Out door privy

I dislike the roadside park outhouses in Kansas as they are drafty and have a terrible stench. The porta poties aren't much better to my mind. I would rather have a composting toilet so that I don't feel like I am going to fall into a pool of manure if I don't get set just right on the seat.

As for holes for the waste, I would rather bury it in to a compost pile and work it around to make fertilizer. No sense wasting all that good growing material. I suppose I could get some of that degradable kitty litter, wood chips, saw dust and some lime to alternate with the waste in a bucket under the composting toilet seat to deal with the odor, then have fertilizer in the rough for the garden.

:haha:

__________________
I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. – Sam Harris

We had an outhouse when I was really small and we were living on our homestead in Alaska (one of the 160-acre, Homesteading Act ones). One winter, when it hadn't been above minus-sixty for several weeks, and my Dad wasn't home more than a few hours a week as he was hauling heating oil from Valdez to Fairbanks (this was before the Pipeline), we ran out of firewood, so Mom burned the fence posts from the fence around the yard, and then she burned the outhouse. She was about to start on the furniture when Dad's boss came out to check on us, and took us in to town to spend the rest of the winter in a little rental house he had.

Later, living in a little cabin belonging to my brother (also in Alaska), my husband built an outhouse -- I don't know what my brother used when he had been living there. We built fires to melt the permafrost, in order to get the hole dug, then my husband started building with poles, stacking them like a log cabin but they were only a couple of inches in diameter. There were large cracks between, and he never got the top half built, but it did at least offer a 'little' privacy. (Later, he built another house on top of the hole that did have a roof on it, and a door.) We kept a bucket in the house for our youngest daughter, who is mentally handicapped and refused to use an outhouse for a long time. I don't know why she was willing to use the bucket, as it was just as strange to her, maybe just because it was in the house. But the older girls would run outside even in the winter just in their nighties and boots.

The sawdust toilet arrangement is better than an outhouse, I think. It isn't so smelly. But if you treat the outhouse like a sawdust toilet, and dump sawdust, peat, or shredded leaves or straw into it after each use, I think it wouldn't smell so bad.

Kathleen

We built an outhouse in the driveway of our suburban home in AZ before we moved to Idaho, then loaded it on a flatbed, and moved it up here with us. We had a lot of people snapping pictures and a lot of funny looks. We used it exclusively for the first 2 years up here till we finished building the bathroom. I figure that when my daughters have their own kids, they will have fun telling them, "When I was your age, I had to walk thru 5 feet of snow in the dark, etc...so quit whining!"

The wind blew the door off ours a few weeks back. Herself wants me to put it back on; especially with the privy facing north and the wind chill hitting -40 plus a week or so ago.

__________________
“It is tedious to live, it is tedious to die, it is tedious to c**p in deep snow”
Old Norwegian observation

Lived in a bus,rv toilet that uses about a pint/quart to flush solids,zero for urine.
Went to homemade septic,about a 10-20 gallon hole in ground,plywood top,inch of dirt over that.No smell,no open pit,beats traditional outhouse by a mile if you have the water.If I built an outhouse,thats how I would do it.Closed system much superior as stuff can decompose in liquid(and drain out,seep?) instead of forming piles.In fact,I would skip the outhouse so long as I had any room indoors for a water closet.If its just a toilet going to it,it doesnt take much of a septic at all,as things decompose properly without all those other chemicals getting in via sink,bath,dishwasher,washer,etc.
BooBoo

Another great septic thats really illegal and really works like it should.
Dig a hole with backhoe,deep enough for 8 tractor tires to lay flat on top of each other.Backfill around tires,put on a lid and cover after putting a 3 inch pipe to top tire center.Hook up to toilet.This system will never clog with just an RV type toilet or low use water toilet.Saw it in my Earthship book by Micheal Reynolds,volume 2 :worship: .

He says it wont contaminate ground water either,just makes a rich mulch that gets properly absorbed by the soil around it.

Again the key is keeping the massive amts. of grey water out to make a good,simple,pure,safe septic in tune with nature.
BooBoo

Barely. Many counties do not allow them in MN. The State only allows them on a loop-hole, banning them first & then allowing a county to deal with the issue individually later in the same clause....

Would that extension pamphlet be available on-line, or could you give me a pamphlet number? Never saw a pamphlet in MN on that topic.

Here in my part of southern Minnesota, it's very strict - drain field 12" deep (in our climate!) and you almost always need a mound system, and no deviations for a greywater or alternative system. I understand other parts of the state are not so - um, well, ridgid is a word I can use in public....

--->Paul

Ours is great. When it's minus 26.1 F (just got a new digital thermometer for Christmas - it has an indoor sensor and outdoor and min/max - how cool!) like it is right now, you warm it up with pants on first. Then when bare skin meets minus 26 (or minus 50 F) no worries.

It's just fine, love it. Though we do have an indoor toilet now. The outhouse is the best.

Put a scoop of lime in it after each use - no smell.

There are no laws about outhouses (or very much else about building, except electrical - you need a licenced electrician or an inspection if you do it yourself) out here.

Ours is about 8' x 8' and on 8" x 8" skids, we had a backhoe dig in - less than an hour. We also store some garden items in it, it is near the garden, which can be handy.

We keep some of that hand disinfectant stuff in the outhouse to wash hands.

Alex

__________________
Thou art That

The land I have is too thick with clay then impervous rock. A regular septic system won't drain into the field of pipes and just a tank will still need to be pumped while dealing with clogs and other build up. I agree about the build up being a big pain as that seems to be what makes the conventional system in the house not work properly.

The diversion of graywater makes sense as that is what most RV septic systems do. It would also make sense to port off the excess water that can be reused for garden and trees while the real waste can be composted then put on garden.

What I want to know is how livestock in a field putting waste down all over is fine when it can run off into waterways, but if you dig a pit to keep the waste in one spot and possibly compost it you then have something illegal.

__________________
I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. – Sam Harris

Good one Reluctant Patriot. Why can animals do the doo anywhere they please and I can't even bury mine?
Used to have a 5 gallon bucket lined with a kitchen plastic bag under a plywood box with a toilet lid. When the bag was full of solids I would start a fire in a 55 gal drum full of wood with a mesh screen on top and another half barrel on top of that with a lid. BURN is the word and stay upwind. Stir occasionally and ashes is all that's left.
We have a septic tank now. 6,000 dollars later. The only place I ever heard where ya dig a hole and put a 1,000 dollars of sand in and bury it. I plumbed the house when I built it to let most of the gray water stay clear of the septic. I have clay for sale cheap or trade for black dirt.

__________________
We have now officially entered the twilight zone.

I enjoyed some of the stories on this thread. Thanks

The property I bought a year ago had a home that burned down before I bought it. All that was left was the chimney and the basement walls. But it does have a septic system and a well. I have to go somewhere until I build another house, so I called the county. I was told outhouses are illegal. They said I could get a porta-potty to use only while the building permit is valid. They aren't too concerned until I start living there close to full time or start building. I am nowhere close to getting a building permit.

It took half of last year's available weekends to get the burned debris out of the basement foundation, and doing so exposed the entry to my septic system. I have electricity to the site, but it is not turned on. Without electricity, I can't get water from the well to flush a toilet anyway, so I have been using the bucket and sawdust method.

Now that I'm close to getting the electricity turned on, my thoughts are turning to running water and a toilet. My friend Bill says I should just build an outhouse structure directly over the septic entry in the old basement and run a water pipe to the structure to flush the toilet. I could build the new house around it and over it.

Somehow, part of me rebels. One beauty of this property is its seclusion and the scenic panarama of the mountains. Putting an outhouse in the basement where the occupant could only look at the brick pattern of the cinder blocks misses out on inspiration for those special moments.

I have something far grander in mind. The chimney that still stands is directly above the entry to the septic. Although it would take a 24 foot ladder climb to get up there, the view would be amazing. You can't see that chimney from any road, and you don't see it the whole length of the driveway until you are right at the house.

So, what do you think?

Here privies are still allowed. There are even construction details in the handbook from the county health department. They won't allow composting toilets only, yet they allow conventional septic systems and privies, go figure.

Bob

__________________
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
George W. Bush 8/5/2004
source: White House Web Site

[QUOTE=Alex]Ours is great. When it's minus 26.1 F (just got a new digital thermometer for Christmas - it has an indoor sensor and outdoor and min/max - how cool!) like it is right now, you warm it up with pants on first. Then when bare skin meets minus 26 (or minus 50 F) no worries.


Hey Alex, I use styrofoam as a seat, instant warmth, try it, its works!

OMG, ROFL, :haha: :haha: :haha: That story is toooooo funny!

I just built an outhouse this weekend - well sort of. They are illegal in my county, but our house has only one stool, and after the last 2 weeks of the stomach flu in my household, I realized we really need some sort of a backup plan. I just built a wooden box around a five gallon bucket, put a seat on the wood, and now it all goes into the bucket. Right now it just sits in part of the barn - no privacy from others in the barn. What am I going to do with it? I don't know yet...maybe put a layer of straw over each layer of dung, and then put it on the compost pile? I am not sure that is legal either, but we definitely need a back up with the wife and 2 kids are down with the flu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!