outhouse
The Outhouse
Living off the grid requires that you be your own sanitation department. Ours is located about 50 feet east of the cottage and is an example of the latest in sustainable sewage disposal technology. This is not your typical outhouse with its dreaded opening, the sights and smells of which can put you off your lunch. This fine example of the outhouse craft is a board and batten structure complete with RV style toilet bowl designed to separate you from that which you come to leave behind.
our Sawdust Toilet
Time to get down to the nitty gritty. This little project was necessitated by the inevitable freeze-up of our very cute rainwater outhouse. We reached out the the homesteader community for help and they generously offered suggestions in one of two categories: 1. things we should have done so we wouldn't have this problem in the first place, and 2. things we could do now that we did it wrong in the first place.
our sawdust toilet 
Outhouse Verboten...Now what?
Now what!?
As you may know, if you have viewed our Sustainable Sewage System video, our outhouse functions on rainwater. It is now October, however, and with it comes lower temperatures and our rainwater system is now pretty much frozen solid. We knew, of course, that this would happen eventually but we were so happy with our outhouse that we put it out of our minds...until now. So, here's the question: What do we do now?
Just to give you an idea of our situation, we have no indoor fascilities and no running water in the old homestead and no septic system. We are looking for a good solution.