This is a fantastic 32-acre turn-key working ranch complete with
all equipment, two houses, multiple barns, generators, and even
livestock. Great home, hobby, and income generator.
CONTACT P.O. Box 13, Hamilton, PA 15744
rANCH pHOTOS:
Location is extremely private but only 12 miles from downtown Punxsutawney and, situated between Punxsutawney and Indiana, PA, is an easy commute to IUP main campus, IUP Punxsutawney, IUP Culinary, Brookville, and even the DuBois campus of Penn State.
Part of just one orchard Seedling Building
Quick Look
Turn-Key working gentleman’s ranch/estate including, but not limited to:
> 4,000-sq. ft. brick ranch house with 2 full baths and small basement exercise room with new (2006) central A/C. House sits on top of hill with gated yard and circular drive.
> New roof in 2005.
> 2-car garage in house (also heated and A/C.)
> Pool house (new roof) includes changing room, equipment and bath with sink and shower.
> Seed starter/greenhouse (new roof)
> 20x40 inground pool (closed with safety cover, no liner)
> Gazebo by pool
> ¼ mile driveway, house and ranch NOT visible from highway
>Snowplow Jeep 4x4 Comanche
>Generators
>FREE natural gas for heat
>UPDATE ON UTILITIES - THREE NEW GAS WELLS
>High speed satellite Internet
>New 72-inch DLP Digital HD home theater
>Wired intercom
>Wireless intercom Tulip Bed
>6x6 Polaris Ranger utility vehicle (1/2 ton dump with Class II tow hitch)
>Skid loader (NH LX465 superboom with backhoe)
>Field mower
>Fencing tools/equipment
> Separate - Old 6-BR guesthouse (one indoor garage space) including small stream, pond, spring water, 3-car barn and heated 6-car garage.
> Heated, cement floor vehicle repair shop can store up to 4 small cars – attached to horse barn.
> 3-stall horse barn circa 1995 (metal roof)
> sheep/storage barn circa 2003 (metal roof)
> Cement block storage building and attached cattle barn
> Multiple orchards and berry patches.
> Multiple springs and one deep well
> Multiple fenced paddocks
> 2 large fenced pastures (about 8 acres each). each with separate pond (one loaded with fish).
Some Details?
This is a complete working organic ranch (miniature equines and rare sheep, mostly for petting zoo market) and a rescue operation located between Punxsutawney and Indiana, PA, but offering near complete privacy on a fenced and gated 32-acre property.
Perfect for retirement for a consultant who travels a lot anyway, a teacher at IUP or the DuBois campus of Penn State, anyone whose main business operates on the Internet, writers, someone wanting to change lifestyles, raise a family, or otherwise tired of city or suburban life.
This is a very low-cost-of-living area with a lot of retirees from the Washington. DC, area (five hours south of here), and anyone with a modest income could live here on this estate. There are high-paying jobs in the area at the various universities within easy driving distance, or in medical fields if you aren’t self-employed.
Briefly, this is a complete gentleman’s ranch that can raise a few head of cattle (pastures support about 10 head) but is mainly a hobby ranch/estate in the English tradition where the animals are used to do most of the work.
I have used a combination of technology and planning to make this large estate virtually self-operating.
Internet service is via direct satellite link – independent of telephone or “grid” electcical service. Included is a portable tablet PC wirelessly connected to the Internet and house electronics from any room of the house and for some distance outside (but not off the property).
This is mainly a very nice place to live if you like privacy with all the bells and whistles and was designed to provide convenience and privacy for a serious writer who also operates several Internet businesses and loves animals.
You won’t make your fortune running the estate, but neither will this large estate cost much time or money to run. It could produce about 10 head of beef per year and/or from 30 to 200 head of sheep (we have done both).
The real estate taxes are modest because of the rural area.
Utility cost worries are a thing of the past with enough free natural gas to heat the house and hot water, especially if you make modest use of the wood-burning fireplace/stove to use up all the free woodfall.
If you heat the work garage and pool extensively you will pay for gas, but the more expensive it gets, the larger your royalty payments grow (CURRENT YEARLY CASH PAYMENTS ARE IN THE LOW 5-FIGURE RANGE) with TWO NEW gas wells on the property but comfortably distant from the residence, you don’t have to worry about fuel shortages or deliveries – a gas company man comes by to service the well head twice each month (no cost to you).
You could easily eat off the land entirely if you have the notion. Although we no longer keep cattle, you can easily raise your own organic beef and even keep a dairy cow or two (the nearest private butcher is only 2 miles away). With all the fruit trees and garden areas you can easily grow plenty of food for a large family or for sale. There is plenty of wildlife, including deer and wild turkeys, but all the surrounding area is posted so the little hunting that is done in the area is by your neighbors who are very careful because they own their own farms/ranches.
Eating your own produce and home-grown, grass-fed beef and lamb will not only save a lot of money even after paying the butcher; you know you are getting the very finest organic foods.
This is also a nice place to raise a family.
But if you REALLY just want to lie back and enjoy the country, you need to do very, very little.
The way it works is this: the sheep mow the lawn and the sheep, along with the miniature donkeys and miniature horses, clear the 27 acres of pasture while requiring little or no care as long as the ground isn’t snow-covered – in the winter, providing feed and water for the animals requires about a half-hour’s work each day.
In fact, the average suburban lawn requires more work to maintain than this entire property. Pick up fallen wood or pay local workers to cut dead trees for firewood, mow a few strategic areas around the fences, and either pull major weeds or pay local kids to do the work, and you have a nicely maintained estate.
Winter feed is simply purchased from local farmers who deliver and stack the hay that is paid for by selling the surplus animals (especially lambs) each spring through an established broker who then sells them to petting zoos.
You don’t even have to handle most the hay by hand if you don’t want to because there is equipment included that can pick up and carry 1200-lb. hay bales.
The animals require regular care, especially the equines who need their feed trimmed 6 times per year, but you don’t do that yourself unless you want to (and know how). There are several dependable local farriers (sort of like animal paramedics) who monitor the animals’ health as well as trimming their feet. Farriers are the blacksmiths who shoe horses but, unless you use them for show and pulling carts, your equine won’t need shoes and farriers take care of everything from the animal’s feet to filing down their teeth when needed. They will also help with birthing if you ever have a problem (we never have).
If you want to do more, this is a 100% organic operation and you can raise cattle for sale or personal use. There are two orchards with apples (8 varieties), pears (including Anjou), cooking and eating cherries, and peaches. You can either pick the fruit or leave them for the livestock to clean up.
There is nearly an acre of organic garden, including established asparagus beds, grapes, blueberries, and a variety of other berries for personal use or sale.
If you are looking for a rural lifestyle with all the conveniences and, especially if you want to dabble with keeping animals for fun and even profit (or to give your kids a taste for rural life by showing animals at all the local fairs), this is the place!
Believe me, there is nothing like the feeling of seeing your first lamb born in the snow, then seeing it up and playing an hour later.
Nothing, that is, except walking into the barn in January and being swarmed by dozens of wooly little lambs, all trying to get your attention!
Family Values
Although there are crime and drugs everywhere these days, this area is about as far as you can get from those problems and still have neighbors and let your children attend public schools.
The local K-12 system is about average for the state and has lots of programs for gifted kids.
The elementary school is only a couple miles from the ranch; the high school is about 10 miles away, just on the outskirts of Punxsutawney.
And, speaking of Punxsutawney, how can you get more small town than the most famous small town in America, probably the world? Although the Bill Murray movie, "Groundhog Day," wasn’t shot here (they did stay here for several weeks getting a feel of the town), the town depicted in the movie is very much like Punxsutawney.
There actually is a real, live Phil the Groundhog; he lives next to the children’s reading room in the town library site, which is also the town police station, fire station, and mayor’s office, although you will usually find the mayor (nicknamed "Snake" from his days as a local basketball star) in coveralls at his family’s feed mill nearby.
This town is now much closer to the way Jimmy Stewart’s “Harvey” setting was now than the actual hometown of Jimmy is today because that town (25 miles from Punxsutawney) is the home of a large university and has grown considerably.
Punxy (as we call it) is the home of Small Town Life Magazine and, in addition to the traditional town square with park and quaint hotel, it is also home to a two-year branch of Indiana University of PA (IUP - only 500 students) and is the home of IUP’s respected cooking school.
Business is booming because of the retirees who love the area as well as the growing university population in the area, but the big industry around here is mining, which pays well and is staging a big comeback due to the oil shortage. Coal mining is hard work but isn’t the dirty, dangerous, land-destroying business it used to be. Mines now have to reclaim land and it makes good pasture land or Christmas tree lots (this ranch was never mined and won’t be because of the gas wells). The nearest mine to us is actually a limestone quarry.
The area is poised for a slow, sustained boom unless people stop using energy and you see more houses going up in the larger towns every week. Out here where the ranch is, new homes are mostly very upscale and sit on large plots of land that isn’t suitable for development because municipal water will never reach out here. In fact, our 32 acres is about average size for this area.
There are large impersonal stores here, as there are any place, but there are also small family operations still doing well – when I go to my favorite supermarket, they ALWAYS carry the bags out, everyone there knows which truck is mine, the checkout clerk knows my name, and even the bag person (often the manager) remembers to use paper bags without being told. They also buy our extra squash in the summer.
Even Wal-Mart isn’t as impersonal here as some places – I know a half-dozen of the clerks there because they are my neighbors.
There are many churches of many denominations and most people attend but aren’t fanatical about it and, unlike some places, no one here will be watching to see if you attend or would give a damn if you didn’t. Few people bother with home schooling here because, in addition to the public schools, there are several Christian academies.
Heck, even the car dealers are honest – they have to be; virtually everyone knows where they live and if they cheated people they would soon go out of business.
Best of all, I haven’t heard a police, fire, or ambulance siren for five years, although all three services are located fairly close by.
You can find some less expensive old farms around here but they require a LOT of work. You can also find much more expensive ones (some in the millions of dollars) but those are for serious commercial dairy or farm operators.
Basic Facts
This property, as offered, includes:
Breeding stock of animals (and a buyer ready to pay you and take them away if you change your mind)
Multiple organic orchards and gardens
All the expensive power equipment needed to run a small ranch
3 ponds (for irrigation and animals); one large pond has large edible fish.
1 deep well (water requires treatment;equipment for this is included, minimal ongoing cost if used)
Multiple springs with great water; one has large concrete reservoir and supplies entire property.
2 1,100 gal. drinking water tanks
2 gas wells (royalties and limited free gas)
4,000-sq. ft modern brick ranch house with new heating and central air conditioning system
An old 3-story farmhouse near entrance and out of sight of the main house (rent or use as guesthouse), complete with outbuildings.
Amish-built barn 2006 (20x40 ft.)
20-year-old barn with water, tack room, 3 horse stalls, large hayloft and integral 3- or 4-car heated work shop/garage with concrete floor
Two-way broadband satellite Internet service (no phone connection used)
Wired and wireless intercoms to most buildings, along with walkie-talkies tied into the wireless intercom
Multiple security systems, including remote cameras and TV monitors
Multiple fixed and portable remote-control lights
Main house
Single-story ranch house with heated 2-car garage situated on top of a hill with gated circular driveway and surrounded by 2 acres of landscaped land including trees, flower beds, kitchen garden, and nice view.
This house was built about 15 years ago by a contractor for his own use (he had to move due to age and poor health); we have lived here 8 years.
There is a small semi-finished basement with exercise equipment (included).
The kitchen is part of a large pantry/breakfast nook only marginally divided from the family area, which includes a stone hearth and a modern steel wood-burning fireplace/stove.
There is a small formal dining area with chandelier adjacent to a formal living room with picture windows.
All windows are double-glass Anderson brand.
In addition to gas heat, all plumbing is in place for solar heating.
The roof is new in late 2005 (30-year double nailed shingles).
There is a large room just off the small laundry niche by the kitchen; we use it as a mother-in-law room – this is adjacent to the (parking) garage.
Just across the driveway and near the garage is a fenced, raised-bed kitchen garden, small woodshed, and large cement-floored, heated potting shed/seed starter building with benches, running water, intercom, telephone, and TV hookup.
The back side of the house (facing south) includes a large insulated porch/mud room separated from the family room by sliding patio doors. This room includes a built-in year-round gas grill. There is plenty of room for a spa/hot tub at one end or on the large concrete patio next to the 20x40-ft. heated pool. The house overhang and windows are designed to gather solar heat in winter but shade most of the windows in summer.
At the front of the house (facing north) is an arched brick porch suitable for sitting in the shade and looking over the sloping lawn and about 10 acres of shared pasture.
Patio
The patio area at the rear of the house has a nice view of the main barns/animals, a large poolhouse that includes a dressing room, storage area, outdoor shower, indoor toilet and sink, and separate pool equipment area.
Between the pool and the barns is a small gazebo, then lawn, then a garden area, fence, and paddock. The animals can easily be kept separate from the lawn/house area if desired, but we like to have miniature horses walking around the house most of the year.
By the way, farm animals don’t smell unless kept in confined areas. Even an elegant formal garden/pool/patio party won’t be spoiled by flies or nasty smells if you use even slight care (although people need to watch where they step if you permit the animals around the house)! We always found that everyone, from neighboring farmers to college professors from Pittsburgh, enjoys having a miniature horse visit while they are sipping a drink in the gazebo or watching a group of sheep working their way across the lawn as they enjoy a cigar on the patio.
Security
Although this is a very rural and peaceful area, it is a large estate and monitoring the property/animals is easily done using what would be considered security equipment.
This includes remote cameras in some of the barns (to monitor animals), several alarms/visitor annunciators, gated driveway, multiple remote-control (pan/tilt) cameras placed around the house, and a professional survelience camera covering the driveway/garage/parking area.
You will need this equipment even if you leave the gates open because the house is so quiet and insulated that you won’t know about visitors or deliveries without the alarms, one of that announces any vehicle moving through the gates but ignores people and animals.
If you do have personal security concerns, the neighbors are not visible from the house or most of the property, and the ranch itself is not visible from any road. Even if you are well onto the property and half way up the ¼ mile driveway, the main part of the property isn't visible.
There are also automatic lights both indoors and outside.
Convenience
Despite being virtually invisible and unknown except to close neighbors and invited guests, the property is only 1 mile from a major local highway and 7 miles from a highly rated hospital, 12 miles from the center of the world-famous Punxsutawney, PA (home of Groundhog Day).
There are neighbors close enough to be helpful if needed, but mostly completely out of sight and hearing.
Mail delivery to the end of the driveway and UPS/FedEx delivery to the house in good weather or leave packages at the local convenience store in deep winter.
The local elementary school is only 2 miles from the house - school bus stop is at the end of the driveway.
A country store/gas station, which adjoins a small eating establishment, is only 2 miles away.
The nearest farm store/equipment dealer is less than a mile from the ranch.
You can easily stay entirely on the property for months at a time if you desire but the ranch is only 20 miles from the county seat, 25 miles south of Interstate 80, 35 miles from Indiana, PA (Indiana University of PA and home of Jimmy Stewart). 12 miles from the local branch of IUP), 35 miles from DuBois (airport, home of old-time cowboy star Tom Mix, and plenty of shopping), 8 miles from Wal-Mart Super Store, etc. And 90 miles from Pittsburgh, PA.
There is plenty of room for a helicopter pad on the ranch property near the main house.
There are multiple wired and wireless manual and automated lights inside and outside the house and the main barn areas.
These can be programmed to react to small portable remote sensors and computer programs, as well as wired and wireless remotes, some as small as keyfobs.
Lights, alarms, and fountains can be manually or automatically triggered outdoors.
Major Included Equipment
250-gal. water tank (fits truck)
Permanent 14000-watt gasoline generator
Portable 6KW gasoline generator
Compact Jeep Comanche pickup truck with snowplow (farm or highway use)
Nearly new heavy-duty Polaris 6x6 utility vehicle with enclosed cab, snowplow, and Class-II trailer hitch. Top speed 41 mph.
New Holland Lx465 compact low-hours diesel 4x4 skid loader with dirt/manure bucket and backhoe attachment.
Walk-behind 40-inch sickle bar mower
Wire (MIG) welder
Gas welder
10T shop press
200-gal. animal water tank
Various small heated animal water stations
Small riding lawn tractor with bagger, snow blower, and plow
Portable vented indoor/outdoor oil-fired “torpedo” heater
Old drink cooler/refrigerator
New stainless-steel refrigerator-only in kitchen
Old upright freezer
The kitchen stove is an old electric stove with two ovens (you will probably want to move this to the guesthouse.)
Old washer and dryer, also good for guesthouse.
24-inch dedicated 2-way satellite Internet and wireless computer network for main house
Gatehouse/Guesthouse
This is an old farmstead 9 seen in photo link) and, while usable, is not restored, although the house has new painted siding. Comfortably large for a small family or a number of hunters or guests for a shorter time. This is a nicely shaded and wooded property with minimal landscaping and no view of adjacent houses but several homes are within easy walking distance (just a few dozen yards).
New oil-fired heat in 3-story house, 1-car garage in basement.
Large root cellar
Grape arbors, large flat garden area, fruit trees, small hay barn, large old working garage (formerly a service station) with electricity and coal furnace – store or repair up to 3 large vehicles.
Parking area, small stream, excellent spring water that also serves the main house.
Livestock
Although this will change a bit with time, included will be breeding populations of rare spotted Jacob sheep, which are small and produce high-quality wool. They are also popular with petting zoos because of their unusual appearance (all have up to 6 horns, including the ewes), intelligence, and generally friendly nature. We sell 20-40 of these (mostly lambs) each spring to a wholesale animal dealer who supplies petting zoos.
We have 4 breeding miniature donkey females (jennies), two miniature male donkeys (jacks), four miniature stallions, and one miniature mare with her young filly.
Master Suite
The master bedroom consists of one large room with intercom, multiple telephone outlets, 3 closets, multiple TV antenna outlets, a view to the east over the pastures and sunrise over the next hill.
There are also large insulated sliding patio doors facing due south toward the pool, gazebo, and main paddock/barns in the distance.
The main room also has a partially separated vanity.
Seperated by doors but only accessible through the master bedroom are a tiled Jacuzzi room and a separate small room with cabinets, sink, toilet, telephone outlet, and large tile shower.
The other bathroom suite with separate vanity/sink area and shower/tub and toilet area is at the same end of the house as the master suite, adjacent to two bedrooms. These are down a fairly long hallway from the main living area.
A complete turn-key working ranch.
WHEN CONSIDERING THIS PROPERTY, REMEMBER THAT ROYALTIES FROM THREE GAS WELLS ARE the equivalent of having $800,000 in bonds at 5% interest (IN ADDITION TO FREE HEAT) MAKING THE WELLS A SIGNIFICENT FINANCIAL INVESTMENT THAT IS LIKELY TO GROW WITH INCREASING NATURAL GAS PRICES.
THIS PROPERTY IS ALSO IN THE SUPER-GIANT MARCELLUS GAS FIELD BUT THE NEW WELLS AREN'T EVEN TAPPING THAT YET - IF THE MARCELLUS FIELD IS DRILLED HERE THE ROYALTIES WOULD BE VERY HIGH.
The price will go up when it is listed with an agent AND ALSO AS THE ROYALTIES INCREASE.
In an era of declining national property values, local property values in rural western PA are surging because of the new gas wells.
