The Monastery of Christ in the Desert has some interesting pages on construction with straw bales at the off the grid monastery in the Chama Canyon wilderness in northwestern New Mexico.

http://christdesert.org/strawbilt/index.htm

They have a guest house and two dependent monasteries in Mexico: La Soledad, near San Miguel de Allende, and St. Mary and All the Saints, in Xalapa.  I’d love to stay for a month or two in Mexico.  But as always, no dogs are allowed.