The Legacy Barn

A Place to Pour Into

A 90-year-old barn. Twenty years of iron family farmer reunions. A future held in community hands.

For two decades, we’ve gathered

under sun, sky, and storm to pour molten metal into sand and spirit. For two decades, we’ve gathered at the edge of the field to share meals, build molds, and feed the fire. To remember we are better in community where belonging finally finds us.

We’ve camped in fields, danced by starlight, and held ceremony on the pour floor. And through it all, the old barn has stood behind us—weathered, wise, and waiting, our visual anchor, our backstage, our eventual sanctuary.

The Down on the Farm Iron Pour is more than an art event—it’s a living ritual of community, creativity, and legacy.

Now, in our fallow year, as we navigate the tender handover of the farm from Kelly’s father, Ron (who would have turned 90 this year, just like the barn), to Kelly, we’re beginning the careful work of stewarding this space into its next life. We’re beginning the long and love-filled work of restoring the barn and securing the legacy of Down on the Farm Iron Pour for the next generation.

We’re calling this the Legacy Program—a developing vision that invites our community to help bring the barn back to life as a safe, functional, and reverent space for creativity, connection, healing and fire.

flyover video credit :: seekjoy; voiceover + final video credit :: SoulPlaces Oasis

What We’re Dreaming Into

We intend to raise $500,000 for a massive vision, the most pressing of which is to restore the barn and transform it into a vital space that includes:

  • A gathering hall for meals, meetings, and creative connection

  • Bathrooms and running water (finally!)

  • A kitchen to support epic meal crews and communal nourishment

  • A safe, weather-resistant shelter from Iowa’s unpredictable weather

  • Accessibility features that allow more people to pour, stay, and belong

But this project is about so much more than walls or plumbing. It’s about honoring what the Down on the Farm Iron Pour really is—and what it takes to sustain it. It’s about what’s held inside. And who shows up to hold it.

How You Can Be Part of the Legacy

Right now, we’re in the early shaping phase—and we’re inviting in core legacy stewards, to be part of this foundation.

If you feel called to pour into this legacy—whether through financial support, skills, materials, wisdom, or wild encouragement as a legacy dreamer—we invite you to fill out the brief form below.

There are no pre-set tiers just yet. We’re listening. We’re visioning, envisioning—future casting at its best. And we’re building the future with you + other doers who whisper or scream: “I’m in.”

Need a Little Inspiration?

We know our community is full of builders, dreamers, and doers—and your energy is part of what’s carried this pour for 20 years. AND, to bring the barn fully back to life, we need something else, too: materials and money.


Below are a few sample Legacy tiers to help you imagine how you might pour into this vision. No pressure. Just possibilities.

  • $5000

    ➢ 3 Down on the Farm Iron Pour Sand Studio packages plus extra days + meals for up to a week (to be used within 5 years)

    ➢ engraved barn board to take home or hang in a place of honor at the farm

  • $10,000

    ➢ Private event in the barn when its ready

    ➢ name of a communal bronze plaque to be installed on the farm

  • Description text goes here

Kelly + Diane (in full barn cleanup mode)

We know this barn isn’t just ours—it belongs to every soul who’s ever felt held, fed, or forged here.

It has seen generations come and go.
It has held up through storms, and reflected (y)our reaction-mold firelight, and laughter.
With your help, it will stand strong for the next 90 years—and keep holding this wild, radiant thing we’ve built together.

Thank you for pouring into the legacy.

With grit & gratitude,
Diane & Kelly Ludeking
Co-Stewards, Co-Dreamers, Joyful Doers

Down on the Farm Iron Pour
a Ludeking Legacy foundation project