Not glamorous work, but it pays the bills and teaches you a lot about how land behaves when gravity and water decide to have a conversation. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned after 30 years of digging trenches and fixing other people’s mistakes, it’s that hillsides always win. My home happens to sit on one.
Back in 2002, when my wife and I bought the place, it was basically the only property we could afford that had enough room for our kids and a small workshop for my equipment. The house itself wasn’t anything special. An old cedar place built sometime in the late ’70s, but the lot had personality—steep personality. Picture a slope dropping about 8 feet from my backyard down to the three houses behind me.
