(DF) COMPOSTING TOILET UPDATE!!

Before I get into the actual update, a little background might be in order.  Hopefully, this will bring those of you who haven't read my original post on the subject up to speed, while refreshing the memory of those who, like most of us, have plenty of other things to think of and may not fully remember.

The recently past summer was a hot, dry one here in the central U.S., including the part of Oklahoma where I live.  The near record drought led to increased water usage, which in turn led to decreased water availability in my two wells, making the need for conservation absolutely necessary.

Thinking of ways to save water reminded me of a book which a friend had recommended years ago, "The Humanure Handbook".  This particular work is an excellent source of information on the environmental hazards of conventional sewage systems, composting toilet systems, gray water systems and composting in general.  A must read, in my opinion.

I, being a natural born skeptic, decided to test the simplest of the composting toilet systems described.  Simply put, it consists of a bucket, seat and cover material (saw dust is preferred but I chose dry leaves).  The reason for this choice of cover material is because I live in the woods and leaves are always available.  Sawdust, on the other hand is not as readily available and isn't always free (remember, I AM a tightwad).

Deciding to do early testing outside, I used a portable camp toilet.  It is the type that consists of a bucket which sits in a slightly larger container with a seat and lid, and while being designed for use with a bag and chemicals, it served my purposes nicely.

A point to remember is that this was done in extreme summer heat.  If anything is going to stink and draw flies, it will be in summer heat, right?  Well, believe it or not, there was very little smell and to my amazement, the kitchen scrap bucket drew far more flies than the toilet.

When the bucket was dumped in the compost pile, it did smell bad, but only until covered with more leaves.  Within a couple of days, the composting process had produced temperatures high enough to kill any pathogens that might have been present.

I continued through the rest of the summer with this system, looking for some down side.  The only one I could find was the trips to the compost pile.  This would only be a down side if I wasn't already making those trips with kitchen scraps and such anyway.

By the time cold weather arrived, I had confirmed another up side in addition to water savings, environmental benefits and the prospect of rich compost for the garden.  The well pump kicks on every time the toilet is flushed, using electricity.  The savings on the electric bill was about nine dollars per month.  Nice bonus.

With cold weather, I made a plywood seat with a hole in it for an old dining chair and placed a five gallon bucket under it, and yes, I placed it in the bathroom beside the flush toilet.  Behind the bathroom door, I placed a garbage can full of leaves for use as cover material.  In an enclosed area, I fully expected the stench to be horrible and was prepared to remove the bathroom's new addition.  To my pleasant surprise. there was no more smell than with a flush toilet, and much of the smell is from the leaves (a smell I find pleasant).

With considerations of added high nutrient compost, and the savings of water and energy, it seems more than worthwhile.  Add to this savings the environmental benefits, and it seems to me a most excellent addition to our self-sufficient lifestyle.

Please let me know your thoughts, opinions and experiences.  Even with the best of things, there is room for improvement.

(DF) MISCELLANEOUS AND SOMEWHAT RANDOM UPTDATE TO RECENT POSTS

First off, about Friday's rain.  Actually, though the morning mist was very nice and beneficial, the rain just didn't happen.  It didn't happen Saturday as forecast either.  Seems that Isaac didn't care to travel quite this far west, but did send some cool, damp weather (though short lived) our way.  By Monday, it was back above 100 degrees and has been there every day since.  There was rain again yesterday, and you probably already guessed, it was in the parking lot where I work but not here on the farm where I should be working. A RANDOM THOUGHT JUST OCCURRED; maybe if I come home, the rain will too, soon to be followed by bill collectors of course.

Remember the pumpkin vine pics I recently posted?  I believe I posted them Friday morning while it misted outside.  The next day, rabbits found the new leaves and stripped about half of the biggest vine.  The pumpkins are alright and still growing and new leaves are coming on to replace the ones eaten.  My first and most obvious question was about the why of rabbits who had shown no interest at all, suddenly stripping the vine.  The answer seems to be a simple one, though it took a couple of days to figure out.  The cool misty morning washed the leaves clean and dampened the ground enough so I didn't have to water Friday.  In the interest of water conservation, I had been saving bathwater to water the plants.  Seems rabbits don't like the soap in the bathwater.  As soon as I resumed watering, the chewing of leaves abruptly stopped.  I can't say soapy water is better to water with than rain water, but if the rabbits eat up the plants in question, the rain water won't do them much good.  I SURE AM GLAD THE FUZZY LITTLE CRITTERS DON'T LIKE SOAP!!!!

That leads to the ongoing topic of water conservation.  Yes, every drop must be saved if possible, and I continue to do so.  This leads to a water saving topic mentioned in a post recently; composting toilet system.  I decided a few weeks ago to try it out based on the methods recommended in "The Humanure Handbook". Years ago, when I lived totally off grid and somewhat primitive, I composted the cleanings from an old fashioned outdoor toilet.  The resulting compost was buried deep beneath my tomato plants (at the advice of an acquaintance who had lived in a third world country for a time).  The reasoning being that any pathogens would be underground and not come in contact with the fruit.  This composting venture yielded great tomatoes but was a smelly, fly infested endeavor.  By contrast, the methods described in the previously mentioned publication, at least so far I am pleased to say, have not produced any appreciable odor.  Likewise it hasn't drawn flies either to my facilities or the compost pile, and there have been no scavengers digging around in the compost.  The internal temperature of the pile has also been plenty hot enough to kill any known pathogen (in the unlikely event that any were present in the first place).

Back to water conservation.  The composting toilet system saves about 30 gallons of water each day, water that can be used better almost anywhere than in the septic tank.  As an added bonus, each time the toilet is not flushed, is a time when the well pump doesn't kick on.  Over the course of a month, that adds up to quite a few times the pump doesn't kick on (approximately 150 times in fact) and that should translate to some savings on the electric bill.  I won't know just how much savings until the next bill comes in but I will pass that information along later along with more details.

If it sounds like I am complaining, I'm not.  Well alright!!!! maybe I am just a bit, but in truth, the things I am complaining about, I am also truly grateful for, simply because of the information and experience I am gaining and the growth it forces.  Even the most frustrating and just down right hard things in life deserve gratitude.  May we always be grateful!!!!!

(DF) COOLER FINALLY!!!!! but not much rain yet

Late Thursday evening (August 9th) a cool front  finally made it through, bringing rain to the area.  Notice I said the area instead of my place.  I got a sprinkle in the evening, while I actually watched the bulk of the rain pass by to the east and enjoyed the cool damp air from it.  On my way to work later (yes, they have me on night shift temporarily), I found myself driving on wet pavement and looking at puddles a mile east of my road.  The glorious rain we could hear from inside the store for a half hour, later in the night, split in a north-south line over my place with a decent rain on both sides but only a quarter inch here.  Believe me, I have never been so grateful for a quarter inch of rain.

With the rain came the cool.  After over a month of temperatures over 100 degrees and several of those days around 110 degrees, Friday's high of 94 and the Saturday morning low of 60 felt a bit like winter.  That was a week ago and the time between has remained cooler (highs in the 90's) but still mostly dry, though there has been rain "in the area".

This Thursday night (August 16th) was different.  I actually got a little rain, almost an inch in fact.  That was less than the amount in town 5 miles away, but excellent just the same.  Unfortunately, Anna didn't get a drop of rain where she lives, the storms just kept passing her by completely.  We still need rain both places but the forecast for the next week looks like all the rain is west of Tulsa, and we are both east.  Enough of complaining about the weather and on to better things.

Ok, still a little complaining to do.  The heat and lack of rain are absolutely devastating to water supplies.  More watering to do and less water to do it with.  There are two wells here, one for the house, complete with electric pump and an old hand dug well with a hand pump, which I use for watering livestock and plants.  Neither well is particularly productive, though generally adequate.  Notice I said "generally".  With the necessity of hauling a 55 gallon barrel of water to the horses every day and about that much carried to the garden, the old well has become inadequate for the task.  It now only produces enough for the horses, leaving the garden dry.  The house well only supplies enough for the house, so no help there.

With lack of  rain and limited well water, there can't help but be plenty of consideration of alternative sources.  Though I have not yet prepared a viable rain capture system, there are barrels under the eves of buildings to catch a good amount.  Problem is that you can't capture rain that doesn't fall.  With self-sufficiency in mind, it doesn't make sense, even if the money was available, to hook on to an already overloaded rural water system.  That leads to considerations of better conservation of what is already available.

I have never been an extreme water waster in terms of what is considered acceptable water usage in our society, but we could all do better.  When I look closely at water usage, I see that a daily shower, though nice and hygienic, runs quite a lot of water down the drain.  Likewise, washing dishes and the routine rinsing of this and that while cooking adds up to a fair amount of water.  Even flushing the toilet several times a day gets rid of quite a few gallons of perfectly good water.  With these water losses identified, I determined to find a solution.

Water from showers is easy, I just plugged the bathtub during the shower, then dip the water out into buckets and carry it to the garden.  The use of environmentally friendly (or better yet home made) soap is better for the plants and at least they get some moisture.  As for the kitchen sink, dishpans work well and it is surprising how much water can be recycled in that way.  Flushing the toilet, on the other hand, takes a bit larger leap.  My answer, which saves a lot of water and has other, more far reaching environmental and agricultural benefits, is to simply compost.

Before you say YUCK!!! and decide that I have finally gone too far, there is a book I highly recommend that you read.  "The Humanure Handbook" by Joseph Jenkins, is a well researched, well written volume packed with information that brings all the technical and statistical details to the front and also (and this is the important part) translates all the academics into the simplest, most practical form possible so you don't have to have a degree in environmental science to use it.  Even if you never use a composting toilet, you should read this book as a really good guide for other forms of composting and conservation.  It will also heighten environmental awareness, which is always a good thing.  With that being said, I will save the details of this and other conservation topics for future posts.

On a much lighter and (in my opinion) more cheerful note, my garden has produced a bit, in spite of the weather.  In the midst of everything, I have managed to can some green beans, several quarts of tomatoes, some salsa, and have dried okra and sun dried tomatoes in olive oil to show for the hard work.  The tomato plants are still alive and just waiting for enough rain to start producing again.  The garden is also ready to be replanted for fall crops, and now that I am back working days, I may actually be able to get some planting done after work, especially if it rains enough that my time isn't spent watering.

UPDATE:   I spoke with Anna a few minutes ago and she told me she got the really good rain that passed to my southwest last night.  Maybe she can take a few days off from watering.