women peeing outdoors

I wont pee outdoors at the apartment complex but I am used to peeing in the great outdoors. Here's a few tips:
I prefer to have a big tree behind me to help block the view then squat and arrange my clothes to keep things subtle.
Soft earth absorbs the pee without splashing, but hard ground can make that happen a bit.
I've dug a bit with the heel of my shoe to make a little hole if I wanted to be able to bury my waste. A garden trowel or army shovel is even better and packs easily.
Use the slope so the pee runs away if possible. Or dogs will be sniffing your feet.
I have a red coffee can with lid in the shower that I pee in sometimes then dilute it a bit and use it on the garden.

This is going to be the year I start using pee in the compost pile and the garden.  I already have the right tool for the job.  My aunts and I call it the pee-nice:

http://freshette.com/

I've kept one of these in the glovebox of the car for years, and taken it along on camping trips.  Now I'm going to keep one with the hand tools in the garden.

BTW, I lived in Europe for a while, and it was totally routine for guys to pull over by the side of any road (outside of town, of course) and take a leak whenever they felt the need.  They didn't even make an attempt to be discreet, just turned their backs to the road.  No one cared.  Very refreshing attitudes, I'd say.  I only wish I'd seen women doing the same.  Maybe they did the same but were more discreet due to squatting.

Did I post already seeing a dozen guys in a row with their backs to the road, all wearing team colours, on the road to or from a big footie game in England?

The freshette site is cute.  It made the whole thing seem like opera, with the description of it as a director.

I thought...for those concerned about cleanliness and tp debris, you could carry along a portable bidet...a spray bottle of water with a dab of vinegar in it.  And just take a cheap washcloth (the kind you get 20 or so to a pack at the discount stores)...to dry off.  Toss it in the laundry basket on your way back in the house.  I guess that's how I'd do it.
I got the washcloth idea from a cousin, who...probably wanted to cut down on paper product use, uses them for guest towels after handwashing in lavatory.  He has a little basket on the floor for the soiled ones.

Hi everyone!
I just found this site and am excited about exporing it more fully.  As an alternative to the she wee there is a product called a pstyle. It is essentially the same thing, I think, but it will fit in your back pocket and a wipe and a shake and you dont need tp. They also come in lots of colors.    thepstyle.com. I have given them as gifts and even folks that don't mind squatting tend to love them!
Thanks, glad to be here,
Traci

Camp B here. Never had a problem with it, growing up a wild redneck kid in MS, I've probably peed on just as many trees as I have in toilets.
And since I am unable to convert my hubby to the "when it's yellow, let it mellow" camp, I've started peeing in a coffee can and taking it out to the compost.
We are in the process of building a humanure compost bin and sawdust toilet, so that will help
But I will never forget teaching my daughter to "wild pee".
We rarely wear skirts, so pull the pants to the knees, squat, grab the seat/crotch area with your hand to keep it out of the way (or tuck it into your bent knees when you squat), plant your feet wide and let her go. Preferably facing downhill so you don't get backflow. She was amazed.
I love the idea of parking the car so you get a full angle blocking. I will remember that for road trips!

Did I read this right, 29,000, plus, reads on this topic?  We should have some kind of a celebration when it gets to 30,000.

In Tuscany, where ground water is so precious the locals call our spring a pot of gold, we use every single drop of household and run-off water by passing it through a biological purification system and storing it in cistern to use on our garden.  Yet unless it's truly miserable outside, I pee outside on purpose because of the nitrogen and the water in the stuff.  When I can, I go down to the compost heap and pee on that because it needs both (and a little air) to break down the cellulose component!  When I can't, I select a nearer tree or shrub to fertilize. 

It's a little harder for my outdoorsy wife, but she's been seen squatting in the garden often, and not just weeding!  The cellulose in the mulch we use benefits from her sprinklings, and the mulched fruits and vegetables do to, because the added nitrogen offsets the nitrogen trap that straw, sawdust, and other cellulose based mulch are when they sit on soil, leaving a little more nitrogen in the soil.

By the way, for those squeamish about what urine is: First of all very sterile, or you'd have and endless bladder infection.  Secondly, it's basically water laced with urea, which many household plastics are made out of, and which many soil bacteria have a special enzyme for catabolizing into the highest nitrogen containing bang for buck of any fertilizer.  What a waste to send it down the drain!

It's the bacteria that break cellulose down into humus (compost) that need the nitrogen to do their job!  So I say feed those beneficial microbes whenever you can!  If you like saving money on fertilizer, and really contributing to the food cycle organically, pee outside.

Well thank you  Paul for starting such an entertaining ,enlightening and encouraging thread  and thank you to all the responses . I wonder how much fresh water we have diverted from use  flushing a toilet  just thanks to this thread .

Have lurked for a bit, and this topic made me register! 

I am a female.  *Love* peeing outdoors ~ much better than doing so indoors and do it when out and about in the wilderness or city (I live in a major urban area, and can still usually find semi-secluded places to go if needed).

Not overly concerned about "cleanliness", but non-poisonous leaves and snow can be helpful.

Indoors, am doing greywater flushing and have everything set up for my DIY bucket-style composting toilet...will likely start this weekend.

Great thread!  Yes, hope it does indeed save some perfectly good drinking water from getting flushed.

I don't mind either way. If it's warm months and I'm outside and not near the loo I'll tinkle in the bushes without a thought. I used to pee between people's houses in my youth if caught outside at night and having to go. The only trouble with leaking on concrete is that it runs off in any old direction which is often towards your shoes and if you wriggle around midstream to adjust your foot placement you're more than likely to go on your clothes or your leg.
And once my mama had to go when out golfing and didn't realize she was crouching in a patch of ivy. She was in agony for weeks, cortisone cream and all. Very tragic.

I wish I could think of a safe way to send this to Paul Krugman, who was on truthout today extolling the virtues of the water flush. He seems to live in an alternate universe from mine. If I tried to talk with him, he probably would not understand a word of from my reality. Humanure has been in Time magazine, but somehow the New York Times may not be ready for a while yet.

This great thread is incomplete without pointing people to three of the best books about the general topic of using our valuable excretions (urine, feces) to make us independent of fossil-fuel based fertilizers and increasingly scarce potash. I refer to Humanure, Holy Shit and Liquid Gold

I post links to Amazon for readers (mod, feel free to delete if this contravenes rules):

Another book is The Toilet Papers, very well reviewed on Amazon.

I have the Handbook and Holy Shit.
An lady on another forum peed on one part of her garden and was simply amazed at the amount of difference between the peed on side and the not peed on.

It. Just. Makes. Sense. to put the nutrients back in the soil where they came from.
And to not waste water.

I've been thinking about this a bit and trying to figure out how to make it work for us.
Keeping spritz bottles by the pot for rinsing instead of wiping pee is certainly doable. Small flannel cloths to dry are also an easy option however, those one would want to wash in very hot water and put into the drier. That's not a compromise, anything you wipe your bum with should be sterilized. But I don't do any wash in hot and there is no way I want to keep a pile of flannels going until there is a full washer load of them!
I think I have a solution though. At a local eco store in the washroom they had a basket of small face cloths to dry your hands with and another small basket to put the used ones in. Each time you wash your hands you take a new cloth. This means that the small towels are always clean (which is something I think about at home, the towel is always damp and the kids are germy from school and some people in the house get cold sores etc) and the cloths are very little so don't make up lots of laundry. With this system and the addition of tea towels and cloths from the kitchen and bath towels and undies we would have enough for a load of hot water wash and dry about twice weekly. Those are the only things I feel need sterilizing (a la Hulda Clark).
Now if only I could fit a separate seating arrangement in there with a movable bucket for pee. We're still going to poop in the flush toilet while we live in the city! Pee can go out to the compost every day though.

BTW if you have ever used cloth diapers you may know about the preference to use a dry pail rather than a wet one to soak cloths. A wet pail will get very stinky in a very short time while a dry pail will not and since neither is superior for cleaning a dry pail is a good way to go .

.

JadeQueen wrote:
Did I read this right, 29,000, plus, reads on this topic?  We should have some kind of a celebration when it gets to 30,000.

Woohoo!  We reached 30,000!!!

And to celebrate, and also because we have a WWOOFer turning up tomorrow who, as it turns out, reads permies and, knowing my luck, has probably read this thread so I'm getting all nervous about using the pink bucket, I've ordered myself a Whizz Freedom - in PURPLE!!!



They claim that 'The soft feel, lily shaped funnel fits comfortably and securely against your body, it won't overflow, splash back or cause an embarrassing leak. '

When it turns up, I'll let you know how I get on with it. 

I've heard a SheWee is better than the Whiz.

Well I had a hard time choosing - I'd heard good things about the SheWee, but the Whiz Freedom was a bit cheaper and is supposed to have a shake-dry surface and a longer spout than the SheWee so I stand a better chance of directing the flow to the middle of the compost heap. 

Plus it's available in purple!   

Ha ha.  What  great thread. 

  I pee out side all the time.  Why?  Because when I'm out working I just couldn't be bothered making the trek back to the house and removing and then putting back on shoes or boots.  I really haven't thought about my technique. I guess I've worked it out enough to just do it.  I do carry a bit of tp in my pockets and don't mind leaving it, I just scuff it into the ground and covering it a bit.  It never last long.    I do have neighbors though and do live beside a moderately busy road.  I never worry much about then neighbors seeing as there are many spots out of their view due to how far back they are.  The road is another thing though.    So I find myself treating it as a bit of game, 'listen...no cars...okay go, go go!....let's git er down before one comes along..."    Guess I'm easily amused. 

    The only real problems I've ever had is my dogs.  I usually have one or the other hanging out with me.  One dog is hilarious and she decides oh hey Moms peeing I'll go too so she pees right along with me.  The other one though sometimes decides that the whole thing is so utterly fascinating that he just has to get a closer look at what's going on.  Try peeing, while squatting with an 80 pound german shepherd trying to get close enough to stick his nose in the stream.  I can attest that it does not end well.  Pee everywhere, on me, on my pants and the dogs head...

B. Definitely. As a mountain girl from Colorado, peeing and pooping outside was the norm for myself and my other outdoorsy and water/soil health conscious  female friends. We actually enjoyed it so much that there were rating systems for bathroom breaks (class 3 involves a nice view; class 4, an exceptional view; class 5, wildlife sighting and so on). However, I just moved to rural Arkansas to build a homestead and start a permaculture farm and my propensity to wander off into the bushes seems to confuse and concern folks here.

I am a big fan of the squat and shake method, but I'm sure it would look silly to someone who might accidentally happen upon me with my bare bum waving around in the spring air. I think, after seeing above suggestions, I'm going to try bringing some water with me-that sounds quite refreshing.

Here are some things I've learned about peeing outside.
1) the closer you can get your hips to the ground, the better. Less splash, less chance of the stream wandering sideways to your leg.

I'm working on being able to squat with my feet flat on the ground like people in other cultures and children can, so that I can eliminate the way the human body is built to but I'm not there yet, so I generally achieve objective 1) by following

2)Pee on a hill. When you face downhill, your heels are higher than your toes, allowing us less-flexible westerners to comfortably squat without killing your quad muscles. Also, as stated in other comments, the steeper the hill, the more the stream will be directed straight down between your feet instead of puddling.

However, now that we've got a garden started, I think that using the nitrogen would be a higher priority than simply finding a place to relieve oneself, so I may try the bucket next to the compost pile or one of the standing peeing aids. I don't know if I have the aim to hit the compost squatting without standing right on top of it.

Thanks for opening up this topic on something so natural and cool (how amazing that waste from our bodies nourishes the plants that feed us and our non-human friends-seriously! It blows my mind). It's a shame that we're taught to see our bodies as 'icky', and conversations like this one are good for reminding us that we are integral parts of the natural cycle.

Not on a (certified) organic farm.

The only cautionary note I would sound is people who are taking medications, such as hormones or antibiotics, or are on chemotherapy.

But is that pee then better in the sewers (then filtered into tap water)? I would think under a tree or bush in that case, one that doesn't fruit.

Yes, it's fine as long as it's not used on vegetables or fruit trees.

The contamination of our excretions with medications is one of the reasons we don't simply use dried and composted sewerage on crops. The other reason is that a lot of idiots dispose of toxic waste down sewers (pesticides etc).

Well my Whiz Freedom has arrived!  I've tested it, indoors, and it seems to work, so I think it's about time we conducted a proper test of all the 'female urine directors' to see which ones work best. 

Who's up for a pissing contest?  I'm going use sawdust to mark out a 'target' on the top of my compost heap and see how far I can get with the whiz.  Anyone going to join me?

Uh 33,000 plus views, I am sorry to say but I think maybe  some search engines are directing people looking for something other than our intended discussion here. 

But then, if we can persuade some of them start pissing on their compost heaps, using pink buckets, or purple pee spouts, or even 'as nature intended', where's the harm?   

If people are going to develop a fetish, it might as well be for something positive.   

This is true, there are likely less healthy things , I do not suspect their searches included the words compost though   

Here is a great Low Cost compost toilet made from recycled food barrels, it collects the urine in a container in the back of unit, or it can be plumbed into existing plumbing.
  www.lodge-tech.net 

  Way better than a Sun Mar, which we had for ten years and finally got fed up with it!

An Idea: 

Why not have a 5 gallon bucket w/ bottom cut out & w/ toilet seat on it...
That way, it's easier to use, re: squatting etc. waste goes directly into the soil.  Can have a bag / receptacle for used toilet paper... ??

hey there
AS for peeing,
I have been using something called a pee style its awesome. Its like the shween or whatever it was called that someone recommended earlier on the thread, except it doesnt have a hood. I have also folded a yogurt container lid and used that similarly. The only problem I have found is that sometimes if I have held my pee in for too long, then so much will come out it over flows and trickles down my legs. Of which lots of the times my reaction to that is honestly pee sterilizes things so I am not so worried about cleaning up. MAybe I pat dry with a rag and sprinkle tea tree oil for the potential smell. No complaints from anyone yet about how I smell, and my health is great. the pee style is awesome also cause it kind of acts like toilet paper.
---we also have a bucket of wood chips in my room too to pee in so we can mulch with it or stick it in the compost which helps with privacy and doesnt overload our space with 4 people's consentrated pee.

AS FOR THE MOON TIME FOR US------
I have found that using moss as a pad is both effective
(more so than a tampon you change every hour or two or whatever), and refreshing. Its total medicine for the vagina. There is soil on the moss I collect but I just brush most of it off, check for bugs and wha la. I have not gotten any infections from the dirt. IT IS ALSO REUSABLE. you just ring out the blood onto some growing being on the land you grow with, or into a bucket for compost tea, rinse with water..........  and if you dont want to keep it around till next moon, just stick it back in the ground. woo hoo

Kudos Paul for having the where with all to bring up this topic & have the courage to use frank anatomical discriptors (for a guy). LOL! You're my hero! A question I have for selfhealed is: what kind of moss are you using for your Moon Time? I also have other Moon Time disposal queries. If one is using either the cup or the biodegradable supplies from the health food store (previously mentioned)- is there any reason that material can't be put into a biopod with BSF larve for quick decomposition? If we are feeding them fish or roadkill, isn't there blood in those things as well? I would agree that there would also need to be substantial vegetable matter as well...but, couldn't that be do-able? For that matter; what is the imact of putting moon stuff in a Humanure Vemicompost? Thanks in advance for the input.

In another thread on compost a fellow said he puts in pig carcass weighing hundreds of pounds and it all goes, bones, teeth and all. Pretty sure our little monthly donation isn't going to make all that much of a difference.

katchmoleen wrote:
Yes, I will surely let you know.

I do not like squatting due to the splash factor, and also (ALERT TMI) as women age, their anatomy changes and things don't come out in a nice straight stream....more likely to come out sideways etc. And that's all I'll say about that! 

I don't think it is just an age thing.  Traveling in North Africa at age 29, where a hole in the ground is the norm for a toilet, I learned a lot about how not to pee in my shoe.  Mostly through trial and error and damp experience.  It involved taking off my trousers and undies (one friend later pointed out that no woman outside first-world countries seems to wear trousers OR undies) or hiking my skirt up to my waist, pointing back more than down, and, well, to be indelicate, spreading things a bit with my fingers for a clear shot. 

I am not a huge fan of peeing outdoors, myself, mostly due to weather and privacy.  I will, however, if the situation calls for it.  I am not, however, at all above peeing in a bucket. 

How's THAT for a first post?

Hi badkitty , welcome, great first post.  Since Paul raised the subject ,  I have actually neglected  using the commode most of the year opting even to collect the urine in a yogurt container and take it to the compost and gardens.    I have to think I am saving fresh water from our aquifer that would have been flushed by doing so.  Now if  everyone did,  if it were actually THE thing to do like breastfeeding seems once again the norm after years of women thinking bottle feeding was more civilized.  Now to make peeing  in a container and utilize it for the garden  THE politically correct thing    : ) 

After stopping trash service in effort to reduce packaging and waste, most of my trash was toilet paper. I remembered in India there was no toilet paper, so I went back to that–a "lota": I keep a little plastic pitcher on the edge of the tub by the toilet and I just tip it and pour a bit of water into my hand which is just inside the toilet rim. Then I splash that onto my bottom after peeing. I keep a handtowel on a special rung–near the toilet paper roll–to dry with (use ends of towel for your front, middle for your butt/clean towel every few days).
I do use toilet paper for #2! But I still splash water on my bum after wiping. This is not unlike a bidet, but it's easier, simpler and keeps one's bum so clean. Wash hands after.
This summer working on my rural land I plan to use my drinking water bottle–take a sip and squirt that into your hand for splashing. This nicely dilutes the nitrogen of pee on the plants, just about perfect ratios. For drying I will keep a handkerchief in the bushes in the vicinity of where I pee or in my pocket.
Just think of the trees we'd save if all women used this method instead of tp when peeing!
Squating outside is a non-issue. You don't even have to squat if you don't want, just bend over.

Just amazed that there is such a mucha-do about nothing.  Americans are a very strange people it the larger view of things.


What I personally find  even more  perplexing is why any sane person  insists on going inside, wasting a few gallons of water, mixing it with toxic chemicals that others pour down the drain, spending all sorts of energy at a so called sewage plant to make it all better again, then use much gasoline to truck this now toxic sludge and spread it on fields of vegetables and on top of all of this having to pay a sewage bill for this whole abomination.

Is any part of this process even close to being sane? 

Well, I was able to keep deer out of my garden for a good 8 months or so by peeing on the trails that brought them in.  But I think they figured it out that I really wasn't a threat so they came anyway.  By then we had bought enough fencing to put it up the whole way around and then put on electric.

My new garden has more traffic, so I don't do it during the day, but at night when I'm walking the dogs I'm okay in the garden.  The only icky thing is that the dogs are just TOO FASCINATED with me peeing.  Eeeewwwww.   

My thoughts are that I'm a country woman, so when in the country, do as the country women have done for a very long time.  Make pickles, bake bread, be frugal, and yes, pee in the garden.

Tami 



I have read about the benefits of urine in the garden, and both men in the family have said they would pee in a bucket around the back of the house for me.  I just don't have that kind of aim.    hehhehehehehe