If you see a post with the title My Homestead Vision, that means it'll be me showing you something that I intend to make a part of the stead and explaining it to you in some extent of detail so you can understand what I'm aiming for. The first edition of the series: toilets.
Composting toilets use no water. They can, but it's not necessary and most of them are designed intentionally to avoid it. After all, in many cases the object of a modern homestead is to be more efficient in the use of things like water and electricity. So in the Youtube link posted below, the lady mentions using water in her system; mine probably will not, and if it does it'll be implemented just like in the link below.
Composting toilets are simple. You go to use the bathroom like you would a conventional toilet seat, do everything just like normal, only instead of flushing you take a scoop of sawdust (or pine needles, or lime) and drop it in the container you just weighed anchor into. Close the lid, and voila! When the container gets full, remove it and dump the contents into your compost pile (provided it is not a worm bin. Worms don't want your poo, so if you have a worm bin then you need a separate pile).
These setups are completely okay to be inside of a home bathroom. From what I read, there is no stink if you build it right and empty the container regularly. The sawdust, or its equivalent, act to keep flies and bacteria from getting into the feces and throwing a party, hence keeping the smell to a minimum. Plus, if you use wood shavings like cedar or pine or just pine needles, then you have a natural scent that fills the space so you have an air freshener distributed every time you make a trip to the loo.
Urine and feces need to be kept separate for the composting process to properly and efficiently take place. The urine can be dealt with several ways, such as being watered down and distributed directly to garden soil (as is the case in this Youtube link), or channeled into haybales to be thrown into the compost pile once the urine has be absorbed (which essentially waters it down, without the water). I haven't made up my mind on how I intend to deal with the urine; the jury's still out on that.
One of my main things I had in mind is one I found in this video: cleaning the compost container from the outside of the building. Many indoor toilets I've read about are emptied by accessing the container from inside the bathroom. I don't want to have to be carrying a container of poo through my house, even if it doesn't stink. So just like in the link below, mine will be emptied by going outside the house and around to an access door, so it just pulls right out into the yard and if you drop something it's already in a place where it is safe to decompose.
Finally, here is the link to the video so you can get some visuals on how a system like this looks and functions (don't worry, they don't give you a demonstration or anything). Y'all take care and hopefully you might've learned a thing a two about how to be efficient with your poo! ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3cO7-_7KDM
Composting toilets use no water. They can, but it's not necessary and most of them are designed intentionally to avoid it. After all, in many cases the object of a modern homestead is to be more efficient in the use of things like water and electricity. So in the Youtube link posted below, the lady mentions using water in her system; mine probably will not, and if it does it'll be implemented just like in the link below.
Composting toilets are simple. You go to use the bathroom like you would a conventional toilet seat, do everything just like normal, only instead of flushing you take a scoop of sawdust (or pine needles, or lime) and drop it in the container you just weighed anchor into. Close the lid, and voila! When the container gets full, remove it and dump the contents into your compost pile (provided it is not a worm bin. Worms don't want your poo, so if you have a worm bin then you need a separate pile).
These setups are completely okay to be inside of a home bathroom. From what I read, there is no stink if you build it right and empty the container regularly. The sawdust, or its equivalent, act to keep flies and bacteria from getting into the feces and throwing a party, hence keeping the smell to a minimum. Plus, if you use wood shavings like cedar or pine or just pine needles, then you have a natural scent that fills the space so you have an air freshener distributed every time you make a trip to the loo.
Urine and feces need to be kept separate for the composting process to properly and efficiently take place. The urine can be dealt with several ways, such as being watered down and distributed directly to garden soil (as is the case in this Youtube link), or channeled into haybales to be thrown into the compost pile once the urine has be absorbed (which essentially waters it down, without the water). I haven't made up my mind on how I intend to deal with the urine; the jury's still out on that.
One of my main things I had in mind is one I found in this video: cleaning the compost container from the outside of the building. Many indoor toilets I've read about are emptied by accessing the container from inside the bathroom. I don't want to have to be carrying a container of poo through my house, even if it doesn't stink. So just like in the link below, mine will be emptied by going outside the house and around to an access door, so it just pulls right out into the yard and if you drop something it's already in a place where it is safe to decompose.
Finally, here is the link to the video so you can get some visuals on how a system like this looks and functions (don't worry, they don't give you a demonstration or anything). Y'all take care and hopefully you might've learned a thing a two about how to be efficient with your poo! ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3cO7-_7KDM
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