vi anderson

i have a flushing toilet and haven't used it in about two years.  haha, i loved the stuff you all wrote about conversation bombs surrounding composting waste.

i use a short bucket and don't seperate out anything.  every morning i pour out the liquid in a different spot and then dump the solids into one of two piles.  (the piles are under an outdoor roofed area)

then (insert shocked face here) i grab a shovel and mix it in, breaking it up and turning it until it looks like the rest of the pile.  it has the consistency of very fine dirt.  SLIGHTLY moist.  just enough water to keep it from being powdery.

after that i pour some water in the bucket to rinse it out and add that water to the pile i just turned.  then scrub the bucket out with dr bronners soap.

the next morning i do the same with the other pile.  i switch piles each day.

i don't use anything to mix in.  although, since my piles are on the ground i suppose there has been a certain amount of ground soil worked in.  in the very beginning i started the pile with some of my kitchen compost.

thanks, this was a great thread!  i love composting so much!  i have been doing it almost my whole life.  and started experimenting with toilet composting 4 years ago.

ris

i'm not hawaiian but i use this method myself all the time.  i shattered the cartilage in my knee a couple years ago and just talked to it regularly and told it that i had faith that it knew how to heal.  as i noticed healing i cheered it on.

i do it with anything that seems to be bothering me.  teeth, muscles, aches.  

"you guys are doing great.  i know you'll figure it out".  lol, that kind of thing.  i guess you could say that i feel like i have a relationship with the cells in body.

i learned this idea from a neurologist that wrote a book about having a stroke.  it was called "my stroke of insight".

rissa  

hi douglas

i think my perspective shifted in the opposite direction, haha.

i should add i've taken several truckloads of rodent infested pink insulation to the dump.  as i repair this place i clean the walls out.

the surprising thing is the lack of rodent visitors since having my open door policy.  

i can't help but notice each time i decide to let a particular creature come in at will, it no longer comes in.  lol, not sure what's going on there.  some kind of universal law?

rissa

i'm not sure how it happened but the spiders have taken over the bathroom.  i can't stop being fascinated by all the drama.  i keep telling them and myself i'm going to clean the corners and windows and they'll have to make a new start.  but then i start looking closer and can't bring myself to disturb them.

there are black funnel spiders that make the most beautiful webs, the spindly cellar spiders (the top dogs) and a few huge hairy brown types (with equally huge fangs). before watching them in my bathroom i assumed each spider had it's own web and rarely left it.  now i know it's like musical chairs every night.

this is the time of year the bugs get sparse and the spindly cellar spiders eat all the big hairy spiders and a good portion of the bigger funnel spider population.  i used to be scared of the big hairy spiders but now i see them and feel scared FOR them.  it's rare to see one but every time i do the spindly cellar spiders get it by morning.  i try not to judge but the cellar spiders are brutal.

how did your daughter end up with an opposum?!

hi all,

i've been living in the woods (old growth forest near the central oregon coast) in a fixer i bought about 3 years ago.  it's a fairly good sized old hippie cabin i fell in love with.

ever since i was a kid reading stories about cute animals living in kitchen cupboards i've wondered what it would be like to share a house with wildlife.

i decided to try it out with this place.  i leave all my windows wide open, even through the winter unless it's too windy.  i took my bird blocks out and now the house has "gills".  i talk to the mice in the walls, have bats flying around regularly and i enjoy watching the moths fly around my strand of string lights.  i talk to every creature i see and get a lot of enjoyment out of it.  there's a wren that comes in regularly and a lot of "one timer" birds and squirrels that come in out of curiosity.

it's just me and my dog here and i live like a quaker.  i could probably fit all my belongings in a backpack.  there's not a speck of food anywhere and scrubbing all the surfaces in the kitchen with plenty of soap and water every morning is a ritual.

wondering if anyone has adopted a similar relationship with wildlife in the house.

rissa

haha so true!

i don't post a bunch of other stuff on permies either for the same reason.

so as soon as i posted that last reply i had to laugh at myself because i left out that i have a soy milk latte in the morning and soymilk at night.  i think it's essentially a supplement because i'm menopausal and it has hormonal effects.  it probably even has added vitamins and minerals.  

haha, so i guess i'm changing my answer to "i use supplements".

rissa