Composting loo

in anticipation of the summer projects we have planned, we are securing the essential needs from the land. last year i bought a katadlyn gravity fed water filter.  as far as i can tell, there are 2 springs & 3 streams flowing onto the land. i have never seen them go dry so far. the watershed is mostly woodland, small and walkable with very little development in it (circa 6 houses, all in a row with modern plumbing ). so it should be fairly clean. it is also 4 miles from the sea where the prevailing wind bring lean air in from across the Atlantic. most of our rain comes from this direction.

next up waste.

Last weekend mark and I constructed a tree bog variant of the traditional composting loo on site. This has the added advantage of strategically planted voracious willow that is hungry enough to eat anything. Hence in theory it does not need emptying. Which I personally find very exciting!

Hat tip to Jay at www.biologicdesigns.co.uk for explaining the idea to us, and and I am honoured to add our little project to the growing list of similar structures.

The hole was dug by me last year when I was inspecting soil composition - it's very flinty with lots of clay.

We made a framework from 4 uprights rammed into the ground (breaking 2 in the process. This was sized to fit a pallet between the stakes as a floor

 and 3 more for the walls

and finally a roof

the day before everyone turned up for the hex build i added the loo seat, such luxury !

so far it is performing very well. its a joy to use.

 i am encouraging the use of leaves rather than bog roll & have discovered that doc leaves are fantastic, tho long term I would like to look at a large leafed tree .. perhaps a maple