What’s in a Name?

It’s become clear to me that any self-respecting property larger than a postage stamp has to have a name. The internet is full of people who had the imagination and foresight to call their residence something more than “random number assigned by government body on County Road 422.” Just a few of the lyrical pretties I’ve stumbled upon: “Spring Thyme Farm,” “High Hopes Farm,” and “High Winds Ranch.”

I have long wanted to name our own meager acreage but have been stumped by the sense that we have exactly 12 acres and no livestock save a few goats, dogs, and some (human) kids. I fear being “all hat, no cattle” as they say about pretentious urban farm types.

Always willing to throw someone ELSE under the bus, I figured that Mr. Wonderful did grow up on a farm and thus he has the street cred (field cred?) to name a place if he wants.

What he wants, of course, is to be left alone.

I say “Honey we should name our house!”
 
He says “it has a name, I call it “home.”

My top choices are "Muddy Lane" or "Long Lane" (our home sits down what natives to the region call a long dirt "lane" (that would be driveway to you and I).

I’m leaning toward the latter because every single native type person has said the same thing when I explain where we live. I give lots of really great directions such as “it’s kind of far past the red barn but not the BIG red barn, the smaller one, and the kind of blue-green house that needs painted. It’s on the right. Except if you are coming from the other direction, then it’s on the left.”  I can’t imagine why they don’t find us.

Invariably they finally track us down, probably losing a portion of their vehicle's undercarriage along the way,  to say, exasperated, “Why didn’t you just SAY you live down the long lane?”


So now, just in the space of this blog post, I think I’m simply going to replace “I do?” with “I do!”

“Long Lane.” It’s pretty right? Not too pretentious since it's true?

Granted, Long Lane can be both a lovely visual image, or a good name for an insane asylum.

Either way, we're good.












I'm linking this up on Farm Friend's Friday in hopes some savvy rural types can lend me a hand - or at the very least stop me from making a fool of myself down at the feed store ...