[Gun & Garden] "I imagine a big herd of buffalo might have come through here," says Fred Zipp, standing on a rocky ridge above the Llano River about an hour and a half’s drive northwest of Austin, Texas. Zipp; his wife, Jodi; and three other couples had been hunting for a quiet escape from the ever-growing buzz of Austin, a place to ride their bikes, reconnect with nature, and recharge. Still, when they found this oak-studded, ten-acre ribbon of land in the Hill Country west of the town of Llano, they knew it would require some work."When we first looked at it, it was not really that inviting," Zipp says. Head-high stands of invasive Johnson grass and ornamental privet threatened to choke out mature oaks and native plants such as black persimmon. Hoping improvements might lead to a quick sale, the previous owners had bulldozed a road to the river but left giant debris piles high on its banks. Even so, the Zipps and their friends could see its potential as plainly as the Precambrian pink granite that braids this idyllic if rough-hewn landscape. Soon the project had a name: the Llano Exit Strategy.
A former editor of the Austin American-Statesman, Zipp made his own exit from the newsroom in 2011. But during his thirty-two-year career, he regularly had a front-row seat to development debates and, more recently, the Lone Star water wars, amplified by Texas’s ongoing drought. So from the get-go, the group wanted to create a retreat that was sensitive to the area’s limited water resources. "This is a magical place, but it’s arid," Zipp says. "We’re doing what we can to reserve as much water as possible for the native trees and grasses. Fortunately, they’re beautiful." Keeping the footprint minimal and costs low while still building a stylish, comfortable compound was also a priority.
The Zipps didn’t have to look far to find an architect whose vision jibed with their own. A San Antonio