My Hero

My Hero   

I was asked recently, in a group setting around a dinner table, to talk about a hero in my life.  I immediately thought of  Jimmy Carter and some other more exotic heros, like Jackie Chan.  I racked my brain for women that I highly admired and was having a difficult time remembering them, like the lyrics to many songs I can play on my guitar….or even the titles to the songs.  It is not that I don’t love the songs; I just have trouble with getting started on them.  Anyway, I was surfing the internet the other day and thought I would key in Tachai, which was the model agricultural commune in The People’s Republic of China in the early seventies, over forty years ago.  I was privileged to have been on a “youth group” during the Cultural Revolution and after the “Ping-Pong diplomacy” event and before Richard Nixon went over there; it originating through the Chinese offer to host Bill Hinton, a famous friend of China since before “Liberation”.  The group  had the amazing fortune to be hosted by the Chinese government and to be allowed to live in this village and to work on the terraced fields with them as well as working in a Textile Mill in Shanghai and travelling all over the country!  I lived in a “cave”  in Tachai,  which was actually a slick affair that was dug into a loess bank, along with a long line of other such dwellings and then a brick arch was put in place for the walls and ceiling and a beautiful stone face was put on the front and latticework on the paper windows and a nice front door.  The interior was hard trowel plastered and painted a bright white.  There was a washstand and beds and some dressers.  Chairman Mao had chosen Tachai as the model commune and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people arrived, each day, in busses and studied this fantastic place.  They had turned a poverty stricken place riddled with gullies into a thriving place and “tamed” the gullies and were producing great yields per mu; of corn, millet, fruit, vegetables, etc.  There were many stories about the labor hero, Chen Yung Guei, who was like a senator now in the national government and wore the traditional towel on his head even in the high company of his fellow leaders; he was truly a hero with many stories to back that up.  There were women, too, in the village that were recognized for their extraordinary strengths of mind and character.  There was an older woman who was very strong and capable and had a few digits of her hands cut off as punishment in the cruel past; either by the Japanese or the landlord class or perhaps her parents cut them off to save her from sexual abuse.  I do not remember her name, but was very impressed. 

The first site that I came upon as I searched the internet was a fascinating story about what had happened to Tachai over the years and it had a photograph of an older woman.  It told about how the winds of change and politics had affected this place and how, it seems, the village and their accomplishments had been discredited over time, how they slipped into hard times and were struggling.  It got so bad, mostly because the government had appointed persons who were not effective in supporting the economies of the place and let it slip.  Books, I knew, had been written about the tragedy of what happened to this place due to the cruel winds of politics.  I read one some years ago entitiled, “From Seventh Heaven to Nine Hells” or something like that.  It documented the horrendous fall from grace of Chen Yung Guei.  Anyway I knew a little about the story.  This website capsulized the saga and brought it up to date. 

The reason I am writing this piece is because I was amazed to see that the woman who was depicted in photo and story was none other than that of a person I had, for some reason, realized was something special even forty years ago.  At that time she must have been in her early twenties.  I had taken a picture of her out of China Pictorial (the Chinese equivalent of Time magazine) and framed it and kept it on my office wall for all these years.  I had framed no other pictures from that time, despite the many chances to do so.  She was not wildly beautiful, except in the sense that her features showed strong jaw, her eyes intelligence and full life and her physical strength was clear.  I had seen her and perhaps travelled with her in a bus.  I had heard about her and her leading the young women’s labor groups and somebody must have told me what a powerful and capable person she was as I was, obviously, deeply impressed.  I guess it is really special to be told about all of these strong farmers and to have her qualities singled out so clearly at the time and somehow it struck me and she became perhaps the only “hero” that I had even taken the time to frame.  The reason why it is so remarkable is the story about her involvement in the modern history of Tachai:

Things got so bad in Tachai that the government decided to put Guo Fenglian back into a position of authority after having shunned her for many years.  The story is a remarkable one of how she figured out how to rework the economy of that area and found very successful ways to turn the place around.  She had the ability to see what could be done (using their geology to make Portland cement and other things like that) and was, years later; she was still a hero, unbeknownst to me until recently. 

So, obviously, I am still amazed at how the world works and what triggers us to make those around us …..heros.  I wonder how deeply their influence goes and, of course, how far!

  http://www.china.org.cn/china/CPC_90_anniversary/2011-08/04/content_23140840.htm

     -Thor Sigstedt, 59, is a cousin to Bill Hinton (now deceased), lives on a small experimental “ranch” in Northern New Mexico.  He is a woodworker, furniture maker, sculptor and builder.  In China they introduced him as “Ta Shi Wa Lao Dung”; He who likes manual labor; that being a link, perhaps, with Guo Fenglian.

The Straw Bale Casita in Spirit Valley NM

Straw Bale Casita in Spirit Valley

Well, it is probably about time that I wrote about my experience in building with straw bales.  I had an unusual situation where I already had a post and beam framework in place, a hexagonal burro “shed” that had levels that spiraled upwards with a few different levels, including a hay loft and a central support system that doubled as a feed drop and feed bin.  I was out of money and had quit smoking cigarettes, so I was needing a project that 1) kept me away from people and 2)I could use salvage and saved items to build it with and 3)was physically challenging to give me a way to vent my energies.  I built the thing using credit cards for about $15,000 and that money was almost exclusively for the purpose of feeding me and paying the small mortgage I had at the time and taking care of my children when I had them.  The banker was horrified when I told him I had racked up that much  card debt and was now trying to refinance the property (40 acres with an adobe house, a big adobe “Teen Cottage” and a huge log shop/studio).  I had plenty of collateral and equity in the place, but no clear way to prove income other than the rental I was starting to get from the straw bale rental house, called BJJ, the BJ job; BJ (Benjamin) was my donkey who was now being relocated to slimmer digs, along with Isabella, his female sidekick.  I am sure they were not pleased with this new arrangement, as the “shed” was very cool with a good winter southern exposure and a good windbreak from the northern winds and a nice place to hang out in the summer too.  And the girls liked to play in it and hang out in the loft and hang off the beams and goof around.  There was water there, too; placed for a steady supply of well water for the tank. 

I am something of a rustic artist, so I decided to go for that aesthetic and celebrate the shed and also make it clearly made from recycled items, scavenged items and smaller pieces.  It had an overhang all around so I realized I could put straw bales in between and have them still roofed.  I knew that a lot of straw bale places were made this way; post and beam with infill.  I had designed various straw bale construction methods before, thinking about ways to get the electric line and other things into boxes that were part of the “post and beam” scenario.  I also had a few 8 x 8 “logs” left over from my shop project and knew I could continue that construction method; post and beam.  I was also interested in Mike Reynold's “Earthships”, which utilized car tires, rammed with earth, for foundations for houses.  I needed something strong under the bales without making a completely new foundation and that was labor intensive and low cost.  I also owned a small “bulldozer” with a front bucket, so I could easily get the gravel and stuff to ram the tires with.  So I went to local tires stores and they gladly gave me their old used tires, which I stuffed into my Bronco and brought home.  They, of course , were the perfect sized for a straw bale set-up.  I planned the lay the bales not on edge, but the thick way, which was close to the size of a tire.  I also dug trenches where needed and put in gravel foundations under the tires, where I could.  Now, this project was under the radar of the authorities, so “unconventional” was easier to accomplish than in other places.  The building already existed and looked like a now plastered over burro shed that had been there for some years, from the public side, which was the back. 

Pictures of it can be found on my blog:   http://thor-sigstedt.blogspot.com under the architectural slide show category; found following links to another blog or two, etc.   Others are on my Picasa Web Album, I think, which is public.  I can provide others if need be.

Of course, it is important to get dry and mold-free bales, and ones, that are tight enough to not be too goosey loosey, as they are being stacked and need some strength.  They are actually harder to deal with than one might think because they tend to tip over and are not heavy enough  to easily stabilize themselves.  I was surprised at how gangly the whole thing could be.  The sizes are important, too, and the spacing for post and beam if you are going that way.  You can break them apart and rebind them, but it is just more work to do that a lot. 

I invented a way to attach the stucco netting, which we call just that around here.  I also used some chicken wire, but it is weaker and harder to plaster.  I tried lacing tie wire through the bales to hold the stucco netting, but it was almost impossible, so I took old steel cable (and maybe some aluminum I had lying around), thick cable like they use for guying power poles. And cut it into lengths, say about 15” or so (I really don’t remember the exact best length, so you would need to experiment) and then separated the strands and then bend the single strands in half so you ended up with a bobby pin sort of deal with wavy forks.  Then you could just jamb them into the bale and pin down the wire quite easily.  I was truly impressed with myself for this invention.  I used this for both sides as they lathe support system.  You need quite a few to get a good tight fit against the bales. 

Then it was scratch coat of Portland, sand and lime mix on the outside; then a “brown” coat (which has nothing to do with the final color) of the same mix.  The brown coat is floated with a  special sponge to get a stucco type finish/surface.  Then the bank, when they finally agreed to refinance me, made me put on the final stucco coat so it looked finished.  The place looks like a 200 year old double adobe building and it quite attractive in that respect. 

The down side has been that it does attract mice and pack rats.  So I would recommend that special attention be paid to sealing it off really, really well from the outside.  In my case, I left the inside with barn wood siding from the original shed and it has many cracks where critters can come in and out.  I do not believe that the problem is impossible, but I know to be aware of it from the get-go.  I am still puzzled at how they get in.  Of course, they would be trouble in a fiber glass insulated building also, like most homes, so it is not unique to this place; most of my neighbors have had trouble with pests. 

The best features are that the insulation value is stunning for a wall (R40 or more) and the sound proofing from outside sounds is extraordinary (we have a train that passes by a few feet from the building and you can hardly hear it go by!), the looks are stunning. 

It is really important to have dry bales also, especially in an eastern climate.

Well, there is a lot more to talk about here, but that gives a basic overview of the deal as it relates to my experience. 

Good luck…….

      -Thor Sigstedt, Adventure Trails Ranch, November 20, 2011