Shit Happens

Aug 5, 2024

bog cam

We watched an off the grid, tiny house living video recently, where the creator said that the most common question they are asked is ‘where do you shit’. And that’s pretty funny, because I guess when I say that we have no inside water, just an outdoor tap and a water but to collect runoff, I have to try to keep a straight face when I see the other person’s facial expression, you know the one, where the gears in their brain are working away trying to work out how to find a polite way of asking the very question above. Sometimes, amused, I’ll wait and see how politely they ask the question, what way they phrase it, if they find a way to ask it at all or if they try to skillfully manoeuvre around it, however most of the time I have no patience for social frills and freely declare ‘we shit in a bucket’.

As a late diagnosed autistic person, I’ve spent much of my life analysing expressions, and trying to identify when someone’s words match their facial expression, and, by proxy, when it doesn’t, which often begs the question why their words and expressions don’t match. So after the stress of navigating this for years, you’ve gotta have fun with it sometimes. I would also like to advise at this point that squeamish or easily disgusted folks need read no further, lest they must fast for some reason - bloods, surgery etc, as I will be discussing in plain language the logistics of our many methods of human waste disposal.

In short, we have a few main methods of achieving sustainable disposal of our various bodily functions. The most common one, is a huge bucket kept in the extension (read: the shed), which we line with a thin layer of compostable cat litter - paper or wood pellets, something like that, no nasty ingredients and easily broken down. We then add a thin layer of mulch, and it’s ready to go. We do our business, then sprinkle on a thin layer of mulch. We try to only defecate in here to keep the odour to a minimum, and despite my initial scepticism, it really works. We take a full bucket out to the designated composter, and wait until it either reaches the appropriate temperature, or one full year.

Method two is my favourite on sunny days! We dig a deep hole in the field, place a plastic toilet shaped seat with a hole in the bottom over it, and a pop up spray tan style tent on top of that. When it’s almost full, we just cover it up with some soil and leave it for… Well, we haven’t run out of room yet, but at least a year until it turns into compost. I often find myself wanting to go and sit in the tent just to read. It’s incredibly peaceful, warm, and for some reason, the animals seem to really like it, and follow me in too. The view is exquisite and there is something hushed and cosy about it. My word of warning about this method is weather related. While it’s a different kind of cosy when it’s raining, we get quite a bit of wind here (as regular readers will know), and no amount of rocks or tent pegs will keep the tent in place when the wind is determined to play with the tent! This results in the occasional danger poop, where I move fast and hope no one comes to check on animals in neighbouring fields, but mostly it just results in us retiring the tent toilet and using the shed until we have a spell of better weather.

We did previously try a few other ways of sustainable, low water defecation disposal, but the main one I’d recommend for anyone in a similar position to us is definitely the bucket. We currently use conventional toilet paper, but we are trying to grow our own, and will do a blog post on that also. Honorable mention to our local gym membership, which was (arguably is) our primary method of showering, but similarly to giving a toilet paper update, I plan to write a separate post on bathing, as we have just found an exciting alternative to the gym.

(aj)