[Cob] Using hay instead of straw

[kmarsh at iol.ie]

First time I've been able to check my mail in a week or so because we are
doing a bit of wandering around in Northern Chile. In the course of the
last few days I've seen adobe stabilised not only with straw but with hay -
in the English sense I use it in which is dried mature grass - dried dead
alfalfa, dried reeds, acacia bark, pulverised twigs and pretty much
anything else that came to hand so long as they could turn it into some
kind of fibre. I realise that adobe is not the same as cob, and it doesn't
rain here - there was the first rain for five years yesterday and today
walls were falling down, much to the delight of older folk who had told
youngsters what happens if you don't waterproof - but those same older folk
didn't seem to think that nitrogen was a major problem and if I had free
hay but had to pay for straw I'd use the hay - though I would be chary of
alfalfa's tendency to crumble. 
kathryn
http://www.iol.ie