The Selah Hills Ranch mark, a Scottish Highland cow.

Selah Hills Ranch

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816.205.3878

Selah Hills Ranch

Agency, Missouri

Brad and Lorie cleared this pasture themselves, then built a place to share it.

The two of them bought thirty acres of old horse pasture in 2010, lived in a camper and then in the garage while the house went up, and did the clearing themselves. Today it runs on sun and ground, forty-five minutes north of Kansas City.

Meet Brad and Lorie ↓

30

Acres Brad and Lorie cleared

2010

The year Brad and Lorie bought it

2

Years the family lived in the garage

40+

Years Brad and Lorie have been married

Six Scottish Highland cattle, brown, black and one cream, standing in tall pasture grass on the ridge at Selah Hills Ranch.

The land

Thirty acres

An old horse pasture, cleared by hand.

Brad and Lorie bought the pasture in 2010. That first summer the whole family lived in a camper and tents, then two years in the garage while the house went up. Seven Brunners, no debt, and a whole lot of grit.

Today the hills hold Scottish Highland cattle and stocked ponds the guests fish. There is a bonfire pit ringed with rustic limestone boulders for seating next to a nearby pond, an eight-person hot tub on the covered patio, and a Traeger pellet grill and smoker.

The stocked pond at Selah Hills Ranch, with the lodge and guest building on the ridge above the pasture.

Inside

Room to spread out

A great room, a sun room, and a kitchen to share.

Guests share the full kitchen, the great room under the stone chimney, the sun room that looks down over the ponds, and the eight-person hot tub on the covered patio. Every guest room has 36-inch doorways, its own private bath and a heated bidet, and the lower level is zero entry.

The sun room at Selah Hills Ranch, a timber-framed room with a wall of windows looking out over the stocked pond and pasture.

The sun room

The great room at Selah Hills Ranch, a floor-to-ceiling stone chimney with a lit fireplace and live-edge mantel, deep sofas and a stained concrete floor under a vaulted ceiling.

The great room

The guest kitchen at Selah Hills Ranch, hickory cabinets and a live-edge walnut breakfast bar beneath pendant lights, with the log staircase behind.

The shared kitchen

The eight-person hot tub on the covered patio at Selah Hills Ranch at night, lit from within, the water glowing purple against the dark.

The hot tub

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Off the grid

Sun and ground

No gas line, no battery bank, heated floors all winter.

The ranch makes its own power. Solar panels carry the electricity and a geothermal loop carries the heating and the cooling, all year. One load of propane a year keeps the floors warm underfoot on the cold days.

The sun

A solar array on the hillside behind the lodge runs the lights, the kitchen and the hot tub.

The ground

A geothermal loop at the bottom of the pond near the house heats the buildings in winter and cools them in summer, off the same constant ground temperature all year.

The bill

The only utility bill of 2026 came in February. It was $50, and that covered both residences.

Your hosts

Brad and Lorie

Married forty years, and still building.

Brad and Lorie met in a statistics class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and married during his senior year. Brad traded commodities for six years, then went home to the family dairy and grew it from 80 cows to 500.

A personal bankruptcy ended that chapter. Brad calls it the only way God could get his attention. The Brunners sold the farm in 2006, worked through seven states, and landed on these hills.

Lorie teaches kindergarten in the St. Joseph district. She sews, she quilts, and she bakes the cookies guests keep bringing up in their reviews. Four sons, two adopted daughters, and three shelties named Regan, Roxie and Remy.

Selah is a word out of the Psalms, usually taken to mean pause and reflect. Watching what phones did to their daughters, after their sons grew up on a farm without them, is the reason this place exists.

Brad and Lorie, who own and run Selah Hills Ranch in Agency, Missouri.

Brad and Lorie Brunner

The Selah Hills Ranch sign at the road, hand-lettered above a photograph of Highland cattle in the snow, beside a cedar mailbox.

The sign they made, at the road

“Seven of us, no debt,
and a whole lot of grit.”

Brad, on the first two years

The gallery

Have a look

The place, as it actually is.

Guests and family on the property, the rooms as they are, and the herd on the hills.

A cream Scottish Highland cow with long curved horns looking straight at the camera in the pasture at Selah Hills Ranch, with a black Highland grazing behind her.

A Scottish Highland cow

Two Scottish Highland cattle grazing beside the stocked pond at Selah Hills Ranch, with the lodge and guest building on the hill behind them.

Highland cattle above the pond

A Scottish Highland bull with long horns standing in the winter pasture at Selah Hills Ranch.

The herd in winter

A young girl holding up a bluegill she caught, standing in the grass beside the cattails at the stocked pond at Selah Hills Ranch.

Fishing the stocked pond

Two guests holding up crappie they caught at the stocked pond at Selah Hills Ranch, with the water and the treeline behind them.

Crappie out of the pond

A young girl smiling beside a large bluegill held up on the line at the stocked pond at Selah Hills Ranch.

A bluegill from the pond

A large bluegill caught from the stocked pond at Selah Hills Ranch, laid on a limestone rock.

Bluegill, hand for scale

The bonfire pit at Selah Hills Ranch, ringed with rustic limestone boulders for seating, overlooking the stocked pond and pasture.

The bonfire pit above the pond

The eight-person hot tub on the covered stone patio beneath the deck at Selah Hills Ranch, looking out over the pasture.

The eight-person hot tub

Aerial view of Selah Hills Ranch, two ponds and thirty acres of pasture and woods with the lodge and guest building along the gravel drive near Agency, Missouri.

The ranch from the air

The guest entry at Selah Hills Ranch, a green front door standing open beside rocking chairs and whiskey-barrel planters of flowers.

The guest entry

The guest entry hall at Selah Hills Ranch, an arched knotty pine ceiling above a stone chimney, a console table and rocking chairs.

The foyer

The dining room at Selah Hills Ranch, a carved wooden table set for six under a ceiling fan.

The dining room

The guest laundry at Selah Hills Ranch, a full-size washer and dryer on a checkered floor with folded blankets stacked on the counter.

The guest laundry

A guest bathroom at Selah Hills Ranch with a double vanity beneath a backlit mirror.

A guest bathroom

A guest bedroom at Selah Hills Ranch with a tall carved wooden bed between two windows looking over the pasture.

A guest room with a carved bed

A guest bedroom at Selah Hills Ranch with plaid bedding, a green accent wall and windows on two sides.

A guest room, green and plaid

The Queen Suite at Selah Hills Ranch, a queen bed with a carved oak headboard against a green wall, a cedar chest with folded towels at the foot of the bed, and a window looking out over the garden and stone wall.

The Queen Suite

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Come and see it

816.205.3878

Three guest rooms with private baths and 36-inch doorways, from $125 a night, or all three together for $375. Call Brad with your dates and he will tell you what is open.

See the rooms and rates →

Selah Hills Ranch · 6777 Monroe Rd SE, Agency, MO 64401 · selahhillsranch@gmail.com