Fun Project # 1: the throne house

This is my composting toilet project, the culmination of a few earlier experiments, that has finally been given adequate time, money and joy to build.

Over a number of relaxing spring days, I framed this outhouse 4'x6' on three courses of block, with 61/2' high walls, 45 degree metal roof, sided with pine boards and finished sheetrock for a smooth interior. The windows are salvage and needed squaring up, casing and trim, glazing on all the panes and two replacement panes. The door was louvered top and bottom, but i removed those slats and put in wood and a nice piece of tempered glass for a sunset view.

The outhouse also doubles as a library museum of National Geographic magazines. I currently have 1935 thru til 1995, special thanks to my grandmother and grandfather Steen, who collected and shelved these jewels of earthly education. My lovely grandparents are now both 93 years old and live in their home in Candler, west of Asheville. Thank you two honeybears, I will be glad to see you monday night and stay with you most nights of this week:)

Here's how it works: poop down the chute and aim your pee to the funnel. Its not hard to do, actually the funnel catches your pee!

Here's the science: poop turns to nearly odorless dry nuggets in the absence of water (pee) and when mixed with carbonaceous materials like hay, pine bark or wood chips, the nuggets will readily compost. Because the 'chamber' of blocks underneath the building is enclosed, the poop must be pitched out into the sun and rain in order to begin its real digestion into rich, dark Humanure!
Wahoo lets have a poo!

The pee is diverted into this canola oil container. Leading to the question, what to do with the pee? But first lets look at what Urine is...

Urine has Urea, which is the form of nitrogen elimination common to all mammals. It is a water soluble white solid with two NH2 groups joined to a carbonyl or CO. Urea is a common fertilizer used in big-scale farming, and it has the most nitrogen for its weight (standardly, 46-0-0). However, it must be sealed tight before use on account that it is so readily water soluble that it will spoil by drawing moisture out of the air :o! If you are not familiar with the role nitrogen plays in plant protein synthesis, or do not understand the nitrogen cycle and its implications for human growth and civilization I recommend you read this book*

Urea is human pee has another compound attached to it called Biuret, which is toxic to plants and although nitrogenous does not lead to protein formation.
In fact, plants do not actually use Urea for protein synthesis, not until soil bacteria have converted it into Ammonium or nitrites can they make use of Urea fertilizer. Also, farmers must be more careful with Urea on account of its excessive water-solubility; it is easy to overuse it and even to lose much of it to leaching esp. in high rainfall areas.

If you are doing small-scale plantings organically i recommend blood meal (12-0-0) which releases slowly as well as fish meal, also called fish emulsion, which delivers P and K, as well (3 to 5-1-1, N-P-K) These are more expensive, but easier to handle and safer to use.

This is a cabinet called 'fertilizer land' attached to the front of my outhouse. Lots of nice things in here for nurturing the diversity of edible plantings that makes up 50% of my hobby headspace :) Inside there is Kelp meal, azomite, and bone meal for trace minerals, greensand for breaking up clay soil and binding sandy ones, soil acidifying pellets for blueberry bushes, the fertilizers above recommended and finally Copper and Neem for natural just-in-case fungicides. I would like to add space for 'garden-tool' land, 'hose' land and all other manner of 'lands' attached to the exterior of my outhouse that make planting projects even more fun and organized!

Here's the final skinny on human pee: it may indeed be used as fertilizer.  Typically it is safe to apply to plants cut with water on at least a 1:1 ratio, in which case the toxins are not usually an issue unless applied repeatedly to the same plants or patches of ground, garden, pasture or plantation. According to many studies study, Urine also has potassium and phosphorous, the two other plant MACRONUTRIENTS. Just be careful that your pee comes from a healthy human who is not using strange pharmaceutical drugs that may or may not leak out of them.

the clean-out door

 You may visit me with or without advance notice and make your deposit anytime while flipping past 1950's car adverts on your photographic trip to Bhutan! No charge for the first visit:)

* Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch and the Transformation of World Food Production by Vaclav Smil.