Michael: The Outside Solution

Beautiful white sky
With luminous blue holes
Letting in the moonshine.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Every year, as the rainy season approached it’s long end, we’ve had plumbing issues if you know what I mean. Our first two years here we went the chemical route and at least twice a month dumped a canister of Potasa down the toilet. This year we decided to see if there was a more natural way of solving our septic woes. There was. It worked, and the irony is it would also be a good fix for when we move back to water thirsty S. California. But, I’m afraid, due to social constraints, it’s no longer a viable option either in water soaked Volcan or back in drought prone Los Angeles.

The fix was to water ration by only flushing after taking our morning constitutional, then having Kimme use the toilet to urinate during the rest of the day and not flushing, while I went pee out in the garden during the day and used the bathroom sink at night. Using this system we didn’t have any problems with the toilet all rainy season.

However, we now have neighbors so the weed killer solution is no longer viable. It’s back to indoor plumbing.

In drought conditions in California I bet using a sink would save a great deal of water, but I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable going that route. It would be interesting though to get an estimate on how much water would be saved by people using that option.

If we ever build a house, we’re going to avoid that dilemma completely by installing compost toilets and perhaps a urinal or a have a yard with a very tall and private fence.