Yes, winters are great- for all the reasons you undoubtedly remember. It’s the driving in it that gets to be a pain in the keister, but when you’re retired, and up north, you can just put another log on the fire, make a pot of coffee, and settle in with good company and a good book. - Bill Z

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Bill - A cabin up north you can visit often is an ideal retirement as far as I am concerned. I am envious. The Gaylord area was so peaceful and picturesque in both summer and winter. Lots of small lakes for summer fishing or for going really fast on a snowmobile when they froze over in winter. Like you, if I have food and firewood, I don't mind being snowed in at all. These days I think I would add a generator to the food and firewood list. I actually looked at some properties around Lake Horicon on a few of our snowmobiling trips but never pulled the trigger. Looking back on it, I wish that I did.

You’re in the Houston area, no?

Sort of, I usually say Houston in general conversation since most people know about where that is in Texas. But I am about sixty miles North of Houston and about ten miles east of the little town of Willis. I actually live in the Sam Houston National Forest. Back in the 30's (I think) when the Federal Gov was buying up all the land that comprises the national forest, for some reason, there remained some small pockets of private land and I am fortunate to own some of that.

There is a two lane blacktop out front. I have a 2,000 ft driveway winding through the trees back to the two acre barn site hollowed out of the forest. Very private and peaceful. I can look in any direction and see only trees. I left the acreage mostly as natural forest but I did thin out a five or six acre area which is like a private park you drive through to get to the barn site. I take a golf cart back and forth to the mailbox, and sometimes I will park for a while in that thinned area and just set quietly and listen to the birds and the sounds of the wind blowing through the tall trees. Very cathartic. It is perfect for me, and could only be better if there were real winters with lots of snow.