Off-the-grid back-to-the-land homesteading articles

• Introduction to off-the-grid homesteading, living in a backwoods wilderness home
• Back to the Land: In Search of the Good Life
• Living totally off-the-grid
• Year-round gardening, winter gardening in the Pacific Northwest
• No-till mulch gardening in the Pacific Northwest
• Edible flowers for your salad bowl
• The best traditional and exotic fruit and nut trees for the temperate-climate homesteader
• Living on raw organic vegan foods on a self-sufficient homestead
• Organic building materials
• Organic home furnishings: bedding, curtains, bath
• Energy-efficient LED & solar lighting
• Enriching the soil: Compost & humanure
• Life with wildlife
• Keeping chickens, ducks, and geese
• Saving seeds for a never-ending bountiful harvest
• The joys of backyard clay-bottom ponds
• Water, well, and solar pump for the garden
• 2010: Rawganique Flower Garden in pictures
• 2010: The joys of the Japanese Ofuro Hot Tub with a wood-fired Chofu Heater
• 2010: Questions for Touch and some answers & reflections
• 2011: The Milestone year for the homestead: pictures of garden, ponds, and animals.
• 2011: Caught in the Act, or How to Swallow a Slug in 10 Minutes: A Tale of the Garter Snake
  
  ©2000-2009 Touch Jamikorn. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce without written permission from author.

Composting to Enrich the Soil
Humanure Composting

Because we are constantly busy, what with running the website and homesteading full time, we rarely do proper compost piles. We are not scientifically bent and prefer things to be simple. If we had spare time to spend on something such as layering compost, we'd rather sit in a hammock and read a book. So to simplify, simplify, and simplify, we just throw our vegetable and fruit scraps under the mulch hay that's everywhere in the garden. The scraps feed the worms, which bed in the hay. The hay covers the scraps so there's no smell. The worms break down the hay and scraps and turn the pile into beautiful black soil everywhere in our garden where there was none before, thanks to our property having been used at one point as a gravel quarry.

We do not have a septic system either as we subscribe to Jenkins' notions that running sewage into the ground can contaminate nearby water sources for miles. We opted instead, as he does, to compost our wastes using a low-tech saw dust humanure composting toilets.

The photo at the top of the page shows a deluxe version of the humanure sawdust composting potty toilet made with solid Western red cedar and hand oiled with organic hemp, linseed, and tung oil to bring out the deep amber tones in the wood's grain. A scoop of sawdust after each use covers the wastes, preventing smells and insects. When the bucket is full, the contents are thrown into a compost pile, which heats up via biological activity to break down the waste and sawdust. The heating process also kills virtually pathogens. The earthworms then move into digest what's left of the pile. The end result is a rich, dark compost full of worm castings that's perfect for fruit trees and berry bushes

This way of recycling wastes returns nutrients we take from the soil back to the soil and completes the cycle of consumption in an elegant, safe, and natural way.

For more details, how-to's, why's, and wherefore's of the humanure toilet, read Joseph Jenkins' excellent The Guide to Humanure Composting. You might just be inspired by his humorously serious book to take your potty situation to the next level!

RawForLife Raw & Sustainable Living Ezine

• Edible Flowers (page 1)
• Michael McCarthy: En Route to Portland (page 2)
• Rawganique Convergence (page 3)
• Random Ruminations (page 4)
• On Hybrids and Such (page 5)
• Steve Scharmer's 36-day Fast (page 6)
• The Simple Life IS the Good Life (page 7)
• Raw Veganism and the Protein Myth? (page 8)
• Rawganique Diet (page 9)
• September 11, 2001 (page 10)
• No-till Vegan Organic Gardening (page 11)
• Rawganique.com's Story
• Humanure (book review)
• Hemp Facts & Info
• Hemp & Raw Food Books (30% off)
• Free Gourmet Living Foods Recipes

All opinions expressed herein, excellent though they may be, are those of their authors and do not in anyway imply agreement from us or our staff. We publish them here solely in the spirit of sharing and in the hope that they may be of service to others who are also seeking a simpler, more sustainable, and healthier way of life. We do not give recommendations or advice and cannot be held responsible for them. Please seek advice from professionals if you need help. There are also many excellent books out there by qualified professionals to help you on your path to health. May your journey be a gentle, loving, happy, safe, and fulfilling one.

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