pickling time

When our big red barn isn't being used as concert hall, it has become something else...

By late August every year, a number of us here on the farm are up to our ears in ears of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and all the late summer vegetables that have our been overflowing our counters, fridges and windowsills. We’ll have the pressure cooker and jars out, and are hard at work turning our garden harvest into food that can be stored and eaten by our families all fall, winter and spring long.

This year my sister Marcy put all of us to shame. She has been canning for months and her shelves, cabinets and pantry are overflowing with the fruit of her labor.

And though we were gone a good bit of the summer, and missed out on some of the canning work, and fun… back in August, Rebecca and Indy, and friends Amy and her son Caleb, spent time here in the Hub turning tomatoes into spaghetti sauce and salsa, and pickling okra from the garden…

At pretty much the same time, over in the concert hall, we began to prepare for a different kind of pickling…

While we were visiting some dear friends in Deary, Idaho this summer, we saw how they’d turned a pavilion into a pickleball court and seeing how much fun everyone was having, I began to wonder if we had enough room in our big barn to turn our concert hall (when it’s not being used - which is a lot) into a pickleball court.

One of the folks from there heard that we were talking about it and even sent some rackets home with us, to encourage us to try it.

So upon returning from our summer our West, we ordered a net and some balls and a big roll of white line tape.

Surprisingly, the main room of Homestead Hall is 70’ long x 40’ wide, just enough room for the court to fit, with room for chairs on the sides for friends and family (and pickleball foes) to watch and wait their turn.

I looked online to see what size it needed to be, and Indy helped me measure and put down the lines into perfect little squares.

We have some neighbors who’ve played a few times before and so between them, and us, just figuring it out on our own, we began to pickle…

And over the last year or so, we’ve played…

And our family has played...

And my buddies from Porchtime have played…

And dear friends who have come to visit have played…

We have all so enjoyed this new-found purpose for the big red barn. It has made a place that was already wonderful… even more fun.

One the challenging parts of having a concert hall/pickleball court is that there’s a big light ring in the center of the room right above us, and that makes it tricky. But we’ve learned to “play off it” and in some ways, that’s even made it more fun.

We’re still not all that great at it, but it is a ton of fun. We often play with my niece Magen and her husband Robert, or some other friends who’ll come over and join us in the evenings.

I can see now why it’s gotten so popular and so many people are talking about, and playing it.

What makes this game so unique, and fun, is that it’s for everyone. Because of the way the ball is, and paddle, and the rules… pretty much anyone can pick it up right away. Whether our 3 or 93.

Indy loves playing and is getting better and better at it all the time.

Last night, with the Christmas lights from the concerts still up and on, we took turns playing games, the grownups…

And kiddos…

And so, from now until March when my concerts start up again…. we’ll all be here at the farm this winter, freezing (actually the concert hall is heated, so it’s nice and warm), and pickling, together as a family.

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This is a story that I began more than a year ago, but forgot about and never shared. I recently came across and thought it since I just shared a post about decorating the concert hall here at the farm last week, perhaps this would be a good time to update and share another big, red barn story.