What’s in a Name?

The dream was to own a ranch. There would be a log cabin on forty acres forty miles from the nearest town.  Unfortunately, turning the dream into reality took some time (We’re talking decades!) Along the way, we discovered a few things that led us in a different direction.

First, we traipsed to a number of log home models. We discovered that our idealized log home plan, with its two stories of glass on the gable end would still only allow sun into the great room. The rest of the cabin would not feel cozy. It would feel claustrophobic! Talking with log homeowners also allowed us to see just how much effort and just how many dollars would be required to maintain a log home.  Let’s just say the logs “left the building.”

Second, we discovered that maintaining forty acres of mostly wooded land was, frankly, beyond the capacity of two Boomers who just wanted to putter in the garden during retirement, not become aged lumberjacks!  We settled for just under ten acres with an extensive sloping driveway –  that we discovered Amazon drivers are afraid of! But being situated higher on the slope means when we look out our windows we see nothing but the middle sections of towering trees. It feels like we are isolated in the woods, miles from the rest of the world. The truth is that we are conveniently ten minutes from hardware stores for Willie and Target for Kat!

Finally, those ten acres were purchased in North Carolina, not Colorado, as originally planned.  A ranch in the Colorado high plains desert seemed natural. In the Carolinas – not so much! In the west, mountains are gargantuan jagged peaks reaching for the heavens, but here, we have rolling waves of rounded mountains. We have hollers (small, sheltered valleys) and knobs (round top mountains) and, well, ridges (elevated landforms with sloping sides) And so, the ranch became the ridge.

As you can see from the photo, the “two rocker” part of our name came partially from the remarkable Amish hickory rockers that grace our front porch, but here’s a little behind-the-scenes revelation. We actually chose the name as a play on words. We are from the era of the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Eagles, Hendrix, and so on.  We are, in fact, two aging rockers who built a home on a ridge in the Carolinas.