Class01

From DmesWiki

Class 1 (Homework: read program description linked below)

This term’s building class will focus primarily on the construction of a composting toilet approved for evaluation by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. This thermophilic composting toilet uses only a few gallons of water per month, without the need for electricity, chemicals or expensive or complex technologies. After one year of composting, the finished product is a pathogen free soil amendment that can be applied directly to food gardens, replacing the need for commercially prepared fertilizers characterized by heavy petrochemical ingredients. Long term and wide spread aspirations for this system include providing the low tech and low cost system to cultures around the world who lack sanitary treatment options.

Following is the program description (http://www.dmes.org/staging/ADEQ.pdf) as submitted to and approved by the State of Arizona for evaluation. The evaluation period will be for two years. If we demonstrate a pathogen-free product after 18 months, the State will approve construction and utilization of more systems. Working with a state approved laboratory, we’ll be measuring pathogen presence, moisture, temperature and particulate size every three months. The monitoring process will quantify the efficacy of this meticulously simple system, and pave the ground for accessibility to the many humans in need of simple but effective sanitation.

This first system is being constructed outside the Lama Yurt. The structure is to be 8’ wide by 4’ deep, the walls made of sealed juniper and cobbed mud, with a tin roof and stone steps up into the structure. The back wall is sliding plywood for easy access to the composting bins below the structure. There are two bins below the structure: two people fill one bin over a one-year cycle. The second bin is then used for toilet deposits as the contents of the first bin compost thoroughly for another year.

Thursday, January 12, 2006 we begin digging. We hit bedrock about 1” below the silty top soil. We used assorted digging bars, maddoxes, pick axes, shovels and hands, with little progress made over an hour of hard effort. Dedications to enlightenment were offered during the great exertion.

In this series of building classes, we have explored and continue to cultivate a success driven attitude based on how to learn while on the job, and how to be flexible in applications, plans, skills and expectations as we work with unpredictable terrain and new methods. So as a class we discussed our options for the progress of the project. Do we (a) move the site to another piece of turf that doesn’t have bedrock (completely off this particular hill); or (b) rent a jackhammer (the lime matrix is tending to break by hand), or (c) purify our stubbornness and hard headedness done over countless lifetimes?

Stay tuned for the next class . . .

Class 2 . . . What Did They Do?