The ideal retreat home

[Safari Dave]

My family has owned this property for nearly 100 years.

I can hunt whitetail deer, black bear, feral hogs, turkey, rabbits, dove, grey squirrel, ground hog, foxes, coyotes, and bobcat without walking over 100 yards.

I can catch marlin, sailfish, and tuna, if I drive 6 hours.

I can catch trout within 20 minutes. I can catch largemouth bass within 5 minutes. I can catch striped bass and walleye within 20 minutes.

I can see elk, if I drive an hour and a half.

I can, and do, hunt the Rocky Mountains by driving 23 hours, or hop a plane and be in Colorado within 5 hours from my home.

I can be in Johannesburg in 16 hours.

I can fire a high-powered rifle on my property all day long and no one will complain. If they do, the local sheriff will just tell them to "mind their own business". (It probably won't last forever, but it has for at least 300 years).


Unfortunately, the price of land here is now is well over a million dollars per acre and it is virtually impossible to build a house.

Sorry, the neighbors don't like strangers...

 

[Nevada Mike]

I had a beach house in Jamaica for decades but it was a burden to manage and maintain it. Sold it a couple years ago.

Currently live on acreage at 5000 ft. Elevation adjacent to National Forest in SE Arizona. It is quiet, affords me the space for my bird dogs, shooting, and is nearly ideal, but I am considering a seasonal place on a terrific NW
Steelhead stream with close access to great bird and big game hunting. No decision taken yet though.

 

[Red Leg]

Like some others have done, we are in ours. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it is close enough for us. I can walk out back and shoot a limit of whitewings almost every year. I have taken three deer off the place, and could do so every year, but I usually get the freezer stocked with an axis or whitetail with a bit more headgear elsewhere. I can take my 6 weight Hardy out back to the San Gabriel and catch four to six bass almost any afternoon I feel like it - or a dozen white bass when they are running. It is enough acreage to keep me busy as I care to be - and particularly so the last few weeks following a late ice storm. Ancient pecan trees are beautiful but brittle things. I can relate. Our goal is to be carried out of here on gurneys.

With respect to an away place, we choose different ones every year. This year it will be the Austrian Alps, Milan, and Venice - next year, the south of Spain with good friends.

 

[spike.t]

This is where I’d like to be.
Fairly remote area of Lake Tanganyika, a special place for me and my family.

unfortunately I can’t/don’t spend the time there that I’d like.
View attachment 523596

water is essential for me!

Sometimes bit too much water though....

 

[spike.t]

One recurring item it seems in these photos is snow....

 

[WAB]

Well, my place to retire will be my countryhouse in Umbria, just in front of the little town of Todi. There are rows of vines and olive trees all around, and the rolling hills are home of roe deers and wild boars, and good sort of upland game. Sure is not a home "in the wild", but it's a place I love, it's quite and green, and is the place in which I grew up. Sure I also plan to buy a slice of wood in Canada and build a log cabin there, close to the property of my great friend Steve, and stay there for 2 or 3 months a year. But my buen retiro will be as said, my stone tower house.
View attachment 523639

Stunning Phil! Umbria and Tuscany are our favorite international destinations!

 

[Safari Dave]

I like living in a place with all 4 seasons.





In the winter, it hardly ever gets lower than 10 degree (F). It almost never get's to 100 F in the summer.

 

[WAB]

I like living in a place with all 4 seasons.





In the winter, it hardly ever gets lower than 10 degree (F). It almost never get's to 100 F in the summer.

Where are you?

 

[C.W. Richter]

Like some others have done, we are in ours. Is it perfect? Of course not, but it is close enough for us. I can walk out back and shoot a limit of whitewings almost every year. I have taken three deer off the place, and could do so every year, but I usually get the freezer stocked with an axis or whitetail with a bit more headgear elsewhere. I can take my 6 weight Hardy out back to the San Gabriel and catch four to six bass almost any afternoon I feel like it - or a dozen white bass when they are running. It is enough acreage to keep me busy as I care to be - and particularly so the last few weeks following a late ice storm. Ancient pecan trees are beautiful but brittle things. I can relate. Our goal is to be carried out of here on gurneys.

With respect to an away place, we choose different ones every year. This year it will be the Austrian Alps, Milan, and Venice - next year, the south of Spain with good friends.

View attachment 523657
View attachment 523658

Q: What's the building straight ahead (next to the white pickup?) 'Seriously thinking the cask of A is located within your place!! lol Come to think of it, 'believe you said you might've found it during some contractor work over the last few years...LOL and we can envision that!!

 

[C.W. Richter]

Although it's not the one we chose, and two trans-gender vandals from murder capitol chicago messed it up pretty good 2012-2016, we have no mortgage or rent, get a $450,000.00 annual stipend, and really don't have to do anything, so for the moment we call it home...

 

[Red Leg]

Q: What's the building straight ahead (next to the white pickup?) 'Seriously thinking the cask of A is located within your place!! lol Come to think of it, 'believe you said you might've found it during some contractor work over the last few years...LOL and we can envision that!!

But it is above ground - not a catacomb.

It is the trophy room / good friends bar / guest house. Drop in for two fingers of something amber (not that "A") sometime.

 

[Jason Miller]

Interesting topic, last year we sold a duplex in Colorado Springs (where we live) as I didn't want to own income property in a solid blue state (covid laws and rent) We wanted to buy a second home with the money away from the cold.

I came SOOOOO close to buying some land and very nice home in Kigali Rwanda but wound up buying a small 100 year home in a small Texas town on main street, walking distance from restaurants and coffee shops. I have made the home an escape decorated with all my Africa things and I absolutely love staying there. Its 1100 sq feet where our home in Colorado is 4500 but it feels comfortable and quiet and right in the middle of the state so I can get to concerts, shopping etc in decent time.

I am still considering a home in Africa as I spend about four months a year there but leaning towards lake Malawi now as its closer to hunting and my projects. I love Rwanda dearly however it really doesn't have the "Africa" feel anymore. We will see...

 

[wesheltonj]

Unfortunately, I doubt I will have a retreat. Looked at houses, condos and property in Park City and Midway, Utah for years. However as much as I like to visit, I don’t think I could take the majority of the folks who live there for more than a week. Too many people from California and NYC - liberal Democrats and all their crap I read about in the “Park Record.”

I had a cabin on my family property in Deep South Texas, however it was broken into every year. The last time was the last straw. The door was left open and every owl and raccoon pooped on everything and ripped up the wall. My wife said to just clean it up and remodel it. I kept telling her I just need to tear it down and rebuild. Once she actually saw what happen she agreed and had it torn down. And now with the trafficking, I would not rebuild and stay over night and I am not in the bad area.

I do plan on building a retirement house within a few years. I will most likely tear down my father house and build there, same area as my current house but 4 acres instead of a 3/4 acre lot.

 

[Jason Miller]

By the way, this is the house on Lake Malawi I would like if I can pry it from the hands of the british ex pat who only spends about a week a year here. right on the water front, built in the 1920's

 

[Safari Dave]

Where are you?

Probably a hundred miles or so NE of you.

 

[Red Leg]

Sometimes bit too much water though....

We can have that as well - or far too little.

 

[Bonk]

My retreat/retirement home is where I've been living for the last few years. 65 acres in rural Kentucky. 11 miles to town and the interstate. Halfway between Cincinnati and Lexington, KY. The house is too big for one person but I absolutely love where I live. I can hunt deer, turkey, dove and quail and never leave home. Two ponds and two large creeks are also on the property but I'm not a fisherman.

 

[C.W. Richter]

Having two ancestral mountaintop farms in the family (and doing a lot of work and hunting on both growing up,) they hold a special place in my heart. All ancestors are buried on the one and my father on the other. My siblings take care of the one place and myself and my son the other. It has been a life-long dream to re-assemble the entire ancestral farm, so for the last 15 yrs or so I've been making deals with elder neighbors I've known my entire life, and have added 3 more parcels back (and currently leasing to purchase 3-4 more when the time is right.) 'Have hundreds of acres to roam, and the newest acquisition adds the perfect sunrise views to the original homestead sunset views. The dirt road in is not maintained beyond our place, so it functions as a very private, dead end. I smile every single time, driving in ('just too many lifelong memories involving hunting, swimming with friends, riding motorcycles, countless hours in tractor seats, camping out, etc. etc.) While there's a modest, modern cabin (small house) that comfortably sleeps 4 on the original tract, the latest comes with a larger house (c. 1980ish) and shop. The new place is completely cleaned and emptied out, awaiting either refurbishment to my tastes (as I'll retire there oneday) or renting out while the retirement home of my dreams is built on another parcel. It works out well, as my Mother stays at the farm on weekdays, and I come up on long weekends (often F-M.) She's almost 80 and walks about 15 miles per day!! (I often joke with her that she'll outlast her 3 boys, as 97-102 is the norm for her family. It is NOT in Dad's family.) Although it's secluded and private and over 1000 feet above two rivers below, it's not too too far from any necessities of life, and the NY state wine region and car racetracks are closeby. The local ambulance is a helicopter.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Well, my place to retire will be my countryhouse in Umbria, just in front of the little town of Todi. There are rows of vines and olive trees all around, and the rolling hills are home of roe deers and wild boars, and good sort of upland game. Sure is not a home "in the wild", but it's a place I love, it's quite and green, and is the place in which I grew up. Sure I also plan to buy a slice of wood in Canada and build a log cabin there, close to the property of my great friend Steve, and stay there for 2 or 3 months a year. But my buen retiro will be as said, my stone tower house.
View attachment 523639

That is gorgeous. Any more pics, maybe the inside too?

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Although it's not the one we chose, and two trans-gender vandals from murder capitol chicago messed it up pretty good 2012-2016, we have no mortgage or rent, get a $450,000.00 annual stipend, and really don't have to do anything, so for the moment we call it home... View attachment 523670

I hope you remember where you left the keys because the current incumbent couldn't help you.