'nuther question for the poo-bucket (sawdust toilet) crowd.

[donsgal]

How often do you dump it?

My dh and I are the only one that uses the poo-bucket and I am dumping it out every three days. This seems excessive. Of course my dh *is* full of you-know-what LOL. But seriously, how does a family of four or six do it? Oh, and we're going through sawdust like crazy, I think that dh is putting too much in.... When I use it, I "just cover" the poo. I think he is really over-doing the sawdust. How much do you guys use?

thanks,

donsgal

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by rose2005

We empty ours every day in the morning. We get through just under a bucket of sawdust to one bucket of humanure.

There are 5 of us, DH and myself and our three children 13/8/5.

I have an emergency empty bucket just outside and a full bucket of sawdust just in case...ready and waiting in case it's needed if it snows or is pouring with rain and I can't get to the compost/sawdust pile.

Do you get your sawdust from a mill?

Rose

Sawdust acquisition is an ongoing problem for us. Here in the Missouri Ozarks a LOT of mills sell their 'dust to Tyson Chicken Farms for litter so it is really hard to find any. In Springfield there is a place called Vermillion lumber who (nicely enough) dumps their sawdust and other wood bits out in front of their factory for folks to take. But it is a pain to get it there because you have pick out the big chunks of wood to get to the sawdust.

I am told that there are a few privately owned small wood mills around that might give us some 'dust, but I doubt that they will have enough to make it a regular source. There is a mill down near Mountain Home, Ark that seems to have an enormous pile of sawdust, but that is more than 100 miles from our house. We often have to go down there on business so I am going to take a couple of large garbage cans with me next time and fill them up.

I would be willing to pay a fair amount if I could find a good, reliable source. I am still looking. If anybody in SW Missouri knows of a good source, please PM me.

donsgal

[wy_white_wolf]

Originally Posted by donsgal

... In Springfield there is a place called Vermillion lumber who (nicely enough) dumps their sawdust and other wood bits out in front of their factory for folks to take. But it is a pain to get it there because you have pick out the big chunks of wood to get to the sawdust....

Sounds like free wood for the stove to me.

[FreightTrain]

Originally Posted by donsgal

How often do you dump it?

My dh and I are the only one that uses the poo-bucket and I am dumping it out every three days. This seems excessive. Of course my dh *is* full of you-know-what LOL. But seriously, how does a family of four or six do it? Oh, and we're going through sawdust like crazy, I think that dh is putting too much in.... When I use it, I "just cover" the poo. I think he is really over-doing the sawdust. How much do you guys use?

thanks,
donsgal

I live alone and dump the bucket once a week tops... I also mostly P in the woods and lightly cover the deposit. A bucket of dust lasts me thru 3-4 buckets or around 1 month.

Our local sawmill/hardware store sells dust for $15 a truckload which would be several years supply IMO. You could also try peatmoss but it is very dusty. A $8 bag is VERY compressed and should last a good long while.
Another idea is using a small gasoline garden mulcher to mulch up decaying branches and leaves and use that.

[edcopp]

Originally Posted by donsgal

Sawdust acquisition is an ongoing problem for us. Here in the Missouri Ozarks a LOT of mills sell their 'dust to Tyson Chicken Farms for litter so it is really hard to find any. In Springfield there is a place called Vermillion lumber who (nicely enough) dumps their sawdust and other wood bits out in front of their factory for folks to take. But it is a pain to get it there because you have pick out the big chunks of wood to get to the sawdust.

I am told that there are a few privately owned small wood mills around that might give us some 'dust, but I doubt that they will have enough to make it a regular source. There is a mill down near Mountain Home, Ark that seems to have an enormous pile of sawdust, but that is more than 100 miles from our house. We often have to go down there on business so I am going to take a couple of large garbage cans with me next time and fill them up.

I would be willing to pay a fair amount if I could find a good, reliable source. I am still looking. If anybody in SW Missouri knows of a good source, please PM me.

donsgal

There are many kinds of "cover meterial" that can be used. Most of us use sawdust because it is available to us and easy to handle. Other stuff that you might be able to use would be crushed leaves, ground corn cobs, any kind of shredded lawn waste, floor sweepings can also be included. You can even use dirt.

Don't let the lack of sawdust get you down, anything that will rot and does not smell will most likely work.

We compost our meterial for 6 months to a year and do not turn it. This is quite useful in gardening, and to me a lot more desirable than putting this product into the sewage disposal systems.

[DayBird]

Originally Posted by edcopp

We compost our meterial for 6 months to a year and do not turn it. This is quite useful in gardening, and to me a lot more desirable than putting this product into the sewage disposal systems.

Do you use this on your food crops?

[Alice In TX/MO]

There are SO MANY piles of sawdust by sawmills in southern Missouri. Just drive a bit off your normal paths. You'll find TONS for the asking.

[Freeholder]

When we were using a bucket for a family of five (the children were in their teens, so weren't small) we emptied it every day. We used a bucket of sawdust or peat (usually peat) every two or three days. We used a 16 oz. can for a scoop and put about half a can of peat in the bucket after each use.

Edcopp, dirt does NOT work in a sawdust toilet. We tried it, LOL! It sinks, rather than covering the stuff in the toilet, and it doesn't prevent the contents from stinking. You've got to have material that will stay on top and cover the contents so you don't get flies and stink.

Kathleen

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by Rose

There are SO MANY piles of sawdust by sawmills in southern Missouri. Just drive a bit off your normal paths. You'll find TONS for the asking.

Funny you should mention. We drove by a small mill just today that had 10 foot piles of the stuff all over. It's only about 30 miles from our house, so we're just thrilled about it!

donsgal

[leoaloha]

Along the lines of Freight Train. Along the AT are lots of composting toilets. They use the duff out of the woods. Free and lots of it. Remove the top layer of loose leaves, scrape up the duff to the mineral layer, use a handfull per episode. If done correctly the toilets never smelled.

L

[Forerunner]

YES, we use composted humanure in our food plots.

Human waste is no different than that of other animals after being subjected
to the high, pathogen killing heat of thermophilic bacteria at work.

Get the book, "The Humanure Handbook", by Joseph Jenkins.
You could never regret that purchase.

As for the multiple emptyings with the larger family operation, count it all joy. Isn't a mountain of compost the goal ?
As for too much sawdust consumption, that will only ensure a higher, but likely not at all too high of a carbon content for the composting microbes to feed on.

Sawdust shortage in timber country ?

Make a large bin out of a finer weave fencing wire, as large as you can manage, and fill it to the brim with leaves. As it settles, keep filling it.
When it's packed for the fall/winter season, cover it with a tarp, or better, build it under roof if you've the space.
Use only leaves in this bin and leave them to break down.
Natural moisture content in freshly fallen leaves should be enough to start the decomposition process, but if you have nothing but crunchy dry leaves, add some moisture as you fill the bin.
The product we are after here is "leaf mould", which has nothing to do with fungus. To make leaf mold, not nearly the high moisture content of regular compost is desired. After a few months, the leaves will break down to a very fine, nearly sawdust-like consistency.
Personally, three such bins work out great, as one is always ready for use and two are always "cooking". Covered in such a fashion, the fine, dry leaves
will last for a long, long time before reverting to black humus.
Leaf mold makes an excellent sawdust replacement in the composting toilet,
as well as animal bedding, mulch and soil conditioner.
Given the crucial nature of all of these applications to the pure homestead, a separate building to house the leaf mould operation is not at all out of the question.
Sawdust is great, and to be desired if easily and sustainably available, but leaf mould is free to the industrious homesteader, and sports a considerably higher nutrient content than sawdust.

Yank those kids off that television and hand 'em a rake......

[hunter63]

[QUOTE=Forerunner]YES, we use composted humanure in our food plots.

Human waste is no different than that of other animals after being subjected
to the high, pathogen killing heat of thermophilic bacteria at work.

Get the book, "The Humanure Handbook", by Joseph Jenkins.
You could never regret that purchase.QUOTE]

You can download this book for free at his site:

http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html

We had used one for several years, till the standard plumbing got installed. Now, we still use it as the "upstairs" bathroom at the cabin, saves climbing up/down stairs when nature calls in the wee hours.
I mix peatmoss with the sawdust 'bout half and half.

[Earthbound]

Sorry to butt into your post......i'm just wondering how one composts this? I have a farm hand moving into a cabin at our place that has no plumbing( He prefers this as he is a toatal "off -grider"), and was going to set him up with a porta-potti that he could dump into our septic tanks, but this sounds ore up his alley......
thanks soooo much!!
corry

[fishhead]

I'm confused. I thought these toilets composted the waste and didn't need to be emptied for months????

Am I thinking of a different toilet?

[Aintlifegrand]

Originally Posted by fishhead

I'm confused. I thought these toilets composted the waste and didn't need to be emptied for months????

Am I thinking of a different toilet?

You are thinking of a composting toilet not a humanure toilet...

[raymilosh]

We have a regular bathroom with a water type toilet, but choose to use a bucket toilet.
We keep a basket of leaves next to our bucket toilet and crunch them up as needed. When it comes time to refill the basket outside, I pack it firmly with dry leaves. It holds about a week's supply...or a bit less. I think the leaves work better than sawdust for odor control. i'm assuming it's because there are bacteria on the leaves that get the composting process started...but i'm just making that part up. I use only enough leaves to cover the waste. Sometimes, i shake the bucket around a bit after adding the leaves to get everything sovered and settled better. We all mostly pee outside, too.
We empty the bucket when it is nearly full or when it begins to give off an odor or if those litle fruit flies find it (summertime only). It can be as long as a week between uses. We do set (but don't snap on) the 5 gal bucket lid back on the top of the bucket between uses, by the way...that may be why odor is less of a problem
We have about 6 buckets and fill them in turn then spend a morning emptying them into the humanure pile and then clean them for reuse. It's a pretty simple low energy input thing to do.
i remember it being odd at first to be using the bathroom in the bathroom looking across the room at the standard toilet. Now I just leave the toilet lid closed and use it as a coffee table.

[hunter63]

Originally Posted by TxAprilMagic

ok, I may be way out of line on this one but here goes. I know that there are people out there in this country ,USA ,that have no plumbing in their house's because they are just dirt poor and can't afford it , hell I grew up without plumbing or electricity, we called it a slop pot when I was a kid, we worked in the fields , drew water from the well, took a bath in a no. 2 wash tub, washed our clothes in that same wash tub and hung out on the line, walked to where we wanted to go, maybe got a ride or went by wagon. If you can enlighten me as to how in the hell can you afford a computer, the internet, a cell phone, digital camera and a lot of the other amenities in life in the year 2007 to make it easier, how can you people not afford plumbing in your house even if it is just the basic for at least the bathroom stuff. I believe this thread is about slop pots and not the serious nice compost toilets that you can get now a days which by the way I am all for, if I am wrong please forgive me and correct me. Now if you are talking about primitive methods for a hunting cabin or if you have a plumbing problem that can't be fixed right a way that is one thing. But come on people, this is a sanitation thing and I would rather walk out my back door and crap in my pasture with the critters than to have a slop pot in my house for a week. Please tell me I am wrong and I am miss understanding this thread????????
We had an outhouse and the slop bucket was only used in emergencies and was taken out almost immediately or the very next morning if used in the night and never allowed to stay in the house dirty.

Very good point, we used that sawdust toilet combination shed/outhouse when we still stayed in a $500 travel trailer until we had the money to put in the:
1) Cabin $25000
2) Well=$4500 state certified
3) Pump and septic= $7500 also state certified
4) Balance of plumbing=$2500 inspected/passed

So for us it was a ideal way to have "facilities" for basically the price of the book, 5 gal buckets and scrap plywood.

Interestingly enough, if you do read the book in question "The Humanure Handbook", there is a section in there that tells about the author being contacted by gov. agencies, for sanitary advice in emergencies.

My uncle growing up in conditions that you speak of, got kicked out of school once for the riddle:
Riddlie, riddlie, randy, what's under the bed so handy?

The pot.

[TxAprilMagic]

Originally Posted by hunter63

Very good point, we used that sawdust toilet combination shed/outhouse when we still stayed in a $500 travel trailer until we had the money to put in the:
1) Cabin $25000
2) Well=$4500 state certified
3) Pump and septic= $7500 also state certified
4) Balance of plumbing=$2500 inspected/passed

So for us it was a ideal way to have "facilities" for basically the price of the book, 5 gal buckets and scrap plywood.

Interestingly enough, if you do read the book in question "The Humanure Handbook", there is a section in there that tells about the author being contacted by gov. agencies, for sanitary advice in emergencies.

My uncle growing up in conditions that you speak of, got kicked out of school once for the riddle:
Riddlie, riddlie, randy, what's under the bed so handy?

The pot.

Your were building your house/cabin and it was a temporary situation, understandable. Still would not leave it set in house for a week.

[TxAprilMagic]

Originally Posted by Forerunner

YES, we use composted humanure in our food plots.

Human waste is no different than that of other animals after being subjected
to the high, pathogen killing heat of thermophilic bacteria at work.

Get the book, "The Humanure Handbook", by Joseph Jenkins.
You could never regret that purchase.

As for the multiple emptyings with the larger family operation, count it all joy. Isn't a mountain of compost the goal ?
As for too much sawdust consumption, that will only ensure a higher, but likely not at all too high of a carbon content for the composting microbes to feed on.

Sawdust shortage in timber country ?

Make a large bin out of a finer weave fencing wire, as large as you can manage, and fill it to the brim with leaves. As it settles, keep filling it.
When it's packed for the fall/winter season, cover it with a tarp, or better, build it under roof if you've the space.
Use only leaves in this bin and leave them to break down.
Natural moisture content in freshly fallen leaves should be enough to start the decomposition process, but if you have nothing but crunchy dry leaves, add some moisture as you fill the bin.
The product we are after here is "leaf mould", which has nothing to do with fungus. To make leaf mold, not nearly the high moisture content of regular compost is desired. After a few months, the leaves will break down to a very fine, nearly sawdust-like consistency.
Personally, three such bins work out great, as one is always ready for use and two are always "cooking". Covered in such a fashion, the fine, dry leaves
will last for a long, long time before reverting to black humus.
Leaf mold makes an excellent sawdust replacement in the composting toilet,
as well as animal bedding, mulch and soil conditioner.
Given the crucial nature of all of these applications to the pure homestead, a separate building to house the leaf mould operation is not at all out of the question.
Sawdust is great, and to be desired if easily and sustainably available, but leaf mould is free to the industrious homesteader, and sports a considerably higher nutrient content than sawdust.

Yank those kids off that television and hand 'em a rake......

NO, NO AND AGAIN NO. Where are you getting your incorrect info from. We would have been beat within an inch of our lives if we dumped a slop pot in the garden. You eat meat. Everything EXCEPT MEAT goes in the compost. If that was the case then outhouses would have been built next to the garden or right in the middle of it when in fact they were as far away from anything around the farm/ranch.
Ya'll are reading the wrong books when in fact your best info would come from visiting the nursing homes in your area and talk to the oldest people in there that actually can give you correct info. Books are great but some are written by people who think they know but never really lived it.

[minnikin1]

Originally Posted by TxAprilMagic

But come on people, this is a sanitation thing and I would rather walk out my back door and crap in my pasture with the critters than to have a slop pot in my house for a week. Please tell me I am wrong and I am miss understanding this thread????????
We had an outhouse and the slop bucket was only used in emergencies and was taken out almost immediately or the very next morning if used in the night and never allowed to stay in the house dirty.

Not a bad question at all. You may be surprised to hear the answer, though.

Our new fangled plumbing is convenient, but it is turning out that it's not the best answer according to mother nature.
Gramps knew better than an army of civil engineers in the early 20th century, go figure...
PUtting our waste into the water supply makes a bacteria riddled soup of poison that can only be dealt with by more toxic poison.
PUtting it in the earth makes healthy no stink fertilizer.

It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of sustainability.