Bonus post - Humanure

Today I emptied the humanure and I was coping with bad practice as I had left two full buckets unemptied and then suddenly the third was full and I was forced into emptying today. This has prompted me to do a blog post about my humanure experiences (this is the first time I've had this happen, and the delay in emptying was caused by how busy we've been other than the rest day on Saturday when I was banned from chores like this). I know a lot of people may find this a distasteful subject and the pictures are graphic so please if you don't want to read just click away.

For those of you who are interested however I hope this post proves useful.

Full buckets ready for emptying (one too many this time)

I have built a temporary collection point with rough boards against one of the outbuildings which will suffice for this year but my plan is to create something more sturdy next year though it will probably be in roughly the same location as it has proved a good place. You have to carry heavy buckets(when using these 20L ones they can get quite hefty) and so you want it not too far from the door but then again not too close as of course there is the psychology of worrying about the smell. The idea is you have four buckets and when two are full that is when you take them to the collection point. This is so you can carry one per hand and they balance you out. Of course you may find that you want to empty more often but I have really settled into the two full then empty (apart from this time as I've said).

A slight depression dug into the existing material

I take a watering can full of water to the collection point as well as the buckets and sometimes the kitchen waste collection box as well. This is to rinse out after emptying. Other than that I have a toilet brush I can use to scrub stains from the buckets and this stays next to the collection point at all times. The first task when I get down there is to rake the covering hay to one side and dig a small depression in the top of the compost. As you can see this is a pretty plain brown colour and though you can't smell I can tell you that this, which has not been disturbed for about a week or so, has no unpleasant smell at all beyond a slight rotting vegetable matter.

The humanure is added

I find it quite easy to empty the buckets, just lifting with the handle in my right hand and my left hand under the bottom and just upend it over the depression. There is normally very little sticking to the sides other than a few bits of sawdust but I will the swill each bucket with water and scrub if needed and then empty this water also onto the top of the pile. In this picture I have emptied the oldest bucket first, then the middle and finally the one which just filled up today. I have no idea if it is usual for the sawdust to go such a bright orange colour but it does so for me. This is about the only time there is even the slightest unpleasant smell and it is mainly of urine which I can cope with fine.

Re cover until there is no smell

One of the benefits of the location of the collection point is the broken and open window just next to it which leads into the hay barn. I am able to use the rake to reach through and grab as much hay as I need to complete the covering again of the fresh humanure. The final design will contain hay storage in the middle which will be even easier and I will probably also bale my hay to make it pack down more but this has worked well for me this year. You don't always need to put more hay over the top and indeed this time I was able to half cover with the previously moved hay but it is important to make sure that there is none of the smell coming out and you do this by applying hay til the smell stops.

Fresh lovely smelling sawdust into the emptied buckets

After this I put my metal gratings over the top to weight it all down and prevent large scavengers getting in and then I was done with outside. I carried the empty buckets back inside to my sawdust bags and refilled each one right to the top. The sawdust soaks up any water left over from washing them out and also soaks in bad smells which do linger in the bucket even after a good clean. They get to stand by the side of the toilet for a week or so which means when they get put back into rotation they don't smell.

How the buckets are used

When I say "rotation" I mean this. The current toilet bucket (1) starts off with a small layer of sawdust at the bottom of it and this gets filled up, as you use it, from another bucket full of sawdust sat next to it (2). You use your common sense when putting sawdust into the toilet; if it smells, put a bit more in. As the first bucket (1) gets full the second bucket (2) gets empty and so when the first is completely full the second has the layer of sawdust on the bottom ready for use. I then remove (1) and put a sealed lid on it in the corner of the room, put (2) into the toilet and get one of the spare buckets (3) which are full of sawdust and set it next to the toilet as a sawdust reservoir. Once there are two full buckets you can pull the second reserve (3) in next to the toilet and go and empty the first two into your collection point wherein they get to sit and de-smell until needed again. Simple, huh.

MOST IMPORTANT!!! Wash your hands after

This last picture is in one sense the most important of them all. Even though I do not find any of the processes off putting in the slightest and there are very few smells at any stage I cannot reinforce enough that after I have finished emptying and refilling the buckets I go and wash my hands very thoroughly in the hottest water I can bear. With the unreliability of water here this summer sometimes I have put off emptying just because I couldn't wash my hands like I wished.

Humanure is working really well for me and I am very glad I gave it a go; the drop toilet the workmen use over behind the dog enclosure stinks when you go near it but our humanure toilet and collection point has no smells at all. This is not just me saying it, my mother commented on how there were no smells though that was early in the process however just last week A was stood next to the collection point and we were both quite amazed that there was no smell at all. If you don't believe me, ask her. If you want to know more I cannot recommend this website (and the book therein) too highly. It will answer any questions you have much better than I ever could and may even inspire you as it has me to stop pissing and shitting in perfectly good drinking water and then having to put disgusting chemicals into said drinking water to remove the excrement.

The one other thing to add here is the first rule of humanure is one person introduces it and they are responsible for all emptying and cleaning tasks. This is not something you pass around or should bring into your house without being prepared to stick to this. I suppose if a couple were both into it you could alternate emptyings but I think it makes good discipline for it to be the domain of one person who can then work out their methods and habits and make sure everything is done correctly every time.