permaculture

[Harald und Margit Wedig <avantgarden@wxs.nl>]

Jeff Hall wrote:

 It would be a frame, roof, then walls, so if the bales start to go
because of high humidity, they can simply be composted... But I'd be
curious to see how effectively a good mud/stucco job would preserve
them.

Hello Jeff,
I am working quite a bit with loam/ mud/ earth and also with bales here
in Europe.
Regarding humidity affecting your bales, my guess is, that they would
stay in good condition much longer, if you`d give them a layer of
mud-mortar
between each run of bales horizontally and between all the bales
vertically.
Just like you would do it with bricks and mortar.
The humidity would find its way from the inside stucco via the mortar
layers to the outside stucco and evaporate there. Mud is an exceptional
good transport and storage medium for humidity.
I would use fine wire mesh to keep rats out of the sb- Wall. They love
the neighbourhood of chicken.
Harald