Travis Hellstrom's Blog, page 9

6 Ways to Get Rid of Mice Without Killing Them

We woke up this morning to a cute little mouse walking around my home office.

We have suspected for a little while that there might be mice nearby, but the proof was very sparse and every month or two.

Now we know.

The problem is, we don’t really want to kill them. Especially this one, he’s just a baby. We just don’t want them in the house.

I remember reading in one of the Dalai Lama’s books that Buddhists take not killing animals seriously. That includes ants and mice. In Japan, the story goes, people keep their houses so clean that ants don’t even come inside. There’s nothing to eat. I like that.

With that in mind, I did a little research and found a few ways to keep mice out of the house without killing them.

Here are six ways I found to get rid of mice without killing them:

Remove all food sources in the house – Mice choose houses with lots of food. To avoid sharing your home with them you should stop feeding them. Store all food in plastic or glass containers with tight fitting lids. Don’t leave pets’ food in paper packages and don’t feed pets between mealtimes.
Make your house clean and tidy - Even a couple of spills left on the table after breakfast can be enough for a mouse. Don’t leave clothing in the corners; your home shouldn’t be stuffed because mice can easily find places for nesting.
Use peppermint oil – Peppermint smell is too strong for mice. They won’t get close to it. Consider using cotton balls with peppermint oil in areas where mice can get in the house easily. Another way is to grow peppermint outside near the entrance.
Close all possible entrances - Mice are tiny creatures and they can easily get through the holes which are less than ½ inch. Make sure there are no ways for them to get in. Cover the spaces with steel wool or aluminum netting.
Use repellents – This method will keep mice outside your house and help you to solve the problem how to get rid of field mice.
Have a cat in the house - A cat’s presence at home can prevent mice from coming inside.

I was able to catch our little guy and put him outside. They advise taking them a mile away so they can’t come back, but this one was just a baby so we put him a few hundred yards away.

To, hopefully, keep them out for good in the future we’ll try these tips out and see how it goes.

Fastest Rapper in the World? This Guy Watsky

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Wow.

I’ve written before about Macklemore and how musicians going crazy give me goosebumps.

Here’s a guy who is following right along with Macklemore, as Mic wrote:

Rap is poetry — even Jay Z says so. That’s why it’s unsurprising that 27-year-old slam poet Watsky might be the next big rapper of our generation…. Watsky, in an interview with USA Today, said “People like me and Macklemore are telling our own stories for an audience that may not have a context for the founding fathers of rap.” Like the best poets and rappers, Watsky takes that responsibility seriously and delivers honestly and vulnerably.

I watched one of his videos, then two, then ten.

He’s very talented and it’s interesting to think how far he’ll go.

Check out his videos below and see if you enjoy him as much as I do.

 

Feature on Ellen

 

100 Words You Could Say Instead of Swag

 

Whoa Whoa Whoa

 

Moral of the Story

Watsky

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Wow.

I’ve written before about Macklemore and how musicians going crazy give me goosebumps.

Here’s a guy who is following right along with Macklemore, as Mic wrote:

Rap is poetry — even Jay Z says so. That’s why it’s unsurprising that 27-year-old slam poet Watsky might be the next big rapper of our generation…. Watsky, in an interview with USA Today, said “People like me and Macklemore are telling our own stories for an audience that may not have a context for the founding fathers of rap.” Like the best poets and rappers, Watsky takes that responsibility seriously and delivers honestly and vulnerably.

I watched one of his videos, then two, then ten.

He’s very talented and it’s interesting to think how far he’ll go.

Check out his videos below and see if you enjoy him as much as I do.

 

Feature on Ellen

 

100 Words You Could Say Instead of Swag

 

Whoa Whoa Whoa

 

Moral of the Story

Wanna Join Me at Our Book Reading on Friday?

This Friday, June 27th at 6pm, at Everybody’s Books in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont my co-author Dede and I will be reading from Questions for the Dalai Lama!

We are very excited about it and I would love to see you there. You’ll be among friends, including Tunga, her mom, dad and me for starters.

For directions and pictures after the event, visit this link.

Thanks everyone!

A Little About Tunga’s Wonderful Family

Thank you all for your wonderful comments on How Tunga Changed My Life. I know Tunga enjoyed reading them as much as I did.

I’d also like to thank you again Karin for reading Enough and loving that chapter so much that you inspired me to post it up here. That means a lot to me.

I’d like to share a comment that I got from my good friend Jim, who is currently serving in the Peace Corps in Thailand, who said “Travis, you should add a postscript to the post about you and Tunga.” I have a feeling my life is my postscript, so it’s hard to know where to begin, but let’s start with Tunga’s family.

Last night Tunga’s mom and dad landed in America. This is their first time outside Mongolia, their first time in an airplane (actually 3 airplanes over a 26 hour period), and their first time hugging their daughter in two years. Here’s that hug.

 

One of the big reasons I wrote Enough was to tell Tunga’s story and her family’s story, so several chapters are all about them.

Theirs is a story I’m still part of, and one that’s unfolding all around us.

Sometimes we get a chance to sit back and reflect like I did in my fourth year in Mongolia after Tunga and I were married and I had the chance to write a book. But sometimes we just know it’s wonderful as we are going through it and I think that is magical too.

I know Tunga would be the first to say that her family has shaped who she is. She has her mother’s laugh and her father’s humor, her sister’s responsible nature and her brother’s bravery. And she has something that I think is unique to all the Mongolian families I know, a very grounded love and appreciation for those around them.

The first thing they did, after hugging, was get on Skype and call home. In this picture you can see almost everybody in Tunga’s family including her brother, sister, niece and nephews.

 

 

I’m grateful this is one of those times when I’m lucky enough to have the time to write and share, while I also experience the story as it unfolds.

And I’m glad I have the space and opportunity to share it here with you.

How Tunga Changed My Life

I came into Peace Corps open-minded in just about every way, except for one: I was determined not to be in a relationship. I made it a rule that I wouldn’t date anyone while in the Peace Corps.

Our trainers and Peace Corps staff members quoted numbers to us, the average number of Volunteers in every group that have relationships, get engaged, get married, and on and on. I zoned out during that part of training. I had too many plans, including (among other things) eventually becoming President. Seriously. I wasn’t about to be sidetracked.

One of my closest friends in the Peace Corps, Todd, would tell me something later that really sums everything up… “One thing they don’t tell you in training, one thing Peace Corps never warns you about, is this: people are going to love you.”

This goes double for Mongolian people. Peace Corps Volunteers are kind and generous across the board I would say, but in every country we served we are out- loved and out-helped by the people that we are supposed to be loving and helping. What Todd said was true and it turned my plans to mush.



When I met Tunga for the first time she slowly and silently started to pull my world apart. I’ve always considered myself an unusually calm person – she was calmer. I’ve always thought I was generous and patient – she made me look like a child. In almost every way, Tunga was harder working, kinder, more collected, controlled and forward-thinking than me. And she never had to say a word, I understood these things just by watching her.

In The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch wrote some simple dating advice for his daughter, who wasn’t yet two years old. Randy himself only had a few months to live due to his cancer, but he knew what advice he wanted to give her when she was ready to start dating boys, “Ignore everything they say and just pay attention to what they do,” he said, “Because if you do that, you’re not going to make all the big mistakes.” I couldn’t agree more.

When we first met, Tunga didn’t speak English and my Mongolian was still in toddler stage-one. This made it even easier to follow Randy’s advice. Language became less important and action became everything.

When I watched Tunga I saw how she interacted with people. She was kind all the time, everywhere, with everyone. She smiled and laughed more than anyone I had ever met. She was always helpful. She was always generous and the way her family interacted reminded me of my family on the other side of the world.



Just by being herself, Tunga showed me layers I hadn’t even considered – ways of being that I had only touched on in my best moments like the meditation retreat.

I came into Peace Corps as a typical volunteer probably does – as a “helper.” In a sad twist of irony, however, I also came in with limits to how much I was going to love people. That’s the reason Todd’s statement has stuck with me over the years – people loving you is hardest when you have put up limits to how much you are going to love them. This can include “professional v. personal” barriers as well as “I’m not going to get into a relationship because I want to become President someday” limits.

Tunga changed my life because she helped me see my barriers for what they were and allowed me the space to move past them. I was standing in my own way. I looked good on paper, but I was limiting myself by putting my value on future events instead of appreciating people and opportunities right now, right in front of me.

Instead of loving people, I was “helping” them.

Instead of growing, I was trying to be productive.

Instead of being myself, I was hiding who I really wanted to be.

Tunga helped me see those things, but not by telling me about them. She never pointed anything out, she never talked about it, and she never asked me to change. She just showed me through her own actions what it could be like for me. She loved people with a kind of abandon that I’d never seen before. She didn’t “help” people, she cared about them and treated them like friends. She approached every opportunity as a chance to grow, she never complained even though she had every right to, she never asked for an easier life even though everyone I know would have begged for one, and she was herself in private and in public, everyday. She was unlike anyone I had ever met and, maybe most importantly of all, she didn’t need me. I loved being around her just because of who she was.

It’s been especially interesting for me to learn that a relationship is never supposed to hinder you, it’s supposed to empower both people in the relationship to be their authentic selves.

I think this is true for friendships, but especially for romantic relationships. It’s easy to get into a dependent frame of mind, where one or both of the people feel like they “need” each other. I think that’s a mistake.

Tunga didn’t need me and I didn’t need her. She was fine without me, actually she was great without me. She still is. That allowed us to start not from a place of dependency, where the other person fills some need in us, but instead from a place of appreciation.

I love Tunga for who she is and it’s a pleasure to be around her. In fact, I think everyone is a better person when they are around her.

It’s been more than three years since we met and even though our language skills have increased dramatically, it’s still action that defines our relationship: how we treat one another, how we care about others, how we smile, help and give.

In that time I’ve also become one of those statistics that Peace Corps quoted to us during training. I broke my one rule of not dating someone during Peace Corps and by breaking that rule, I discovered the most amazing person I have ever met.

Also, for the record, she assures me that I can still be President someday if I want to be.

We’ll see.

 

This comes from the chapter “People are going to love you” in my free book Enough .

Everyday Humanitarians Conference Wraps Up Today

 

It’s been a real pleasure organizing the Everyday Humanitarians conference and I love all the wonderful feedback I’ve been getting from everyone including experts and participants! Thank you all very much.

The conference wraps up today, so in case you haven’t already come check it out for free now before it’s too late!

Just kidding, it’s never too late. It’ll be up and available for purchase forever. But it will only be free for one more day.

Everybody Can Be Great, Because Everybody Can Serve

One of my favorite quotes came up twice during our conference:

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”

It comes from Martin Luther King, Jr. in one of his final speeches before he was killed.

“If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness. By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”

Matt talked about this idea in his book Serve To Be Great as something he learned between the prison, monastery and the boardroom. Mozart talked about it being something central to his life and his work as a social worker. Personally I’ve found the quote to be huge in my daily reflections on what I am doing. All of us can be great. All of us can serve.

Wherever you are and whatever you may be doing, this “new definition of greatness” that King talks about is available to each of us every moment.

What Would You Ask One of Your Heroes?

What would you ask one of your heroes if you’re able to sit down with them for an hour?

I don’t ask that lightly. I mean it.

In my case I had a page of questions prepared when I sat down with one of my heroes, Brian Johnson. After following and admiring Brian (CEO of en*theos) for six years I was finally able to sit down with him for an interview during our Everyday Humanitarians conference. I picked his brain on everything from meditation and what inspires him to get up in the morning, to how each of us can best optimize our lives and what his 110-year old self would tell him now.

Amazing doesn’t even begin to describe his answers. From his PhilosophersNotes, to his book, to the wonderful values en*theos is built on, Brian is an inspiration. He has had a huge impact on my life and it was an honor to sit down with him to ask my favorite questions.

Who are your heroes?

Have you ever told them how much they mean to you?

Here are some things you can do today to turn your heroes into your friends:

Send Them a Note - Send them a tweet or facebook message or find them on their website and write to them! If you can find their email address or a contact me page on their website, send them a heartfelt message. It will mean the world to them.
Be Specific - Be as concise and clear as possible when you explain what they have meant to you, when you first found out about them, and how they have made an impact on your life.
Send Them a Gift - Is there something special you could send their way? Maybe something simple like an article or video that might find inspiring, or an actual book or handwritten note that you could put in the mail. Ask their assistant or team for a mailing address and put something in the mailbox. Everyone loves getting things in the mail.
Think About How You Can Help Them - Everyone needs help, especially incredible people changing the world. Think about what you might be able to offer that could help your hero, or their cause, or their organization. Then do it.

I hope you have a chance to check it out Brian’s amazing answers when our conference goes live next week. I know you’ll love it and I hope it inspires you to reach out to your heroes too!

Amazing Online Conference for Everyday Humanitarians

I am very excited to announce that I have partnered with en*theos to create a free online conference this month for Everyday Humanitarians!

It starts June 9th and is available to anyone in the world for free. It features 20 amazing interviews with outstanding innovators, authors, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and great friends!

 

In the conference you’ll learn:

How to Start Consulting and Be Your Own Best Boss

The B Corp Handbook

The Purpose Economy

Giving Yourself in Greatest Service to the World

How to Start Your Own Nonprofit

Leadership for Humanitarians

and much more!

 

I am very excited about it and eager to share the interviews with you.

Visit everydayhumanitarians.com to sign up!