AnaCapri & Great Grandma Thora making homemade doughnuts
AnaCapri & Jodi at sunset Driftless dinner.
Rooted in family. Enriched by friendship. Inspired by a lifetime of caring for others.
Freshly picked raspberries at Sundance Villa
Ripe apricots in the orchard at Sundance Villa
Ripe peaches in the orchard at Sundance Villa
Discover more about our history:
Five Generations at Sundance Villa
Five Generations of Family Heritage · A Lifetime of Caring · A Celebration of Wellness & Connection
Rooted in History. Inspired by Wellness:
Welcome to Sundance Villa in the Driftless, a lovingly restored historic farmhouse nestled among the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin’s beautiful Driftless Region.
Built circa the 1890s by European immigrants, this cherished family homestead has been a place of gathering, hospitality, hard work, and traditions passed from one generation to the next.
For five generations, our family has called this place home. Today, after approximately 15 years of thoughtful restoration, we are honored to share its history, natural beauty, and enduring spirit of hospitality with our guests.
This is the story of the people, traditions, and memories that inspired Sundance Villa in the Driftless.
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A Family Tradition of Hospitality and Caring:
Long before Sundance Villa became a wellness retreat, it was a bustling family farmhouse where the kitchen door was always open and guests were welcomed without advance notice.
I grew up here, surrounded by my parents, grandparents, great-grandmother, and Great-Uncle Kermit, who lived next door on the family farm. Grandma and Grandpa’s farmhouse, now Sundance Villa, was the gathering place for our large extended family. Some of our happiest home and yard parties took place here.
My mother and grandmother were wonderful bake-from-scratch cooks who prepared wholesome meals using fresh ingredients from the garden, orchard, and farm. There was always enough food for anyone who happened to stop by, and quite a few people seemed to arrive unexpectedly around mealtime!
“The more, the merrier!” was a familiar sentiment in our home.
If company arrived for dinner, Grandma would send me downstairs to the basement canning room to bring up the very best canned berries, pears, or homemade applesauce for dessert.
Her philosophy was simple: Always share your best with your guests.
That lesson in generosity and hospitality remains at the heart of Sundance Villa today.
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​Growing Up on the Family Farm:
Some of my most treasured childhood memories are of the freedom to explore the farm with my brothers, wandering through the fields and woods, gathering cows from the pasture, and helping with the animals.
My dad and grandpa sometimes brought newborn runt piglets into the house when they were too weak to survive without extra care. Grandma would prepare a cozy box of straw beneath the kitchen heat register to keep them warm, and I would help feed them using my dolls’ baby bottles until they were strong enough to return to the barn.
We loved feeding the baby calves, petting the cows, cats, and dogs, and simply spending time together in the barn during milking. In summer, the barn was filled with the sweet fragrance of freshly harvested hay.
Gathering eggs from the chicken coop was a daily adventure. The chickens roamed freely around the yard but mostly returned to the coop to lay their eggs.
Grooming and riding our Arabian Quarter Horse, Sundance, with my brothers was another thrill. She was fast!
And there was always something wonderful to discover outdoors.
We watched migrating birds, admired extraordinary cloud formations rolling across the wide Driftless skies, and enjoyed beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I remember standing in the yard with Dad and Grandpa at dusk, listening for the distinctive song of the whip-poor-will.
Grandpa would sometimes take us into the woods to show us where the delicate lady’s slipper flowers were blooming. Those little adventures taught us to appreciate the natural beauty surrounding our home.
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​The Simple Pleasures of Farmhouse Life:
My mother was meticulous, stylish, and especially fond of holidays. Our farmhouse was always tidy and beautifully decorated.
During spring and summer, Mom and Grandma would take us through the fragrant flower gardens to see what was blooming and what fruits and vegetables were ready to harvest.
Picking beautiful flowers, tasting sweet berries, and eating fresh green peas straight from the garden with Aunt Nette were among life’s simple delights.
Grandma always had a pot of hot coffee ready to share with company. Grandpa preferred hot tea with homemade bread and farm-fresh honey, especially after coming in from the barn on a cold day.
We children often asked Grandma for “bread and butter and yellow jam,” made from the honey-sweet yellow raspberries growing in her berry patch.
Riding with Dad or Grandpa in the old farm truck to deliver fresh cans of milk to the local cheese factory was another favorite adventure. Along the way, we learned firsthand how Swiss cheese was made.
At home, scooping a pitcher of fresh cream from the top of the milk in the barn’s bulk tank to pour over our breakfast cereal was simply part of everyday life.
During the summer and fall harvests, we helped Mom and Grandma prepare lunches and freshly baked pies to take to the men working in the fields. To us children, delivering lunch meant an exciting picnic!
These memories remind me that some of life’s greatest pleasures are also its simplest.
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​Family, Traditions, and the Joy of Belonging:
Our farmhouse was filled with family traditions and opportunities to learn from one another.
My brothers and I loved spending time with our great-uncle Kermit, who had Down syndrome. Kermit was a valued and much-loved member of our family, always smiling, happy, and ready to play.
He also had the important responsibility of helping Great-Grandma and Grandma prepare coffee and set the table whenever company was expected.
We children eagerly helped prepare for family gatherings, visits from friends, and Grandma’s Ladies Aid quilting gatherings held in our home.
One of my favorite experiences was learning to make traditional Norwegian foods, including lefse and flatbread, with Great-Grandma over the wood-fired stove in the summer kitchen.
I also loved learning to prepare wholesome, slow-cooked meals alongside Mom, Grandma, and Great-Grandma, using whatever was fresh and growing on the farm.
These were more than cooking lessons. They were lessons in patience, resourcefulness, generosity, and caring for others.
Regardless of our age or abilities, everyone had a place in the family.
Everyone was included, needed, and valued.
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​​Lessons in Wellness and Longevity, Across Generations:
Long before I attended medical school, I was learning some of life’s most meaningful lessons about kindness, wellness, and longevity from my family.
I was fortunate to know two vibrant, independent grandmothers who lived to ages over 97 and 95, as well as two great-grandmothers who remained active and lived to ages 97 and 91.
Their lives offered powerful examples of purposeful living, meaningful relationships, physical activity, resilience, and the importance of caring for one another.
As a physician with more than 30 years of clinical experience and a special interest in wellness and longevity, I have come to appreciate how closely many of those early family lessons align with what we now understand about healthy living.
The value of movement, nourishing food, social connection, purpose, time outdoors, and moments of rest was woven into the fabric of everyday life on our family farm.
Those experiences helped shape the wellness philosophy we share with guests at Sundance Villa today.
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​Preserving a Five-Generation Family Home:
Our farmhouse has now been part of the family for five generations.
Before welcoming guests, we spent approximately 15 years lovingly restoring the home, carefully preserving as many original features as possible.
Among the details we retained are the hardwood floors, beadboard trim, two original newel posts, and the historic brick chimney, which features three different types of brick. Hollandale once had three brick factories, making the chimney a particularly interesting connection to local history.
One of our favorite architectural curiosities is the chimney in the attic.
It has always been tilted, and we love it that way!
A mason once shared a possible explanation. In the 1800s, builders sometimes used a weighted string as a plumb-line to guide their brickwork. Because our farmhouse sits high on a windy ridge, perhaps the string was blown slightly off vertical during construction.
Over the height of a four-story structure, even a small deviation could become noticeable.
The original masons may have discovered the misalignment when they reached the attic and carefully offset the bricks, little by little, to bring the chimney back into position before it passed through the roof.
We cannot know for certain, but we love imagining the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the people who built this home more than a century ago.
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​The Summer Kitchen and Stories Within These Walls:
The farmhouse’s summer kitchen, now part of our sunroom and office space, once served a very practical purpose.
Its wood-fired cooking stove allowed meals to be prepared during hot summer weather without heating the main part of the house.
It also served as an entrance from the barn, allowing family members to come inside without tracking farm dirt through Mom’s spotless kitchen. Barn clothes could go directly from the doorway into the washing machine.
Another particularly meaningful piece of our home’s history involves the downstairs bedroom.
Our wonderful neighbor, Helen, was born in that very room.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, home births were common in rural communities. My Great-Aunt Marie remembered being a little girl and helping the women in the kitchen boil water while her mother was in labor with baby Helen.
A downstairs bedroom near the kitchen would have been a practical place for a birth, allowing the midwife and family members to prepare warm water and assist the mother.
When I was growing up, that same bedroom became our playroom, conveniently located where Mom could keep an eye on us while she worked in the kitchen.
Years later, after the farmhouse restoration was complete, Helen and her family were among our very first overnight guests.
What an honor it was to welcome her back to the home where her life began!
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Caring for the Land and Its Legacy:
Preserving Sundance Villa has meant caring for much more than the farmhouse itself.
We have worked to maintain the original carriage house, the surrounding five-acre grounds, Grandma’s orchard and berry patches, the flower gardens, and the beautiful old grapevines.
We also cherish the native wildflower prairie and its walking paths, which invite guests to slow down and experience the changing seasons.
Interestingly, part of today’s beautiful prairie was once the farm’s hog pasture. Years of agricultural use helped enrich the soil, leaving a fertile landscape for the plants growing there today.
My dad, "Grandpa Russell", has been an essential part of this restoration journey.
Now an active and healthy great-grandpa in his 80s, he also grew up in this farmhouse. We could not have accomplished this project without him.
He continues to help care for the landscaping and takes great pride in keeping the grounds beautiful.
If you happen to see him working outside during your visit, please stop and say hello.
It would make his day to know that you are enjoying this special place.
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​A New Generation at Sundance Villa:
Today, Sundance Villa is lovingly cared for by our mother-daughter team, AnaCapri and Jodi, with the invaluable help of family members, friends, and our retreat partners.
AnaCapri grew up playing in this scenic yard and visiting her grandparents and great-grandmother at Sundance Villa.
Now a mother herself, she looks forward to seeing her own children experience the same joys of farmhouse life and family traditions.
She hopes to balance her work at Sundance Villa with time at home raising her son, while helping preserve the family home and the local culture she loves.
To AnaCapri, Sundance Villa represents history, love, and family.
AnaCapri serves as our hostess, while I, Jodi, happily describe myself as her helper!
Together, we are proud to operate this small, woman-owned and veteran-owned family business.
We are joined by Sally, a lifelong friend and professional artist with more than three decades of teaching experience.
Our team shares a love for southwestern Wisconsin’s Driftless culture and the Scandinavian, Swiss, and German traditions woven through our family heritage.
Around here, when someone says, “Come for coffee!” it means more than a quick cup. It is an invitation to sit down, relax, and visit for a while.
And when you leave, we often say, “Look out for deer!”
With the abundance of wildlife in our beautiful countryside, it is practical advice, of course. But it is also our way of saying, “We love you. Please be careful driving.”
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​​From Family Homestead to Wellness Retreat:
Our Historic Driftless Retreats grew from a desire to share this special place and offer a slower, more intentional approach to wellness—one rooted in nature, history, and meaningful human connection.
Set within our lovingly restored Wisconsin farmhouse, just 30 minutes from Madison, the retreats reflect our family’s deep respect for the land, hospitality, and the restorative power of simplicity.
Our retreats are intentionally small and thoughtfully led, incorporating physician-guided wellness and longevity discussions, evidence-informed practices, and immersive experiences designed to support physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
By blending modern wellness insights with the grounding presence of the Driftless landscape, we create opportunities for guests to rest, reflect, reconnect, and discover practical ways to live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
For our family, Sundance Villa is more than a destination.
It is a continuation of generations of caring, hospitality, resilience, and connection.
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​An Invitation to Create Your Own Memories:
The beauty and love you experience at Sundance Villa are a tribute to the many people who made it possible for us to share this dream with you.
As you wander the prairie paths, enjoy the gardens, gather around the table, or watch the sun and stars dance across the expansive Driftless sky, we hope you will feel a little of the same peace and belonging that our family has cherished for generations.
Take time to slow down, appreciate the natural beauty surrounding you, and embrace the simple pleasures of life.
Our family has spent five generations creating memories here.
We would be honored to have Sundance Villa become part of your special memories.
Let’s Connect- Email us- historicdriftlessretreat@gmail.com
Get in touch so we can start working together. See our "Book Now" page to check availability and to book your retreat now.
