`A sad Day in Utopia`

Well as heartbreaking as it was for us~all the hours, the aching backs and blistered fingers...all the hopes~the bales house was not to be. To have worked months towards the goal and get to that point, where the decision is detrimental....was shattering! We packed up that weekend and headed back to Jhb...clueless and hopeless. Seriously! What to do with 300 bales~ heres is w few reasons we believe it failed:
1)Transportation process. In the States there seems to be quite a support for this type of building. Here is SA, there is a starting interest in Cape Town but not JHB or North West. From the Supplier to the farm, the bales were carelessly tossed to and fro. By the time we got the bales, so many were coming apart.
2) It is more helpful to be able to build the walls, and then use the roof to "push" down and give weight on the bales.
3) It would have worked better to build "frames" and section off pieces of the walls.

The main reason we packed up this idea was that the "walls" were just to unstable. Once the mesh and plaster would have been packed, it may have been stronger but we were just not comfortable believing that was going to be enough.

Overall, we may have chosen this path as it seems cheaper. There was even a write up in one of the farming mags...seemed like this was the plan! We obviously did a whole lot more wrong since it actually is more expensive than using bricks. Costs to consider once you have found a bale Supplier:
~Transportation of bales and costs of bales
~Cost to build the frames for the doors and windows
~Chicken Mesh
~Steel Rods
~Insecticide to sprinkle on bales to deter rats/ termites etc
~Plastering Mix
~If you have a crowd of friends willing to spend a day baling then Labour costs are nothing~get a few braai's going and make a day of it!

Yes, in the end we chose the brick! Sadly it would have been awesome to have the bale house! The insulation is amazing...but the chickens enjoyed pulling some apart. We gave some to a farmer to use for mulch on his fields and keep the moisture. We spread some on our bottom fields...gave some to the neighbours horse, who eventually became our horse LOL BUT still we have some bales....To bale or not bale...that is the question and for us the answer is not to bale!