Monday, March 28, 2011

A PooPourri for yoo and mi

INSURANCE:
We heard back from the Miller Agency, who does not write for NYS.  One down.

POOP AND PEE:
We've had a couple of requests (I poo you not) for more info about our toilet, so let me see what I can do:

The urine receptacle is full after 2-3 days.  Don't wait until it's full.  When we first started using it, we sort of lost track of things, and the next half hour was not pretty.  The jug has a lid that screws on for safe and jaunty carriage to whatever disposal place you use.  Joseph Jenkins, the Humanure guy, would suggest strongly that you dump it on your compost, but that's up to you.  Even if you flush it down a toilet it's better than flushing 10X a day.  So sez I.

The vault where we store our treasures gets full and hard to crank after two weeks, and so we completely change it out at that point if we're using peat moss.  Recently, I got an email from Elaine who suggested we try coconut coir (or fiber) instead of peat.  Great idea!  Compact, easier to stow than peat, and easier to use.  It's compact and ready;  peat moss comes in a huge bale that then has to be separated out into gallon plastic bags or it becomes immediately unwieldy.  I like my poop matrix to be wieldy.  Also, as she pointed out, it's more sustainable than peat moss.  It can be had at most pet stores, since it's mainly used for reptile cages.

Since we've been trying coconut, "we" don't dump it completely after two weeks.  Instead, "we" scoop it like a litter box about once a week.  Poo breaks up quickly in the coir, and the whole thing seems to stay dryer and less-smelly longer.  The sack o'poo goes into the garbage with the cat litter, and smells better.   When the level of coir gets too low, I imagine we'll just add a portion of a brick.  A brick of coir.

Last weekend Annie and my son, Phil, worked on the new camera.  When he got to the place on the roof where the Head vents, he yelled "SMELLS LIKE POOPY RIGHT HERE!"  That's what we like to hear, because when the dookie smell is on the roof, it's not in the coach.  That reminds me that I wanted to rejoice with you when I tell you that our solar vent is back online!  [rejoicing placeholder] Apparently it's equinoctally-related:  OFF in autumn, ON in spring.  We have to leave this place.

[Edit:  Annie just said "It's so funny that you talked about the camera while you were talking about the toilet.  It IS a REAR-VIEW camera ... "]

PARTY:
Some photos.

13 comments:

MariaB said...

This was the perfect blog post to read while I ate my chicken salad sandwich... thanks for that! :-)

¡Vizcacha! said...

Haha! I'm glad you weren't eating egg salad.

I.M. Vayne said...

Nilda was a tellin' me about yer blog, and when I were a reedin' it, I were so moved that I had to set my lappertop aside and get up off the throne, so i could laugh at it. Think in the future when I.M. constitatered up, reedin' what yer a rightin' would work things loose in a hurry.

¡Vizcacha! said...

I.M. glad it was not in Vayne that I wrote this.

Marianne said...

Sometimes when I read this stuff, I just laugh until I can't breathe any more, Roxi. THIS was one of those times. :-) (It occurs to me that if I were Phil, up on the roof, not being able to breathe might be truly welcome.)

Merikay said...

Ah a complete family, at the end you and the cats go out together.

¡Vizcacha! said...

Marianne - yes! The silver lining to a head cold. And, thanks. :D

Merikay - that's so profound. It could be existential as well as excremental.

pidge said...

Don't undertand all the poopy talk, but love the background picture.

¡Vizcacha! said...

Ha, Pidge! I'll try to dial that technical poo jargon down a notch. And, thank you!

heyduke50 said...

when this is all over you are going to really know your sh$t...

Sherry said...

You guys are TOOOO funny. REAR VIEW camera!
thanks for the laugh!

Steven said...

So when you guys officially hit the road, the re-purposed contents will be deposited each place you visit. Kind of like scatological version of Johnny Appleseed.

Suzanne said...

Was it wrong of me to use your site as a Yellow Pages directory to all my favorite blogs? I promise I never clicked on them until I had read your entire post first! I liked the fact that you used to have so many listed down the left hand side with the dates of those that were recently updated, like a Table of Contents. ;-) But maybe that was poor blog etiquitte on my part? The dates are not showing up anymore, and now it seems like many are missing.

Sorry if it sounds like I was two-timin', but you were always my first click!!

Suzanne