Comments on: Potty Time - Toileting, Bathing, Laundry in a low Power Situation

By: mezzaluna

mezzaluna — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:50:29 +0000

wanted to put in a plug for elimination communication with your babies. babies are aware of their elimination needs from birth, but we condition that awareness out of them when we put them in diapers. by becoming aware of your baby’s potty cues and helping them stay in touch with their sensations you’ll save on diaper laundry both in terms of fewer diapers used per day and likely earlier time to complete potty training.

people all around the world have done this forever… cloth diapers may seem like a “natural” option, but there weren’t fuzzibunz 1000 years ago, lol! and not everyone in the world today has the money and time to acquire and wash lots of cloth for diapering.

of course you still need to figure out what to do with their pee and poop anyway, but reducing your waste stream of sposies or washing resources for cloth (and resources to make the cloth diapers!) can only be a good thing.

By: Steve in Colorado

Steve in Colorado — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:44:18 +0000

There are solar powered composting toilets. The one I am most familiar with is the “Sunny John” by John Cruickshank. You can see his design and order plans at http://www.sunnyjohn.com/toiletpapers2.htm.

This design works in Colorado (more sun than some places). But the idea is sound. Basically use solar radiation to heat the place where you sit as well as the compost. Solves a key humanure problem in cold climates, keeping th epile working over the winter.

For those that can use it, something along these lines seems like a very sustainable solution…

By: Fern

Fern — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:29:56 +0000

Pat - I just bought the cheapest can of all purpose spray enamel interior/exterior for spraying the soda bottles. Of course, I’ve been using them outdoors. If you are spraying them for interior use, I’d let them air outside from now till fall, the stuff has plenty of toxic chemicals in it.

By: robj98168

robj98168 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:55:31 +0000

How about a composting toilet system- you can have these in two bathrooms, the waste goes into the composster, is heated and in a short time made into beautiful compost for your flower garden. The heating system can be solar. I know this is another product to buy, but could be retrofitted into most houses. As far as flushing, well as a plumber, I can say the poop in your sanitary lines doesn’t exactly go away with one flush anyway, so gravity has to take over!

By: Greenpa

Greenpa — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:00:59 +0000

For those not familiar, I do recommend my composting outhouse design; humorously referred to as the THWASPCO. The first post on my blog is
http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/2007/04/poop-glorious-poop.html

There a quite a few posts- best idea is to search for THWASPCO, and “potty house”.

This is not a short term solution- it’s a long term, even permanent one. Substantial construction required. The outcome, though, is a fully sanitary facility which composts the poop- and you don’t ever even have to shovel it out. That was a surprise to me, but after 20 some years, it’s true; the 3 composting pits have so much extra capacity that by the time we need to rotate to the next pit- the material in it has had time to decompose entirely to water and carbon dioxide- which just disappear up the stack.

The value of human poop for fertilizer is substantial, to be sure. Processing it to remove disease threats requires vigilance, though. The THWASPCO basically puts disease organisms into a dead-end world, where most will just disappear, die, and- compost. A few things might survive- bacterial spores can be nearly indestructible- that aspect is untested. Since we never shovel it out, though- it’s a moot question.

By: Freddie Freeloader

Freddie Freeloader — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:18:56 +0000

Im experimenting the growing of lambs ear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stachys_byzantina) for TP.
Its a perennial that is supposed to be very robust and it feels as soft as Charmin.

By: Pat Meadows

Pat Meadows — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:24:03 +0000

I’m interested in the [soda bottles storing heat in a window] idea. What do you paint them with?

Thanks!

Pat

By: Fern

Fern — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:29:55 +0000

In the summer, I take empty 2 liter soda bottles (too easily available), paint them black, fill them with water, and leave them in the sun. In short order the water is warm enough to use as a shower. Might work in winter in a sunlit window as a way to store heat, too, come to think of it.

By: marta

marta — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:17:44 +0000

I keep reading how clotheslines are back in fashion now in the US, while here dryers are being bought by the upwardly mobile…hmpf. I had never seen a dryer until I went to the US when I was 25!

Anyway, a friend who lives in Cambodia says people in Phnom Phen (and in rural areas as well) have a rainwater collecting bucket set on a high tripod in their back (or front) yards. As it rains a lot everyday, they just have to pull the chain whenever they want and have a quick, refreshing shower.
I guess in colder climates you can just store a limited amount of rainwater (unless you use it during the colder months, heating it), but still use it for quick and cheap showers in the summer.

Marta from Lisbon (Portugal)

By: MEA

MEA — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:32:00 +0000

NM — I felt awful, dd was fine (but she metablize things very quickly — often has to have a much large does of medicine to get it to a therapudic level than you’t think. She has a counselor in training one on one with her, and while the young woman is great about the physical safety stuff, apparently didn’t give any thought to what dd was eating and drinking.

Last night I had the oven on to cook a meal and then dried dd’s soaked jeans (which she need for camp the next day) in them). (Crappy mother that I am, I’m not getting her a second pair until the last possible second because she won’t stop outgrowing things in about 2 weeks, and the handmedown supplie of blue jeans stopped, replaced with lycra sequined sweat pants. And, as dd the young would say, “I can tell you this, I’m not wiping my bottom with those.”

MEA