has anyone wondered if people are lying on here?

Off grid, means that you are not getting elect from the "grid" the national power system, you have to make your own (solar, wind or hydro power) or do with out elect.

And if you study the science, a septic tank is the most expensive and unhygenic way to handle human waste. Composting takes more interaction with the material, so it is less popular, but it cheaper and (IMO) a better way to handle the germs than growing them to large numbers in a tank and then leaching them into the soil.

__________________
Thumper/in Okla.
Growing a Homestead from the dirt up.

save the grass, eat a cow
C.L.F.
{chlorophill liberation front}

Do you folks with composting toilets need to go through any hoops to get through inspection, or don't you have much enforcement of the housing laws where you are? In the counties around me, you need an approved septic system within 9 months of house purchase, or no one lives there. I've never heard of any deviation from that locally. Approved generally means a mound septic. I've heard of one tank that is to be pumped every 3 (?) months as the only exception, and I've never heard of greywater systems around 'here' meeting any codes.

Just curious.

--->Paul

In our case, we bought land with no house, no well, not even a gate at the time.
We are 3 miles from the nearest township and have 60 acres, we have done everything ourselves except drill the water well, [and we had help to reassemble the house] we lived in the barn for 3 months, got the house up, have used a sawdust toilet from day one. (our biggest fight with the 'system' is getting phone service, but that is another thread)

I have read the humanure hand book and if we where ever required to install a septic system (we don't brag to the locals) we would do the minimum it took to get them off or case, and continue useing the sawdust tiolet.

It just works too well to give up.

__________________
Thumper/in Okla.
Growing a Homestead from the dirt up.

save the grass, eat a cow
C.L.F.
{chlorophill liberation front}

I find it interesting that a person who won't identify themselves makes vague accusations against an unnamed person.......

Anyone else have difficulties with this image?

Mike

Took the words right off my fingers.

mrs oz here

I'm having a great deal of difficulty with this. This forum has never been anything but helpful and supportive to Oz and me. And if whoever this is has a problem with anyone in particular, follow the protocol.......either pm the person and try to work it out like adults or go to a moderator, but don't come here and just try to stir things up on a forum that is meant to be a place where like minded people can share their thoughts and ideas and truly try to help one another. GROW UP!

The interesting thing to me about these forums is that you eventually get a sense of a person over time. There generally isn't much risk even if a person is lying about themselves because you can choose not to rely on their advice (as someone else pointed out, there will generally be a bunch of advice and you can sort it out for yourself). You can choose not to meet the person except in a group get together.

So, by and large I don't get too worked up over whether someone is lying. It sorts itself out over time.

Mike

Well guys, you all know me! What you see is what you get!

I don't care if someone is lying.

I don't care if they have a septic system!
They can't hurt me cause I don't know them and they don't know me!

Nobody has the power to intrude in my life unless I give them permission to and it sure as Hell won't be someone in the Internet.

Well - of course. That's a given. Just seeing if the no-name wants to flesh it out a bit more, or just keep talking. I do hope they find peace, despite claims to the contrary - obviously something is wrong.


Thanks to all for the info on the anti-septic folks.

Cannot see it fly around me. And not sure how you can live several miles _outside_ of a township. In my state, every county is divided up into townships. You are in one. Also, they inspect the place for property taxes, and one of those inspections is the septic on any new construction at all. Glad it works for you.

--->Paul

That's not exactly true in all places. We've been gridless (no electric at all) and on grid and haven't had nor do we intend to have a septic system. We use a sawdust toilet and compost the contents and all our grey water runs directly to a small garden out back. Our county doesn't have a building code and we live 10 miles outside the nearest city limits, so regulation isn't a problem. Even if we wanted a water-based waste system, our ground won't perc well enough to make one work without hauling in tons of new fill for the leachfield. We'ld have to use a lagoon. We're hauling all our household water (have for 5 years) till we get to a point where we can afford to utilize a downhill year-round spring (wells are iffy here, no funds available to gamble on a dry hole). It just doesn't make sense to us to waste good water on poop.

__________________
Thus says the LORD:
“ Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.

HAR, Judy, my post was tongue in cheek and meant for a bit of levity. In other words it was a lie.

__________________
Iraq casualties
3,410 American deaths to date in Iraq
25,345 Americans wounded in action to date (your guess how many have died since and been uncounted)
$424,000,000,000 to date

ROFL Now, don't I look stupid. I don't know what's worse, a liar like yourself or an idiot like me. Still ROFL.

__________________
Thus says the LORD:
“ Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.

Hmmmmm. Some strange postings here. But no matter, I still love comeing here and learning things.
Linda T.

[INDENT]

I had never heard of a sawdust toilet, but I did a search and read about them. Do they really work as good as they say? Is the compost safe to use on your garden?
We have a well, & have to limit our water use during power outages--so this could be really handy.

Really odd...
But i would like to hear more about the sawdust toilet, too.

Down load the Humanure handbook, it's free. I've lived with a sawdust toilet for several years. Works great. Sure beats a flush toilet that backs up an dumps sewage on the floor. Or worse, our former pastor's home was on city sewer line and the city's line plugged up. All the sewage uphill of his house was emptying into his finished basement. Half the congregation was at his house trying to help bail and carrying furniture, clothes etc out of the basement before it was ruined. Ever paddled in raw sewage? I HATE flush toilets!

__________________
I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

We have two, one for hubby and I and one for Grandma. We've had the best success using sawdust, as opposed to wood chips (better odor control). We have yet to try semi-composted sawdust from the sawmill, but we will eventually. Ours requires dumping every 2 to 3 days. We dump in a pile "out back" under the trees, turning a bit with every dump. It's 98% odor free, probably 100% if we turn it more thoroughly and frequently. We've been using the system for 17 months now. We're on our second compost pile. We started a new one after about 10 months. It's now practically gone, which indicates to us that we might want to switch to an enclosed compost pile (to keep it corralled a bit) so we can use the compost on the pasture and garden. Opinions vary as to the safety of using composted humanure on the garden. Our plan is to use on fruit trees and the pasture. The key to keeping odor down in the house is not to skimp in the sawdust. Use enough to keep the top layer dry.

__________________
Thus says the LORD:
“ Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.

Wow I never thought my joke would get carried so far, Yes I know what a septic is, we are thinking when we make the move to look at something like TabletopHomestead is talking about, rules on that stuff are different in Saskatchewan.

And for the person that posted earlier about taking a shovel to the bushes, well I told the wife that one and said when I'm looking after the composting she'll have to look after the shovel part of it and the best time to do it is right after I'm done, well since this is a family site lets just say she had a few choice words, all in good fun though.

You know this is awesome, we have been struggeling for about a year and a half to shed all the debt and get back to a simplified life for us and the kids and our target date is early 2006 to have a place of our own in the boonies and with the changes comes stress, it sure is nice I have a wife with an excellent since of humor and we are able to use laughter to brighten our days and thankful to be heading to our chosen way of living on Gods great earth. Plus it helps to have a lot of nice folks like your selves to chat with for advice or just a laugh.

Thanks folks
TTYL
Ernie

and to think that the thought that came to me is this was an attempt to stir up ****, i guess it did...lol

[QUOTE
And not sure how you can live several miles _outside_ of a township.
--->Paul[/QUOTE]



By 'township' I mean, the city limits, legal jursdiction stops at the city limits, they will not even cross the street to put out a fire, unless offically asked by the authorities on the other side of the street, even where the stream of water will reach without the people or equipment crossing the line!

When we moved here I made the calls to find out about codes, was told there are none for our location, the county assesor (sp?) drove out, asked be how big the house was, I told them, they drove away. We are expected to report any changes we put up, and the barn, chicken house, and well house didn't count against us.

__________________
Thumper/in Okla.
Growing a Homestead from the dirt up.

save the grass, eat a cow
C.L.F.
{chlorophill liberation front}