Dawn rises over the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill in Cave City as employee Eldon Jennings arrives at works Friday 10/4/2002.

J.Y. Monroe, 73, one of two brothers who own the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill, hangs out in the office as wife Carolyn Monroe, 70, right, writes up an order for a customer Wednesday 10/2/2002. Because of his health, J.Y. Monroe can't do the all the labor-intensive work necessary to run a mill, so he supervises and works the forklift from time to time. 'I can't do what I used to,' Monroe says. 'I keep wanting to get up to do something, but I can't. So I gotta just turn around, walk away and grit my teeth.' The Monroe's daughter, Sandy, 46, also keeps things running smoothly at the mill. 'If it weren't for her and mama [his wife], it'd be gone,' Monroe says of the mill. 'They're keeping it alive.

Sandy Rogers, 46, daughter of J.Y. Monroe, 73, one of two brothers who own the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill in Cave City, checks mixed feed at the mill to check its texture and to make sure no lumps of molasses remain Thursday 10/3/2002.

J.Y. Monroe, 73, one of two brothers who own the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill in Cave City, mans a forklift Wednesday 10/2/2002. On the truck, mill employee Carl Colston, center, helps Fowler Branstetter, left, load a supply of feed for Branstetter's dairy farm in Edmonton, Kentucky. Branstetter used to own a feed mill too, in Edmonton, but had to shut down because of the rising costs of maintaining such an operation. He says he likes to come to Monroe Brothers to support the small, independently-owned mill. Monroe says he has to make $1000 profit daily just to be able to open doors for business every day.

J.Y. Monroe, left, hangs out with old friend and longtime customer J.T. Jackman, right, in the office of the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill in Cave City Wednesday 10/2/2002. The two were dicussing the phenomenal costs of financing a war with Iraq. Jackman, who owns a farm in neighboring Glasgow, is now retired and leases his land out. Nowadays he just stops by to shoot the breeze with Monroe.

Old equipment parts and a chair seem frozen in time as they sit covered in cobwebs and grain dust in a loft about the grinders and mixers at the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill in Cave City Wednesday 10/2/2002. Employees rarely venture up into the loft, braving the climb only when there might be a problem with the equipment.

J.Y. Monroe, 73, one of the two brothers who own the Monroe Brothers Sweet Feed Mill in Cave City, bends down to greet his cat, Tom, as he returns home from work Wednesday afternoon 10/2/2002.