The past couple of weeks have been a blur of post-baling, pre-plastering tasks. As usual, emotions have been running high, vacillating between the extreme "total meltdown" and the more moderate "miraculously keeping it together" levels. Most recently, I've spent my days affixing wire mesh to the loft wall, and working on window reveals that never seem to end.

I also finished staining the loft windows (I love staining—such a nice change from working with straw!)

So I'd have enough physical (and mental/emotional) space in which to work, Tyler recently cleaned the loose straw out of the house with our air compressor—it was getting too messy to handle. Since we are nearly done with the strawbale-related portion of this house build, this short-lived clean-up was a glorious glimpse into our clean, non-straw-related future.

There are approximately one thousand other random tasks which we have completed that I can't recall now, and a similar amount remain before we can plaster. Things are really moving along!