The Little Things are the Big Things

A simple trip to the Post Office today reminded me of a very important rule.  Simply put (no pun intended) ;)  it's the little things in life that make it the most worthwhile.  Upon opening the PO Box and going through its contents I quickly came to a pleasant realization...no bills!  Furthermore there were a couple of freebies--a sample of a new Kellogg's cereal that I had sent off for and a copy of Living the Country Life magazine,a neat little publication that I had recently found a free 3-year subscription to on-line.  To top it off there was a Netflix movie as well.  We spend just under $11 monthly on Netflix and we sure get the good out of it!  Any day that you can walk away from your mailbox with a good feeling is a good day, but when you walk out with a stack of items that are each in their own way a little payoff to your self-discipline and simplicity, well that's Runnin' Lean at its finest:) 
 

Trees for free!

In celebration of Earth Day, one of the home improvement stores in our area was giving away trees.   The campaign was called One in a Million since they planned to give away a million trees in just one day. Earlier in the week we had found the promotion via a freebie site.  It was a "one per person" style promotion so LaRynda and I both picked one up before we continued with our in-store shopping.  They were beautiful little Blue Spruces and will be welcome additions to our property!  Unfortunately, over the last few years we've lost a lot of trees in this area due to a couple of severe ice storms.  While this has made for a welcome supplement to our winter wood stack it's been sad to see so many trees have to come down.  We had already talked about the prospect of planting some replacement trees and this campaign came at the perfect time!  More and more companies are celebrating Earth Day with promotions like this as it becomes apparent to them that there are financial benefits to jumping on the green band wagon.  Giveaways like this can improve the look and value of your property for years or maybe even generations to come.  So keep an eye out for them every Earth Day.  They're good for the stores, good for you, and good for the planet...not bad for a freebie;) 

Bring the Spring!

Spring is not only a beautiful time of year, but also it's a time ripe with opportunities for Runnin' Lean!  Everything is fresh and in bloom, and it's the perfect time to take advantage of all that nature has to offer.  We've already made a couple of batches of wild violet jam and dandelion jelly as well as a dandelion tea.  The dandelions are plentiful (as they always are this time of year ;) and I'm going to try my hand at some wine too!  A little later in the season, dandelions will also be a great source of greens.  These are all concoctions that are new to us, but I have to say that the jam, jelly, and tea have all been hits.  We'll have to wait six weeks to see how the wine turns out, but I have high hopes.  The Internet has been a great recipe resource for all of these projects.  So far, as with most things...the simplest ideas have been the best.  Not only has everything worked perfectly thus far,(minus a needed pectin boost for the dandelion jelly) the ingredients have been inexpensive to non-existent.