A ROUND HOUSE OF STRAW BALES
MOTHER lays out a design for building a round house at a small cost of $25.
By BOB DOOLITTLE
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Black Elk Speaks , p. 199-200
And they shall not build and another inhabit; they
shall not plant and another eat: for as the days of a tree
are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy
the work of their hands.
Isaiah , 65:22
We figure it took two 40-man-hour weeks to build a nd cost
us a total of $25 . . . and the pleasure of living in a
round house that we put together with our own hands has
verified Black Elk and Isaiah's thoughts beyond words.
Still, in words, we can lay out the recipe we
followed . . . just in case you want to construct such a
residence for yourself.
Our first step was to pick a spot, put in a stake
and—with a 10-foot-long string attached to the
post—draw a circle on the ground. (That's a 63-foot
circumference . . . we wanted some room. Even this
beginning step was simpler and quicker than measuring and
squaring the normal rectangle.
Next we cut eight poles about four inches in diameter eight
feet long and planted them upright (in holes 20 inches
deep) at equal intervals around the circle. By tamping
solidly as we filled dirt and stones back in around the
poles, we managed to make the uprights fairly stable. At
that stage, the house made us think of Stonehenge.
It also made us think of the roof we'd soon be resting on
the uprights . . . a roof that would push down and
out . How would we contain that outward pressure?
Rafters? Buttresses?
The answer was so simple and so round . . . we bound the
whole ring of poles near their tops with wire. Baling wire
or even heavy twine would have done the job, but we had
barbed wire from the dump for free and we strung it up . .
. five times around in a tight circle.
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