Have you tried humanure??!!

Comments

  • Chris A.
    Chris A. Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

    Okay, so here we go again. Many years ago we did a humanure toilet for about seven years. Hubby got tired of dealing with it so I made an outside one for my WOOFERS and put a regular toilet back in the house😥. Above I have posted pics of my outside one which is great for people that come to the farm and are working outside, and also for when you just don't want to run to the house for the toilet.

    Recently, I got tired of the mess of the regular toilet so rather than spend several hundred dollars to buy a new toilet, I resurrected our old humanure box, (which I had been using in the barn and my chickens liked to lay eggs in it), grabbed a clean 5 gallon bucket and plopped it right over the place where the toilet was. I cut out a board that went over the toilet hole and we're back in business. Posted picture above.

    What I love about humanure:

    1 - less odor than a regular toilet

    2- not wasting water

    3- can compost it into some of the most amazing soil (the worms make this the blackest and most beautiful soil ever!) Every bucket goes out the door, into a compost pile (just for humanure) and gets covered with whatever I have on hand ... weeds, horse manure, coffee grounds ect.. I used to use stacked apple bins and when one stack was full started another stack and when the 2nd stack was full, the first one was ready to use. Now that it is just my husband and I, and grandkids when they come, I just have a designated area for the humanure.

    4 - you can use shavings, (mine are free gotten from the local hard wood lumber shop), or if you don't have access to those you can use shredded paper.

    5- not wasting waste if you get my drift:)

    Now, to go beyond that, I have been hiking the PCT with my daughter the last several years and when you are out on the trail who wants to deal with toilet paper?? Not me, for one, so I used the moss hanging from the trees. (The Indians used to use it in with the papoose to keep baby dry and when you can get it off the tree, it is soft. Even not so soft, it gets the job done. ) When we got home I got to thinking about other hikers who use a "pee" rag, and rinse it out once a day and let it dry overnight. I started doing this at home and I was amazed at how much toilet paper you save. So, not only can I save the waste, I can reuse the pee rag indefinitely (until it goes to rags) and not be buying as much toilet paper. Not only that, I like it better than TP!

    So ... are you game to try it???

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    Hello,

    re your "So ... are you game to try it???" - Interesting. -

    How SOON people forget that "waterborne, insect-borne, & skin-to-skin infectious diseases" caused an EPIDEMIC, that took with it an entire village. As long as people lived in small groups, isolated from each other, such incidents were sporadic.

    But as civilization progressed, people began clustering into cities. They shared communal water, handled unwashed food, stepped in excrement from casual discharge or spread as manure...

    As cities became crowded, (you know like in 2018 ...

    1. TOKYO (Population: 37,435,191)
    2. DELHI (Population: 29,399,141)
    3. Mexico city (Population: 21,671,908)
    4. New York City (8.4 million)
    5. Los Angeles (4+ million residents)
    6. Houston (2.3 million people)
    7. Jacksonville (not quite 1 million)
    8. not to mention: Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Phoenix, and
    9. NEXT Coming to a City, Town, or Neighborhood - near YOU, right around the corner...

    Typhus was most common..

    Next came typhoid and relapsing fever, plague and other pestilential fever, smallpox and dysenteries... as well as

    Another waterborne disease, CHOLERA, has proven one of history's most virulent killers: stunning in its rapidity: Extreme diarrhea, sharp muscular cramps, & then death .It struck so suddenly, a man could be in good health at daybreak, and be buried at nightfall.

    SALMONELLA bacillus that is found in the feces and urine

    >>>>>>>Healthy people suddenly falling dead within hours.


    NOW then, enter the CDC & their numerous Bed-partners... who would just love, Love LOVE to let loose... another wave... of excruciating deaths, accompanied by delirium or hallucination, the body wracked by yellow or green or black vomit or excreta; or covered with obscene black boils, terrible red rashes or ghastly blue pallor - death, Death, DEATHS.

    And

    what happens when the Above HUMANITARIAN disasters then are MIXED-in in a succession of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions into even MORE !!!! disease epidemics.


    Ah yes, Steadfast Ignorance...

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    I have about the same setup as you @Pat. Still make use of toilet paper though, never heard of a "pee rag" before but will be pondering the idea. I've lived "primitively" and when you carry your own water you learn to honor every drop so conserving water is a way of life now. And why waste "waste"?

    I'm not worried about starting the next epidemic as I make use of basic hygiene-hand washing and bathing.

  • maimover
    maimover Posts: 359 ✭✭✭

    Here’s my take on humanity...while I’ve never composted my own waste, I believe it can be very beneficial. Reading the accounts of those who have used it it is pretty clear that when composted property it can be very beneficial. I’m not sure I would be truly comfortable using it on my produce I’d absolutely use it for my plants and flowers. Maybe as I become a more educated gardener and am more comfortable with the whole process it’s uses could become more.

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    My two cents...I have read the " Humanure Book" https://humanurehandbook.com/ it addresses the issues that are most concerning regarding sanitation. It is something that, if done correctly could be of real benefit. I remember when the writer, Joseph Jenkins, went to, I believe it was Haiti, after a hurricane hit. His team worked with local officials to start using this method to bring sanitation to the island and help stop the spread of "filth diseases." The link above is to his website, on that site is a free condensed DIY manual available for download as well as several very interesting videos. I would encourage anyone looking into this to visit his site and read the book, it is very interesting.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am wondering if composting human manure would neutralize medications and chemical body products that the average person uses.

    Does composting kill parasitic worms?

    I am pretty sure that there are pathogens that would not be killed with compost temperatures. I think that is the concern of @rainbow .

    Like other toxins in our modern world, I suspect humanure products would make it into the food chain even if only originally applied to non food plants.

  • Chris A.
    Chris A. Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

    We are a pretty simple household and we do not use the chemical body products that most people use, and we do not take medications ... occasionally the hubby takes tylenol. I rely not only on the composting, but on the work of the worms. They have the ability to clean up soil that has been exposed to radiation so it makes me think that perhaps they can clean up the humanure. I am not sure, but I think this topic will be addressed in the summit this week. Check it out and I am sure we will all learn something new!

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    Pat here is a good link that discusses the use of worms and the lab results, it is really interesting. https://www.nps.gov/articles/denali-mountain-compost.htm this is regarding parasites and pathogens not chemicals or medications. But if one lives a simple healthy life without medications etc that shouldn't be too much of a concern.

  • Chris A.
    Chris A. Posts: 27 ✭✭✭

    Thank you Vicki! That was an awesome article!!