventionally framed home … Read more

Sunset Cottage Straw Bale Plans on Sale

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I have been working with Gabriella Morrison wife of Andrew Morrison of Strawbale.com to put together a special package for tiny house enthusiasts. The Morrison’s have put together a package that includes the Sunset Cottage Plans, the How-To Guide To Building With Straw Bales (Post and Beam) 2 DVD set, … Read more

Camp Coyote Update

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Our story is that the Tiny House Blog inspired my wife and I to build a farm campground using small (all acquired for free) farm outbuildings. Camp Coyote is opening for overnight stays in July and we thought we would announce it here.

The camp is seven small structures set on our farm pasture in Iowa. Six of the structures – an 8’ x 18’ bunkhouse, a 10’ x 16’ bicycle shop, two 12’ x 14’ tent platforms, a 9’ x 9’ playhouse, and a 10’ x 12’ shelter house were remodeled almost entirely from recycled materials. The seventh is a small grain bin re-purposed to house a pool inside.

The Bunkhouse was an old granary

The camp is on our farm place surrounded by acres of trees, pasture grass, and fields of Iowa crops. If things on “Tiny House Blog” strike at your core, you like to bicycle (Central Iowa’s Raccoon River Valley Trail is a 5 minute drive away), like peaceful environments, or just want a unique camping experience we think you just might like it here.

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Eco Cocon Solar House

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Almantas in Lithuania shares an ecologic straw-bale solar house.

Solar architecture is based on the efficient use of the energy and the direct solar energy utilization principle. Almost all windows are located in the southern side of the building. This way when the sun rays fall obliquely in spring, autumn and winter, more IR spectrum sun rays enter the building.

At the same time all efforts are put to keep them inside the building as long as possible: the windows are covered with selective film and the walls are plastered with clay, that among other good properties also have low thermal conductivity, i.e. it absorbs thermal radiation and when the sun is down, the accumulated heat is radiated to the surrounding environment very slowly, at the same time heating the building.

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