!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cleaning our Rivers and Oceans Kickstarter

Mike Feddersen wrote:Well I put my bit in the Kickstarter to help get it closer to reaching the goal. I see it's less than $500 to being at the goal today.
I think it would be possible for an outdoor one here, as I am in the country. Not sure I would want one in the house. I have considered the style that offgridwithdougandstacy.com have. It uses sawdust to eliminate the smell. You still need to lug 5 gallon buckets once a week. Or two. Doug has a video that he takes viewers through the process. Once a year he dumps the buckets out and scrubs them out. Puts the mixture in a compost pile, let's it percolate for awhile.

Mike Feddersen wrote:
I would love to see a piece done on the Australian worm septic tank system. Red wrigglers going to town on poop and TP. If I remember right, it's a patented system down under. And someone used a large Coleman style cooler to make one for their cabin. Oh, and it flushes like our regular toilets. There's like a sponge layer to allow fluids to soak thru.
They installed on at a busy bar, and it had no problems keeping up with "the flow."
.
Anyway I don't think you'll have a problem reaching the Kickstarter goal so an early congratulations is in order.
.

Timothy Norton wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:Suggestions?

Maybe a Youtube live stream?

Make it a fund-a-thon?

I enjoy hearing you and company talk about projects you are passionate about. It could even just be swapping stories.

We are being told that this kickstarter is flopping because:

  - nobody wants to talk about poop
  - nobody wants to talk about water pollution
  - this is just another composting toilet (this is not a composting toilet)
  - this has no value for apartment dwellers (i think contemplating this changes what an apartment dweller puts down the drain)
  - too expensive (just $1 for the ebook)

This is our poorest performing kickstarter ever.  It could be related to how we are trying to send fewer emails and updates and stuff.  Maybe it would do 3x better if we put out the normal amount of emails and stuff.  We are super close to getting funded!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/willow-feeders?ref=evczpr

I think this is one of our all time best products!  Andres has flooded me with animations to use for this and I have perused a lot of our raw video.  Plus, I think this is a powerful win for homesteaders - especially off grid homesteaders.  And gardeners!  In areas where composting toilets are illegal, this is something far more likely to be approved!



Yesterday we released a video about the dry outhouse idea.  The idea is to have an outhouse that never stinks and never needs to be emptied:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OD_-3Gtung



We now have four chapters of our eBook free for you to peruse and talk about!

- the goals
- sewage treatment plants and septic tanks
- the dry outhouse
- the can needs a tube and 4 inches of sawdust

https://permies.com/p/3161343


I do think this is an excellent kickstarter.  And we made it extra sweet for our kickstarter backers.  

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/willow-feeders?ref=evczpr

We are being told that this kickstarter is flopping because:
  - nobody wants to talk about poop
  - nobody wants to talk about water pollution
  - this is just another composting toilet (this is not a composting toilet)
  - this has no value for apartment dwellers (i think contemplating this changes what an apartment dweller puts down the drain)
  - too expensive (just $1 for the ebook)

This is our poorest performing kickstarter ever.  It could be related to how we are trying to send fewer emails and updates and stuff.  Maybe it would do 3x better if we put out the normal amount of emails and stuff.  We are super close to getting funded!
…………………………..

Amazingly, those are the same excuses used against anything to do with composting toilet solutions, for over 40 years!!!
Yet, there have been new things learned/discovered about doing it which can make the process much easier, & more “germ-proof” & “ick-proof”.  

MAYBE, your approach needs to Start, up-front, with emphasizing:  
…. HOW it is not just another composting toilet?
…. HOW apartment dwellers might use any of this?
…. Can it be handicap/elder/child usable?
…. When no one wants to talk about poop, how (aside from potty humor), can that be changed to engage?
…. When none wanna talk about water pollution & SHORTAGES, how might you whet their whistles on the subject?
…. How many of your audience are experienced with this Stuff already?  Maybe, it needs younger, less pooped-out audience?

AND…include how important it is to encourage wiggly worms from the top several inches of ground, into the solids, to vastly help  abate the bad germs from poop, & help convert poop into safe, nutritive fertilizer, faster.
It wouldn’t be amiss to include that pee = nitrogen—a little bit of a chore to collect if using a regular toilet, but easy with a diverter toilet seat.

Water & sewage ARE critically important, to everyone!
If folks can’t bring themselves to engage in some life-appropriate potty-mouth, maybe show them why they simply must, as well as how-to help that cause.  
You might need some catchy word-of-mouth for helping spread the manure (Bandini’s got nuthin’ on this 🤣)(oops! That dates me!)!

We used to live in a HUD apartment—upstairs over a 3-car carport.  Only the front entry.
Only a garage man-door access to a back “yard”; I had to just appropriate the back-space, in ways that prevented the maintenance people from bothering with anything back there, & did not raise the attention of neighbors.  
I reasoned with the Board:  
….I was only using greywater to irrigate that space (no added cost to water bill included in the rent).
….Greening the yard meant keeping our unit about 10*F cooler than it had been; our unit had been untenable without the greening of that yard, when temps got over 90*F. (This reasoning went a very long way towards getting them to allow our nicely made balcony cover, & plants on the balcony, too—they did NOT like the specter of health dept. reports of untenable units, nor children falling from balconies…).

We installed a hidden drain pipe for our bootleg apt.-size washer, to gravity-drain & run around a yard perimeter small irrigation ditch.
For some years, we used a (free) scavenged 2-stroke hand pump to save bath water to a barrel down below the bathroom window—that had a return hose up to use that water to flush the toilet, & the barrel could, if overflowed, drain to the same irrigation ditch as the washer.
That back yard went from dry, hot hardpan, to lush green garden, with a couple fruit trees, Australian bush cherry hedge, roses, etc., within about a couple years.   Kids stopped doing no-no’s back there.
Jasmine scented our back windows, & sheltered the weather-rotted door from further weathering.
By the time we moved, the bush cherries were 10’ tall & made a great privacy hedge laced with rambling roses, with t-posts + wire hidden inside the hedge.  Mature fruit trees grew an annual bumper- crop of plums, nectarines from just 2 trees.  
Most of it was well-established enuf to survive even if the next tenant chose not to mess with it.  

We’d already half-finished a rather large pentagonal building with a loft; to be an ADU for our newly adult oldest child.  
It was gonna have a separator compost potty, a sink & solar shower, hidden in it, draining to the irrigation ditch to feed the yard.  
But, That was only a couple years before circumstances (both lost careers) caused us to move.
It was really quite a grand structure & yard!  Neither management nor Board said a word to us against it!  
But that was extremely rare.
& they might have come down on us against it, after it was finished & in-use— even tho it was in-limits for “no-permit” shed. That would have been disastrous,

So, whatever renters do with their doo, it all needs to fit into “hiding in plain sight”, & scrupulously avoid any cause for complaints.
Renters need to know how their rules are worded, to know how to work within those—first, do/doo no harm!

Renters need some pointers to make this shi!-show germane to more people!
Like:  most toilets only have a 2.5” or so outlet; the sewer pipe is 3”. That restriction best serves high-gallon toilets, to break-up solids; it too often clogs low-flush units.
Very few toilets have 3” outlets—these work well with low-flush toilets with funnel-shaped basins, & rarely clog.  
We found such a toilet (Caroma), & replaced the one in the rental—of course we took ours with us when we moved, restoring the landlord’s wasteful unit….not our problem to wink at anymore!
There are separator seats available (found in UK), that could sit on top of a common toilet riser, & drain to a jug, for use in fertilizing the yard, while using toilet otherwise normally—half catch is better than none!  

Your ebook needs to cover stuff like that, if it doesn’t already!
I’ve been happily potty-mouthing for several decades—so, for me, yer preaching to the choir!

Dave Bross wrote:One catch here locally, and maybe a problem elsewhere, is that the trees mentioned don't grow here in FL.

We also have the groundwater aquifer very close to the surface (15 - 20') in a lot of places. You would be risking further contamination of that resource even if you had the right trees.

Vickey McDonald wrote:Got an email about increasing our pledge. How do we go about doing that?

Chi Monger wrote: If folks can’t bring themselves to engage in some life-appropriate potty-mouth, maybe show them why they simply must, as well as how-to help that cause.  

Molly Kay wrote:

Chi Monger wrote: If folks can’t bring themselves to engage in some life-appropriate potty-mouth, maybe show them why they simply must, as well as how-to help that cause.  

Forgive me is this isn't the time (it does seem like the place) but I had some ideas. Not necessarily good ideas, of course.

These people know their s#!t.

This s#!t is everybody's problem.

How did this crap get in my river?

S#!t rolls down hill, and most of us don't live at the top of the hill.

Article or blog post titles maybe? I'm not standard folks, but these would definitely get my attention in a way that would lead me to want to learn more about the subject.

Merrilee Baker wrote:Willows are considered invasive species in Australia. Poplars also take over so may be considered pest plants as well. If you are only talking to people in the USA great, but if you want further interest can you think of other trees? Also most of rural Australia is covered by Bush Fire zones. Asset protection zones limit what size trees and flammability etc can be planted near a house depending on your degree of risk from fire. If you live in an area that has sewerage you have to connect and even if you don’t you have to pay fee just because it runs past your place.
So basically, most of what I’ve read (much gratitude for offering it) is not applicable to my situation. My states health dept won’t even allow reed systems for grey water-every system has to be licensed.
Thanks anyway

Andrés Bernal wrote:Odor is a big concern with poop systems. Willow feeders address this by using air pressure differences to keep a constant airflow moving through the system. In the 3D plans, we show two options for managing airflow.

The first is a solar-powered fan.

Bryan de Valdivia wrote:

Does the fan run:
1. Constantly
2. When the sun is shining
3. On/off switch when someone enters the willow feeder?