here's some background info...
(this is an excerpt from our group presentation) -
"For our project, we volunteered our services in the building of Professor Joseph Trumpey’s environmentally friendly house in Grass Lake, Michigan. He is dedicated to designing and building a solar heated, water cooled straw-baled house that utilizes innovative architectural design, environmental stewardship, and ecological sustainability. He is erecting and insulating his house completely from bales of straw. The house is sustained by wind and solar energy with resources to stow rainwater and produce from crops grown on his 40-acre farmstead. When it is completed, it will exist as one of the only straw-bale houses in Michigan and among the increasing number of environmentally sustainable dwellings in the nation. The Trumpey family has been farming for nearly fifteen years, raising goats, chickens, cattle, and sheep. Moreover, they have a distinct interest in understanding food systems and where their food comes from. Their choice to grow as much of their own food as possible has ultimately led them live according to principles of ecological sustainability."
