In 2004 we designed and built a strawbale building for seed cleaning, seed storage, and to house tools needed on the farm. It's 24' x 32', just big enough to think we can fit everything, but can't. We never would have finished a larger building so I have no regrets. This has been a tough project because we live 3 hours away and there are no other buildings on the farm. I never knew how much you need a building to build a building, to store tools, get out of the rain, store materials, etc. We finally found a pump jack in April and got the well running in 2005. The first year we hauled the water we needed from my parents' house in 5 gallon gas jugs. We also collected rainwater and recycled as much as we could. There was very little waste!
Our building site is in the left foreground. To create a building pad we bulldozed some dying trees and pushed soil upslope.
The building foundation consists of a "rubble" trench filled with gravel rather than urbanite or rubble. A perforated pipe drains any moisture entering the trench and prevents frost heave of a 24" wide by 18" deep concrete grade beam seen below.
This is the concrete grade beam. The building footprint is 24' by 32'. The portion painted black is a waterproofing material to minimize the amount of moisture absorbed by the concrete. We anchor bolted 2x4's to the grade beam with underlayment insulation (pink) to act as a vapor barrier between them. The posts will be attached to the 2X4's.
Here is a post under construction. 2x4's are sandwiched between OSB and the interior gaps are filled with recycled cellulose insulation. They're 18" wide, the same as our bales, and 9'3" tall, the same as 8 courses of bales minus 1" to give us a tight fit against the box beam. Carey, my husband, helped me build most of these.
We built the box beam that supports the roof out of 2x6's. The top and bottom plates sandwiching the 2x6's are plywood used to form the concrete grade beam. We used new plywood where we turned the corners. The box beams were also filled with insulation.
Here is the completed structure, ready for the hip roof trusses. Posts are placed to frame windows, doors, and at the corners. They'll be plastered along with the bales.
Here come the bales, stacked in a running bond where the run is long enough. I owe much of the progress we made last year to these two: my sister, Kris, and her husband, Rob.
After stacking, the bales were sprayed with a clay slip to improve the bond between earth plaster and straw. We used earth plaster because we had a lot of dirt after digging 3-4' trenches for the footing and it is reputed to draw moisture out of the bales.
The
earth plaster was made
from sifted soil, sand, and
chopped straw. Sometimes we fortified it with some lime putty,
especially on the bottom half of the walls where rain splash could be
an issue. We grew to hate tarps flapping in the breeze.
Working under them when it was windy was miserable if you're noise
sensitive.
Anatomy
of exterior
render
First the
bales were sprayed with slip, then we applied a base coat of
earth plaster, a
brown coat of earth-lime plaster, and the final coat will be lime. 
Looks great, eh? Two coats of earth, earth-lime plaster, the second smoothed with a wooden trowel.
BUMMER!
One challenge (problem) with earth plaster on wood is how to make it stay there. The wood likes to soak up the water and dry the plaster out too fast. OSB doesn't absorb as much as a 2 x 4 but it has very little tooth to catch and hold the plaster. The plaster didn't fall off; it pulled away from the OSB as a monolith, hinged with the rest of the wall where you see I tore it off.
Conventional plaster relies on diamond lath, expanded metal lath as a connector between the two materials. Earth will corrode metal quickly. I won't pretend that I really understand everything involved in good plaster adhesion with incompatible materials. I do know that a concoction I found in a book that called for wheat paste, sand, and manure didn't work.
Here is the profile of where I removed the plaster that didn't stick to the OSB. I don't believe it was too thick. It just didn't stick.
This happened in September. I didn't know how long our plaster season would last so rather than try to figure out how to make it stick I put up some metal lath and covered it and the rest of the wall with lime. I did use earth to smooth the break.
As long as I'm whining about problems we had, here's another. The plaster would shrink away from the wood framing at the top of the wall. (Do not construe the use of a beer bottle cap as an endorsement for that product.) We've tried to remedy this by partially drilling drywall screws into the framing. Sometimes we just caulked it and left it for another time. The lime fills these gaps and doesn't shrink so as we finish the lime this will be out of sight and out of mind.
This is another fix around a window. Those are drywall screws that give us a mechanical connection between disparate materials. The black stuff is roofing caulk (I think). One thing we quickly noticed is that anything with asphalt in it holds onto the plaster. This patch has held up through driving rains.
Four out of five windows in the building were salvaged from a 3 season room we tore off my sister's house. the other window was taken out of my parent's house.
Remember Tom and Jerry? Or Sylvester the Cat? Cartoons always depict mouse holes as an arch in the molding-wall and look at what we have here: an inverted arch and yes, there's a mouse living in the wall. I don't know how many we entombed in the walls because one way or another they've all disappeared. But how do their excavations affect the R-value or integrity of the wall?
But they are cute. I trapped this one by putting some peanut butter in the bottom of the trash can and a little under the 2x4 leaning up to it.
SE
corner
We were
able to lime plaster the south and east walls the first
year (2004). The 2x6's on the corners are plaster stops because plaster
tends to crack around corners. 
Interior
looking west
Bales and
one coat of earth plaster inside.
Interior looking east.
Interior
brown coat
(2nd)
This
plaster was made with brick clay purchased from a brick
manufacturer. It is much stronger than the silty soil excavated
onsite used outside. Hindsight is 20:20. But look, there's
seed in those bags!
This is a close up of the brown coat inside. It has cracked very little. I still have quite a bit left from our $35 pickup load. If I have time next year I'll use it for the finish coat.
Before plastering the interior, I attached this mesh to the box beam and bottom rails to add some strength and stability to the wall. I wish this material were on the outside but I discovered it too late. It's manufactured by a VersaLok, a modular retaining wall company, and is used to increase the wall-backfill connection and stability. It is not plastic. I also used some deer fencing mesh elsewhere and it didn't conform to the irregularities of the base coat and it isn't as strong.
Here is the lean-to on the north side and I was able to partially render the final coat of lime. The roof is clear fiberglass to allow as much light as possible under it and into the building. But it isn't a sustainable material.
The west roof is made from corrugated metal we salvaged from a grainery that blew down in a tornado near Yankton, SD. Thanks Lyle!
To protect the earth plaster near the corners, I put up some shade cloth. It's used by the nursery industry and isn't cheap, but I think it will break the impact of wind-driven rain. Unlike a tarp, it will allow wind to pass through so it should last longer and it's quiet. Want a closer look at the material?
View of the new addition from the west. The sheds add more useable, semi-protected workspace. We'll finish the corner next year. There's never enough time....
2006:
We
had a concrete floor poured to keep varmints out. We had a badger
tunnel under the grade beam and into the building. We insulated
between the floor and grade beam and under the floor along with a vapor
barrier. Now the passive solar really works. 
Here's
the finished roof. We couldn't agree on how to frame it so we
hired a professional. Our peace and happiness is more important
than who knows better how to frame a corner.2007:
Here
you can see the finish plaster composed of Yankee Hill brick clay and
sand with various fibers: cattail fluff, Indian grass hulls, prairie
straw chopped fine. I also added casein and borax. You can
also see how we transitioned to the floor. We had some old bricks
laying around the house in Lincoln, Kris had some, and Dad donated some
that were dug up from the sidewalk in front of his Grandparent's home
after it became a church parking lot.We have some moisture getting in when driving rains come out of the south. This summer I'll take a look at this and see what we can do to fix it.