“ I saw the land and saw an opportunity to have a change from being a suburbanite to something a little more down to earth.”
— Mike Laros photo by Bob Gustin
~ by Bob Gustin
Mike Laros says it was an“ ah-ha” moment which led him and wife Jaydene to move to Brown County in 1995.
They were living in the Chicago suburb of Barrington, Illinois, wanting to stay close to Jaydene’ s family in the Peoria area when Mike— who doesn’ t like cold weather— realized they could move south of Peoria within a 200 mile radius and still accomplish their geographic goals.
Though they had spent little time in Indiana, they found a listing for a guest cabin and decided to check it out. They rented a cabin for a weekend in early May and arrived on a rainy Saturday. But the next morning the sun came out and it was a beautiful Brown County day. Sitting outside to enjoy the weather, they discovered the whole place was for sale. A half-hour later, they owned it.
They set to work turning it into Fondulac Farm, a meticulously groomed setting for their home and two guest rental cabins with three stocked fishing ponds, a fire pit for marshmallow roasts or barbecues, and modern conveniences including fiber-based wireless internet and streaming television.
In addition to working on the real estate, the couple became heavily involved in the civic life of Brown County. Mike says it was a copier repairman
30 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2021