Down to earth living

[AwakeAtLast]

***A profile of a local (to me) man and his home.***

August 12, 2007
By Zach Dunkin
[e-mail]

HOMETOWN TOURIST
Down to earth living
Green 'Giant' is nestled between -- and under -- the trees along Fall Creek

PENDLETON, Ind. -- Vic Cook stood before the small group seated on hay bales surrounding a diminishing campfire and asked for a show of hands.
"How many of you think I'm crazy?" polled the music teacher/musician/builder/artist/environmentalist.

A dozen of us have just toured Cook's energy-efficient home/museum/recording studio/bomb shelter called "The Giant." Buried deep within a forest along Fall Creek about a mile southwest of downtown Pendleton, the free-form structure juts 38 feet skyward and stretches 254 feet in length. Half of it is underground.

The Giant blends in with the forest because it is the forest: Cook built the home with his own hands, foraging trees from the 2.5-acre tract and gathering stones from the nearby creek. He used about 25 different kinds of wood in the house. Construction cost: $3,500.

Since 1978, the 64-year-old has spent nearly 40,000 hours building what he says is his "monument to nature." The home has been featured on HGTV's "Extreme Homes" and PBS's "Across Indiana." The Giant is open to the public for tours by appointment from May through October. Guests meet near the Community Building in Falls Park and then caravan through town to the home's secluded location.

more at link... http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708120340