Veteran coder builds stone covered Dome Home into Texas hill

When Al Schwarz moved from upstate NY near Dallas, TX, he wanted a home with low energy bills and protection from extreme weather, so he dug into a hillside, inserted cement domes and buried them again with enough earth and rock to guarantee protection. He spent 10 years stacking 230 tons of rock as a retaining wall and planting grass and trees atop the home. The final home is heavy enough to guarantee a steady temperature. A normal house weighs about 46 tons, explains Schwarz. This one weighs between 600 and 700 tons, so it cannot change temperature rapidly only about a degree in 24 hours. Therefore, its very easy to keep the inside comfortable. His 7 acres cost 49, 000, though he took out a loan to build the domes which was not easy to find for such a nonconforming property. He finally found one that had financed other dome homes in the past. With a greenhouse of vegetables and potatoes, and a lake in his backyard for fishing he is nearly entirely selfsufficient. The home