Marcus’s Poop

Among the new amenities currently underway at the Wagon Station encampment are composting toilets. Being total novices to the world of composting, we thought we’d start with simple toilets that use five gallon buckets to collect the poop, then composting it in an official composting area closer to the future vegetable garden. The toilet enclosures were actually a lot of fun to make – we started out with a minimal plan and a pile of wood, but turned out pretty stylish!

The composting bins were conceptualized by Ari (and built once by dry stacking) and then remade with mortar by David Baker.  Later on they will get a coat of white paint.  According to the Humaneur Handbook, the “compost” should age for a year before we use it – hence the two sided bins.  Cement block was used for the bins in order to keep out rodents (later lids will be added) and to keep moisture and humidity in.

Since all this happened in November, which is fairly late in the season, the only humanure guinea pig left living in the wash area was Marcus, our month long resident of the Magasin 3 Wagon Station.  By the time that Marcus traveled on he had left us a five-gallon bucket filled with pure goodness – stay posted for the results!

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