Modern architecture has come a long way and it continues to surprise us with
some innovative ideas.
But what if I was to tell you that there's an incredible home that will blow
your mind,
but it closer represents and design the first homes in human history.
That's right. I'm talking about a modern day cave house
In this video.
We're going to step inside grant Johnson's jaw-dropping bedrock homestead,
which he's been working on for the last 20 years.
When I was 17, I got kicked out of high school and moved to Moab.
There was just this wide open mining town. Things were so relaxed.
It was a real culture shock for me,
moving to Moab with it had like four or 5,000 people in it.
I'd hike for a quarter, go to school for a quarter or two.
And then a quarter of mining
work my way through college, seven different mines. While I was doing that,
then I got involved in stabilizing, Indian ruins,
and I got more and more into the wilderness. And then I didn't see any news.
Didn't read anything. I completely got away from it
One theme I've always heard. It's a lot of people don't know what
they want, you know, but man, I always knew, even if it was ridiculous.
My original plan was to find a place in the wilderness in the canyons and
irrigate, you know, and grow my food out in the wilderness.
And that turned into this.
I just never thought I could buy all the equipment and dynamite and you know,
it takes a load or a compressor jackhammer, all that stuff that I didn't,
I thought no way could I afford that.
So I never really thought about building the rock house.
I started blasting in 95, blasted a little tunnel here first
From the first blast I was committed, you know,
and then it was like eight winters probably of blasting. You know?
So I was out in the wilderness,
spring and fall and half of the summer and then winter and we'd be here and
it'd be like, I finally get to be home probably
2003 or so. I was done blasting.
And then it sat a long time, you know,
trying to come up with the money and decide what to do.
I didn't know what I wanted. You know, how I wanted to finish it.
I was going to weld steel together and buy glass pieces to put in it,
builder friend of mine. He said, well, what do you want? And I said,
I want it to be a cave with no blocking it. We designed it from there.
There's steel in two of the openings with the rest of them are all just pure
glass. Just cut a slot, slid the glass in.
Anasazi's left here in 1250.
And I would say if they had dynamite, they'd still be here.
I planted the orchard right away. And we had a water wheel,
big 22 foot in diameter water wheel that ran the pump
Put in about 6,500 feet of pipeline from the pond that ran the water wheel
because I always knew. If we could afford to do it, we'd have gravity flow.
Cause we're a mile below the pond. So we have gravity flow water.
So I just plugged into it and put a turbine.
So we produce our electricity off of it.
The biggest crop is tomatoes and peppers and corn potatoes,
lots of garlic, but then, you know, all sorts of little stuff,
greens and carrots and beets.
I love bacon, sausage and that pork.
So to raise pigs,
we have to have a cow that's milking because the pigs eat the milk.
Otherwise it's not worth it. You know, it costs so much to feed them.
So we'd feed them milk. You know,
you have to get the milk cow bread and then you have to milk it.
And then you have to have a way to feed the milk cows.
And so that's what all these fields are for is feeding the animals,
the horses and the cows,
All the food we raise here, tastes incredible. The beef, the pork,
the Turkey, all the sauces. We make tons of salsa,
pickled peppers and frozen roasted corn.
We roast our peppers and freeze them since we've been raising our own meat for
15 years or so, I haven't bought meat and it's just tastes better.
I feel healthier. I eat more meat than ever. A lot of people like in Boulder,
they're like, Oh, you know, we got to grow our own food to survive. You know,
and that's never been my approach. It's it is there, you know?
Yeah. You want to be able to take care of yourself. But for me,
it's lifestyle health. You know, I can't imagine not growing food.
The house is too big for just me. I meet great people.
People think that it's only scenic in the national parks.
So they come here because it's a stepping stone between Bryce and Capitol reef.
If they have their eyes open,
they realize that this is all the same country in between.
And it's all just as beautiful and incredible.
If you just stay one night here, you miss all that.
People get inspired by it. I didn't expect that so much.
And it really is the case.
People really feel a lot of inspiration here from all different angles
positive living in a negative space.
I have noticed that this home is not so tiny,
like a lot of the homes on my channel,
but I was so inspired by this incredible home that I've decided to make a new
playlist called alternative homes where I can feature unique homes like this
one. I hope you enjoyed it. And you'll subscribe to see more.