This time of year, the place really starts humming.
The warmer weather has the Feed Store bustling, of course, folks stopping in for nearly everything they need to get the garden going, keep the pests that bug our pets at bay, and keep all our beloved creatures happily fed.
With the doors wide open to the season’s breezes, the Brewstation’s patio takes its place as the go-to sunny-day hangout in downtown Cottage Grove. Folks mingle and shake off the workday’s jitters, and when there’s music playing, sweet sounds reverberate around and ricochet from the historic buildings that surround us here at the corner of Sixth and Washington streets.
At times like these, when we’re caught up in the hustle and bustle of keeping a feed store, brewery and public house operating and (as we’re forever striving) to ably serving the needs of our loyal customers and friends, it can be tough to find a chance to look around and realize just how wonderful it all truly is.
Until an occasion such as this, our eleventh anniversary in business.
That’s right, we’re marking 11 years in business this week! Eleven years of hard work, to be sure, but also over a decade of making connections, helping people come together in the spirit of community, of growth, evolution, and a concerted effort to cater to the community’s needs in the most responsive, loving way we can.
Looking back, perhaps it’s not so easy to take it all in – to remember the ambition and ideals that brought the plans together here at Coast Fork, to remember who we all were and what our lives meant to us back then, or to fully recall the challenges we’ve faced and the deeper, more compassionate people that they (we can fervently hope) have made us.
But at times like these, when the place is really humming, it’s easy to remember why this dream found a home here in downtown Cottage Grove. We look around and see the faces of the people we’ve loved to serve for over a decade, and the struggles we’ve shared find their purpose. We remember the wonderful people we’ve lost, and we know that they’ve helped us learn to love, and grow, and grieve, and truly appreciate the times we were lucky to have shared.
We shake and tingle to the evening’s tunes, brought to us these many years by some of the most amazing, talented, and creative people we’ve ever encountered. And we realize how music can unite us, can lift our collective spirit and remind us who we used to be, who we’ve always been.
It’s not easy to take stock of the last 11 years and the joys, challenges, heartbreaks, and triumph they’ve brought us. But day by day, caught up though we may be in the act of making a living, we can try our best to remember and appreciate the lives we’re truly living, the moments we’re sharing that bind us together, and the reasons it’s all worthwhile.
Our deepest thanks to each of you for your support, your business, and for sharing your warmth, friendship, and love with us these 11 years. We couldn’t (and surely wouldn’t) have done it without you.
