[Cob] cobbing in the South

[Amanda Peck]

Small kid time, we had no problems getting straw bedding for the horse down 
in Hoke County North Carolina. Around here (Tennessee near 
Mississippi/Alabama border) availability IS seasonal.  After the winter--or 
summer--wheat barley or oats crops, not much otherwise.  There's supposed to 
be somebody up near Nashville who bales and stores straw expecially for the 
straw bale people.

If you're in Arkansas or Louisiana, rice straw may be a possibility as well. 
  It too might have to be ordered before harvest time.  It might be harder 
to stomp into cob, really rough on bare feet.

Strength and pine needles wouldn't be my concern, baskets made of 
long-needle pine needles are pretty wonderful.

But also small kid time, my dad broke an ankle in three places trying to 
show me how to ski on pine needles (don't try this at home--easiest way to 
stop is to hit a tree, and if you have a pine-needle covered slope there are 
LOTS of trees on it--he tried to avoid the bloody nose by sitting down).  
Those things are slippery, with built-in rosin.

And for cob purposes, even if there's not a slippery problem or a strength 
problem, are the pine needles you are going to use LONG enough?  Because 
your fiber--straw, hay, or pine needles--is what gives your building tensile 
strength.

Isn't there a test in one of the cob books, or at least a picture of two 
people trying to pull a loaf of cob apart?
...............
Todd wrote:
My brother and I are preparing to start a cob structure in the south and are 
curious if anyone has experimented with pine straw vs. straw in a cob wall 
or building? When sourcing straw here, you run into folks wanting to sell 
you hay rather than straw. Not as much oats, wheat grown down here as far as 
I know.

We have concerns over pine needles providing near the same tensile strength 
as straw, but as a local source readily available and pretty much free, 
seems worth considering.