Charles Bello created an incredible homestead. check it out here, and yes the video is worth every minute. if you don’t have time, a poor summary:
- bought 240 acres in Northern California, 1968, filled with redwoods
- built a few a-frame houses for family members and friends to visit
- sold Christmas trees to pay for everything
- put a partially subterranean greenhouse garden in his kitchen
- makes sculptures out of wood, metal, whatever
- didn’t make his kids go to school but they’re successful and have families
- turned fallen timbers into bridges
as he shows interviewer Kirsten Dirksen around the property you can feel him reliving each project, recounting lessons learned, proudly explaining how it improved his family’s life.
at some point he says something like “i could die right now, i’ve done everything i wanted to do.” and this is a sentiment i shared until recently.
having a kid made me want to live longer. not that i was depressed, just that i thought i’d lived enough. virtually every bucket list experience (with the exception of drugs), i’ve tried it.
then i had a daughter. now i can’t want to see what happens next. from her daily development to watching my wife’s motherly instincts kick in… it’s just the best.
so for these reasons i want more life. but life is just a collection of hours. how should i invest my time? in 2025 i pushed myself professionally. this year i’ll push myself personally.
stunted progress
in August 2022 i bought 50 acres in a small town after a roller coaster of opportunities that spanned Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, and Seoul for 13 years. from 400 sq foot apartments to more space than i’ll ever need.
my goal with this move has not wavered: build a compound.
so i started the Ranch Tracker and got to work. i picked up basic construction, landscaping, hardscaping, plumbing, electrical, and interior design chops. we learned how to maintain a property and host dozens of guests.
but i suppressed my boldest ideas. somewhere in the back of my mind was a gnawing thought that one day we might move. and if that happened i wouldn’t want to deal with stuff like:
- bespoke amenities new buyers don’t want
- un-permitted structures that can’t be included in the appraisal
- upgrades with a greater cost than their monetary value add
- funky design choices that hurt curb appeal
so i mostly dabbled. sure we built a glass house. renovated the barn. constructed a bridge over water. but in planning each project i avoided getting weird. a corporate realtor was always in my ear, whispering to keep things reasonable.
that ends today.
life is long
recently my parents decided to get a pool. they went back and forth on the decision for a year. part of their conflict was the same question i posed above: “what if we move?“
i told them they need to make a bigger decision first: if you commit to living here forever, you don’t have to calculate the pool’s impact to your Zillow estimate.
hearing myself articulate this advice, i realized i needed to take it myself. will we own our ranch forever, or is it a pitstop on the way to somewhere else?
having enough
no matter what you have, the urge for bigger / better / fancier never really goes away. it’s practically a disease.
here are my minimum required living standards. i refuse to live around high crime (see: any city). i refuse to see neighbors outside my window. and i refuse to pay high taxes. criminals belong in prison, neighbors are nosy, and taxes are increasingly wasted on illegal daycares.
so long as these standards are met by our current setup, i’m staying. which means it’s time to turn Kulp Estates into a compound.
youth is wasted on the young
like Charles at the top of this post i need to get a move on my more ambitious projects. one day i’ll only be able to talk about them, and i owe my future self an explanation of how i spent my time during all these healthy years.
a few things we’re thinking about:
- outdoor gum surrounded by water (our pond already has a natural island)
- zipline to the outdoor gym from the back porch
- a second barn set up as an indoor gym, possibly with sauna / hot tub / etc
- lookout tower, kinda like those fire watch towers, to oversee the property
- maybe a pickleball court (finally started playing, it’s fun!)
- cooler roof + overhang for the Hacker House
- convert our attics into a private office, accessible by spiral staircase
- electronic front gate with cameras and remote entry
- sentry drones that run on a schedule, capture the perimeter on footage, self dock
my outdoor gym is already in progress. i’ve made decent headway in the first few weeks of 2026:
up next: clearing trees off the island, building a much stronger (vehicle friendly) bridge to access it, and designing the space. i’m inspired by this outdoor setup for the finished product.
stay tuned. we’re just getting started.