This is about the time of year we get very busy; right now is the "calm before the storm". With two kids and a small business, there is a certain amount of daily chaos. Added to yesterdays mayhem was something that brought a surprising amount of inner happiness.
We are fortunate to have a very nice piece of property. It provides wood to heat our home in the winter, a habitat for wildlife and is a beautiful and peaceful place. The habitat is diverse. There is pine forest, hardwood and wetlands. As in much of Maine, balsam fir grows everywhere. When my siblings and I were young, my dad used to round us all up and we would go out and find our Christmas tree in the woods behind our home. Our family continues that tradition.
About 4 years ago, Cathy thought it would be a nice idea to invite people from town, that couldn't afford to buy a tree or didn't have the resources to cut their own, over to cut their own trees. So, every year, we put a small note in our school newspaper. Some years we have one or two takers, some years none.
This year, in the first day after the note was printed, we received four phone calls.
Yesterday, after school let out, we spent the afternoon walking around our fields and woods with three families, looking for the perfect holiday tree for each of their homes.
It doesn't take much to share something that we take for granted. We shared an hour or two and a few fir trees. Now, a few neighbors can enjoy the holidays a little bit more. Just think about how much better the Holidays would be if we all slowed down just a little and did something nice for a neighbor or two that was having a challenging time.
"Paying it Forward" isn't about waiting for an opportunity to do something nice. It's about creating an opportunity to do something nice. Think about taking that first step; you'll be glad you did.
I'd like to thank my wife for creating this opportunity for us; I'm certainly glad she did.
Update: We received a call from one of our local papers who thought this would be a nice Holiday story. Here's the link.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
New (Well Sort Of) Family Game Night Gift Baskets and more!
Here in our area of Maine, the nights are cool, the leaves are falling and it's warm by the woodstove. It's the time of year we begin thinking about the Holiday Season. We're not ready to get out the Christmas tree lights mind you, but we do begin to plan for our busy season. Shipping boxes have arrived along with bags of bows and other Gift Basket sundries.
As the official data cruncher and self-professed marketing guru for our little company, I look at numbers. Change has been in the air for a while; can you feel it? Look at the news and what is happening globally now with the protest(s) on Wall Street. It seems apparent that the American public is growing increasingly aware of something that our politicians and big business are blind to. I saw it in our numbers last Christmas. From what I could tell, everyone that purchased from the Appleton Basket Company last year had been to our site at least once before. Why is this remarkable? Because the American consumer is once again beginning to care (and care deeply) about how to spend the money they earn.
We have always tried to create good products that will be useful and bring a smile to the gift receivers face. We try to be as "green" or "sustainable" as we can (and that's not easy in our business). We believe in "paying it forward" by taking a small portion of each gift basket sale and donating to worthy charitable organizations here at home and even abroad in some cases. We value deeply the people we buy goods from as much as the people we sell to. In short, we know there are those of you out there that care (as we do) and we try like heck to "walk the talk" because "we" are "you" and we know it.
There's some new things we'd like to share with you. First, we decided to rework our Family Game Night Gift Basket. When the weather outside makes us stay inside, there's no better way to have family fun than with games. We decided to change the contents of our Family Game Night Gift Basket and include two classic board games; Monopoly and Scrabble. We also include two card games: Uno and Sorry Revenge, a deck of regular playing cards and some healthy snack mixes. You can see the new Family Game Night Gift Basket here.
In thinking about the above Gift Basket, we realized we were excluding families with younger kids so (you guessed it) we created a Family Game Night-Young Kids Edition. We replaced the board games with Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land, two classic board games for kids just learning how to play board games. We also included both an I Spy and an Old Maid Card Game as well as the two healthy snack mixes. You can see the new Family Game Night-Younger Kids Edition here.
But wait, there's more! We have good friends that are NASCAR fans and they've been after us to create a "car" gift basket. So, we've also added to our collection of Kids Gift Baskets, the Hot Wheels Kids Gift Basket. Five Hot Wheels cars, a pack of track, two monster trucks, a Hot Wheels Customizable Puzzle and two healthy snacks; Vah-room!
As the official data cruncher and self-professed marketing guru for our little company, I look at numbers. Change has been in the air for a while; can you feel it? Look at the news and what is happening globally now with the protest(s) on Wall Street. It seems apparent that the American public is growing increasingly aware of something that our politicians and big business are blind to. I saw it in our numbers last Christmas. From what I could tell, everyone that purchased from the Appleton Basket Company last year had been to our site at least once before. Why is this remarkable? Because the American consumer is once again beginning to care (and care deeply) about how to spend the money they earn.
We have always tried to create good products that will be useful and bring a smile to the gift receivers face. We try to be as "green" or "sustainable" as we can (and that's not easy in our business). We believe in "paying it forward" by taking a small portion of each gift basket sale and donating to worthy charitable organizations here at home and even abroad in some cases. We value deeply the people we buy goods from as much as the people we sell to. In short, we know there are those of you out there that care (as we do) and we try like heck to "walk the talk" because "we" are "you" and we know it.
There's some new things we'd like to share with you. First, we decided to rework our Family Game Night Gift Basket. When the weather outside makes us stay inside, there's no better way to have family fun than with games. We decided to change the contents of our Family Game Night Gift Basket and include two classic board games; Monopoly and Scrabble. We also include two card games: Uno and Sorry Revenge, a deck of regular playing cards and some healthy snack mixes. You can see the new Family Game Night Gift Basket here.
In thinking about the above Gift Basket, we realized we were excluding families with younger kids so (you guessed it) we created a Family Game Night-Young Kids Edition. We replaced the board games with Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land, two classic board games for kids just learning how to play board games. We also included both an I Spy and an Old Maid Card Game as well as the two healthy snack mixes. You can see the new Family Game Night-Younger Kids Edition here.
But wait, there's more! We have good friends that are NASCAR fans and they've been after us to create a "car" gift basket. So, we've also added to our collection of Kids Gift Baskets, the Hot Wheels Kids Gift Basket. Five Hot Wheels cars, a pack of track, two monster trucks, a Hot Wheels Customizable Puzzle and two healthy snacks; Vah-room!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Spring in Maine
Spring is always an interesting time in Maine. Winters can be long and so we mark the progression of spring with a variety of events.
The first true indicator of the advent of spring is mud-season. As the days warm, the surface of the ground melts over the still frozen ground underneath. It usually rains a bit adding to the soup-like qualities of our gravel driveway. You can tell the folks that live on unpaved roads by the layer of mud spray on the sides of their cars. Teenage boys (and many adult-boys) in Maine love mud season so they can see how much mud they can actually get to stick to the exterior of their four-wheeled vehicles.
As the snow-melts and ground begins to thaw more, we begin to look for "ice-out" on our local ponds and lakes. This is when can observe the multi-season, die-hard fisherman. Some will be out on the ice still ice fishing while others will find the sparse pockets of open water to cast their lines. As time progresses, the ratio of one to the other changes. Sometimes, there is the lone ice house out on the lake that was frozen into the ice and left to its demise as the spring thaw comes.
Those of us that garden scramble to get soil tilled. We wait for the topsoil to thaw enough to scratch the surface and dig deep enough to get our early crops in the ground. We do this not our of desire to each fresh veggies (although that is always a treat). We do this because we know that if we wait too long, our skin will be ravaged by the first insect menace of spring; the blackfly. Maine is not for wimps in the spring.
The arrival of the blackfly coincides with a layer of bug-splatter that plasters itself routinely on your windshield as you drive. No amount of windshield washer removes 100% of the bug-splatter. The big yellow ones just smear across your windshield obscuring a nice slice of your vision. So, we learn to leave it there and hope that we get a day of rain to soften the goo enough so that the wipers can clear our vision as we drive. Thankfully it seems to rain quite regularly in the spring here.
The arrival of May marks Mother's Day here at the Appleton Basket Company. So, as usual, we are planning our annual mailing and preparing to send out Gift Baskets for that special mom in your life. For Mainers, it means something more as Mother's Day marks the end of blackfly season and the true beginning of warmer weather and the "Sweet Season" as some here call it.
If you are not on our mailing list and you might want to order from us, be sure to sign up on our home page for our mailing list. We send out a 10% discount coupon with the Mother's Day Mailer good for all purchases up till Mom's Day. For all you mother's out there, we wish you a most wonderful Mother's Day and beginning of the "Sweet Season".
The first true indicator of the advent of spring is mud-season. As the days warm, the surface of the ground melts over the still frozen ground underneath. It usually rains a bit adding to the soup-like qualities of our gravel driveway. You can tell the folks that live on unpaved roads by the layer of mud spray on the sides of their cars. Teenage boys (and many adult-boys) in Maine love mud season so they can see how much mud they can actually get to stick to the exterior of their four-wheeled vehicles.
As the snow-melts and ground begins to thaw more, we begin to look for "ice-out" on our local ponds and lakes. This is when can observe the multi-season, die-hard fisherman. Some will be out on the ice still ice fishing while others will find the sparse pockets of open water to cast their lines. As time progresses, the ratio of one to the other changes. Sometimes, there is the lone ice house out on the lake that was frozen into the ice and left to its demise as the spring thaw comes.
Those of us that garden scramble to get soil tilled. We wait for the topsoil to thaw enough to scratch the surface and dig deep enough to get our early crops in the ground. We do this not our of desire to each fresh veggies (although that is always a treat). We do this because we know that if we wait too long, our skin will be ravaged by the first insect menace of spring; the blackfly. Maine is not for wimps in the spring.
The arrival of the blackfly coincides with a layer of bug-splatter that plasters itself routinely on your windshield as you drive. No amount of windshield washer removes 100% of the bug-splatter. The big yellow ones just smear across your windshield obscuring a nice slice of your vision. So, we learn to leave it there and hope that we get a day of rain to soften the goo enough so that the wipers can clear our vision as we drive. Thankfully it seems to rain quite regularly in the spring here.
The arrival of May marks Mother's Day here at the Appleton Basket Company. So, as usual, we are planning our annual mailing and preparing to send out Gift Baskets for that special mom in your life. For Mainers, it means something more as Mother's Day marks the end of blackfly season and the true beginning of warmer weather and the "Sweet Season" as some here call it.
If you are not on our mailing list and you might want to order from us, be sure to sign up on our home page for our mailing list. We send out a 10% discount coupon with the Mother's Day Mailer good for all purchases up till Mom's Day. For all you mother's out there, we wish you a most wonderful Mother's Day and beginning of the "Sweet Season".
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