Cob is claybearing soil, straw or other fiberous material and sand. Cob is inexpensive, easy, and exciting to work with if you have a ounce of creativity in you body. Cob is something the entire family can participate in. Cob is a building technology that enables a working single mother, or anyone else with a bit of land to build her/their own house w/o banks. mortgages, or inspection if your land is remote enough. Cob is alternative building you probably won't get a permit to build with it. Unless you say it's a storage building and they still may not give you a permit. It is for remote living. Some here may not resonate with the philosophy behind cob building which is basically tread lightly.
The book is THE HAND SCULPTED HOUSE by Evans, Smith, and Smiley. It covers everything from site selection and how to test soil for clay content, properly placing the house onthe site and everything in between to a living roof. One of the authors is a very forward thinking architect with many very useful inovations on the subject of designing living spaces for maximum comfort and low energy imput to keep them warm or cool.
Cob is not easy if you don't use their technique for mixing the material. I've seen ladies do it while smiling and talking I was mixing in the manly way with a shovel in a tub and wishing I wasn't. You do not have to have perfect soil to build with cob. It is easy to get bags of pure clay if you need to enrich your mud to the proper stickeyness. Once you have the book and the basic idea, it is easy to get a feel for its sculptural capabilities by building a fanciful oven or bench or wall. It begs to be shaped. Here is a link to pictures of homes built by pro cob builders. The second link is not cob but the ceiling interior is pure eye candy if you enjoyed the hobit house in the first movie. You don't have to live in a box anylonger. It is possible to build you home with out a hardware stroe if you already have hand tools. If you are building in a remote area it is a very good idea not to mention what you are building at the local hangout or the hardware store.
http://www.ilovecob.com/ashan/cascadiacob2005/cob2k502.htm
The above link is to a slide show. Both will give you a look at what is possible when you decide to think and live outside the box.
http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm
The page opened by the second link has a place to `click here' all the way at the bottom if you want to see larger images of the interior and exterior.
If you are considering building your own home away from it all and need some more motivation go here and click on Take the Crash Course.
http://www.chrismartenson.com
The course contains accurate, timely information everyone should know about. It's not political and is not about global warming. Besides where else are you going to find out whem growth does NOT equal prosperity or what the financial numbers on the news don't match up with your life.
Ron
