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Bill Steen:     We had a lot of rain for this part of the world during the summer months; somewhere around 18 inches in a three month period. The rain comes in dramatic thunderstorms that are of short duration, the sun usually comes back out resulting in most of the moisture being driven inward.   Let me begin by saying that none of the plaster used on top of this wall had any stabilization of any type. What I did notice over the course of the summer was that the straw clay plaster on top and sides of the one wall seemed to get wet and then dry out. Because the plaster has so much fiber it didn't wear a great deal. We lost a thin layer on the top of the wall, but in general, it seemed to hold together pretty good. What I did notice was that the top of the lime section never seemed to dry out. It stayed wet pretty much throughout the course of the summer.   The top of the lime plastered wall consisted of about two inches of clay plaster with about two to three inches of lime/sand plaster on top. The top of the clay section had a very thick cap: five to six inches of straw/clay plaster. When we opened it up yesterday, we found that the lime-covered section had soaked up enough water to reach the straw bales, and they were deteriorated all the way along the top. The clay underneath it was still wet, as was the clay plaster underneath the lime partway down on the vertical wall sections. It immediately made me understand why all the horizontal lime surfaces on roofs in Mexico use a water repellent mixture of alum and soap to prevent absorption of water.   What we saw on the other side of the wall was amazing. The entire thickness of the clay cap on the clay section (five to six inches thick) was completely dry, as were the vertical sides. It should be noted that one of the vertical sides had a 3/8" to 1/2" thick plaster of lime over the clay. It was all dry and in very good shape. However, the bales underneath all that exhibited a level of dampness. I would not call them wet, but there was some dampness present on top, just underneath the straw/clay cap and on the sides where the plaster came in contact with the bales. A straw/clay mixture used to fill the cavities between the bales was totally dry while the area on the bales around that packing seemed to have some dampness.   I'm not offering any significant conclusions at this point, just noting that the straw/clay plaster was dry and in good condition and the bales underneath it were damp, but not wet and not deteriorating. However, the same was not true for the bales underneath the clay/lime portion.