Monthly Archives: July 2021

Businesses with Heart: Who Gives A Crap

I know that title doesn’t make much sense at first glance. Maybe not even at second glance so, allow me to explain. For me, a “business with heart” is a business that devotes some part of its profit toward making the world a better place. I’ve decided that I will occasionally highlight one of those companies here in my blog. (And no, I’m not receiving any sort of compensation from these companies for doing so.) The first company I’d like to share is Who Gives A Crap.

I discovered Who Gives A Crap via a Facebook ad during the Great Toilet Paper Apocalypse of 2020. We were fortunate. We saw the handwriting on the wall a couple of days before the toilet paper and paper towels disappeared from shelves in the local area and purchased a multi-pack of each. (Just one multi-pack of each; not a lifetime supply.) It’s just Kenn and I at home so it’s relatively easy to make the paper products last. (On a side note, it took a pandemic and limited availability for me to learn just how many paper towels I was using and to implement steps to reduce that usage.) By the time I discovered Who Gives A Crap a limited selection of non-quality toilet paper was once again available in some stores but if I could purchase enough to last me the better part of a year online and have it delivered to my house, why not?

For my first purchase I selected the toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper; 48 rolls for $48. There were many things I fell in love with right away. As someone who does what I can to limit the amount of plastic I throw out I loved the fact that Who Gives A Crap uses ZERO plastic in their packaging. My shipment arrived in a cardboard box, each roll individually wrapped in paper. As someone who is all about color and sparkle, the sight that greeted me when I opened the box made my heart happy. Oh, and on orders over $25, shipping is carbon neutral which is another win in my book.

So, how well does the product work? Well, it gets the job done, LOL. The toilet paper is not as rough as others made from recycled paper that I’ve tried. I also like the fact that the double-length rolls are not not glued to the cardboard core so you get to use the whole thing. I’m not a fan of the fact that it has a tendency to pill and to not tear completely at the perforation.

Now that we’re down to the last few rolls, I placed a new order, this time upgrading to the 100% bamboo toilet paper. The bamboo paper is a little pricier at $52 for 48 rolls but, since it will last for a year or thereabouts, I have no complaints about the price. After testing one roll, I like it much better. The bamboo paper is softer, thicker, and tears cleanly at the perforation. It also doesn’t pill like the recycled paper. My only “complaint” is that my color-loving heart is saddened by the fact that the bamboo rolls are wrapped in white paper with black and gold patterns; no cheerful colors to brighten my day.

In addition to toilet paper, Who Gives A Crap also sells forest-friendly paper towels and facial tissue in addition to “Dream Cloths” which are listed as being a “reusable and washable paper towel alternative.” I tried the paper towels and while I liked them, I found them a bit pricey at $16 for 6 rolls. They also aren’t as wide as what I’m used to and I’ve gotten a bit spoiled by the “select-a size” sheets, a feature that is not available from Who Gives A Crap. I recently purchased 12 boxes of the forest-friendly facial tissue but haven’t tried them yet; I’m still waiting on the last box of my existing tissues to run out.

But, product aside, what is it that makes Who Gives A Crap a business with heart? The company donates 50% of their profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world. FIFTY PERCENT y’all! That’s nothing to sneeze at. But, if you do sneeze, I’ll share my forest-friendly tissues with you. 😉

Until next time, happy trails and be sure to pass on any business with heart that you use.

Them’s the Breaks

We don’t have a garage. As a matter of fact, we’ve never had a garage. Our first home (less than 900 square feet) had no covering at all for vehicles. In a way this worked out for the best since Kenn’s little rattletrap truck sacrificed itself and took most of the of the damage when a huge section of the tree in our front yard fell; the poor little truck was severely dented but it kept the house from taking more damage than it did. Our second house, built in 1962, had a 60’s style carport ringed with wrought iron. The carport was just big enough for my Toyota Highlander as long as we opened the doors carefully in order to avoid hitting the wrought iron on the left side or the brick wall on the right.

Fast forward to our current house, also known as The Cabin. The Cabin has a stand-alone covered carport big enough for both vehicles – or at least it was until we bought Ruby. I think we were on the way home from the dealership when Kenn expressed concern that Ruby wouldn’t fit in the carport. I, on the other hand, was confident she would and, I was right. Ruby fit but we had to take care not to clip the side mirrors on the support posts. Then Kenn replaced the factory mirrors with ones we could extend when towing the travel trailer. These wider mirrors narrowed the room for error when parking Ruby significantly. We learned to be extremely careful both when parking and backing out and we’ve both had our share of close calls. Sadly, our luck ran out this past weekend.

Poor Ruby

Of course, we were both a little upset (especially Kenn, since he was driving). However, we both knew it was just a matter of time until this happened although it would have been nice if it had taken longer than 5 months, LOL. I told Kenn that we need to make sure the replacement mirrors fold up so we can just close them up before parking to eliminate this problem in the future. But, you want to know the worst part? The existing soon-to-be-replaced mirrors also folded up. It just never dawned on either of us to actually fold them up in order to eliminate the parking problem. It was a true facepalm moment.

We all have these moments

One of the good things about life is that we never stop learning. Sometimes the lessons we learn are hard ones, others not so much. This one is definitely in the latter category. A broken sideview mirror is an incovenience and replacing it is a bit of an expense but, in the long run, it’s no big deal. But, you can rest assured that we will be folding Ruby’s mirrors up in the future!

Until next time, happy trails and watch your mirrors!

Review: Jack Hill State Park

Jack Hill State Park is located in Reidsville in southeast Georgia; it’s just far enough south that the red clay soil is changing over to a more sandy variety. We have family in nearby Statesboro and rather than make an overnight trip with a stay in a hotel so I could attend a baby shower, I talked Kenn into turning the trip into a long weekend so we’d have more time with family. Thus our stay at Jack Hill. (I didn’t exactly have to twist Kenn’s arm; he’s usually up for a trip, especially after our travels were so limited during 2020.)

When Kenn told me that he’d made reservations at Jack Hill, the name didn’t ring a bell with me. True, I don’t have the names of all of the Georgia state parks memorized but, until 2020, the park was known as Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park. According to the park website, the name was changed to honor “the late Georgia senator who did much for the community.”

I had no idea what to expect when we arrived at the park and I have to say… I absolutely loved it. Jack Hill is a small but beautiful state park. I haven’t been able to find any information on the age of the park but it felt fairly new. Older parks, no matter how well maintained, show their age in various ways. Sometimes it just the presence of buildings built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and 40s, or just the inevitable wear and tear that develops over time. Jack Hill has none of that. The park office, the cottages, the bath house (or comfort station if you prefer), even the individual campsites all had a new look and feel.

Site 16

Jack Hill has a 12 acre lake just a stone’s throw from the campground. If you like golf, there is also an 18 hole course. (Neither of us gives a whit about golf so we didn’t bother to check out the course.) In our efforts to find out the age of the park, we discovered that the 2020 Foot Golf Championship was held at Jack Hill State Park. 🤔 What? You’ve never heard of foot golf? Neither had we. It turns out that foot golf is a cross between soccer and golf in which players kick soccer balls into 21-inch cups. Who knew? I think I’ll stick to hiking and kayaking.

The lake at Jack Hill State Park

Jack Hill is an 30-minute drive from both Statesboro and Metter which made it easy to meet up with family. Not only is the park pretty but so is the area around it; our daily drives took us through a landscape dotted with farms, small towns, and old architecture – all of which I love. Every time we get together with the southern branch of our family, we all say we need to get together more often. Here’s hoping that from this point forward, we actually will – and Kenn and I won’t hesitate to stay at Jack Hill again.

Until next time, happy trails!