Ron and Charlotte Ringer, front, and their son, Roger, run the Bunkhouse Bed & Breakfast at Wildfire Ranch in Medicine Lodge.

MEDICINE LODGE ? Gazing southward into the serenity of the remote Gypsum Hills, Charlotte Ringer pronounced her family’s retirement location a perfect venture.

From the wraparound porch of the Wildfire Ranch house, she outlined the borders of the 200-acre spread on the northeast rim of Barber County’s grass and cattle country.

Two years ago, the Ringer family – Ron and Charlotte, both 72, and son, Roger, 53 – moved to the area from highly populated Sedgwick County, where “we had people living on top of us,” Ron Ringer said.

Charlotte designed their spacious two-level, four-bedroom ranch house with its open kitchen, dining and living-room area, a downstairs bedroom, a gathering room and an office. Finished on the outside with pine log slab siding, the 2,250-square-foot home features oversized picture windows, fir-paneled ceilings and wood floors that complement the Ringer family’s lifetime accumulation of “rustic” decor: mounted deer heads, Western-style paintings and myriad hunting and fishing art.

In a change of lifestyle they didn’t expect, with time on their hands, the Ringers decided they’d share their space by adding a two-bedroom bed-and-breakfast bunkhouse on the property. The bunkhouse dayroom adds sleeping space for two more guests. A lower-level guest room in the main house is furnished with two additional queen beds.

“We needed to be around people, after all,” Charlotte said.

The accommodations allow space for eight to 10. With their Bunkhouse Bed & Breakfast at Wildfire Ranch listed on the Kansas Bed and Breakfast Web site, the Ringers have welcomed family and friends of area residents along with people from 18 states, as well as Mexico, Germany, Puerto Rico and New Zealand.

“It’s turned out better than we ever thought,” Ron Ringer said. “Our guests enjoy being out in nature, and we meet a lot of interesting people.”

None of the rooms has a telephone, and the lone bunkhouse television is in the dayroom.

“We do have Internet available, but they really come here for peace and quiet,” Roger said.

A full kitchen is available for guests who want to cook.

The Ringers do their own cleaning and share the cooking chores from a menu of homemade breakfast items that include the favorite biscuits and gravy, pancakes, fruit, eggs and bacon, or a breakfast casserole.

“We’re all good cooks,” Ron Ringer said.

They liked the jobs and professions of their previous life, with travel and busy schedules. Ron traveled the state as a food broker, Charlotte worked 18 years as a public guardian conservator, and Roger retired as a firefighter. But they relish the solitude they’ve found as rural residents.

“When compared to the rat race of urban life, we enjoy the people, the laid-back lifestyle and the peace and quiet of the country,” Roger said.