Monday, August 11, 2008

Outpost-Outhouse


There is my bucket – adjacent to my now guest bathroom. I’ve been using this bucket and a few others, collecting them up and devouring sawdust. I kept my collection –about two months worth of buckets – off to the side in the woods. About two weeks ago I decided to freshen up my buckets and do a transfer, a dump along the tree line to reinforce (nutrient-wise) the sand “soil” along the shore line to support the tree cover. Taking a “short cut” (those buckets are heavy!) down a rise of about 15 feet of forest floor, I, of course, tangled a foot in some branches, tripped and toppled and you can only imagine – UGH and yuck-O! Stinky, sloppy, slushy, oh my gosh: Ugh. ( I was peeing in the buckets too) Burying that mess wasn’t so bad with available materials although I had to ward off my dog who has the common disgusting canine habit of rolling in stinky stuff. Would it mean anything to him to roll in MINE? Who knows but I really didn’t want to find out. Its one thing to wash out the ground in scat of a bear or deer from his fluffy furr but my own? Ew. Humanure definitely has its EW moments. Anyway, after the clean up, some how my bucket wasn’t as attractive as it used to be and I was inspired to make a system change - And really, the rim is so small and narrow to sit on anyway. My latest is a kind of human litter box-tray. Rather than poop directly in the bucket, and have to be intimate with all that plastic, I am now using the much more comfortable and healthy squat method into an ample and plush pile of sawdust and then dumping That in to the weekly collection bucket which I will transfer to the ground weekly! - Rather than a stinky bi-monthly chore of multiple buckets. I am really happy with this. Much softer, a much warmer welcome to the mornings.