It is a working cattle operation. We are a mostly off-grid, grassfed Scottish Highland beef ranch, and the guest rooms came second.
That order matters. The herd was here before the first guest was, and the fences, the pasture rotation and the shape of the place were all decided by cattle, not by hospitality.
What makes a Highland a Highland
The long coat and the long horns. The breed comes out of the Scottish Highlands, which is exactly the climate it was built for, and it is why a Highland standing in Missouri snow looks completely at ease while everything else is miserable.
They are grassfed here. That is not a label we bought, it is what the thirty acres are for.
What that means when you stay
You are walking through a working pasture, not a petting zoo. The cattle are used to people and most mornings they will come to the fence on their own, and we supply alfalfa cubes so you can feed them as part of your stay. We just ask that children stay on their side of the electrified fence. Those horns are wide and a cow turning her head does not know where a small person is standing.
Morning and the hour before dark are when they move. A hot afternoon they will be at the treeline in the shade.
The rest of it
Ponds stocked with bluegill, crappie and bass, a bonfire pit ringed with rustic limestone boulders next to the water, an eight-person hot tub on the covered patio, and a Traeger pellet grill and smoker. Solar carries the electricity and a geothermal loop carries the heat, so the whole operation runs mostly off the grid.
How we got here
We sold the farm in 2006 and worked through seven states before we landed on these hills. There was a personal bankruptcy along the way, and Brad will tell you it was the only way God could get his attention.
We cleared this land ourselves, bit by bit. It truly is a wonderful place to be.
Rooms are $125 to $175 a night, or $375 for all three. We are 45 minutes north of Kansas City and 15 minutes from St. Joseph.