No work today, but several possible appointments, the first and probably most important was a meeting at midday of the Low Moor Allotment Association committee, to which I had been invited as a special informant about the possibility of a compost toilet on the site. I was second on the agenda after the community policewoman and security.
I started with the statement that humanure can easily be composted if put with some carbon-rich materials such as sawdust or finely chopped straw, but care should be taken with how the resultant material is used, ie, on permanent plantings like hedges, trees, canes etc, but not salad carrots or lettuce... I then said that as far as I was concerned, there were two possible designs of a 'long drop', one with the chambers at ground level, and therefore the room with the pedestal in it at some height, needing steps and a ramp for wheelchair access, and the other option, which I've seen in a lottie in London, is to have the chambers below ground level, 'tanked out' (lined to make them waterproof) and the room with pedestal at ground level, and this room made of bricks, blocks or strawbales, and a secure lockable door. The chambers at ground level would be very easy to dig out, but the structure liable to vandalism, and probably too large due to needing a ramp. The below ground option is more accessible for users but more difficult to empty, needing a special shovel with the blade at right angles to the shaft, accessed through the opening above, which has the pedestal bolted to it when that chamber is in use, and has a cover bolted to it when rotting down. The below-ground version must also have passive ventilation chimneys to draw air over the pile and help dehydrate the manure and prevent odours coming up through the pedestal.
However, the below ground option might have a cost of £10 to £30 thousand, depending on how it was constructed, and there are the issues of who cleans it and keeps it usable, and the occasional task of digging it out. This latter task would be every few years, but the former would be at least weekly. The committee agreed to canvas opinion about whether a toilet would be welcomed on the site, to gauge need, and if there was deemed to be a need, then fundraising could begin and designs submitted. I really hope the questionnaire finds that lots of people would welcome a loo on the lottie, and I can get involved in designing and fundraising.
I got home at about 2pm for lunch, and at about 3.30 went for a cycle ride with my eldest son round to Hull Road Park where there was a YorkLETS social planned. Lynn was there with her two offspring, who are at the same school as my son, and Stephen and Alison were there too, with their son. On the way to the park, we discovered a puncture in my son's back bike wheel, so on the way back he had a lift on my rack and his bike went on my trailer. We'll fix it this week...
I did a load of home composting work after this, re-building a pallet bin which I completely took apart a few weeks ago, and riddling a large amount of quite dry compost which has been in a builders bag for a few weeks. The unrotted sticks etc are going back in the bottom of the newly built pallet bin, for drainage.
Came in for tea, I had a couple of reheated dishes from the last couple of days with two stale pitta breads. The rest of the family had something nicer and fresher, but I'm renowned for being able to stomach anything and not liking waste, so I'd rather eat something than compost it.
Later in the evening when the boys were in bed, Gill and I had a slow game of Scrabble whilst watching Blur and The Prodigy on telly, at Glastonbury Festival. I thrashed her this time!
Showing posts with label compost toilet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label compost toilet. Show all posts
Woke late... as expected having eventually got to bed after 2am fairly loaded with Russian redcurrant spirit.
Decided to get out into the fresh air and go and collect some logs I rooted out last night... and then chopped them, finishing for lunchtime.
The boys had a friend around during the afternoon, which kept them quiet and happy.
I did a bit of compost management, and more importantly, sorted out a new supply of partly composted sawdust for my toilet... it's the ideal cover material as it's biologically active and any smell molecules will emanate from the 'deposit' are adsorbed into the particles of sawdust, where microbes use them as a feedstock. If dry sawdust is used, the deposited material is covered but odourific molecules may pass through the dry sawdust. Sawdust is used as it is mainly carbon, which balances the humanure which is high in nitrogen when it composts down. I leave it for about 4 years, by which time it is a very fine lovely compost, ideal for mixing with various other media for growing tomatoes etc in.
Did this til nearly dark, came in and watched some telly whilst warming up and doing emails. Gill had made a dough for pizza, and used the tomato/onion thing I made yesterday as the stuff on top. She does make a good pizza!
A good evening... rang round a few friends to wish them a HNY and visited Debbie to give her some bananas and wish her well with her difficult New Year's Resolution.
Made a carrot and tomato soup quite late on, whilst watching the 1980s remake of The Fly... I've seen it loads of times, first when it came out and I saw it in the cinema.
Decided to get out into the fresh air and go and collect some logs I rooted out last night... and then chopped them, finishing for lunchtime.
The boys had a friend around during the afternoon, which kept them quiet and happy.
I did a bit of compost management, and more importantly, sorted out a new supply of partly composted sawdust for my toilet... it's the ideal cover material as it's biologically active and any smell molecules will emanate from the 'deposit' are adsorbed into the particles of sawdust, where microbes use them as a feedstock. If dry sawdust is used, the deposited material is covered but odourific molecules may pass through the dry sawdust. Sawdust is used as it is mainly carbon, which balances the humanure which is high in nitrogen when it composts down. I leave it for about 4 years, by which time it is a very fine lovely compost, ideal for mixing with various other media for growing tomatoes etc in.
Did this til nearly dark, came in and watched some telly whilst warming up and doing emails. Gill had made a dough for pizza, and used the tomato/onion thing I made yesterday as the stuff on top. She does make a good pizza!
A good evening... rang round a few friends to wish them a HNY and visited Debbie to give her some bananas and wish her well with her difficult New Year's Resolution.
Made a carrot and tomato soup quite late on, whilst watching the 1980s remake of The Fly... I've seen it loads of times, first when it came out and I saw it in the cinema.
What a day! Woke at a reasonable time after a very late night and had a fairly lazy morning playing with M who is adorable! A cutie 5 year-old with a lot of energy and silliness! Soon after 11 we went out to the Peckham Farmers' Market (actually just 2 veg stalls, a plant stall, bread stall and a chap selling honey!). Anna bought some veggies including a butternut squash which I'd been raving on about yesterday, and we went on to look at an allotment site which has installed a compost toilet which allegedly cost £18000... and I wanted to see the design as my lottie site is maybe going to install a compost toilet.
Loo info here... http://www.southwark.gov.uk/uploads/file_28695.pdf
Home to A's flat for lunch which was wild rice and 'tame' rice(!) with a bit of carrot and broccoli with microwaved butternut slices, and a weird slice of breaded quorn thing.... quite nice but not something I've ever had before!
Finished this just in time to go to the wildlife gardening centre (http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/Naturereserves/CentreforWildlifeGardening/tabid/125/Default.aspx )
where A's daughter M is having her party. I got changed there and chatted to the organisers about master composters before doing my usual routine of circus and balloons which went down well (some even popped hahahahaha) and all who attended seemed to enjoy the experience!
Loo info here... http://www.southwark.gov.uk/uploads/file_28695.pdf
Home to A's flat for lunch which was wild rice and 'tame' rice(!) with a bit of carrot and broccoli with microwaved butternut slices, and a weird slice of breaded quorn thing.... quite nice but not something I've ever had before!
Finished this just in time to go to the wildlife gardening centre (http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/Naturereserves/CentreforWildlifeGardening/tabid/125/Default.aspx )
where A's daughter M is having her party. I got changed there and chatted to the organisers about master composters before doing my usual routine of circus and balloons which went down well (some even popped hahahahaha) and all who attended seemed to enjoy the experience!
A good day... Gill was having problems motivating the children to go to school, so she got me up and asked me to take them in. So we got to school on time and I got a hug from them both. Lovely.
I cycled on to the 'public logpile' which is nearby and loaded up and struggled home with a heavy load.
Gill was getting ready to go to parenting class but I had an appointment with my dentist so I got ready for that. We listened to Radio 4 Woman's Hour and it was about cults, following the horrible goings on in Texas where there's been an abusive situation within a sect or cult. My Dad grew up in the Exclusive Plymouth Bretheren and he's very interested in the subject, as he was kicked out when a teenager and has been damaged by the experience. He is always interested to hear of others' experiences and he and Mummy may be able to do a 'listen again' type of thing on the 'net.
I then cycled down to town and saw my dentist and she told me that I have improved my cleaning routine in the area which she was concerned about last time... but I am missing the good cleaning in another area so I promised to try to do better. I want to make her a happy woman!
I then got a couple of cheques out, one for the stove work last week and one to pay half the annual council tax. Then popped into Millers Yard to pick up a bag of lovely orange halves and coffee grounds, then on to see Anita for a coffee and a good chat.
Eventually got home towards 2pm and had lunch... then at 3 I went back to school to bring the boys back, and then Gill took them to Martial Arts up at Archbishop Holgates school, and I got the motorised riddle out to prepare a load more compost toilet cover material... basically partly composted sawdust which needs to be de-lumped and made into a a friable homogenous material.
For tea I had reheat pasta and sauce.
I cycled on to the 'public logpile' which is nearby and loaded up and struggled home with a heavy load.
Gill was getting ready to go to parenting class but I had an appointment with my dentist so I got ready for that. We listened to Radio 4 Woman's Hour and it was about cults, following the horrible goings on in Texas where there's been an abusive situation within a sect or cult. My Dad grew up in the Exclusive Plymouth Bretheren and he's very interested in the subject, as he was kicked out when a teenager and has been damaged by the experience. He is always interested to hear of others' experiences and he and Mummy may be able to do a 'listen again' type of thing on the 'net.
I then cycled down to town and saw my dentist and she told me that I have improved my cleaning routine in the area which she was concerned about last time... but I am missing the good cleaning in another area so I promised to try to do better. I want to make her a happy woman!
I then got a couple of cheques out, one for the stove work last week and one to pay half the annual council tax. Then popped into Millers Yard to pick up a bag of lovely orange halves and coffee grounds, then on to see Anita for a coffee and a good chat.
Eventually got home towards 2pm and had lunch... then at 3 I went back to school to bring the boys back, and then Gill took them to Martial Arts up at Archbishop Holgates school, and I got the motorised riddle out to prepare a load more compost toilet cover material... basically partly composted sawdust which needs to be de-lumped and made into a a friable homogenous material.
For tea I had reheat pasta and sauce.
Another lie-in, til 9, then got up as today have to go to the allotment to speak to Frank about a compost toilet at the lottie, he's looking for a design.
Our 13 pots of jam have not set, which means that we cannot give any away, although it tastes lovely, it needs to be spooned out.
However, didn't do much til after lunch when I went via Martin's compost collection, and when I got to the lottie, Frank wasn't there, he'd already gone... this is the second time I've missed him.
However, did some bramble pruning and nettle pulling, a good layer for the compost heap, and put the fruit and veg on top of this. Then planted 9 rows of tiny leek seedlings, where the spuds came out of last week. Then cut more bramble, the stuff which is encroaching the allotment, and pulled nettles which are encroaching the path, and put this on top of the chopped fruit and veg layer. Picked a tray of blackberries for making blackberry and apple leather. This is a guaranteed way of preserving the harvest.
When I got back I made some flagolet bean and red pepper spread, the beans were out of date from Out Of This World, and I soaked the whole packet and cooked them over a couple of days on top of the stove. Whizzed them with the hand-held blender with a waste pepper and home-grown onions. Added some flavours, herbs, soy sauce, bouillon powder and home made paprika from last year, makes a beautiful spread, four pots worth, will freeze them.
Home to have an unusual tea, a Tesco's veg pie which was given to us, not sure why, but they were taking up space in the freezer, so they went in the oven and we had home grown potatoes and broccoli, plus the soup from yesterday which I whizzed so it was less of a stew and more of a soup. Lovely tea. Watched telly all together whilst eating, then the boys went to bed early as we've got a visitor at 8.30, for a game of Scrabble.
Will came at the appointed time, and we soon had a game of superscrabble underway. Will is not a particularly competitive player, infact he introduced us to co-operative scrabble, where the aim of the game is to make the highest combined score, the individual scores are not important. However tonight we didn't play co-operatively, as we are used to playing to win. We didn't finish the game, we stopped at 11.15pm and Gill had got the highest score. The main thing is that we all enjoyed the game and each others company. Will is good at conversation and has a creative mind, he's always entertaining and interesting. It was Will who suggested that I should write a blog... his is at http://mathsdancer.blogspot.com . I don't understand all that Will writes about, or nessessarily agree, but one doesn't have to agree with everything someone says to like them or even love them.
An excellent evening, also made some blackberry and apple leather.
Our 13 pots of jam have not set, which means that we cannot give any away, although it tastes lovely, it needs to be spooned out.
However, didn't do much til after lunch when I went via Martin's compost collection, and when I got to the lottie, Frank wasn't there, he'd already gone... this is the second time I've missed him.
However, did some bramble pruning and nettle pulling, a good layer for the compost heap, and put the fruit and veg on top of this. Then planted 9 rows of tiny leek seedlings, where the spuds came out of last week. Then cut more bramble, the stuff which is encroaching the allotment, and pulled nettles which are encroaching the path, and put this on top of the chopped fruit and veg layer. Picked a tray of blackberries for making blackberry and apple leather. This is a guaranteed way of preserving the harvest.
When I got back I made some flagolet bean and red pepper spread, the beans were out of date from Out Of This World, and I soaked the whole packet and cooked them over a couple of days on top of the stove. Whizzed them with the hand-held blender with a waste pepper and home-grown onions. Added some flavours, herbs, soy sauce, bouillon powder and home made paprika from last year, makes a beautiful spread, four pots worth, will freeze them.
Home to have an unusual tea, a Tesco's veg pie which was given to us, not sure why, but they were taking up space in the freezer, so they went in the oven and we had home grown potatoes and broccoli, plus the soup from yesterday which I whizzed so it was less of a stew and more of a soup. Lovely tea. Watched telly all together whilst eating, then the boys went to bed early as we've got a visitor at 8.30, for a game of Scrabble.
Will came at the appointed time, and we soon had a game of superscrabble underway. Will is not a particularly competitive player, infact he introduced us to co-operative scrabble, where the aim of the game is to make the highest combined score, the individual scores are not important. However tonight we didn't play co-operatively, as we are used to playing to win. We didn't finish the game, we stopped at 11.15pm and Gill had got the highest score. The main thing is that we all enjoyed the game and each others company. Will is good at conversation and has a creative mind, he's always entertaining and interesting. It was Will who suggested that I should write a blog... his is at http://mathsdancer.blogspot.com . I don't understand all that Will writes about, or nessessarily agree, but one doesn't have to agree with everything someone says to like them or even love them.
An excellent evening, also made some blackberry and apple leather.
