Wednesday, May 13, 2009

This is the shit

Well, here's the thunderbox. Note the polystyrene seat. This seat always feels cosy and warm. It is such a wonderful invention, a whole lot better than the cold, plastic stuff people use in The Towns.
Why does not everybody have an outhouse instead of a wc? It is a mystery.
In the lower left hand corner is a bucket of wood chips. Once business is completed, add some wood chips on your produce. No smell, and composting goes quicker. Wood ashes work too, but you easily end up with wood ash everywhere, so I use it on the compost heap itself, rather than straight in the bucket.
The whole toilet system just isn't all that complicated or interesting. Unless you got nosy neighbors who live close by, there's no reason to invest in complicated freezing toilets, microwaving toilets or enormous revolving compost chambers. No matter what, you still end up having to deal with your own feces. And the more low tech your system is, the less can go wrong.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where did you get that toilet seat! thats is what just what our outhouse is looking for!!

Northmark said...

I got it here. Not sure if they ship abroad, though. There's a piece on a DIY version in an old issue of Mother Earth News with an illustration here. Best of luck!

Anonymous said...

That's been the problem I keep finding them in other countries that don't ship to the US. Thanks so much for the info. Believe it or not I found one today that can be purchased separately from a kit! Found it at Ecovita! Thanks again for your quick reply.

Melanie