2 Holt County friends craft copper mugs, sell them online, forging potential path for rural Nebraska.
They roll out of bed hours before dawn, bleary-eyed and grumpy, as Holt County farmers have since horses pulled plows and roosters doubled as alarm clocks.
Except Michael Stepp and Matt Dennis aren’t planting corn or feeding cattle. Instead, the friends drive their pickups to a shop on the outskirts of town to chase a different small-town dream, a uniquely 21st century dream — a dream that doubles as a potential path forward for small-town America.