“When we first moved here, in 2000, this was not on my radar,” says Michele Stindtman.

By “this,” she is referring to the creation of MTS Farm and Event Center.

They bought the farm place back in 2000, which is located just south of the Blue Earth city boundary.

They did a lot of work to it, to make it look nice. Then, in 2018, their middle son was going to be married. And he wanted the wedding to take place in the barn on the property.

“We fixed the barn all up, and had some of the wedding events outside, with no tent,” Michele recalls. “And from there on it just took off.”

They made improvements to the barn, especially up in the loft, put a deck on the back of it and much more.

That included turning a grain bin into a dressing/party room for the bride and bridesmaids, with an upper level for the groom and groomsmen.

But they needed more room. So for the wedding seasons of 2022 and 2023, they rented a huge tent and put it up outside the barn.

“But a storm blew the tent down,” Michele relates. “I told Troy, if we are going to keep on doing this, we need to add on a big space to the side of the barn.”

And they did.

Troy had a mutual friend who told him he should hire an Amish construction crew that he knew about.

“We thought about doing it ourselves,” Michele says. “But our whole family is not comfortable with heights.”

They scheduled it to be done in 2024. Maybe in the early summer. But with a mild winter and an early spring of good weather, the Amish crew called and said they could start in March.

“We were surprised,” Michele says. “In fact, we were in Florida for a vacation. Troy had to fly back right away, but I stayed in Florida for a while longer.”

She did come back and says the Amish crew was amazing to watch, just going up and down the roof and working hard every day. They were a fun bunch, Michele said.

“When they finished up the shell, we took over and finished off the inside,” Michele explains. “Troy and I and some other family members have done most of the work here. We both love doing it. In fact, I just love working with power tools and finishing off the projects.”

“This (the new addition) has truly been a blessing,” Michele says. “The barn, with the loft, was OK, but this is just wonderful, and everyone loves it. We don’t have to worry about the attendance size, or the weather.”

And while they were at it, they built a bar, a long stage for the wedding party, and just recently finished off all new indoor restrooms.

“We did all that work ourselves,” Michele states, “Although Troy did hire a plumber, as we don’t do plumbing.”

They did have just one thing left to do. The ceiling in the new addition. Once again, it was a height issue.

But, they had a volunteer. A future groom, who will have his wedding at MTS, volunteered to do the ceiling – and he did.

Now it is just to finish off the bare plywood.

“We are not sure what we will use on it, other than just painting or staining it,” Michele says. “We don’t want to use tin as that could affect the acoustics in this space.”

A lot of the materials they used to finish the walls in the new addition came from donations.

“People had old lumber and metal in their sheds,” Michele says. “And they just gave it to us to use. We really wanted to continue with the rustic look, to make it look like it was part of the barn.”

So they cleaned it up, and installed it, and they are getting a lot of compliments about it.

“Maybe this is not the venue for everyone, if they want a fancy look,” Michele says. “But a lot of folks do like this type of rustic atmosphere.”

And it is not just country folks. An upcoming wedding is a couple from the Twin Cities.

“They have people coming from southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa, so this is right in the middle for all of them,” Michele explains. “That is true for most of our weddings. Probably 80 percent are not from Blue Earth.”

She also explains that MTS offers different packages, depending on how much they want to do themselves and how much they want MTS to do.

“But now, it is about 90 percent of our weddings want the full, all inclusive package, where we do 90 percent of all of the planning and set up,” Michele says. “Mainly because they don’t live closeby.”

Their number of bookings for weddings/receptions was down a little this past summer, but they already have 13 booked for 2027 and another three couples are coming to check it out and might book it as well.

They also have had several special events use the center, like the USC High School Prom, the Blue Earth Community Foundation and others. Not to mention having Luke Duke (John Schneider) performing a music concert there a while ago.

“Other people have mentioned they have an old barn, and maybe they should turn it into an event center,” Michele says. “I hope they realize how much work it is, because it is a lot of work. You have to love doing it, all the work, and I do love it.”

She admits you are going to give up a lot of time, especially weekends in the spring, summer and fall, and it can consume a lot of your time and energy.

But if you love doing it, like Michele Stindtman does, the hard work is all worth it.