cob house

The rebar might be for meeting housing code, it might not be for anything structural, unless you live in an earthquake zone/are in danger of trees falling on your place/tornado area.
 
on a cob house, you need to have/ensure structural integrety. my brother built and lives in a hay bale house. it is as stated, primarialy built of hay bails, but a wall still used timbers at the ends or around where windows are. he (my brother) used the rough cut, non dementional, lumber. ya know the stuff sawmills usually get rid of, cheep when conpaired to regular lumber. i do know that cobs are both strong and have a good "R" value. good luck!:zombie:
 
when my brother built his hay bail house, he contacted the local coleges. he got a lot of free help, and there was a surprisingly large amount of people interested in the how too, most came from community coleges. if you really wanted to help build someonelses alternitive style house, that would be a place to check, that and local farmersmarkets, or food co-ops. good luck.