Peaceful Meadow Retreat 1975
In 1961 Hanna and Rudolf bought the farm that would become Peaceful Meadow Retreat. Hanna wanted a European type healing facility where people could be fed good food and given healthy herbs and teas. How do you build a large 16 bedroom facility when you have almost no money? Hanna read in the newspaper about an army base closing in the state of Wyoming. They were selling the barracks. She went up to look at them and found them to be well-built shells that had housed at least 20 soldiers during World War II. She promptly bought two of them and arranged for their transport to Boulder.
In the meantime, Rudolf and a hired man built the first floor using cinder blocks. Then Rudolf, using his mechanical engineering expertise, arranged a way to support the walls as he used a tractor to roll the barracks unto the first floor over large logs. These logs were pulled out one by one as the barracks were secured onto their foundation.
The land was barren when they bought it, and Hanna promptly planted fruit trees and willow trees all over the property. She also arranged for the neighboring gravel company to come in and harvest the gravel in one corner of the lot, creating a large, deep pond which quickly became stocked with fish.
To accommodate her growing herb line, Hanna had a large metal barn built at the Retreat. The nightly family assembly line for making herbal combinations had disintegrated as the children grew up and the herbal demand grew beyond its capacity. So Hanna bought herb mixing and encapsulating equipment and hired a couple of people to blend and encapsulate the herbs at Peaceful Meadow. She harvested and dried many of the herbs herself, until the demand grew beyond what she could handle. The basement of the store became the bottling, packaging, labeling and shipping center for the herbs.
After a few years, Peaceful Meadow Retreat became a wonderful, serene place for holding the increasing number of classes as Hanna turned to writing and teaching.
 Hanna Kroeger Caring for a Squirrel |
 Peaceful Meadow Retreat |
 Peaceful Meadow Retreat Pond |
