What the Retreat is like

You have seen what the Retreat building looks like. It's the old farmhouse shown on our welcome page.

IS IT PEACEFUL HERE?

Within the river's loop usually it is quiet except for birds and wind. However, across the river a mile or two away people make noises. There's a shooting range. Jets fly over and you can hear garbage trucks beeping across the valley. Well, "peace," we find, is in people's heads. We have fewer distractions than most places but if you look for noise and distractions you'll find them.

The farmhouse is surrounded by fields. The fields are enclosed in a large, almost closed loop of the Kentucky River, which cuts deeply into the region's limestone bedrock. In other words, Polly's Bend is surprisingly isolated in a part of Kentucky suffering from sprawl and development surrounding the main city of Lexington. There is a spring nearby choked with mint and watercress where you can go and sit. You can take walks, garden, or hang around the Retreat. The farmhouse's seven rooms have little to no furnishings, though each enjoys a nice view. There are three porches. People staying overnight should bring a sleeping bag and expect to sleep on the floor. One way to visualize what it's like here is to browse some pictures taken here.

THINGS HERE ARE BASIC...

If you decide to stay overnight at the Retreat, keep in mind that the old farmhouse is unfurnished. There's no heating and no air conditioning. However, there are windows that can be opened for a breeze, though probably there isn't a window in the whole building that doesn't have something wrong with it, from being stuck to being broken out.

There is electricity, but no refrigerator and no TV. If you want a fan, you should bring your own.

You should bring your own sleeping bag or pad and blankets. If you require cold drinks or food, then bring a cooler with ice. There's a store about five miles away selling ice and basic gas-station foods. Each morning Jim cooks breakfast over an outside campfire. You can make campfires, too, or cook with Jim. There's water from a pump, but we can't guarantee that it's 100% free of bacteria. Jim drinks it, but he's probably resistant to things you're not.

We like it like this. We like being away from the clutter of the outside world, and focusing on basic things like water, food and the night's possibilities for sleeping. We think that guests who enter this world benefit from having to think and plan for things they take for granted in "real life."

To show how serious we are about this, we even compost our own excreta. You "use the bathroom" in one of those "portable potties" invalids use, then the product is dumped in a compost heap and covered with leaves.

Well, it's important to be reminded that we are part of some of Nature's cycles, and that nutrients cycle into us, and out of us. We use them for a time, then other things use them.

If you require things to be a bit more antiseptic and perfumed than we are describing here, then probably you wouldn't be very comfortable at our place.