Dedfa Noyb

The cargo would be one or two small children (small enough to not be able to ride a bike with me) and maybe twenty pounds or less in extra cargo such as books, extra water for kids and dogs, or produce for my mom. The area is very flat, the tallest hill is an anthill, and rural. The weather is mostly very hot and humid, with frequent rain storms in the winter. When it rains the mud can swallow you whole, but the areas I would be traveling are hard-packed and generally well-drained, and I wouldn't drag my dogs or kids out into the weather. There are wild dogs and coyotes, but they generally run away if you yell at them and I carry a gun for emergencies.
I was leaning towards dogs because I wouldn't have the room for horses or mules on my property, I am intimidated by horses, we will be raising dogs anyway, and the nearest vet that deals with horses is a good two hours away while the nearest dog vet is a mere half hour away.

I have several questions about whether or not it would be feasible for me to get and train carting dogs and I am having a hard time finding people who can answer my questions. I have done a lot of research and these are the only questions I have that remain unanswered.

1) How far can a dog or dog team pull a loaded cart in a day? According to Google maps my mom lives about 9 miles away from my property if using bike trails and 12 miles if using roads; I will be visiting her fairly often. Would they be able to pull, say, 100 to 120 pounds for 9 to 12 miles twice in one day? (Those numbers are the max weight I would ever need pulled. Regularly it would be about 50 to 90 pounds.) The terrain in the area is fairly flat.

2) Acquiring a dog team. My father-in-law refuses to fix his American Bulldogs (Ranging from 50 to 85 pounds depending on the mother.) which means he ends up with an unwanted litter of strong, energetic pups every other year or so. Would it be better for me to help home these pups by training them to pull carts or would I need to search animal shelters for dogs with pulling breeds in their heritage?

3) Would I be able to ride a bicycle alongside the dog cart while they pulled? Research is a bit hazy on this one.

4) Would it be better to use dogs or goats for traveling these distances on a fairly regular basis? (I will be raising meat and milk goats already so I would have the housing and feed available.)

Thank you for taking the time to help.

I'm not too worried about the feces being toxic, I am just planning on sharing my produce with family and friends who will most definitely not be okay with the idea of humanure. I am planning on raising bees, so the humanure from the composting toilets would be used to build up lush bee forage gardens. If I can get a blackwater bog incorporated into that design I would be most pleased.

My main concerns are contaminating the ground water and if my husbands clothing would poison anything. He has had zinc poisoning and is exposed to lead, aluminum, nickle, mercury, and various other types of metals in the course of his work. I remember reading somewhere that duckweed might take care of heavy metals. Would a treatment system with duckweed or other cleaner vegetation be feasible? Would the contaminates from his clothes hurt a flower garden? Would it damage the ground water? Would it hurt native wildlife?

I would love to be able to be completely responsible for my own waste, but I don't want to do that at the cost of damaging the environment, especially as many native species are endangered or are nearing endangered due to loss of habitat.

Would that also work for clothes that come in contact with heavy metals and chemicals? My husband is a welder and his clothes are often contaminated with things I wouldn't put near my garden. Also the area I'm moving to has a very high water table. Will that affect the feasibility of a "poo-bog"? Thanks!

I am currently cloth diapering my child, and I plan to do so for the rest of my children. I will be moving onto a rural piece of land soon and plan on installing composting toilets and greywater filtering systems in my new home. I have been searching for ways to deal with the water from washing the diapers but haven't been able to find a solution. All anybody seems to agree on is that I should not use diaper water in a greywater system. Is there an eco-friendly and responsible way to deal with it? I have the option of installing a septic tank, but I would prefer to keep that as a last resort if possible. I have many a bad memory from my child hood from overflowing and backed up septic tanks.