When I first started thinking about how I could sustainably apply what I'm learning to landscaping my parent's back yard, I threw out to a friend the idea of natural building. I looked up straw-bale, cob, and a few other things but cob looked the most appealing. It would be more structurally sound and require less carpentry (so it seems) to build a shed with cob than straw-bale. It also looks as though my soil is perfect for it without doing much testing. Two soils tests have conclusively stated that the soil lacks nutrients and has a lot of sand/clay. It appears that after about 30" or so, depending on whether or not you come across a sink hole, there's gravel/rock/etc. I have to test my site still. But it was because I can't build with wood (and I probably can't really design with it yet anyway!) that I felt more comfortable looking at natural building. Cob, like clay sculpting, is something anyone can do if they pay attention to a few key things: joining it properly, keeping it moist when working it, and keep everything around the same thickness so it dries together. I feel more comfortable throwing mud around than losing my finger on a table saw, really.
It's also dirt cheap, and after another contractor walking off the job, that's a serious concern (I see why people hate contractors now.) Below are some links that give good info about cob stuff. I'm currently reading the Hand Sculpted House, and it's easily my favorite resource right now. I hope that in choosing this building material, I'll get friends and family involved in something that we should all be thinking about - getting back to basics.
http://www.cobcottage.com/
http://www.networkearth.org/naturalbuilding/history.html
http://weblife.org/cob/
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/natural_building.htm
http://earthedworld.co.uk/index.php?module=photoshare&func=viewallfolders
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