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For years, our retirement dream was practically out of a country song: a log cabin on forty acres, forty miles from anywhere. Reality, however, runs on its own timetable—measured not in years, but decades.
Our first reality check came when we toured a few 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 how many dollars would be required to maintain a log home. Let’s just say In the end, the logs had left the building—and good riddance.
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—not become aged lumberjacks—during retirement! We settled for just under ten acres. As former Coloradans, the extensive sloping driveway didn’t bother us in the least. Since we’re perched higher up the slope, our windows don’t offer sweeping vistas or distant views—just a straight-on look at the midsections of towering trees. It’s like living in a treehouse designed by squirrels with a thing for privacy. 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 rockers that grace our front porch, but it’s also a nod to our roots—not in the soil, but in sound. We’re children of the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, and the Eagles era. We are, in fact, two aging rockers who built a home on a ridge in the Carolinas.