Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Jan 28, 2008, at 7:49 AM, tom wrote:

>  Alas, it was not enough and when it
> came down to it marital health demanded a flush toilet.  The humanure
> toiled sits in a corner in the basement (waiting for the day the
> ancient septic system gives up the ghost and it gets another shot at
> 'life').

I do understand. Chris has lived with my system of outhouse and bucket  
toilet for a long, fair-trial period. I am now beginning a Bed House,  
a bedroom/bathroom/closet/laundry freestanding building connected to  
the front porch with a ten-foot hall/greenhouse. The impetus was the  
gentle-but-firm words, "I want a flush toilet." And so she shall have.

I am of course scheming. Her flush toilet (my bucket toilet will  
remain in the old bathroom) will flush into a now-laid three-inch  
sewer line and terminate two hundred feet later not into a septic tank  
but into a system yet to be designed and built. Right now there is a  
big hole in the ground. Are you familiar with John Todd's Living  
Machines? At worst I will build a cesspool of ferrocement. At best I  
will build a take-off on Todd's design, a long, serpentine channel of  
growing plants whose roots extract the nutrients, then get composted.