Glad to have you back @mountainjewel!
Looks like you're making some good moves forward to getting your Straw Bale House built. Exciting!
I do wish I lived closer. I feel very fortunate that I was able to build our home in a community that worked together to build each others homes. It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much.
We did some strawbale building with our attached root cellar as our 1st project which was just 2 walls.


Then our header house which had 3 walls and a door and last
Our well house which had 4 walls a door and 2 windows.
We were fortunate to have a sand pit right in our yard so we created a sunken garden and used the sand for the cement work on the straw bale building.
I love that method and it is so applicable here with the readily available building material.
Good luck on your build and I'll be watching for the updates.