The HideAway

Many of you in town and in the business community have been acquainted with Keith and we met him as he often stopped by our coffeehouse to work on his laptop while enjoying our comfortable setting and wonderful coffee!

Keith has been very helpful in making suggestions from a customer’s point of view and some of those have been the addition of SPLENDA to our substitute sugar offering, customer accessible iced water, customer appreciation cards ( Buy 10 and get 1 free. ) and wireless internet access.

Well now Keith has had the good fortune of becoming the CEO of Montana Legend Brand Meats in Red Lodge, Montana and he and his family recently relocated there from Northfield. This company provides natural Angus beef and meats to local users and also can ship directly to you.

I’ve had the good fortune of skiing in Red Lodge and it is just gorgeous there with access to excellent skiing, fabulous fishing and the wonders of Yellowstone Park near by. If you get a chance, drop a line to say “Hi” and order some Angus treats from him so that he can afford to stay there!!

We’ve decided to extend our evening hours to 9 PM on Monday through Saturday for several reasons. First of all, we’ve had many requests as people would like to stop by for dinner or for a beverage or dessert. Some say they are out walking or riding bike and would like to stop and get something and go outside to our picnic tables or benches and enjoy the star filled night.

Secondly, a number of applicants were able to work during the evening hours so that allowed Joan and I to spend time at home with the 6 kids while still being able to service our customers at night.

And lastly, there was a profit motive as most of our fixed costs are covered by the daily activity so the evening business is a nice boost to our bottom line.

Whatever your reason, please stop by and enjoy the coffeehouse and the extended hours - don’t forget the FREE wireless internet!!

Pictured above is my ‘56 Chevy “Beauville” wagon. It was scheduled to be in the DJJD car show as well as the parade.

I was going to the carwash on Saturday with my oldest son, Michael to get the car all shined up for the car show. As we approached the intersection by the theater where Woodley meets Highway 3, the brakes failed and we went through the intersection on a RED light. I swerved to the left to avoid a BMW while I waived my hand out the window and blew the horn. I don’t know what type of car was crossing in front of me from the other direction in the intersection but somehow we avoided each other.

I managed to get the car stopped at the Conoco station on Hwy 3 so that they could check it out but needless to say, the car wasn’t going to be in the car show or the parade. I wasn’t real happy about the turn of events as I had put a lot of work in trying to get the car and the trailer that it would pull ready for the DJJD events.

As I thought more about it though, I realized that it probably was good that it happened when it did. If I had gone to the car show and someone had walked in front of me, I might not have been able to stop. Also, Joan’s Dad, Erv Deering and her Mom, Pat were going to drive the car in the parade and think of the thousands of people who attended that event and would have been at risk!

I guess all in all, we were fortunate that no one got hurt and that everything turned out OK. Also, thanks to Charlie and Lynne Pederson who let us use their little red pick-up to tow the sign in the parade.

There’s Joan pulling the candy and coupon wagon in the parade. David is next to her with a basket of candy and Stephen is in the red shirt behind Joan handing candy to a little girl.

Michael, Elizabeth, Sarah and Joshua were also handing out candy and coupons and I was driving a red pick-up that was towing a sign. It featured the new extended hours (’til 9 PM Monday through Saturday) and the fact that the coffeehouse now has FREE wireless access!!!

We passed out 80 pounds of candy and 1,000 coupons for 20% off on specialty drinks.