The Batty Bamboo Woman

March 28, 2022

Marin Resnick

Back on Christmas Eve our septic went kaput. With a household full of peoples with Omicron, it for sure wasn’t the time for it to go. After three pump outs, yes three, and a demolished garage floor, we came to find out a whole wad of toilet paper had gotten stuck in pipes.

Darn that 3-ply.

After careful consultation with our contractor, came to the conclusion that I had to amend my buying habits. At that point, I knew I’d have to find products that helped to protect pipes in the house as well as the bacteria int the septic tank.

After doing much research, I found that Bamboo was an amazing alternative to not only toilet paper, but also paper towels, toothbrushes, just about everything.

And…

It’s biodegradable and grows back in five years.

Okay so tell you something you don’t know…

This somewhat poopy Christmas, both gift and goop wise, made me rethink about how to do business.

Is Amazon really a necessity?

Can the books be printed with bamboo or some kind of other way?

What about plushes or toys to accompany the books? How can they be fun but not made in a factory, shipped across and ocean and then driven across the country?

How do I do business, just as a good person who wants to treat people and God’s earth well?

WELL…..

The first step was to say bye bye to Amazon. Well that might sound suicidal to a book business, in reality the cost of being on Amazon, 60 percent of the sale plus shipping, wasn’t giving me any profit. Aside from the basics of finance, sending out the books myself lets me connect with caregivers and parents. I love this part of my business, meeting people and hearing their stories. Can’t get that from Amazon.

And, in a way, helps me with being a better person. Because while hey Amazon is a great source, and by golly don’t you know I use it too, the post office has been around since the pony express and is going to drop off mail everyday anyway, so that takes a little (tiny) bit of traffic off the road.

It also shortens the supply chain. Which as we’ve learned, the hard way, needs to happen to keep the world supplied adequately. (We’ll have more on this as I get through my DBA).

The other, major thing was that I was able to partner with Kase Printing, a FSC certified printer who prints with vegetable based ink and no VOCs.

These are just little things, and we’re hoping to do more.

But it’s a start, and perhaps a blessing that the septic tank backed up to teach me this lesson.

Plus we know have really cool toilet paper.

Scary and the Great Dolphin Rescue will be available for summer reading for grades 1 & 2, shorty.