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From Petra
In 2013, I came to Laytonville horribly sick and searching for the right place. More than a decade later, I still believe there is something profoundly healing here — in the light, the quiet, the hills, and the people who choose to live among them.
The Haven is my home when I don't have guests: three bedrooms, a big fenced garden, a sauna and a cold plunge, sheep and chickens and ducks, my mother's paintings on every wall, and a kitchen I know how to use. I rent it to people who need a few days of exactly that.
Come for a weekend of nothing. Come for a retreat. Bring your own gathering. Everything here is an invitation, and nothing is required.
Petra Buchanan
Founder & host, Redwood Spa Haven
The spa
A four-person electric sauna and a cold plunge at the edge of the garden, yours whenever you want them. Most guests find their rhythm by the second evening.
How a stay here works
There is no correct way to spend a weekend at the Haven. These are the only rules, and they aren’t really rules.
Weekends built around an experience — spa, cooking, animals, art, practice — hosted by Petra. Pick one, or tell her what you have in mind.
Request this experienceSauna, cold plunge, rest and nourishing meals. You choose how much activity you want — including none.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceHands-on cooking, shared meals, and practical skills you can take home — with a macrobiotic, whole-foods focus.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceQuiet space for painting, writing, music or other creative work, with optional shared meals and time together.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceTime with the sheep, chickens, ducks, cats and dog. Watch, help with the daily care, or just be around them.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceSmall gatherings focused on rest, connection, food and honest conversation about this stage of life, with optional movement and meditation.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceLearn my practice of relaxing the face, breathing through feelings, stretching, and noticing and releasing muscle tension.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceCombine a stay with cooking, meditation, animal time, spa time or a creative project. You shape it; I host it.
Available for stays of 2+ nights
Available to request once you've booked
225 Ramsey Road, Laytonville, CA 95454
A dinner cooked for you, an hour of cupping or gua sha, a massage therapist at the door, the animals at dawn. Available separately, never expected.
From $40.00Up to one hour with Petra. Choose one, combine them, or use the time to talk through what might be most useful for you.
Request this experienceA licensed massage therapist comes directly to the house. Pricing depends on the therapist and the length of the session.
Available to request once you've booked
+ $65.00 / guestA whole-foods dinner cooked in the house and eaten at the picnic table under the trees. Vegan and gluten-free by nature.
Available to request once you've booked
+ $40.00An hour with Petra: relaxing the face, breathing through feelings, stretching, noticing and releasing tension.
Available to request once you've booked
IncludedFeed the chickens and ducks, collect the eggs, check on the sheep. Complimentary, on request.
Available to request once you've booked
Request this experienceAn hour with Petra on Mendocino land use: parcels, ADUs, water, septic, permits and what a property can really become.
Available to request once you've booked
Up to 7 Guests
@petrascountrylivingatitsbest
The sauna at golden hour, the road home, the creek, the garden. Follow along for what’s in season.
Save 10% when you book direct
Have questions about the property or want to inquire about availability? We'd love to hear from you.
Host
Petra Buchanan
Use the form to send a message — the host will reply by email.
Quick answers to common questions about this property.
Why Laytonville
In 2013, I came to Laytonville horribly sick and searching for the right place. More than a decade later, I still believe there is something profoundly healing here.
What will we actually do?
There will be a rhythm to our days — but we're deliberately leaving room for the retreat to become what the people who are actually here need it to be.
Food
Before my life took some unexpected turns, I worked as a macrobiotic chef and whole-foods caterer. The food here is not an afterthought, and it is not "retreat food."
A little about me
My life has taken me through a strange collection of careers and experiences that somehow make perfect sense together here.
Where you'll stay
A comfortable, eclectic, five-star-rated home surrounded by a large garden, with an electric sauna, a cold plunge, animals and places to disappear with a book.
Massage & optional services
Licensed massage therapists can come to the home. I also offer cupping, gua sha and herbal consultation. You can also spend that hour napping — I am very supportive of that option.
September 25–28, 2026 · Four days, three nights · Maximum five guests · Laytonville, Mendocino County, California
Three nights in Laytonville to come back to yourself. September 25–28, 2026 — four days, three nights, a maximum of five guests.
Four days and three nights
September 25–28, 2026, at a five-star-rated short-term rental in Laytonville.
All homemade meals and snacks
Abundant, vegetable-heavy and nourishing, with local food wherever possible. Dietary restrictions gladly accommodated.
Guided meditation
Body-awareness practices
Journaling and materials
Art and craft supplies
Paint, paper, collage, fabric, sewing, bookmaking and mask-making materials.
Vision boarding
Group conversations
Silent walks
Gentle movement and stretching
Electric sauna
Cold plunge
Large garden and outdoor spaces
Games
Walks on the neighbouring 100-acre property
Optional excursions
The river, the Angelo Coast Range Reserve, or the Mendocino Coast — decided together, day by day.
Long periods of intentionally unscheduled time
A maximum of five guests
Permission to skip absolutely any activity
No dates are open for this retreat right now.
Sometimes life is just a lot.
Maybe you've been sick. Maybe you've been through loss, stress, burnout, heartbreak or a major transition. Maybe you've spent years taking care of everyone else.
Maybe you're doing fine and simply haven't had enough room lately to hear yourself think.
You don't need a diagnosis. You don't need a crisis. You don't need to come here to fix yourself.
After Everything is four days in Laytonville built around something I've come to believe deeply: when we give ourselves enough space to pay attention, we're often remarkably good at knowing what we need.
There will be meditation, journaling, conversation, silent walks, art, vision boarding, movement, sauna, cold plunge, really good food, nature, games, laughter and adventures.
There will also be plenty of time when absolutely nothing is scheduled.
If everyone else is meditating and you need to sleep, go back to bed. If we're journaling and you'd rather paint, paint. If everyone is talking and you want to walk silently through the garden, go. If you want to laugh and play a ridiculous game, please do.
There is no correct way to do this retreat. The idea is to get quiet enough to hear yourself — and then practice trusting what you hear.
The first day is about arriving, not accomplishing.
We'll eat, get settled, explore the property and meet each other. There will be an opening conversation, introductory meditation and body-awareness practice.
After that? Maybe sauna. Maybe cold plunge. Maybe garden. Maybe art. Maybe nap.
We'll share dinner and an evening meditation and spend our first night in silence.
Part of this retreat is intentionally slow.
We'll have opportunities for meditation, journaling, conversation, gentle movement and body awareness. And then we're going to do something that can be surprisingly difficult: nothing.
Seriously. Large chunks of time will have no itinerary.
Sleep. Read. Walk. Sauna. Sit in the garden. Drink tea. Stare at something. Pet an animal. Make something.
You do not need to use your free time productively.
Art has been part of my life for decades. I have a degree in fine arts and outdoor education and have worked with painting, bookmaking, sewing, costume making, masks, mixed media and plenty of things that don't fit neatly into a category.
There will be art and craft supplies available throughout the retreat — paint, paper, collage materials, fabric, sewing supplies, bookmaking materials, mask-making materials, glue, scissors, things to cut apart and things to put back together differently.
And yes: vision boarding.
You can make something deeply meaningful. You can make something completely ridiculous. You can start something and never finish it. You can make a vision board for whatever comes next. Or you can completely ignore the art supplies.
Again, there is no correct way to do this.
At some point, we'll ask: what sounds good today?
Depending on the weather, season and what everyone is feeling, we may go somewhere. I might take you to one of my favorite secluded river spots. We might explore the Angelo Coast Range Reserve. We might walk the neighboring 100-acre property. We might pack dinner, drive about 40 minutes to the Mendocino Coast and spend the evening watching the sun go down at the beach.
Or we may collectively decide that leaving the house sounds terrible. Then we don't.
There isn't a failed version of the day.
You do not need to know how to meditate.
I've practiced meditation regularly for nearly a decade and have completed four ten-day Vipassana silent meditation retreats as well as volunteering at two.
Interestingly, those intensive retreats weren't what finally made meditation part of my everyday life. In 2017, a friend posted on Facebook about research showing that a regular meditation practice can create measurable changes in the brain, including changes involving gray matter. I joked that I'd meditate for fifteen minutes every day if he reminded me.
So he did. Every morning for six months, I got a text. And I meditated.
That simple daily practice became something much larger. Over the years I've developed an extraordinarily strong awareness of physical sensation and learned how profoundly relaxation, attention and our mental state can affect the way we experience our bodies. Meditation has brought me an enormous amount of relief, insight and peace.
I'll share what I've learned. You decide what's useful to you.
You don't need to be spiritual. You don't need to meditate. You don't need to be going through a crisis. You don't need to arrive with a goal. And you don't have to explain why you need this.
Maybe you're exhausted. Maybe you've been through something. Maybe life has changed. Maybe you're figuring out what comes next. Maybe you're doing perfectly well and would simply like four days when nobody needs anything from you.
Come anyway.
You don't need to come here to become a better version of yourself. Come as the version you are.
Sleep when you're tired. Eat when you're hungry. Talk when you want to talk. Be quiet when you don't. Paint something. Make a vision board. Walk through 100 acres. Go to the river. Watch the sun set over the Pacific. Meditate. Get in the sauna. Take the cold plunge — or absolutely don't.
Play. Laugh. Rest. Pay attention. Trust yourself.
And don't forget the magic.
Discover what Redwood Spa Haven has to offer.
