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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Baleheads,<BR><BR>I write to:<BR>- inform you
of our activities<BR>- to invite the writers amongst you to 'plug' your
SB/plaster-books<BR>- to solicit for some articles, pictures related to SB in
'your' region.<BR><BR><BR>Our activities in 2002:<BR>* Set up a non for profit
organisation 'La Maison en Paille'<BR>* Reconstruction of the (French) website
<A
href="http://www.la-maison-en-paille.com">www.la-maison-en-paille.com</A><BR>*
Start of a French mailing list on SB<BR>* Continuation of the construction of
our information center here in the<BR>Cognac region, just above Bordeaux in
France<BR>* We made a 12 panel exposition on SB that we show on festivals<BR>*
Slide show presentations<BR>* Translation to French (with help from friends) of
'A Visual Primer to<BR>Straw Bale Construction' by Steve MacDonald, Builders
Without Borders. It will be<BR>available on the BWB website as well as ours when
the corrections are<BR>finished. A paper version might also be published in
France.<BR>* I wrote a booklet on SB in French. This will most likely be
self<BR>published.<BR>* I'm in the process of editing a video with the material
we shot of<BR>finished houses in the US, (autumm last year).<BR>* I gave 4
workshops at our place. A total of 35 participants joined us, and<BR>to our
pleasant surprise, all the workshops were booked out. Coralie took<BR>care of
the great French cuisine, of much greater importance to the French than<BR>any
building system ever can be.<BR>* We received about 100 visitors so far this
year.<BR>* I hope to finalize the CDrom project 'Copyright Humanity' this
winter.<BR>* Not related to SB, but important to us nonetheless: Coralie got
pregnant, so<BR>she started pushing hard to have our house 'done' by early
februari. 240m2<BR>is a lot of work, as you all know, certainly if you also want
to do all<BR>these other things. So when I say 'done', I mean a heatable living
space<BR>plus kithchen and bath. Coralie believes that after 2 years of
construction<BR>it would be nice to have the shower IN the house. So there goes
my excuse to<BR>stay with my parents in law during freezing periods. And that is
too bad,<BR>'cause Coralie's mum is just the best cook in the world.<BR><BR>At
the moment we are mud plastering, great fun! Little detail, the earth<BR>comes
from St, Même les Carrieres, that is the same place were the rocks for
the<BR>foundation of the Statue of Liberty come from. Now, is that a good or a
bad<BR>omen? I dunno.<BR><BR><BR>Book:<BR>I have been contacted by France's
oldest (and only?) Ecological Center,<BR>'Terre Vivante', to write a book on SB.
<BR>Of course I'm happy because they seem the best partner to help share the
<BR>SB gospel arround since their magazine and books are well read and
respected. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Comming spring I plan to make a trip through France
to complement<BR>our European and American trip. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I intend to make a complete a book as I can,
meaning that I want to show<BR>beautiful SB homes (as Bill and Athena have
shown, it are its looks that<BR>sells SB), talk technical, talk social, and show
that it is up to me<BR>and you to take action if we want to live in harmony with
our environment.<BR>Since the French have a little navel staring problem (and
allergy for<BR>English) I intend to show them that SB can be beautiful,
sustainable, durable, safe,<BR>and most of all, I want to show them that SB is
happening in France AND all over the<BR>planet.<BR>In a nutshell:<BR>Compile
what you we see in the English (and other languages) SB books and websites into
one French version<BR>and add a little homebrewn Cognac.<BR><BR>It is for this
book that I contact you, writers of English and German/Danish/other <BR>SB (and
plaster) books. I want to include information about your books, so I put to you
2<BR>questions to you:<BR>* Tell me about your book (and give me a few
pics)<BR>* Why do you love SB (and/or plaster)?<BR>(yes you can sent it in
English ;-)<BR><BR>And I would like to see articles from all corners of the
world, if any of<BR>you feel like writing. <BR>I have to add, I cannot garantee
to sent a free copie of our book to
all<BR>writers.<BR><BR><BR>Later,<BR>Andre<BR><BR>ps. We'll name our baby after
he/she who sents me the first article.<BR>Eh,..... maybe not.<BR><BR>La Maison
en Paille<BR>Association loi 1901<BR><BR>Coralie & Andre de Bouter<BR>Le
Trezidoux<BR>16290 Champmillon<BR>tel: 05 45 66 27 68<BR>Email: <A
href="mailto:m.ep@laposte...">m.ep@laposte...</A><BR><A
href="http://www.la-maison-en-paille.com">www.la-maison-en-paille.com</A><BR><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>