Cob/straw bale hybrid house

[jpigg55]

Generally speaking, wood touching the ground isn't desirable here either due to rot and possible termite infestation. Where it's necessary, pressure treated wood is used.
The only place our construction has wood touching soil is the post frame posts. Mine are 6x6's made using pressure treated 2x6's to about 3 feet above the ground and white wood above that.

[jpigg55]

We're at the slow process of mixing and applying the cob. It's a slow process, but actually going faster than I thought it would.
Due to the wall height, we're doing it in 2 phases. First from the ground up as high as we can comfortably reach. This phase is mostly done except for the area over the outside crawl space entrance. The upper portion has to be done from scaffolding slowing down the process. We've also started mudding the lower part of the interior walls when extra help is around.
Here's a picture of the south west corner with first cob layer applied. The small framed opening is for the wood cook stove exhaust pipe.