Wretha's Adventures Living Off Grid

01-12-08

Lazy Days

The days blend one to the next, most of the time, I have to look at my cell phone to know what day of the week it is, today has been a lazy day, I haven't even really gotten dressed yet, I just hung around in my long johns, I sleep in these, it keeps me warm at night, and makes it possible to get out of the warm bed in the morning. I need to go out and take care of some dishes, I don't have a proper way to really do dishes yet, I have a sink, but it isn't plumbed yet, no running water and no place for the water to go, so for now, I just warm up a container of water, usually on the wood stove, and do the best I can do outside, I also use a little bleach water to sanitize everything too, can't be too careful. It is a little trouble to do, without a sink and outside, but it does get done, eventually...

Pee jars

We decided to keep our urine separate from the humanure toilet, it is a small deviation from the Jenkins method, he says to do everything in the bucket and don't worry about it, but we chose to keep the urine separate, mainly do we don't have to dump the bucket quite as often. We have several empty containers with tight fitting lids, we pee into those, and once a day or every other day, I take them outside and dump them into the compost pile, the nitrogen in the urine is good for the compost, and NO, it doesn't smell. In fact, I have made the third "deposit" from the bucket into the compost pile, I covered it in a layer of leaves and grass that I raked up, then I tamped it down and it was done, the next thing I do is clean out the bucket, I pour a little water in it, squirt a bit of dish soap, I use a long handled bristle type scrub brush to scrub the bucket, then I pour the soapy water into the compost pile (the soapy water is also good for the compost). I don't even bother to rinse the bucket, (I do rinse the scrub brush), I set the bucket and the brush in the sun for a couple of days, the sun helps to remove any lingering odors in the plastic. I take a fresh bucket, I place a couple of inches of grass and leaves in the bottom and it goes back inside the house to start again.

Dishes

I just finished doing the dishes, I will sure be glad when I have my sink plumbed, it will not have water right away, but if I can pour water down the drain, it will be a big help :)

When I am at my neighbor's house, if I see dirty dishes, I (almost) always wash them, I just do it, he tells me that I don't have to do his dishes, (for the record, there are rarely more than 2 or 3 dishes, for a bachelor, he is VERY NEAT), anyhoo, I tried to explain to him that it is my small way of paying him back for allowing us to use his water, laundry and such, and besides, it is a real treat to get to do dishes with hot water! :)