ARGH Environmentalists!!

I used baking soda & vinegar for the toilet. Worked great & had no problems. Throw a head of cabbage or package of hot dogs in your septic tank if you're worried the microbs need some boosting.

Please read the Humanure Book, you'll want to replace your septic systems.

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~Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Farm sites are about 1/2 mile distant from each other in my neck of the woods. The county has, since 1987 I believe, only allowed one new house per 40 acre section to be built in an agriculture zoned area, so housing density does not get very thick - there are exceptions of course. Anyhow, yes, I have.

Fidonet aquantence (to date myself....) hated chemicals, was very much an enviro snob. Needed to move to a place that was cleaner & less chemicals.

So when I met him, he was rolling his own cigs, and his wife mentioned he used a fair amount of Roundup to keep the weeds down.....

Nice fellow.

But typical of the enviro types that do the talking..... They don't walk the walk.

I'm sure there are many who do the walk, & very little talking.

what chaps my hide are those who demand things of others - & lots of talking - but won't take care of their own issues.

--->Paul

basicly what your putting down your drain with the bio stuff from the dollar store is sugar and yeast , the yeasy eat the sugars and porduce c02 displacing oxygen which kills the anirobic bacteria . it may also contain some dormant strains of bacteria to replenish the system .

As for the damage from drain cleaners it depends on what is in them , not any contain simple lye anymore as it was hard on steel pipes many have sunfuric acid and oer contain peroxides all of which if you get technical occure naturally and sure don't pose much of a health hazard in the .1 ppm that you end up with in a properly designed septic system.

Frankly the screaming fit about the mother is uncalled for .
If my sister or brother made such a rant they'd be visiting the dentist , just as I would if I made such a rant. No body talks to or about our momma like that , she gave us life ,love, and a home for that alone Mommas deserve respect . Since your around to make such a rant it would seem your mom managed to raise you fairly well , of course thelead based paint on the crib could explain the rant (joking ease up already )

thanks to those of you with info about microbes and the dollar store stuff.

I have the Humanure Handbook downloaded on disk somewhere. I'm all for it, but my teenie princess would probalby go live at her dad's. We did watch a dvd of that show 30 days about a couple who visited off grid and she was absolutely fascinated by some of the things that the Dancing Rabbit group were up to, though, which pleased me greatly! She even said that dumping the humanure buckets didn't look that bad. I curse modern plumbing on a regular basis, and only minded our outhouse in Montana on winter nights and when I had that every half hour stomach flu.

hollym.......is going to reform her toilet paper.

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"Be Kind...for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle"

Philo of Alexandria

Save your money on the microbe diet for the septic system. You feed the bacteria and send in new recruits every time you take a dump. Unless you're using industrial cleaners every day there is not much chance of doing any damage to a septic system with toilet cleaners.

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If angels existed, they'd probably be considered big game. (Don Swain)

Home schooling.........not just for scary religious people anymore. Buffy

a few teaspoons of caustic soda will not harm anything, once it is diluted with 100's of gallons of water doen the drain to the leach field.

you are over reacting.

the acid in the rainfall is worse to your imediate surroundings than a few tsp of caustic soda washed into a leach field.

you dump your fireplace ash outside and let it rain on the pile?

oh you rotten envior terroristia.... you are producing gallons of LYE... washing it downstream somewhere.
you spread salt in winter?
EEEEEK!
you ise airosol cans?
AGGGHHH!
does your car leak oil? even a few drops?
GGGGAAA!
a teaspoon of oil can contaminate 1000s of gallons of water.
kill fishies
ruin the birds feathers.

burn coal?
AGGGGGGGGGGGG! supfur dioxide in the air makes acid rain!!!

go use the draino its probaby the smallest footprint you leave.

I agree a few small things like this are not going to be harmful at all. And you sure wnat a septic system working properly.

a backed up faulty septic system is far worse than a tbs of draaino.

OK I was gone, internet was down so I am going to answer these in the order they are read...

THIS guy is what I am talking about........"oh it's cheaper to throw some caustic chemical down the drain" makes me so mad. Cheaper is the problem. The answer is not always cheaper. Cheaper is why joe shmo down in the trailer doesn't have a job....it's cheaper to go to China!
Anyway my toilets run fine, and if hers doesn't I have many ways of clearing it. Maybe the cottonelle she wipes with is the problem..it's all 1 ply up here and we are running smooth.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

But it's everyone putting theirs in. It all adds up. Plus I have chickens at the end of that line.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Dilution is the solution to pollution

and would be no problem with dispersed limited numbers of polluters.

I know.......I am the only environmentalist I know . That's what makes me so mad. I live here in loony Maine, where everyone is supposed to be crunchy...well baby they are pouring it down the drain too. And not caring one bit.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Well I am sure you don't complain 24/7, were too addicted to the shopping network, therefore being too poor to live by yourself and are not rude enough to pour chemicals down her drain. And your daughter hadn't made it clear how to treat her house. And wasn't 6 feet tall.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

My house is on 10 acres and our tank was just pumped.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

What do you suggest as better? I just run mine out in the yard like the sewage consultant I sat next to on the plane suggested ,seems to work pretty good

My Ma had NOTHING to do with how I grew up. She gave up on people long ago, and I taught myself everything I know. Then my religion filled in the rest. I actually care about others and how the earth, both politically and meterially, will be for my kids. My Ma deserves the boot to the butt she never got, and I have told her many times as she lives in my house bcause no one else wanted her, that I don't want her to even buy somethings. The rest of the world can go nuts but HERE we do what I SAY.
I know I am supposed to"honor thy father and mother" but I was more mature at 25 than either of them are now or will ever be.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

No one can deny I rant here....I get sick of all the crap I have to take here in Maine. I hate it here! ARGHH!!!!!!
OK, deep breath.
OK.....I am only demanding this of my Ma.....the one living in my house....So much crap is dumped down drains all over, I am controlling what is dumped down mine. The thought of her 10 drug taking pee going down my drain makes me sick. At least it's not birth control....I can't wait until she finds somewhere else to live. We have all enjoyed the lack of complaining since she has gone into the hospital. But I am left to throw her dogs out a few times a day. The one who pees all over me is fun.
But her bowels are bad or something, she is always on the pot so no lack of things in the newly cleaned tank.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

But there is not and never was anything wrong with my system!
She probably just did it to tick me off.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

I disagree......a spetic system is a living environment...would you drink draino?
No I don't spread salt, and I haven't used aerosol since the 80's...and we put our ash in a metal bin, big boy. Any advice on what to do with it when it's full?
so what are you doing to help this?? HM??
Buuut electricity does the same thing...it is made by coal burning factories. So all those "electric cars" are actually coal cars!


But if you can avoid that, why not do it? Every little bit....

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

A little bit of sodium hydroxide (lye) in a septic system is nothing. It gets "consumed" by the waste in the tank in short order. Sodium (earth mineral) is in table salt and the hydroxide is just a oxygen and hydrogen molecule.

The word "chemical" has gotten a bad rap. Everything is chemical. Wood is chemical, water is chemical, air is chemical. There are bad chemicals (ex. DDT) and good chemicals (chocolate icecream) so it's important not to lump them together.