Guest Author - Amanda Masoner

Last weekend was a lively one! Having three full days in a row with my husband by my side warranted some out-of-the-ordinary fun. We decided to head on over to the Land Between the Lakes. The annual “Homeplace Pickin’ Pary” was calling our names!

The Pickin’ Party is a Bluegrass festival, and we love bluegrass. Musicians all weekend long were working their pickin’ fingers to the bone with fiddles, guitars, upright basses, and the stars of bluegrass-banjos. It was a wonderful time filled with old-time songs and even some new renditions of songs written by Johnny Cash and Elvis.

The original plan had been to have the musicians sprinkled all throughout the 1850s living history farms but the rain put a veto on that. We decided the grounds still deserved a peek at and toted our umbrella from one wood building to another. Even got to pet a work horse on the way. And the gold pot at the end of the rainbow was the music dancing out of the visitor’s center theater.

The theater was a great intimate setting for music and musicians alike. We all got to be dry and be close enough to catch every lick and lyric that headed our way. Several of the musicians even played songs the audience knew and it became one great sing-along!

In the meantime the other musicians were spread out, taking shelter under different farm house roofs while they held workshops for any of the guests who felt like bringing their instruments along. It was fun to watch them help their listeners nail down some of their seasoned styles while free-ranging chickens looked on. Even with the rain there was quite a turn out.

One of my husband’s favorite stops was the Visitor’s Center gift shop. They have all kinds of books on canning, freezing, and storing produce. Some cover how to build a shed or home with wood. They even had their own baked bread for sale. We wanted to buy up every bit of information in there to aid in starting up our own home-place!

There is something going on almost once a week from now until November 1 at the Homeplace. It is located on the Tennessee side of the Land Between the Lakes. Pryor Hollow, Tennessee to be exact. I am quite certain we’ll be back several more times. With so much going on you may not need to come up with another vacation idea all summer long!