Small town coffee shops

Photo from here

 

It's National Coffee Day! As an avid creamer-added coffee drinker, I have been celebrating the holiday hard so far. These days the majority of my coffee intake comes from brewing my own 5-cup pot, or whipping up an espresso on my home machine.

But, when in town I have been known to stop at an area coffee shop whenever possible. This morning I was thinking about the difference between big-city coffee shops and those found in smaller towns. I will stand in line along with everyone else at Starbucks for a pumpkin-spice latte (with two pumps of vanilla), have them ask my name, watch half the people behind the register misspell it, pay, wait a little longer and then leave with my delicious drink in hand after the barista attempts to yell my name, success contingent on how well it was spelled. Ten to fifteen minutes on a slow day and you're back out the door.

In small town America the experience is a little different, and may go something like this:

Walk in, great the shop owner/barista/cash register person/often only employee by name, they respond in kind. You make your order while standing next to cutouts from the local paper taped to the wall and often impressive displays from local artists. Small talk fills the time about how long its been since they've seen you, how are your parents doing, their kids, the local high school sports teams and had you both heard about the latest wedding and death in the community. Then your high school computer teacher turns around and also greats you, this turns into another bout of catching up. Your best friend shows up halfway through this, because of course you texted or called her to let her know you were at the coffee shop and it took her all of 10 minutes to change clothes, drive across town, talk to someone outside, then join you. She orders, the owner hands you your coffee, starts on hers, and you begin rehashing whose engaged, pregnant, moving, etc...

As minutes pass two of your former classmates, a 4-H leader, the current high school computer teacher and a group of middle schoolers, one belonging to the store owner show up along with one distinctively non-local tourist. You either know each of these people, sans the tourist, or their parents, and will nod or visit with each of them between the more in-depth conversation you planned for the day.

The coffee shop is swamped with the delicious smells of food and caffination, the lively chatter of people that see each other daily and those who have known each other for lifetimes but not talked in a year. Gossip, weather, sports, current events and tragedy are discussed with more depth and knowledge than 20/20. Outside the rest of the little community moves to and fro, and there is a certain comfort in knowing the vast majority of vehicles and pedestrians that make an appearance.

Long after you had planned, you make your exit, feeling rejuvenated, refreshed and refueled, and knowing that only a portion of that feeling came from the drink you consumed during your stay. Pleasant good-byes are shared all around and people continue in the direction their day takes them.

While not the same, I believe that initial smell and chatter that fills the air when you first crack the door of a coffee shop in a bigger city, where you know not a soul, take you back home for a moment. Even when you look around and take in the fact that these people are rarely clothed almost entirely in jeans and boots, that the barista won't know you or your preferred drink, or that a good friend is likely to appear before you can leave, the shop in general brings back good memories. This is why I love the coffee shop experience any day of the year!

 

Salebarn Day

Last week I volunteered to take the open cows (those who are not pregnant) and our cull bulls to the sale barn. This was for a variety of reasons: get out of the house, I love going to the salebarn, it was a beautiful day, I wanted to see if they would let me take pictures to go with future articles on relevant topics.
So away I went, with a 28-foot trailer loaded to the hilt. I happen to know the manager at St. Onge, as most people in this area do, and he happened to be at the trailer chute area when I arrived. I asked about taking pictures, and he graciously gave me free rein, and let his crew know I would be wandering around.
Photographer heaven ensued, and here are a handful of favorites from the hour or so of shooting I enjoyed before stopping for a bacon cheeseburger in the barn's café.

 

 

 

 

I love sale barns (they prefer to be called livestock auctions). You can see the entire scope of the cattle industry while sitting through a sale. Where it's been and where it's going, the confidence and optimism of the area's ranchers, the quality of the year at hand, beef demand, and so many other things are displayed and determined as the various lots are weighed, bid on and sold.

On this particular day, as has been the case in recent weeks, the sale primarily consisted of open heifers, cull bulls, and a few cull cows. The majority of running age cows in this part of the country have not been preg checked yet, and are still out on summer grass. They will pick up in weeks to come, and continue through the fall run and early winter months, before trickling off again as calving season nears.

 

 

Most sale barns around here go to one sale a week during the slower summer months, but increase that number to two or three sales during the peak fall and early winter marketing months. When they go to multiple sales per week, one will be focused on dry and open cows, or "weigh-ups," and another will be for calves and yearlings. Bred heifers and cows may also warrant their own sale day, or be combined with one of the other two categories.

 

 

This was my personal favorite photo of the day. While still a few weeks away, the sheer volume of pens on the load-out side of the ring speak to the fact that the fall run is coming, and that thousands of calves and yearlings will soon make their way through this and other barns across country, resulting in their owners one major paycheck for the year. While you can't tell in black and white, the pens are sporting several new boards, are clean and ready for the rush that will soon descend upon them.
The cattle business is a beautiful business.