June 20 We were notified by the Cullman Times that we had won the latest Reader's Choica Award for Best Coffee House. This is our third win in the four years we have been open. Joe Muggs won it once. Thanks Cullman for your vote of confidence.

June 19 Had a really great suprise today. I got off work at Soil and Water at about 4:15 and went to the store for a double expresso. At about 4:45 two guys walked in with a guitar and a fiddle and asked if they could play. Of course I said yes. The guitar player was named Texson and the fiddle payer Derock and they were from Texas. They called their group Texson. They were in their twenties and I didn't know what to expect. When Texson started singing the first song I had to stop what I was doing, I could hardly believe what I was hearing. He has a nice easy rap/rock style, he composes his own stuff and it is all about coming out of religion and having a relationship with Jesus. He sings about religious and church abuse and how that hurts people and how God is displeased, but can heal all the hurt with a right relationship with Him alone. Exactly what I have been thinking and talking for the past two years. I believe more and more every day that there is a revolution under way to change modern Christianity to become what God wants it to be which is not what we see now. He told me that he had seen a tee shirt recently that said "Don't go to church" on the front and "Be the church" on the back. Which is interesting because Jason Elam who put together the Organic church that meets in the coffee house on Thursday nights, recently had some shirts printed with the same logo. Anyway these guys are playing at St John's church tomorrow night in a Christian rock concert they are having for the youth there. I think everyone is invited, I think it starts at 6 PM and I think there are 6 groups playing, Texson being one. I hope people in Cullman listen to their message tomorrow night, it will be offensive to some, I know, but so was the gospel of Jesus when it came directly from His lips, not the watered down stuff we hear today. Go to this concert if you can, if only to hear Texson. As we parted I asked him to keep preaching that message, I didn't need to he is committed to it. Thank God.

As I walked out the store to go home after closing today who should walk by but James Joseph. Someone has just done a documentary about him entitled "The Jesus Man". Boy, I'd sure hate to have to live up to that. I think you can google it and see vignettes. As always James asked me what God had been putting into my mind recently and so I told him. We had an interesting discussion for about a half and hour, although we danced all around the leadership role the Catholic church is supposed to have in the Body, which I disagree with as I feel any church body, Catholic or Protestant, is a poor substitute for the real leadership role which belongs to the Holy Spirit. Finally he had to leave to make Mass by 7 PM. We parted calling each other brother as did Texson and I. I found James this time to be more eccumenical than I thought he would be. What an afternoon.

June 18 We had another really good open mike last night. John Lott, Kelly Calvert, Shea Heatherly, Davy Hancock, Opie, Garland Talbert, Carlo, David Speegle and Meliah all performed three songs and some got to do two more on the second round. Our next open mike will be Monday July 2nd.

June 17 Josh Brooks and his sister in law Courtney Brooks gave a really great performance at the coffee house on Sat night. This was Josh and Courtney at their best. Great songs, both covers and originals, tight harmonies, humor and for the first time Josh read his "Beat" poems. Josh has written a number of inciteful commentaries on modern America in the protest style of the San Franciso Boehemians who are now known as Beatnicks. The beatnicks were the predacessors of the hippies who in many ways were more spectacular, but also more superficial. All the old timers who inhabit the store have raved about these poems. It takes all of us old heads back to the heady days of the protest movements we grew up with. Jah has put these poems in a booklet and recored them on a cd and is selling them at the store ($10 for book, $5 for cd or $12 for both). Courtney sang lead on one song, she needs to venture out and do more solos or lead singing. She has a wonderful voice. It was the best I have heard them, a great cncert and well attended.

June 16 We put the Australians on the plane at Huntsville airport, their flight left at 11 AM and I had to hurry back to the Cullman Farmers Market to perform. The Coffee House Gang began at 9 AM and performed until after 12:00. My thanks to John Lott, Dennis Kahlor, Josh Brooks, Shea Heatherly and WP Smith who all performed during that time period. I performed also. We had a great time, the farmers market had a great crowd in and out and people seemed to enjoy the music. The market manager, Jimmy Simms, asked us to be regulars there and perform once a month. We agreed. We will probably work in other coffee house regulars as this gig progresses.

June 12 My Australian nephew Johnathan Keefe, son of my brother who moved to Australia in the 1960's, came to visit us Monday with his new wife Emma for a few days. He had never been south, she had never been to the US. They are in their middle twenties. We are looking forward to an enjoyable visit. We plan to spend a lot of time with family and take them to a few places that we hope eill help them appreciate this part of the world. They have already commented on how green it is. They are having some problems with our north Alabma dialect.

One reason why I chose this building for the coffee house was the skylight, it provided am abiance that I wanted. However there has been a down side to it, the heat it generates on 90 degree days nulifys everything my old air conditioner tries to do. The result is that, at times, the heat is almost unbearable in the store. I have tried a lot of things to alliviate it, but today I covered the sky light with some sun screen material given to me by Jimmie Wells. Almost immediately we could feel the difference. Maybe this will be the answer. I'm afraid that this is going to be a very hot and dry year. We are already in the worst drought ever recorded since records began in 1895.

A customer asked me today what I thought about global warming. My answer was that as far as I can tell the science in inconclusive, but I can tell that the weather has definitly changed over my lifetime. But, I don't know for sure whether the changes are the result of a natural cycle or whether we are experiencing the result of our own pollution. I do know that nature itself is a major pollutor of the ozone layer, just look at the fires in Georgia, over 600,000 acres burned already, the smoke plume reaching north Alabama and beyond, even to the Ohio River. Or how about volcanic eruptions, like Mt Penatubo in the Phillipeans whose atmospheric pollutants caused beautiful flourescient sunsets in the US for almost a year. It could be that our pollution may be the piece of the puzzle that pushes the natural system over the edge. Either way we need to take it seriously and do what we can to wean ourselves away from fossil fuels to more energy efficient power sources. If we did that only for the political stability that would result it would be more than worth it. But most of the powers to be in our country are so wrapped up in foreign oil investments that they will provide no leadership on this issue. So unless the voters wake up and make changes in our leadership and put people in who will actively work for change, we will all continue to suffer. My slogan for the upcoming election is "Give them the gate in '08"

June 10 Gerri and I returned tonight from a weekend in Atlanta at the 2007 World Tea Expo where we learned alot about the world of tea. Of course we sell nearly 40 different kinds of tea now, but we need to really become more informed about it. We attended semenars and met many producers and distribuors from all over the world. You will see major changes in our teas, in our display and in our emphasis over the next few months. We want to include a tea room in our store at some future date, probably in an asiatic motief. Stay tuned.

June 4 Another great open mike, we had 13 performers with a great variety of talent and a good crowd to boot. Bob warmed up the crowd with his old time stuff and at 7 Carlo kicked things off with his acapella version of the old folk song The Maid of Amsterdam. He then did his humorous car repair song. Dennis Kaylor came next with two of his originals Copperhead Hill and Parrothead Paradise. Kerry Calver sang I Won't Stand in Your Way Anymore, '57 Chevy, and his anti meth song Just Another Night in Crankerville. Jamie sang Have You Ever Seen the Rain and her mother Mary Jo made her debut with both versions of Honky Tonk Angel, the man and womens versions. Garland Talbert read the old poem Little Boy Blue and sang GrandFathers Clock. John Lott did his original The World's Worst Victim, Same Old Political Man and Knocking At The Door. Then Josh Brooks read his new poems Don Imus and Two Countrys which caught us all by surprise, he had never read a poem before and these were great, right out of the 60's. Shea Heatherly did his Lost Johnny with mouthharp and guitar and The Pirate Song which he wrote for a gig he is going to do as a pirate this weekend. I think he is hired to perform at a Pirates of the Carribean party as a pirate. Interesting gig. Seth Richarson came next with Shea backing him on a small snare drum, sounded great. Susan Vaughn sang Grandpaw Was A carpenter and another and then Carlo, Joseph Folsom, Shea and John got up and jammed. Jesse read some of his deep philosphical poems and Meliah closed with her great acapell songs. A really enjoyable night.