This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hayley and Mo Molina, 30 and 49, a married couple who live on a 400-acre ranch in Claremore, Oklahoma. Hayley’s parents bought the ranch in 2021, and now four generations of family live there. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Hayley: I was born in Bluffton, Indiana. Then my family moved to Oklahoma when I was three.
We always lived in town, and my family knew nothing about ranching. They were golfers; I didn’t listen to country music until I was in high school — we were city people. But then my parents sold their house and were looking for something new, something different.
They were actually looking for something smaller and with not as much land to take care of, but we started talking about a family compound, found Hook Ranch, and just jumped in headfirst.
When my parents first found the property, it was about 170 acres, give or take, and they just kept buying more land and growing it bigger and bigger until it landed on what it is now.
When my parents were talking about doing this, the future goal was for me to be out here. For me, it wasn’t the goal right away. I wanted that in the future, but I didn’t know what the future looked like for me.
My grandparents ended up moving out here and living in the barn, where they live now, because I wasn’t planning on moving out there or building anytime soon.
They were like, “OK, well we’ll just take your spot then.”
Then Mo and I met, and honestly, I don’t even know if we ever had the conversation about living out here.
Mo: We really didn’t bring it up early on. And when we first thought about it, I was like, “There’s no way I’m living out there with all them family. There’s no way.” Not because I didn’t like them; it just wasn’t in the plan.
But then, as I got to know them, loved them, and we hung out with them almost every weekend, we were like, “Wait a minute, we love it out here.”
I proposed out here, and after that, it took off from there. And then it was normal.
It’s not weird to be living this close to my family
Hayley: On the property, there’s us, my parents, my mom’s parents, and then my brother and sister-in-law and their two daughters.
My family’s always been so close. We’re the type of people who always hung out on the weekends. We always went to my parents’ house Friday night. It was so normal to be so close and always together.
Mo: For me, it was just my mom and me growing up, and we lived in the city, but I’m a country boy. I knew I always wanted to be out in the country. But it looked like I was going to be in the city the whole time. But with Hayley being close to her family, it all came together.
Hayley: We actually moved in with my parents first. We sold my house in March 2025, and then moved in with my parents.
Mo: We lived there while we were building our house.
Hayley: We got married in September, moved in with my parents in March, and lived there for seven months. We moved into our house in October of 2025.
Our house is only about 100 yards away from the barn, which is where my parents and grandparents live.
My brother and sister-in-law are about 200 yards away from the barn — it’s like a seven-minute walk. It’s literally a one-minute walk from my house to my parents’ house.
Mo: I didn’t know if there were going to be any benefits to living that close or not, especially when my father-in-law built a trail that goes right from the barn to our house.
It’s kind of cliché, but if we don’t have any eggs, we can literally walk down there.
Hayley: But honestly, we have so much privacy. You wouldn’t think that, but I can’t even see my parents’ house or my brother’s house from my house.
We can be in the backyard, the front yard, and I have no idea what’s going on at their houses ever.
We can go weeks without seeing anybody. There’s a lot of privacy out here because everybody respects each other’s privacy.
Mo: It is weird knowing that we’re this close and then a couple weeks go by, and I’m like, “Man, I haven’t seen anybody,” or “We haven’t gone down there,” and they’re 100 steps away.
We’ve built closer relationships by living on the same property
Mo: When we first started dating, she was always hanging out with her parents almost every weekend, and I was living my single life, and I was hanging out with my buddies, and we would go out almost every weekend.
Hayley: Friday nights, we know what my parents are doing, because they do the same thing pretty much every Friday night.
So if we don’t have anything to do, we are just going to go join them. Sometimes I just want to hang out with people, but I don’t want to have to drive anywhere, and I don’t want to have to get ready. So we’ll have a game night at the barn with the whole family: my grandparents, us, my parents, and my brother and his family.
Mo: Hayley used to come and hang out with my friends, and then it didn’t take very long before I went over to her family’s place and hung out with them. I was like, “Man, this is kind of cool.” They’re awesome to hang out with.
At first, I was like, “I’m not hanging out with your parents. This is not a cool Friday night.” In less than a month, I would say we were literally hanging out every weekend with her parents.
Hayley: I think we all have gotten so much closer. I have learned so much about my grandparents and gotten closer with my grandma.
My grandma comes over to our house every Monday morning and washes our sheets for us. While the sheets are washing and drying, she cleans the floors for me, and while she’s doing that, she and I chat.
That’s been really nice because I get to connect with her whenever. Before, I couldn’t really do that because we only saw them every once in a while. Now I can do that every week. And she goes to my brother’s house and does their laundry on Tuesdays.
Mo: Getting to know her family more and seeing how they do things and what they like and what their everyday looks like has been a benefit.
Her family works so hard. Her mom is the hardest worker on the ranch, and I would’ve never known that when I met her.
Her parents run a business, and her dad is constantly not in the house — except to watch college football.
I’ve learned so much from him.
I think getting to know that part of her family was huge for me. That’s what’s different. If we lived where we lived before, I probably would’ve never learned, or wanted to learn, that. So that was big for me.
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