Good Land, Good Living, Good People

I love our Fridays at Farm Dover. Weather permitting, we work outside for a couple of hours and then head to town in the truck. (Town being Shelbyville, not Louisville.) We run errands along the way.

First stop today was the Shelby Country Recycling Center. Every couple of weeks we load up the pickup with our recyclables, separated into glass, plastic, cans, slick paper, newspaper and cardboard and drop them off at the 7th Street North center. I love this place. It is always neat and orderly; the staff cheerful; and I feel like I've done a small good deed for the environment.

Next stop: McKinley's Bread Shop and Deli. Located on Main Street, it's our favorite place for soup and and a sandwich. The ladies behind the counter always remember that Ed likes a strawberry shake "to go," so they watch to see when we are about finished with our lunch before heading to the back kitchen to hand dip a shake for him.

From there, we usually walk down the street to the Sixth and Main Coffeehouse to pick up a take-home brownie or scone and to browse their book collection – a wall full of new and used books, with a particularly nice Kentucky section.

We then take care of any other downtown business. Today, we mailed a package at the post office, renewed our truck license and picked out two audio books at the library before heading over to Rural King for jumper cables and Kroger groceries. Sometimes we'll walk through the Main Street antique stores, searching for first-edition books, cast iron cookware, baskets, or anything else that we just can't live without.

Once we finished our Shelbyville errands, we headed back to Simpsonville, via US 60, stopping at Metzger's Country Store for three bales of hay for the garden. Then it was on to Cottrell Farm Equipment Inc. for some bar oil and help getting the chain saw back in working order. Cottrell's is one of my favorite places in Shelby Country. It is an old-fashioned, family-run business and seems like everyone in the family works there, including the Cottrell brothers and most of their sons, Renee (daughter-in-law), Connie (mother). We bought our zero-turn mower, our chainsaw, our trimmer, and chainsaw protective pants there. In return, they have given us two bright orange STIHL bill caps and a ridiculous amount of advice. I'm sure when we leave the shop, they break out laughing at our lack of farm equipment knowledge.

I recently learned that Shelby County's motto is: "Good Land, Good Living, Good People." I concur with all three claims.