Environmental Surroundings Archives - Page 2 of 3

Your surroundings impact your health, productivity, and happiness. This is not just the literal space, but what is in that space and why – including digital content.

Making a sustainable, healthy environment is not just about recycling and composting. It is about setting up the physical space you spend your time in to reflect the person that you are. That does not need to be as woo woo as it sounds. It is about letting your space work with you and reflect who you are, whether that means you are a collector of beloved cat figurines or a minimalist. For me bringing the outside world of nature to my indoor spaces is important, but it needs to generally be in an organized way that leaves plenty of “white space.” And don’t forget your digital world. Our gadgets give us vast amounts of storage in email inboxes and shared drives, incoming messages of all types and originations, and outgoing content that may or not be as meaningful as you want it to be.

Look around – is the space you are in now reflecting who you are? Who you want to be? Who you want the world to see? What needs to be added, removed, or changed to support the life you want to lead?

It’s My Birthday Week – Let’s Celebrate!

No one loves to celebrate their birthday more than I do.

Not 1 year olds getting to taste cake for the first time.
Not 6 year old princesses having a pink-everything party.
Not 21 year olds getting to consume alcohol legally.

Young Susan on what might have been a birthday celebration, pictured with Grandpa.

I am grateful to be alive, and I celebrate the whole month. I started this in my 20’s because when you have a job and all, it is a lot of pressure to put on one specific day. I cannot ask my vendors to avoid pulling a contract on June 20. Have you ever tried to ask someone to not rear end your car 5 minutes ago because it is your birthday? So I celebrate the whole month of June with my favorite treats and small gifts I buy for myself (garden Sasquatch anyone?!). I make sure I enjoy my birthday to fullest.

My People, on the other hand, do not. The kids are teenagers and it confounds them I exist most days – forget about remembering my birthday. If it were up to Bixby, I would tell him what to buy me, then I would accept said box from the Amazon delivery man and be on my way. Don’t laugh – that is literally what happened this year.

Me to Bixby on a Monday: I have decided what I want for my birthday. A bubbly drink at home maker thing.

Bixby: {quizzical look}

Me: Some brands I have seen are XYZ and Soda Stream.

Bixby: {leaves to go do research}

He is a man of few words, but he does love to make me happy. In 10 minutes I had an email with his analysis of each, including links to order. He was back in my office asking which I wanted.

It took me a few more days to reach a decision, but I finally picked one. Bixby immediately placed the order, and the creepy Amazon van delivered it. {Is it just me that thinks of The Handmaid’s Tale vans when you see those vans crawling around all the neighborhoods?} I was set up and in ~~business~~ bubbles in less than 5 minutes.

These are a few of my favorite things – a book, a journal, a nice pen, sunshine out the window…and BUBBLES!

There are a few reasons why this is such a great gift for where I am in my life these days.

Saving Money

I drink a lot (I mean A LOT) of carbonated water. Lacroix and plain club soda are my jam these days. The Soda Stream takes water from our fridge and turns it into a cold, bubbly treat – eliminating the need to buy Lacroix and club soda. I cannot quite bring myself to calculate the savings because that would mean admitting how much I was spending on said Lacroix and club soda.

Bonus – since grocery shopping has been wonky with the pandemic, often my grocery store has been out of both Lacroix and club soda. Having the Soda Stream operate straight from the fridge water means we never run out!

Reducing Plastic

Although “sustainable” on this blog refers to personal energy, I think I tend to be a little crunchier than the average North Carolinian. As we have already discussed, I consume A LOT of Lacroix and club soda. I was not excited about the amount of plastic that I was using. Sure we recycle, but we all should be brutally aware of how little that really does for the Earth. What if we did not consume plastic at all? Soda Stream allows me to use the same 3 bottles repeatedly. They are BPA free so I am not polluting my body by reusing plastic.

It Is Delicious

I hesitated a few days before having Bixby pull the trigger because I was worried I would not like the taste. I was specifically worried about it not being fizzy enough. I love me some fizz. But Soda Stream has a “Monster Fizz” option that we run it on, and it does NOT disappoint. It actually is more carbonated than what I was drinking before. Which leads to my last feature…

Advanced Level Crunchy

Soda Stream gets its bubbles from the CO2 cartridges. To be a little more environmentally friendly, these can be exchanged at local stores or directly with the company. In my research, I found an even better option! Now that we have confirmation that I love to make my club soda at home, we will be purchasing a CO2 tank from our local home beer brewing store and hooking it into the Soda Stream. The cost analysis in the article I found is remarkable. Bonus is my science geek spouse finally has a fun project on his Honey Do List.

It is a gift for everyone on my birthday!

PS – As much as I love to get presents, I also love to give presents. I am not great at it like my sister is, but I try hard. I am going to be opening a small shop on the website in the coming weeks. The first item that will go up will be stationery with beautiful photos and inspirational quotes. You will be the first to see when it is live so check back often!

PPS – This is not a paid endorsement. We paid for our Soda Stream. I am a fan, not a salesperson. No affiliate links.

By Susan Sanders|2020-06-16T21:01:01-04:00June 16th, 2020|Environmental Surroundings|2 Comments

Eye of the Storm: (Re)considering What Brings Happiness

For years I told my husband that I did not need bouquets of flowers in order to bring me happiness.

“It’s a waste of money,” I said. “They will just end up dying.”

“A nice sensible potted plant is fine,” I said, “but flowers are silly and frivolous.”

I think the truth is I decided way back when that flowers would not bring happiness because then my feelings would not be hurt when I did not get them. This has nothing to do with Bixby – this goes back about 25 years.

Young Susan

Back in the day there was a special kind of hell called “Valentine’s Day Carnation Sale” at our junior high and high school. This was a day ear marked to make sure everyone saw me loping through the halls (keep in mind I was one of the tallest PEOPLE, not just tallest GIRLS in my grade) empty handed. At least that is what it felt like.

The pretty, petite, popular girls carried armloads of red carnations, giggling about the secret admirers and boy friends who sent them flowers. I scuttled off to the gym for basketball practice, my feelings hurt and my hands empty.

awkward teenager — Me in 7th grade. Yes the photo quality is bad, but the reality was not much better.

So I boarded up my heart and decided I did not want flowers. If I did not want them, then it was me who got what I wanted when I did not receive any. Or so I told myself. Sometimes we make up weird truths to not have hurt feelings, instead of just saying our feelings are hurt.

Today Susan

I’d rather be a hypocrite than the same person for 20 years.
Adam Yauch, Beastie Boys

I am not sure when I turned the corner to want flowers. Definitely after I was married. For sure when I was growing joy in my own garden.

Everything in this vase came from my own garden. One of my favorite times in the garden is the end of a few hours of work. There is always a sense of accomplishment:

Patch of weeds cleared out
Compost spread onto growing veggies
Newly planted flowers bringing color to a blank area
Backache that says I exerted an effort

This is when I go around with my scissors or clippers and take a small cutting of a bunch of random things. Then I bring them in and arrange them. At least arrange them like a PE major. I have seen gorgeous arrangements in garden centers by the pros, but I love mine because they are from my clumsy paws.

Better yet, someone gave me everything in the above photo.

Pampas grass from a neighbor
Iris from a friend thinning them out
Euphorbia that Ellen Ashley gave me after helping in her gorgeous garden

The cheapo in my is giddy because they were free, of course. But there is another layer. There is always another layer if you sit quietly enough. This arrangement has a story. Even the vase, which I picked up for only 50 cents. This vase is from Reconsidered Goods, a non-profit creative reuse center in Greensboro.

One of the three pillars of sustainable productivity is having a physical environment that works with you and brings you joy.

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris

It turns out I love having bouquets of flowers in my home. I love it even more when these flowers come from my garden. Embracing what is true has helped me to be able to improve my physical environment. This is all part of the process of creating a life that does not need to be escaped.

Look around the space you are sitting in right now. What do you love and would benefit to having more of? Could you throw out or donate something? What is keeping you from taking action on either of these things?

By Susan Sanders|2020-06-17T17:43:28-04:00May 26th, 2020|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments

Soothing My Terrible Tuesdays

I know most people hate Mondays. Not me.

From the movie Office Space via SayingImages.com

On Monday I still have the buffer of coming off the weekend. It’s only been 1 day at the office, its all good!

Tuesday though. The wheels fall off for me on Tuesday. All the stored up juju from the weekend is long gone. Yet Friday is f a a a a r away.

If you have been around here for a minute, you know that nature boosts my juju. I am going to start to post a little mood booster on Tuesdays. This is where a physical environment is essential to making a life that is sustainably productive. If I have things in my space that I love and think are beautiful, it reduces stress and increases happiness!

Azalea from our backyard. It is really showing off this year. Not sure what I did wrong in previous years when it did not bloom at all, but it is going gang busters now!

By Susan Sanders|2023-12-14T09:09:48-05:00April 21st, 2020|Environmental Surroundings, Mental Well-being|0 Comments

Composting – Sometimes sustainability is about sustainability

When I refer to sustainability on this blog, most of the time I am referring to your energy and the activities that fill or drain you. We recycle, save water, telecommute or carpool and much more to make the environment sustainable. Why not explore ways to make our lives more energetically sustainable as well? But sometimes sustainability is about sustainability – today we will focus on composting.

Ironically, one of the things that puts wind in my sails is environmental sustainability. A hobby that sustains me is making dirt. I know, I am a barrel of laughs, for sure.

For those of you about to roll your eyes and hit unsubscribe, please hear this – for you, the point of this post is to hear that we each have our own quirks that put wind in our sails. Find out how to spend more time doing yours. If you don’t know what yours is, keep coming back – we will work together to find out what it is for you.

For those of you who are all in on homemade dirt, let’s DIG IN! (Dig in? See what I did there?! I ALWAYS intend my puns).

Where this came from

Like all kids, I blame my parents. We had a compost pile when I was growing up. It was somewhat less trendy back then, but my mom was a middle school science teacher so weirdo experiments were status quo around our house.

We had an amazing backyard of landscaping my parents developed over the years and a gorgeous garden. The compost we created nurtured both.

Fast forward a zilliion years, and I am my parents age. I have reverted to using paper bags from the grocery store. Yes, we have reusable grocery sacks. However, we are also human and forget them sometimes. I also HATE to grocery shop, so I lean heavily on the shop-for-you service that does not have reusable bags. Paper it is.

But I have a ton of them. Yes, I could take them back to the store for recycling. But I decided to use them to make more compost. Because real talk – the dirt in North Carolina in TERRIBLE. And by dirt I mean clay. We need amendments for DAYS. This gave me a way to get more amendments for free!

How I do it

I combine a few composting methods and incorporate the recycling of the shredded paper into that.

1 – Shredded paper

You can use any black and white printed mail (plus those paper grocery bags) in composting, plus those paper grocery bags. I shred on a weekly basis and when the bag is full I put it in gardening shed or garage for use in composting. I add a layer of paper shreds to both my Bokashi bucket and compost bins in regular intervals.

2 – Bokashi bucket

Bokashi is an anaerobic method of composting – a little different from the pile outside that we will get to next. We have a bucket with a lid in the garage that holds scraps. ALL of the scraps, even things that don’t go in the traditional pile. Think cheese, meat, fish skins… even bones. After I add scraps for the day, I sprinkle bokashi bran and press it down with a paper towel to get out any air. When the bucket is full, it sits for 2 weeks. During that two weeks I pour off “bokashi tea.” More on that in another post – you know how I like a cliffhanger story. After two weeks, I dump the contents of the bokashi bucket into the regular compost bin. Once the bucket is washed out, it is ready for the next round of scraps.

3 – Composting bins

The bin outside is where the magic happens. There we have two bins that have traditional kitchen scraps and yard waste. Joe Lamp’l has a great resource on his website if you are just getting started with composting. Adding the bokashi bucket to our bins massively accelerates the breakdown that gets my homemade dirt to me faster. Patience is not my jam so I was super excited when I saw how much faster the decomp happened.

Compost bins — You cannot see them but there are hundreds of fat and happy maggots wiggling around in this bin.

I turn and water the compost weekly. It is neat to see all the rolly pollys and maggots in there getting their work done. Apparently the weird science experiments don’t fall far from the tree. I am my mother’s daughter.

After about 4-6 weeks (depending on which season we are in, compost breaks down faster in heat), the dirt is ready.

What do I do with it

The dirt that is made is really pretty. Like the dirt I grew up with in Indiana.

Side note: For those of you keeping score at home, here is a list of the things I mentioned in this post being excited about:

Making dirt
Shredding paper
Fast decomposition
Rolly pollys
Maggots
Pretty dirt

I am such a catch. Bixby is a really lucky guy.

Basically from here the last step is distributing it around the yard. A thin layer of compost goes around bushes, in the garden and over areas I want to develop for planting in future years.

I love that garbage we were going to throw out anyway can be made useful again. This can be morphed into a metaphor in life too. What garbage are you carrying around? If you set it down and occasionally turned it over to consider it, would it eventually be benign enough for you to use in a productive way?

By Susan Sanders|2020-06-17T17:46:33-04:00January 13th, 2020|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments

Two Lies and a Truth – My Unsustainably Productive Life

I cried the whole way to work. And back. An hour and fifty minutes round trip, most of which was spent at hurtling down the highway at 75 miles per hour with tear-blurred vision.This was when I decided life as I knew it was no longer productive nor sustainable.

Physically Unsustainable

Each day I worked around 10 hours in the office, commuted close to 2 hours, and went to night school for my MBA. To exercise I had to get up at 4:00 am, so I did. To spend time with my boyfriend I had to see him after 9:00 pm, so I did. Needless to say I was exhausted. My stomach was in knots, my head hurt, and I often cried before, during or after work.

Mentally Unsustainable

Because I was stretched so thin, I was hurrying and making mistakes. And let me tell you – the only thing a perfectionist hates more than making mistakes is other people noticing them. So I spent an increasing amount of time checking and rechecking work. Mine and my direct reports. I micromanaged people into the ground and was a nightmare to work for. Honestly, a nightmare to be around in general. I was crabby and short tempered. I was moody and unpredictable.

Environmentally Unsustainable

Another byproduct of this season of my life was my house was a dump. Not hoarder level, but I was not comfortable in my own space. A giant pile of papers needed to be filed. I had clothes to iron and put away. I never ate at home because I was always too rushed to spend time to wash dishes. My garden was weedier than I preferred, and my yard was taller than both my neighbors and I preferred. I could not catch up. And this cluttered environment prevented me from seeing my home as my refuge.

Life was not sustainable, but my belief system was preventing me from making changes. I wonder if that might be where you find yourself right now too. So we are going to play a game. Let’s play Two Lies and a Truth. But with a twist – I am going to tell you upfront which is which.

Lie 1: I should be able to do this.

Should, schmould. Several years ago my sister and I tried to make a list of all the “shoulds” we hear on a regular basis: 20 minutes of cardio, 10 minutes of stretching, 5 minute face cleansing routine, 20 minutes of reading to your kids, 1 hour of personal time, 1 hour of couple time, 8 hours of sleep… The list went ON AND ON – it totaled about 42 hours per day of shoulds. Friend, I would like to suggest you reconsider the things you do just because you think you should. What in your life are you doing out of obligation or expectation? Stop “shoulding” on yourself and make space for the things that sustain you.

Lie 2: I am a horrible person because I cannot keep up

Once you start realizing how much you do out of obligation, please do not berate yourself. You are not a terrible person because you are not keeping up with expectations. Similarly, you are not a terrible person because you are not keeping up with other people. Do not judge your insides by other people’s outsides. For example, baking is not my jam so if there is a baked goods request for my kids, I am the add-it-to-the-online-grocery-order Mom.

I want to spend my time crafting or biking or reading – activities that bring me joy. Newsflash: our worth as a person is not measured by baked goods. But if baking is your thing – you do you! I have a friend who enjoys cooking and makes extraordinary baked creations that belong on The Great British Baking Show. That is her thing, she does not do it to show up the other moms (as she has been accused of). Let’s stay in our own lane and focus on what brings us each joy.

Truth: You can’t un-know this

Have you ever been shopping for a red sweater, then all of a sudden all you see in ads or crowds are red sweaters? Once something comes into your consciousness, you cannot be unaware of it. I invite you to consider that you may start to become more aware of your limits after reading this post. You are allowed to have limits and not feel ashamed of them. I invite you to become aware of what is soothing you and what feels like an itchy sweater on a hot day.

The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.
M. Scott Peck

Celebrate that awareness. You don’t even need to act on anything, just be aware. What people, places and things feel unsustainable for you in this season of life? What seems to put a little wind in your sails? And know this – it is just a season. This too shall pass. Things will look different in a year or so and you can make other choices then. Consider today and what feels like it is draining your energy.

If this resonates with you, but you are not sure what in your life is causing these feelings I want to help you. I have created The Sustainability Checklist to help you identify patterns in your own choices that might help you find clarity on what is and is not sustainable. Let’s work together to help create a Sustainable You!

By Susan Sanders|2020-06-19T16:57:19-04:00December 4th, 2019|Environmental Surroundings, Health & Fitness, Mental Well-being|0 Comments

About That Trash Can in the Garden

I have gotten a few questions from those of you who read about the irrigation project who were wondering why the heck I have a trash can in the middle of the space I am trying to cultivate into a garden. Its nothing fancy or forward thinking – its taters. According to the interwebs, potatoes can be grown in a trash can so I just had to give it a try. We had to replace our kitchen trash can so I hoarded it from the garbage man (don’t tell Paul, let this be our secret).

There are special bags you can buy to do this, but I wanted to try it the DIY way and so far it has been going fine – other than looking like I have a trash can in the middle of my back yard, of course. I don’t think our HOA has seen it yet.

By Susan Sanders|2019-11-30T16:26:44-05:00June 23rd, 2019|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments

Garden is IN!

I am learning as I age that I cannot do it all. Well, at least not in 1 weekend like I used to. This year I made a conscious effort to limit the plant sales I went to and the new treasures I brought home to put in my yard / garden. I started a bunch of seeds inside and that was my main experiment this year. It took about 5 weeks to transition plants from their winter windows to outside for the summer, research, purchase and plant new friends, move old friends to new places in the yard, and change my mind about all of the above choices. But I think we are all set for 2019!

Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Now keep it watered.

garden stuff — End of planting carnage.
Trays and plastic pots that will be stored for next year’s experiments or regifting transplants, watering can that is everywhere during spring and summer, and of course, the seed cemetery.

By Susan Sanders|2019-11-30T16:31:52-05:00June 13th, 2019|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments

Seed Cemetery

Plant some seeds, they said. It is EASY, they said. Pa made it seem so easy on Little House on the Prairie (well, once they found the professor who bought corn in Mankato in the ditch where he crashed, the planting part was easy)! Friends, it is not. Well, not for me it wasn’t.

I took a seed starting class at Guilford Garden Center in February. I am almost hesitant to put a link to their site in this post because my results are so terrible. But alas, I have some things I will try next year, and Christina at the Garden Center talks a lot about gardening being about learning. Boy did I learn!

In the class, we were given the trays, sterile soil, a few seed packets, and plant markers. We watered the soil and between the 10 of us in the class, we took turns introducing our seeds and teaching our classmates about the seeds. What this means in reality is we poured seeds from the packets Christina gave us onto paper plates for our classmates to share, then read seed packet information out loud for everyone. It was a great way to learn how to read said seed packet and understand how to translate the information into practice. Plus we were able to leave with 17 different kinds of vegetables and flowers planted in rows of our 2 trays! All for only $25.

We watered, covered with the plastic lids and watched. And watered and watched. I got heat mats, watered, and watched. And watered and watched. I added lamps, then watered and watched. And watered and watched.

It was really neat to see the progress, and I started making lists and diagrams about where in the yard I was going to put all the new plants I was growing. Then there was some sort of mass suicide in my trays and everyone shriveled up and died.

seed cemetery — Where my seeds go to die. At least until Lucille thinks she sees her ball under one of the trays.

From what I understand, there is a chance a seed or two is still viable. Joe Lamp’l (aka Joe Gardener) recommends just set the trays out and let Nature take her course. So that is what I have done. Part shade because I don’t know what is where – note the plant tags that have all slid around.

Key learnings for next year:

1 – Take the lid off as soon as first shoots come through. I think the death was more related to dampening off than purple capes and Koolaid.

2 – Get brighter bulbs for lamps. I used regular lamps, not grow lights so I will see what kind of stronger bulb I can find next year. Hanging grow lights are not an option for me at this point.

By Susan Sanders|2019-11-30T16:32:53-05:00June 11th, 2019|Environmental Surroundings, Mental Well-being|1 Comment

Remember how the deer ate my flowers? They definitely heard about my yard from the birds. Apparently, the word is out in the Nature-hood that my garden is THE place to be. A few years ago the birds started eating all of the blueberries off the bushes before I can get ANY! Well, NOT ANY MORE!!

muuuahahahaahhaha…….

MUUAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAH!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Anyway – I wanted some o’ dem berries. So I consulted my local garden expert, and her solution was a snake. I looked at her like she had 10 heads. Then she showed me the inflatable snakes she had in her fruit trees. I figured it was worth a try.

Available on Amazon – check! (and cheap – double check!)

Easily inflatable – check!

Helped The Boy and I conspire together to scare the crap out of The Girl – BONUS CHECK!

blow up snake in a tree — Sssssssssnake at work.

By Susan Sanders|2019-11-30T16:34:45-05:00June 4th, 2019|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments

Garden Project – Irrigation

I have such great ideas. Then reality hits. This was a doozy, y’all. Like over ten months in the making doozy. It is like an episode of The Golden Girls when Sophia says, “Picture this! Sicily 1922...”

Last summer (and really every summer for the last 7 years or so) the garden has died because we don’t keep up with the watering. North Carolina is like the surface of the sun. Ironically it is swampy humid at times, yet the clay soil dries it out and cracks. Even cacti and succulents have died in the dried out clay in our yard. Welp, 2019 was going to be the year that I was going to change that!

It started as all things do – with a bright idea found on the internet. Homemade irrigation systems were WAY too expensive so I wanted to go the DIY route. Plus I fancy myself quite a DIY diva.

Step 1: Fall of 2018 I posted a notice that I was looking for janky hoses and social media came through!

Step 2: Put “Make drip irrigation with old hose” to my to do list and find a good website to give instructions.

Step 3: Wait for 8 months.

Step 4: Once weather turns crazy hot and I am tired of watering after 2 weeks, I try to drill holes whilst throwing the tennis ball for Lucille.

Step 5: Connect drip hose (the one with holes drilled in it) to the good hose connected to the spigot. We had to use a 2nd hose because the spigot is too far from away to connect directly.

Step 6: Weave hose through garden so holes are in general vicinity of where you have plants that you want to be watered.

Step 7: Watch the wheels fall off of the project. Cry.

The old hose I got through the Nextdoor app and left in a wad in the yard through the fall and winter and most of the spring somehow got kinks in it. Weird. When I turned the water on – nada aqua. And I could not unkink the hose because someone had drilled holes in it. More weird. Then Lucille kept running through the garden with her ball trying to get me to throw it while I was getting more and more frustrated by the second.

This is not where I cried – I was still staying calm at this point. I got out a new hose and started again with the hole drilling (whilst ball throwing – there are no photos of this because I was feeling much less amused by it). The more observant of you readers will notice at this point the color of the hose turns from red to green.

Progress was made as water flowed from the early hose holes. But stopped about half way through. I moved it around, found more kinks. Used pliers to unkink. Did not work. This is where tears came in. Over a hole hose project.

Let me tell you about the self-talk that was happening at this point. I was 100% convinced I was a worthless human being because I could not get this to work. I did not want to have to ask my husband to help like a helpless female. I wanted to conquer it, yet who was I kidding with this “I can do it” nonsense.

Let me tell you what an asshole that voice is. I cannot stand her!! These old tapes are exhausting. And I know I am not the only woman (person, probably but men don’t seem to suffer this like women do) who deals with this asshole in her head. We are better than this!

During this whole second hose debacle, Paul was sitting on the porch chilling, not offering notes from the peanut gallery. Basically doing his strong, silent type schtick. But this is why he is perfect for me. Right as I was about to move to Defcon 1 and start destroying things, he wandered out to the garden and introduced me to physics. Apparently we have an incline juuuuuust enough to stop the flow. He moved the hose around, yada yada yada VICTORY!

Each red circle is a spout where water spews from.

I waited a day to make sure it was going to work like I planned, then put the mulch down to cover the hose and hold in the moisture. And mulch makes stuff look so pretty.