In December 2009 world leaders meet in Copenhagen to agree on a post-Kyoto policy for tackling climate change. One billion people voting with their light switch during Earth Hour will create a powerful mandate for our leaders to take strong and decisive action on climate change in Copenhagen.

Earth Hour is asking bloggers to help spread the word about the importance of turning your lights out for one hour at 8.30pm on March 28.

a growing group of Americans who are finding it cathartic to unplug from the digital grid, at least temporarily. While there is no exact data to track how many people are forming knitting groups, hosting house concerts, or organizing family game nights, it is possible to connect the dots between the rising price of entertainment and the rising sales of board games and craft supplies.

December 31, some of their equipment which helps purify water failed.  Since then, they’ve placed a boil water advisory, and I imagine they have been working some long days to restore drinking water back to the clarity and condition that passes regulatory inspection.  (Note the url links to their main site and may be replaced in the future when the water returns to normal.)

Water treatment plans can be compromised during bad weather or other natural disasters.  In 1993,  Des Moines municipal water  plant was over run by flood waters, resulting in several days without water to the capital city.

For an off-grid farmstead, water comes from a private well, and the resident may collect a sample to be tested once a year or so.  On grid water systems have regular testing and monitoring.  So a trade off is being warned about a potential risk and worrying — or — not being warned, not knowing, and worrying.

In this part of the state, wells tend to be shallow-dug wells of 20 – 40 feet and are often more likley to be contaminated by  ground water.

Wells cased with 36-inch diameter concrete tile are popular in southern Iowa where shallow wells tap groundwater deposits that often yield less than five gallons per minute. But leaky joints between tile casing segments at the top of the well can lead to bacterial contamination. Iowa State Extension

What’s the risk?  In our case now, the problem is the water clarity and turbid water, as the report suggests, has a higher potential for contamination.  In either case, I keep 3 – 4 gallons of bottled water on hand all the time — in the event of frozen pipes, or other issues.

The other interesting idea is how we came to know about the problem.  I am probably like many people, and while I lok at lots of sources in the world wide web, I don’t typically visit the water associate web site.  It was by chance I heard a radio news item about the advisory — often I don’t hear radio news.  Just the same, I had noticed the water was a bit cloudy on New Years eve…….

Do you want to make more money, of course, we all do.

and then the screen scrolled text listing:

High School

TV/VCR repair

Computer programming

Electrician

Animal Care specialist

Auto mechanic

PC repair technician

Book keeping

Legal  Assistant

Medical office management

Hotel/Restaurant mangement

Electronics

What I didn’t know as I watched those adds 15 – 20 years ago was that soon, I would be doing all those things.  Welcome to the reality of living on a small farm.  If it breaks, you fix it, and usually, no matter how much you simplify, something is always broken or will break when you need it.

I have a simple operation:  a 1964 Farmall 706 gas tractor, an Artsway pasture mower, a 1989 Ford F150, a single row planter, and a 12 foot IH disc.  For my habitat restoration, and general upkeep, that’s enough for me.  As of today, the Ford needs a new battery (wouldn’t start today), the pto yoke broke last week on the mower, and I picked up new parts last night — and in the distant future, I need to put a hydraullic arm on the disk (I bought it used without one).  The disk also needs two new tires, the curent ones are rotted for yeas of siting in the previous owner’s pasture.

So by my count, I have 24 tires, 7 batteries, 4 gasoline motors, four 2-cycle gas oil motors.

Something will break.  It’s part of the Small Farm Life.

One of my current favorite books has this quote:

There is almost nothing an amateur working alone cannot do, from building a house or a barn or a shed to stretching a fence and hanging gates.  And pitted against his constructive and orderly efforts are the familiar antagonists of a small farm — age, weathering, hard use by animals, and the consequences of altering the landscape.

A Very Small Farm – William Paul Winchester

We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
We’ve got a wave in the air, radar love.
-  Radar Love  – Golden Earring (Hay and Kooymans)

If you live in an partially off grid farm, or you dont have a television or get poor reception, keeping an eye on the weather can be a challenge.  But if you connect to the Internet, for examle by cell phone – data, or by satellite, there is a free tool that you may find helpful.

The Oklahoma Climatological Survey offers a free download software called Weather Scope.  Available for both Mac and Windows users, this software installs easily.  It takes little understanding to get it set up and working, but for instance, to view local weather radar from the National Weather Service,  simply chose the radar source from a state-sorted lists of National Weather Service radars.

The initial view include state borders, and not much more detail, but you can add urban areas, principal highways, county borders, and you can also download county roads for some locations.

Close up view showing county road detail

Weather Scope showing Iowa Radar and Texas radars during Ike

The essentials of operation are the use of a paper liner in the bowl and when “flushed” — or more accurately activated, the waste and liner drop into an incinerating chamber where it is heated to amazing temperatures reducing the waste to ash.

While some require 110- 120 vAC or 240 vAC. other models rely on propane for the heat source and use 12 vDC to power the fan.

Either way, unlike the composting toilet, which may need a emergency drain for liquids, the incinerating toilets do not, however, the energy cost is higher for a flush of urine only.

A final consideration with either of these alternative toilets is guest eduation.  While it may be a curiosity. it is helpful to have a sign or note to explain to guest how to use your toilet.

In a traditional outhouse — either in open ground hold or a concrete holding vault or tank, the waste collects and over time, turns septic.  Much of what contributes to odor is the waste being wet, and as a result, many people dislike outhouses.  There are great outhouse designs (see part 3 of this series) which eliminate the odor.

A composting toilet, typically separates liquid from solid waste, and layers the waste with wood chavings or peat or a combination, and through heat and natural bacterial, composts the waste into a compost fertilizer wich can be used on ornamental plants and flowers, not for human consumption.

Composting toilets, Sun Mar is one of the leading brands, are idea for both on and off grid locations in that they can operate with either 120 vAC or 12vDC.  I’ve used my Sun Mar Composting toilet since I moved onto Two Mile Ranch and have been pleased with the results.  I have rarely had an odor, and when I did, it was not more than any bathroom after use.  I have had a couple of the typical issues described in the manual (namely some slow drainage of liquids in humid months and a small fly infestation.  The liquids problem resolved easily with the addition of dish soap to break a film of grease on the surface, and the small flies were killed with pesticide.  The flies do not live — according to the literature — in the compost material, but do live in the composting toilet and once killed off, have been under control.

Like venting a chimney, it is important to vent a composting toilet high enough above your roof line.  There are users who report an odor while outside, but likley this is the result of down drafts or other drafting issues related to the exhaust of the composting toilet.

One of the best sites explaining the advantaged of composting toilets is The Natural Home Building Source ( http://www.thenaturalhome.com ).  Located in Colorado, the company offers a Website with dozens of detailed pages to help guide your choice of composting toilets and provides significant pre and post sale help.

But in any rural living, where connecting to a government or community sewer system is not possible, consideration has to be made for dealing with human waste.

To begin to understand dealing with human waste, let’s look at the two kinds of waste water coming from a typical home.  Waste that comes from a toilet is typically called black water.  it is contaminated with bacteria and usually drains from the toilet.

Waste which comes form a kitchen sink, or shower, or dishwasher or washing machine is typically grey water.  It may have some contaminants, but mostly has some particles and soaps.  In most homes, the gray and the black water are mixed and then dealt with all as black water.  Some states even define any liquid leaving a home as “black water”.

Most recently, the traditional system for disposing of these waste is a septic tank system.  A  septic system — simplified – consists of a holding tank or two, and the a leech field.  The holding tank is buried under ground in most situations, and holds the mixture of solids and liquids leaving a home.

After the liquid sits in the tank for a period, the solids sink to the bottom or float to the top, and the middle liquid is them passed out to a series of drains called a leech field, where the water is passed through surface soil and is cleaned of harmful bacteria.  Every so often, depending on use and size of the tank, the solids or sludge is pupped out of the holding tank and disposal in a waste water treatment facility via a community sewer system.

Septic systems are sized based on the number of gallons in a holding tank — sometimes the tank has two compartments to aid the settling of the solids.  A typical 2 – 3 bedroom house might use a 1000 gallon tank.

The size of the leech field — where the water drains, is determined by size of property and the findings of a soil test often done by a qualified engineer or other expert. This can quickly add several $1000 of dollars to the cost of a home, and in some remote locations, due to geology or other concerns, it may not be possible to use this kind of waste system.

In this series of articles, we’ll explore three alternatives to septic:  composting toilets, incineating toilets, and outhouses.  You may be surprized to read that “what we’ve always done” isn’t necessarily what is best for your farm or you lifestyle.  And the alternatives may be more sustainable.