Is There An Option Other Than Flushing It Away?

If you remember, mom and I built a composting potty for use while we were working on the little farm house.  It was just a seat tucked into the edge of a tree line, with some toilet paper in a jar and a pile of raked lawn clipping to use for covering deposits and adding the organic matter that made it compost.  Well, nearly a year ago, Brandon and I moved the composting potty nearer the house, and used some scrap lumber, an old door, and a couple of sheets of metal roofing to create an outhouse for the composting potty to reside in.  We even added a decorative glass box with a light in it that some friends gave us.  

We modeled our design like some of the outhouses we used when hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail, which leaves the upper half of the outhouse open, but gives you privacy when seated.  

We tucked the outhouse to the side of the barn so we only had to sink two posts and build three partial walls.  

We've been using the outhouse potty ever since, and we've hosted several parties with lots of guests, and it's worked very well.  We have a water hose and outdoor sink between the outhouse and the house, so it's been a convenient for hand washing.  

This is what the inside of the outhouse looks like if you were to peak over the back wall.  Brandon and I even got fancy, and paved the floor with some nice flat rocks that we found on the farm.  Of course, a crayfish immediately excavated a hole in the outhouse floor, and he likes to leave a big pile of dirt on my paving stones.  

Brandon rescued this green display cabinet from a dumpster at school, and we mounted it to the wall so we have a dry place to store cleaning supplies and toilet paper.  

I've let the weeds take over behind the outhouse, which doesn't just encourage spiders, but also keeps anyone from walking so close to the outhouse that they can see anyone who is sitting down.  

Before we lived at the farm, and were only there for work days, one of my chores was to rid the outhouse of spiders, clean the toilet seat, and re-stock the buckets of grass clippings.  I keep a handy spray bottle of vinegar for cleaning, and an old broom for battling the spiders.  I've even been known to use the broom for raking up grass clippings.  What kind of farmer can't even find a rake when she needs it?!  

The box the potty is sitting on is approximately three feet by three feet, and it's about the height of a toilet.  This is enough volume, that even being very generous with the grass clippings or wood chips, we've only emptied it once in over a year.  The compost has direct contact with the soil underneath, so the soil organisms can access the compost easily.  After a party, the grass clippings would be piled quite high, but by the next weekend, the pile would be composted to half it's size.  I would sometime add a little water before we left for a few days, to make sure the composting organisms had plenty of moisture to work their magic.  

And it is like magic!  The one and only time Brandon and I emptied the composting potty, in preparation for a party, when we wanted to make sure we had maximum holding capacity, we armed ourselves with pitchforks and a wheel barrel, and braced ourselves to be disgusted.  But, thankfully, it wasn't disgusting.  Not that we inspected anything very closely, but we didn't even see any un-composted toilet paper.  We dumped the contents, which looked like really good compost, on the ground near the back edge of the farm, and covered it with a plastic barrel.  We recently removed the barrel, and couldn't even tell there was ever anything there but dead weeds.  Magically disappearing poo!

Now that we live at the farm house, the disadvantages of an outdoor outhouse are more apparent.  For instance, I find that I'm a little tense when I've just swept a spider from the toilet seat, and I don't like being tense.  Also, it's cold in the mornings, so it didn't take long for Brandon and I to start to complain about having to find a coat and boots just to go to the bathroom in the wee hours.  It was time to move our system inside!  

Why not have a regular flush toilet?  After all, we are fairly certain we do have a functioning septic tank.  It's a good question, and I've been asked it many times by folks who know we are opting for an alternative toilet situation.  First, I remind myself that nothing is set in stone, and if we decide we want a normal flushing toilet, all we have to do is build a bathroom or get creative with adapting the bathroom we have, which is on a slab of cement, which doesn't make it easy to install a toilet with underneath plumbing.  

The composting potty design that we are using is the easiest of all the designs I have looked at to install where I want it.  It didn't cost any money, requires no energy, and we don't have to add any rooms, or chisel through a cement slab, to install a box with a seat over a bucket.  But this isn't my biggest motivation for attempting an alternative to a regular toilet.  I fancy myself a grower of green plants, and green plants love compost, but even my compost greed isn't enough to inspire a desire to empty a bucket of wood chips everyday.  I really just want to know, for real, if there is a reasonable alternative to putting waste in clean water and flushing it away.  

In my line of work, as an environmental consultant, I have visited "away" many times.  I've been on sewer treatment plants, I've been in the creeks that are polluted with the effluent of sewer treatment plants, I've seined fish downstream of straight pipes, and I've seen the lab results of e. coli tests in stream water that is contaminated by groundwater from septic drain fields.  "Away" is a disgusting place, and you know what else lives there?  The water we drink!  And all the poor creatures that make their home there.   

Sometimes I think that if the general population could see their drinking water in the state that I see it, there would be mass revolt, and we would demand that someone come up with a reasonable way to handle waste that is better than flushing it away.  As gross as it seems to poop in a bucket of wood chips and cover it with more wood chips, like some sort of human litter box, it's way grosser to poop in water, treat the water with toxic chemicals, and then drink that water, which is what we all do when we flush it away.  Even animals in captivity don't poop in their water, but somehow as a civilization, we've decided that it's the thing to do.  And it's a huge industry.  I've attended conferences with thousands of professionals who are all striving to manage the waste stream of all the people flushing it away.   The infrastructure it takes to keep us from getting sick as we drink our own waste is massive, and I'm not always confident that we can maintain the infrastructure in a working condition.  It might be good to know if there's another option.  It would be nice if the option didn't prevent our friends from coming for a visit, though.  

So, with a desire to stop participating in the flush it away system, coupled with my compost greed and the complexity of putting a flush toilet in the space we already have, we have decided to try the composting toilet in the house.  At least for now.  I can tell you that in the few weeks we've been using it, we haven't yet started drawing up plans for a bathroom addition.  

Release the Krakens!

Four eggs in a single day!  These are such good chickens.  After spending several days cooped up in the chicken coop, they were ready to explore the farm.  

Like Zeus from The Clash of Titans, I yelled "Release the Krakens!" and opened the door to the coop.  For a few moments, they just stood there and stared at me. 

  

It didn't take them many minutes before they realized they were free to leave.  As soon as their feet hit the grass, they were eating blades of it like ravenous cows.  Watching them enjoy their fresh greens made me crave salad for dinner.  

Poncho is a very chivalrous rooster.  He was so excited by all the grass that he excitedly clucked and picked blades with his beak, which he would then drop for the hens to eat.  He knows the way to a women's heart is through her stomach, and spends all his time finding tasty bits to share while he keeps an eye out for danger.

Everybody was looking sort of dingy after their overnight stay in a cage, but during their incarceration in the coop, they spent most of their time preening and getting their feathers perfectly white.  I can see how birds that are kept in captivity could over preen and wear out their feathers.  

So far, the chickens stay in the mowed areas around the house and the barns.  I don't think they like the tall weeds, probably because it would be hard to know if a predator is lurking there.  I'm glad they stay close to things they can get under, like the cars or the coop, in case there are hawks that attack from above.  

Poncho can dance!

The evening of their first day of freedom, Brandon and I watched while they figured out how to get back inside the coop.  It was painful to watch!  They tried flying through the glass windows, perching on the roof, walking through the wire, just about everything but walking through the door.  Brandon couldn't take it any longer, and tried to coax them to the door with food, but they didn't understand.  They finally figured it out on their own.  Now that I know they can get in, I just try not to watch the process so it doesn't drive me crazy.  

Only once have we gotten four eggs in a single day, but everyday we get two or three.  I think they like it here!

The New Camera's First Day

My work gave me a new phone.  It's a Samsung galaxy 6, and I was almost excited when I found out I was getting it, because it's reported to have a good camera.  I'm technologically challenged most of the time, so getting a new phone is not usually something I look forward too.  I received the phone at the end of the work day, and figured out how to check my email, make a call, and then took a picture of the fish I have in my office.  Whew, that was enough for the rest of the day!

That night, I was sufficiently recovered from my new technology brain strain, to figure out how to take a selfie, and then explore the photo editing program.  I realized that I can combine pictures into a collage, and change their shape, and add crazy backgrounds!  How fun!  

I was told that this phone is supposed to take better pictures in low light conditions.  I tested by taking Puck's picture while he was in bed.  I think it works!

When I got home from work the next day, I was ready to test out the camera for real, and despite the drizzle and cold, Puck and I took a photography expedition.  The giant truck that empties our dumpster makes a big rut in the driveway when the ground is soft from the rain.  I've never had my own road rut before.    

The new camera takes a pretty good road rut photo!

This small white aster, which I think is called old field aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum) is blooming beautifully in all the weedy places of the farm.  It even makes the rusty gate leaning against the barn look pretty.  

The blue tractor implements go nicely with the small blue flowers that grow at their base.  I believe this flower is the exotic invasive Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis).  

The corn crib is decorated with dangling purple American pokeweed berries (Phytolacca americana).   This is the plant that country people use to make poke salad, using the young leaves in the early spring.  I've never tried to make it myself, since the plant is toxic when it's mature, and it makes me nervous that I wouldn't pick it at the right time.  I know a guy who found a pokeweed tuber during a construction project, when the earth was turned up, and thought it was a turnip.  He ate some, and ended up at the hospital.   Now I know to never eat turnips found at construction sites!  

It would have been nice if the sun was shining on my new camera day, but I'm not complaining.  

The pretty purple ironweed (Vernonia sp.) has popped up in most of our fields.  For some reason, when I see ironweed, I hear that part from the Iron Man song, by Black Sabbath -  you know, the part where a deep robotic voice says I AM IRON WEED... er, I mean it says I AM IRON MAN.  

Now I've got that song in my head! 

Has he lost his mind?

Can he see or is he blind? 

Can he walk at all, or if he moves will he fall? 

Is he alive or is he dead? 

Has he thoughts within his head? 

We'll just pass him there, why should we even care? 

Woh, woh, woh....

I know this isn't a plant that real farmers like, since cows don't eat it, and it thrives in overgrazed pastures, but I think it's lovely.  

The flowers are clusters of tiny purple tubes, and bees and butterflies love it. 

I've already shown you pictures of the vibrant goldenrod bloom in mid September.  Most of them are past their peak now, but there are a few stragglers with new buds just barely open.  We've been seeing beautiful orange butterflies on the goldenrod, but I haven't been able to tell if they are monarchs or viceroys.  Jamie told me how to tell them apart, so I'm waiting to get a close look at one of them.  

There are a few big patches of foxtail (Seteria sp.) on the farm too.  This is another exotic species from Asia.  I'm biased against non-native species, but these fuzzy foxtails made a nice texture against the cloudy sky.  

Chickens (and Eggs!) in the Coop!

Sunday morning, while Poncho the Rooster and his five friends waited patiently in their cages, Brandon and I added a few last, but critical, pieces to chicken coop.  Ta-da!  It's chicken ready, at last!

The ladies were more than ready to be let out of the animal carrier.  Mom and I plucked them from their roost in the middle of the night, and they were late getting breakfast by the time I got the last piece of wire in place.  

Poncho spent the night alone in his cage since he knows how to escape if the cage door opens, so I couldn't add a companion for him. I put the cage in the coop before the last piece of wire was attached, so I didn't have turn it on it's side to fit through the door.  I wasn't sure this was a good idea when I started to use the pneumatic staple gun, but after the first startling noise, he took it in stride.  Chickens are amazingly resilient.  

I learned a few things about measuring and cutting a roll of wire while I was working on this project.  If you have ever tried to man handle a stiff roll of wire, then you know that the wire will not come unrolled unless heavy weights are placed on it, or if there's a second pair of hands to hold it open.  This makes it very hard to measure the wire by myself. But, I perfected what I call the "electric slide" technique.  Buy laying the measuring tape on the ground with the tape extended, I could place the edge of the roll at one end of the tape, and then slide my feet between the two rolled ends, unrolling it until I was at the end of the tape.  Sort of line dancing style.  It works!  Then it's just practicing yoga positions while bending over and cutting each wire with the snippers.  

I hung a feeder and put in some water, and then just opened the doors to the cages and watched them feast.  Poncho was a diligent guard, and stood atop the animal carrier keeping an eye out while the rest ate breakfast. 

When Puck walked under the coop, Poncho was quick to sound the alarm, and jumped down to defend.  I could tell that a transparent floor was something they weren't used to.

On one of my frequent visits to the coop, I noticed lots of cooing noises from the next box, so I peaked inside to see what was up, and Poncho was in there with two ladies.   Pardon my intrusion!  

The young chicken was the first to find the roosts above, and practiced some stretching exercises of his own.

The chickens will stay in the new coop for a couple of days, so they learn where to sleep before they are let loose on the farm during the day light hours.  I want to make sure they know to sleep where they are safe before I let them out.  I saw a raccoon yesterday morning, not far from the house, and we regularly see a fox on the road near home.  The coyotes make beautiful music for us nearly every night in the summer.  And someone I know who lives nearby said weasels killed some of her chickens.  If you remember, these are some of the chickens I raised in my dinning room last spring.  I really hope I can keep them from being someone else's dinner!

The four hens understood the purpose of the nest box immediately.  

I found two eggs buried in the wood chips on the first day! 

Finishing the Coop in the Cold October Rain

On Saturday, it was raining.  It was cold, and it was raining.  Sigh...  Brandon and I fortified ourselves with some hot food and the last episode of season three of Bored to Death, and made ourselves get out there in the cold rain and work on our new chicken coop.  You know, like real farmers would.  It doesn't take long wrestling a big spool of wire before it's not too cold anymore, despite the drizzle.  And, since we finished the roof first, we sometimes had our heads out of the rain.

With hot dog sized weasels in mind, we fastened some wire with small holes to the bottom of the coop.  

We re-purposed some of the old windows from the house, and made the top of both long walls glass.  We only broke one window in this process, so I think we did pretty good!

  

I raided the scrap lumber pile and selected three boards to be the roost perches, and Brandon attached them to the cross pieces.  I think there should be room for more than twenty chickens to roost here, should our flock grow.  

While I worked on stapling the wire to the walls, below the windows, Brandon built a nest box to hang on the outside of the coop.  

The nest box has a hinged lid, and is conveniently placed so that Brandon risks slicing his eyebrows off with the jagged metal roof upon approach.  It's a good thing egg collection is one of my favorite chores!

Our last step, before we called it quits, was to cut down an old closet door we pulled from the house during the demolition, and attach it to the side of the coop on a frame made from salvaged trim boards.  I like that bits of our house are making the chickens a house.  After a hot shower (I miss my hot tub!) to chase away the chill, I traveled to my parents house with a plan to bring chickens to their new home the next day.