Twenty years ago, Cathy Dykstra bought her first weedeater and began what would become the second largest landscaping business in Western Nevada County, Cathy D's Landscapes, Inc.
Though the downturn in the housing market coupled with an increase in petroleum-based costs has reduced her fleet of 13 trucks to nine, Dykstra's reputation - built one piece of equipment at a time - has helped her stay afloat.
Cathy D's specializes in custom residential design and installation of new landscapes, blending water features, patio areas and lush plantings to create what she calls outdoor rooms.
With the decline in new residential construction, her company has come to rely more heavily on year-round maintenance and landscape remodeling for a loyal client base.
"I'm glad I'm still standing. It's those repeaters that have kept me going this year," Dykstra said. "There's very little new growth out there."
Dykstra's upbringing in Wisconsin farm country fifty miles from the nearest movie theater, gave her an appreciation for outdoor work and living frugally. Her family killed or grew everything they ate.
"It's all cows and corn that's all it is. There's no Home Depot there," Dykstra said.
After graduating from college, Dykstra went to work as a science and English teacher in the Grant district in North Sacramento. Then, at age 26, she was diagnosed with the most treatable form of cancer, Hodkins Lymphoma. She underwent a grueling year of chemotherapy and radiation.
"When I finished that, I didn't know if I had a future. None of us know how long we have, you gotta grab life now," Dykstra said. While healing and growing her hair back, she and her husband moved to Grass Valley where Dykstra went to work mowing lawns.
"I did not want to be in the classroom. I wanted to be outside and get healthy again," Dykstra said.
She liked the outdoors work so well, Dykstra began taking design and construction night classes at Sierra College in Rocklin. She began talking to others "smarter than her" who had been in the business for a long time. She read books and learned from trial and error.
Sitting in her cozy office of five years located on Nevada City Highway, Dykstra pulled out a photo of herself in 1988, standing beside her red Mazda truck, a scrappy looking young woman with skinny legs grinning with her first weedeater.
"That thing still hangs on my garage at home. I can't get rid of my first piece of equipment," Dykstra said.
Dykstra took every job she could get, weedeating ditches on McCourtney Road, until she raised enough money to invest in a leaf blower.
"That's the way I built it," Dykstra said of her business. "I've always been a pay as I go person."
Two pregnancies didn't slow her down and she worked until a seven-month belly made it impossible to get out of the trenches. In a month, the Dykstras will adopt a third child, a ten-year-old boy. The flexibility of owning a business means that Dykstra can be a mom first before Cathy D, she explained.
At 49, it's been years since Dykstra's muscles ached from manual labor. She passed on her pick, shovel and sore muscles to her all-male crews when she had two children in diapers. She worked out of a home office while her children were small.
"I don't drive the tractor anymore. If I want to play in the dirt I have to do it at home," Dykstra said.