New Composting Toilet Build and Install (with Improvements) Pt. 2

So having finally ripped out the old blackwater system from Constellation, we braved the virus to go get some parts and put together our new composting toilet.  If you'd like the basic design and construction, you can find our pamphlet on the thing HERE or check out our earlier build on the blog HERE.

You will need:
Two, 5 gallon buckets.
Some 1/2" ID tubing
A right angle fitting for the tubing
Some very short stainless steel (trust me) screws
A "Luggable Loo" or other snap on seat for bucket toilets.

While you can do this with a knife, I strongly recommend using a jigsaw with a PVC cutting blade.  It will make VERY short work of this project and save you a lot of frustration.  It's also quite a bit safer.  You'll also need a 3/4" bit to cut the opening for the fitting in the urine diverter.

Okay, ready?  Here we go with the basic construction.

First, cut the top part off of one of the buckets.  Typically these things have two built up bands that re-enforce the top rim.  You want to be about three or four inches below that, about eight inches or so below the top rim.  You'll need to remove the handle.

Here's the cut of top of the bucket with the urine diverter in place.  Notice my elegant and regular cut.. .  .not.

 Cut across the bottom of the bucket just short of halfway and cut an arc from that out of the sides of the bucket to make this kind of wedge shape.  There are some more detailed photos of this piece in our original article HERE.

Here's the wedge shaped cut from the bucket bottom that comprises the urine diverter.  This is where to drill the hole and screw in the fitting.

Drill a hole in what will be the new urine diverter next to the edge of the bottom and screw in the pipe fitting.  In the photo above, the fitting is a straight one with a 1/2" barb connector for the tubing.  I changed that for a right angle fitting, which prevents the hose from kinking quite so easily.

Screw the diverter wedge in at a slight angle a couple inches below the rim (it has to clear your bum after all).  The fitting, obviously, has to be at the lowest point.  

Screw your diverter in a couple of inches below the rim at an angle, so it forms a "V" with the pipe fitting at the bottom.  Note, you'll need some pretty short screws or be willing to cut them off, and this process will slightly deform the bucket.  That's okay, it'll flex more than enough to still fit into the lower bucket.  Go ahead and attach a couple of feet of your tubing.  You can always trim if off later.

Now here comes the new bit.  We cut a groove down about five inches in the side of the lower bucket for the tubing to set into.  Like this:

Notch the lower bucket out like this.  The groove should easily accommodate your tubing.

Put in your liner (we use biodegradable trashbags).   Push the liner down into the little groove you just cut out.

Push your liner down into the cut.  The tubing will sit in this groove.

Now put the top part with the urine diverter onto the lower bucket.  The groove you cut should be on the side and the diverter to the front.  Putting in a bit of sawdust or wood stove pellets (which is what we use) at this point will help hold the liner down and in place.

Tidy, hunh?  feel free to trim off the liner bag if you dislike the aesthetics, but I like having the excess to tie off when dumping the compost.

Now put your tubing in a container (we used a cat litter container, but anything that's short enough to be below the diverter will work).  Trim the hose as needed.  In a permanent, on shore installation, you can leave your tubing long and just run it into a dry well or into the garden (most plants will love the nitrogen).  Try to avoid kinking the hose as this will make the thing drain rather slowly.

It makes a rather tidy installation. 

Now, snap on the seat and give it a try. ..no, really.  You'll need to make sure the back of the urine diverter doesn't hit your butt.  If it does, you can either rescrew it on a bit lower or take a pocket knife and cut down the back a little.  Once you're sure the back of the urine diverter doesn't touch you when you're sitting there, you're done.

This entire thing takes about a half-hour to build, works beautifully, will last for literally years, and costs about $30 to put together, less if you have the buckets.

Next up, I'll be making a mount to secure the thing in place.


Stay tuned

M

THE BEAST IS OUT: Diy composting toilet install pt1

I really wish I had more photos to show you of the removal, but we wound up taking the blackwater system out during a driving thunderstorm (at the moment we have winds gusting to 71mph.  Not restful) but we managed to get the old blackwater toilet and holding bladder out without too much difficulty.

I feel like I should say something like "thank you for your service," but truth to tell i think the thing was just exhausted.

A couple of notes on removal:  in most of these systems, the pump and most valves in these systems are designed to be placed ABOVE the water line, so that, in case of a failure or needed repair, you won't flood the boat.  If, as in our current case, you can't close the seacocks and there's nobody working in the marina to pull your vessel, you can use that to your advantage and relocate the open ends of the lines to above water level and cap them.  As it was, I put some oak bungs in the intake water hose and in the outlet hose right below the valve that sends the waste either to the holding tank or overboard, and then ripped out the rest of it.  Some stout pipe clamps and I'm comfortable enough with it to live with it until this plague is over and I can get a haul and hang to address the through-hulls safely.

The old head location is now occupied by our redoubtable camping toilet, pending the new composter.

So, one more thing off the list.  Over the next couple of days we'll complete our measuring and arguing over the new layout, and then we'll build in our new DIY composting toilet with urine diverter.  Wow, I'm so glad that went as well as it did.

Windy here tonight, with gusts into the 70's (MPH) and we're probably stuck with this weather for the next two days, but stay tuned for pictures of the new install.

More shortly.

Stay safe everyone.

M

A tiny little hack

Isn't this sweet?  Yeah, that's celery.

Just a little short one today, though lots more to come.  See the pretty little plant above?  That's just the bottom of a bunch of celery cut off, put in a very small amount of water, and left to sprout, which it does very quickly.  Not only is it a little bonsaii-like splash of green in the galley, the everbearing little leaves are great additions to stocks and salads.  This little trick can be done with lots of plants, including carrots, garlic, and onions.  It's not a lot of food on the hook, mind you, but it's a bit of green for the galley and a bit of fresh flavors to add to your food.

I just thought it was kinda cool.

Today we start ripping out the old blackwater toilet system from the head and replacing it permanently with a composting toilet using the design we developed.  It's going to be a pain in the butt, but it will free up a lot of storage space in the bow and get rid of the smelly thing.

Photos as we go along.

M

The Great Marine Sequester

You would think, living on a boat, that the time of Quarantine wouldn't really be all that big a thing.  I mean, we're used to the small space, used to being off the dock and away, surrounded by water and our own thoughts, for days or weeks at a time.  We're self sufficient, can generate our own electricity, we can fish, we're both great cooks.  I mean, the peace and quiet alone is worth the hassles, right?

But here's the thing:  This isn't normal circumstances.  If we're feeling a bit boat-bound we can't just pop down to the local pub for a drink and a dinner.  We're having to limit our shopping to stay safe, and we're loading the larder with far more than the market shopping we usually do, and that's changing what we cook and how we cook.  It's an odd time.

Social Distancing anyone?

You would think we'd just load up the stores and head out, spend a few weeks cruising or on the hook, and get shed of crowds and the possibility of infection, but a couple of things have given us pause:  First of all, what if one of us comes down sick?  Or both?  How would we manage getting to a port?   How much help could we count on on the water?  Second, if we had a breakdown, in normal times, I'd just call up marine towing and get dragged back in, but is that still working?  Is it still working everywhere? 

You see the dilemma. 

So we determined, for the moment at least, to stay in dock (and largely on the boat) and shelter in place rather as if we WERE out on the hook.  It gives us, at least, the opportunity to take walks and go ashore and stretch a bit.  We've also taken here among the liveaboards to having "cockpit parties", otherwise known as you stay in your cockpit and we stay in ours a discrete distance apart and have a libation in the afternoons while conducting rather overloud conversations from boat to boat.

Well, at least it's social contact without. . .well. . .social contact.

This enforced pause has given us the chance to do a bit of maintenance on the boat and complete a few projects, but I do confess to finding the whole situation enervating.  Maybe in a few days we'll restock the larder and just putt up the bend and anchor out for a bit just for the change of scenery.

Magellan, as usual, has the right idea.

When all this is done, I sincerely hope things DON'T go back to normal.  That "normal" is what got us into this mess in the first place, with the greed and toxicity of our culture poisoning everything it touched.  As I sit here in the Middle River, the water is as clean as I've ever seen it.  The air is sweet,  the Ospreys have just come back for the season and are filling the air with their familiar shrieks.  I hope when this is over that we remember just how important life is, and how important this world is.

nuff said.

Be safe

M

Some Free Reading Material for Your Quarantine Needs

Since a lot of us are hiding out from the Virus in our homes and boats, I've conned Wild Shore Press into putting a lot of the electronic copies of my books out for free this weekend.  If you go over to my Amazon Author Page or Wild Shore Press after 8AM PDT this coming Friday (March 27) you can pick up most of my books for free until Sunday and the rest are on discount (which was already in process).

If you do snag a copy and like it, though, I'd really appreciate  you leaving a positive review on Amazon.  I'm trying to get all the titles up for free for the duration of this mess, so stay tuned.  For right now, "An Alien's Guide to Sears and Roebuck", "In the Shade" , "The Ganymeade Protocol" and our composting toilet book are going up for free and "Zarabeth's World" on a discount... .at least I think that's what we did.  Discount may not show up until you get to the shopping cart, btw.

M

Spring

Spring has come early to the Chesapeake. . . really early in fact.  Not that we're complaining, mind you.  The trees are already in bud weeks earlier than usual, and cold weather has disappeared from the long term forecast.

One of the great joys of living aboard (or of any kind of cruising for that matter) is the opportunity to get off the dock and explore.  So we've been taking sojourns to one of our favorite places here on the upper Bay:  Marshy Point Nature Center.  The place is accessible by bus, car, or boat, has several miles of really nice, marked hiking trails, and a wonderful educational center with some really fun and interesting programs open to the public, that and a cool osprey-cam on a nest out in the middle of a platform in dundee creek (at https://www.marshypoint.org/learn-more/dundee-creek-cam/)

So on a pretty, warmish morning in our all too early spring, we went hiking.  The Vernal Pond is full of peepers at the moment, the cacophony of frogs and toads and other critters can be deafening in the early mornings.

It's amazing the racket a bunch of little frogs can make.

Green is breaking out all over.  The lycopodium, a type of club moss and one of the only explosive plants of which I'm familiar (look it up), are starting to cover the wet forest floor.

Lycopodium is one of the first real signs that warmer weather is just around the corner. 

Take the opportunity to get out and off the boat for a bit after the winter's chill and stretch your legs.  Its a good way to limber up, get some exercise, and avoiding crowds right now with the Coronavirus spreading is probably a good thing.

This is one time of year that "take a hike" isn't insulting someone.

We're deep into spring prep here aboard Constellation, chasing down an irritating little fuel leak on our old Atomic 4 engine, figuring out how to store the dockside amenities that we've used all winter, and, in general, planning on destinations.  In the coming weeks we'll be doing a haul and hang to pull out our old Blackwater system (I despise the things) and replace it with a composting head, tuning our standing rigging, and making ready for sea.

So it's spring?  Where will you go?  We can't wait to be back out on the water.  See you out there.

M

Sale on the new novel

Wild Shore Press will be running a sale on electronic copies of my new novel over this weekend (Mar 7-8).  They're running a $.99 promotion on a lot of new works and mine is included.  Kindly rush right out in a downloading frenzy.  Interested?  Click HERE.

I have to admit, I'm really proud of this one.

M

A coupla hacks

Yep, it's a hot water bottle.  You want one.

As we're moving into March and beginning to think of preparations for spring, I thought I'd take a moment to enumerate a few of the more useful hacks we've played with over winter.  So here they are in no particular order:

1. The Hot Water Bottle.

The humble hot water bottle, the butt of many a joke, has proven one of the best purchases we've ever made, especial aboard in winter.  Unlike heating pads or the like, if you can heat water from any source--gas, solar, electric, 20 lb. tabby cat. . . --you can use one.  They're GREAT for taking the chill off your feet when writing on cold evenings, for pre-warming the berth, for assuaging the muscle strains you just got by raising the anchor with 45 pounds of old steam engine attached to it (no kidding, we did this), and in summer, some crushed ice and cold water can make a wonderful cool.  Do yourself a favor and AVOID the red rubbery looking ones.  They leak.  The transparent ones, mostly German made, are much better and wear like Iron.  We've had a couple of these for years and use them pretty much every evening in winter.

2.  Gas Bottle Holder.

Kinda hard to see because I've got it tucked out of the way, but that's kind of the point.

We've been pleased with our little GasOne duel fuel mini stove.  It cooks super hot, takes up a third less counter space, and is really stoutly built.  The review of the thing is here, if you're interested.  It's much easier here to find the propane gas bottles than to use the butane ones (plus I have an adapter so I can refill them from a tank).  The thing we don't like about them is the adapter hose is a weird length, taking up too much room on the counter but not long enough to get the gas bottle OFF the counter.  Trying to figure out what to do about this,  I stumbled across this large drink holder.  It will open up enough to hold the 3.5" propane bottles, which let me mount it to the bulkhead behind the freezer.  When not in use, it actually will fold flat and get out of the way of the plates, but its made for a much more tidy workspace.

3.  Electric Kettle

$20 can get you hot water when at dock without burning fuel.

Hmm. We seem to be on a heat theme here, not surprising as it's 37F out there right now.  We heat a lot of water aboard, not just for hot water bottles (as above) but for washing dishes, for tea, coffee, hot chocolate. . .you get the idea.  We tend to do a lot more of that in winter.  Cruising or on the hook, of course, we use a tea kettle and the stove, but when at dock, we realized we could use the Marina's electric and not burn up our propane.  At a local discount store, we found this lovely Black and Decker electric kettle.  It heats up 1.7L of water in a little over eight minutes, has a small footprint, and will stow away easily under the sink when we're underway.  Recommend. (As a note, if you do have access to electric, this will pay for itself in about a month).

4.  While we're on that subject, the humble Thermos

We use this thing like crazy

When Gail gets up, she puts the kettle on to boil.  She makes a French Press of coffee, and with the rest of the water, she fills up our stainless thermos.  When I FINALLY roll out of bed, I've hot water for tea.  It keeps you from having to boil water repeatedly when you're cruising, and is WONDERFUL when you're out at the tiller in a chilly wind and can pour yourself yet another cup of tea to keep your body temperature above that of frozen halibut.

5.  Hot Throw

This little control is your key to a pleasant, warm night's sleep at dock.

I saw several months ago a "hot throw", a kind of mini electric blanket, at a local store.  Looking at the dimensions, we realized it was perfect for the V-Berth.  The things are inexpensive, durable, only draw about 100W on high, and can double as a regular blanket or throw when shut off.  We'll kick the thing on a few minutes before turning in and get to slide into some nice warm bedding even when it's hard to keep the cabin temperatures up.

Anyhow, just wanted to pass those along.  Would work for a tiny house too.

We really haven't had much of a winter here on the Chesapeake.  Today is looking to be one of our last cold days of the year and it's only the 29th of February.  They're predicting temperatures in the 60's next week, so I'm planning on getting our fuel pump put back together and on and, in general, start gearing up for travelling.

So looking forward to that.

Magellan will be answering  your questions and emails.

Got any neat hacks for spring?  Leave us a comment.

M

Some Really Cool News

I just got a note from Feedspot.com and our blog is being listed in their:

Top 60 Tiny House Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2020

 This is cool because it puts us out there with the likes of blogs and vlogs and authors like "Living Big in a Tiny House," "Tiny House, Giant Journey," and "Relaxshacks.com".  I think we got on the list partly because we've done so much of this over the last five years and partly because of the new Shantyboat book.  Either way it feels good to be recognized (though I really wish they'd picked a different picture....yikes).  This list looks to be a great master resource for Tiny Home information and should be a great place for folks to start if they want to have their own.

It now looks as if we won't be GETTING any real winter here on the Chesapeake.  It was so warm last night that we grilled out, and they're predicting temperatures in the 60's next week. Can't say I'm sad.  One of the benefits is that projects we were holding off until spring may now be happening over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

M

sale on Shantyboat Book

In honor of the new book coming out, Wild Shore Press is doing a sale on the Ebook this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Here's a chance to get a copy cheap.  Click Here.