The
Grounded Trowel Homestead
We finally did it! We talked about it for years, and now, we finally took the leap. We moved away from the city and bought a couple of acres in the country. It's been just over a year since we made the move, but rest assured, this is only the beginning of our homesteading journey. We want to share our experiences, successes, and failures as we grow and learn and hopefully develop a community where we can all grow and learn together.
Who are we?
I'm Bob and I live here on the Grounded Trowel with my wife of 23 years, Johanna. We have a son who is an hour away at college. I'm a general journeyman electrician, an electrical instructor and electrical curriculum developer. Johanna is an archaeologist, soap maker and crafter. We are in our late 40's and we are new homesteaders.
How did we get here?
We have both known that we wanted to get out of the city, onto some land, and live more self-sufficiently. Once our son left for college, we were both anxious to start a new adventure. So we put our house up on the market and started looking for property outside of the city. It took some searching but we eventually found a home on about 2 acres in the foothills.
What is the Grounded Trowel?
The Grounded Trowel is 2 acres of stones, oaks and slopes. It's in the foothills, at an elevation of 2000 feet, a half mile down a bumpy, dusty, dirt road. The soil is rocky and clay‑based. It drains slowly, gets sticky when wet, and hardens like concrete when dry. We are below the snow line, but we've had some snow that hung around for about 3 or 4 days. It gets hot and we are on a south west facing slope, so the sun is intense in the summer. We are in an extreme fire danger area and the area around here has burned before. We didn't choose the easiest place to start a homestead, but we chose the best view. It's what we didn't know we wanted until we found it. It is our home and our homestead.
