Welcome to the Naro-Escape!

Where do we start? The Escape itself was a brilliant idea of my Uncle Carl, who purchased the property in the early 70's. It is comprised of 51 acres with very little in the way of neighbors (the ones we have are excellent), a pond, a very old family cemetery, an equally old house (now completely rebuilt) and initially, an old corn crib.

As children, we always looked forward to coming to the Escape for a visit. There were always construction projects and many other things to do. As an adult, it was a place to relax, find peace, and since July 2007, my home. I find myself thinking more like Carl these days, getting up early and getting things done before the heat of the day sets in, complete with plenty of "toys", I mean equipment to get the jobs done.

It wasn't until I had moved there full-time until I realized the genius of my Uncle Carl and really appreciated how aptly named the Escape was. It had become, even with all the eccentricities, a place to get my act together and most importantly a place for healing, even if I did get to learn that dish detergent can indeed freeze and chimney fires are pretty impressive!

In any case, with Carl's passing, the opportunity to keep the property in the family and continue keeping it as a place to Escape for anyone (including animals) who felt the need arose. Marti and I decided that we needed to put our spin on what the Escape was meant to be and to continue Carl's dream ... our way ;-)

To that end, we are committed to a life-long journey of molding the Escape into a place for the family and friends to enjoy and build something we can pass onto the kids in the hopes that they will do the same. The Escape is a continual work in progress, much as it was for Uncle Carl. Most of the major pieces are getting in place, and 2022 plans included getting rid of the old maple tree next to the house, adding a whole-house generator and a new "barn" to store and work on the various cars we have floating around.

The Escape was made for animals, especially dogs! With a pond, acres and acres of freedom, all sorts of "Mountain Sushi" to run down and streams to navigate, it is the perfect place for our extended canine family.

We can't think of a better place than the Escape to have a game of "Kill the Colonel" or a furry friend in need to find friendship and help while they wait for a forever home. Since most of our animals are rescues themselves, providing a place for them where they can truly be at home is just what we try to do! Such is the nature of the Escape, and we wouldn't have it any other way. It gives us great joy to be honored with such a duty.

As of this writing we have 5 dogs. The youngest are Perl and Ajax, both Great Pyrenees about a 3 years old. They are also the largest! Next is a Belgian Malinois mix named "Kaylee". Kaylee was 3 1/2 months old when we adopted her on January 24, 2013. Kaylee is a high-drive Belgian Malinois (Belgian Shepherd) mix, and a natural at frisbee and chasing balls, not to mention keeping all the other dogs on their toes with all her "puppy power", even after all these years. At 10 years old she is finally starting to slow down a little. Lily (hound mix) was dumped in a field at about 10 weeks old, covered in ticks. We've had her about 14 years now, and she feels she is queen of the house, but is being challenged by Perl who has about 40 pounds on her! Mostly these days, she just likes to sleep and eat. Rev is the last and we have been fostering him for over a year trying to dfind the right home for him. He's an energetic German Shepherd, about 8 years old with a penchant to jump any fence, no matter what the size. Luckily when he does escape, it is generally down to our neighbors auto shop where he acts as an ambassador, greeting all the customers whether they like it or not!

While there is still no lack of things to do, we just need to find the time to get it all done! All the compromises and decisions we made have added tons of "character" to the place, creating opportunities to put more of our hearts and souls into the Escape. The "charm" of the Escape is never running out of things to do, especially if they don't involve a computer!

Work around the Escape will be concentrated on some of the labor-intensive projects involving a lot of hard work and sweat! We still need to put in a ton of fencing and we will be tearing up and clearing around the pond quite a bit and working on enlarging the gardens even more. We have plans on planting apples, asian pears and peaches soon, so lots of prep work to be done on that end too.

Speaking of the pond, we will be doing some bridge work across the inlet and some major clearing both in and around the pond perimeter, beating back the scrapple and junk weeds and planting some hardy grasses to choke off the bad stuff we don't want growing. There is no shortage of work down there, but it is also one of best potential areas we want to develop and work on as we slowly reclaim the pond and get it back into working order.

All of these are "therapy" projects that require a lot of outdoors work on the tractor, and best of all, nothing involving a computer! If anyone want to come on by, please do! We might even be able to shame you into some work the way Uncle Carl used to ;-)

Our 2020 projects include removing the termite-infested Corn Crib and replacing it with a 2-car garage with loft apartment, complete with a small deck and additional carport that can also be used as an outdoor kitchen. We are also finally getting a ton of fencing done to include fencing in about 5 acres around the house so the dogs won wander as much and they can still have access to the doghouse and porches to get out of the weather or come into the house. The "main" entrance that leads to the kitchen will lead out fron to the non-fenced area. I've already started to clear the path for the fencing in preparation for it!

These are the last of the larger projects in preparation for an eventual retirement. Also on the agenda this year are a couple bridges across Mayo Creek and it's offshoot that will extend our hiking around the Escape a considerable amount.

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