The Humanure Handbook

The Humanure Handbook:
A Guide to Composting Human Manure,
Third Edition

The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure
by Joseph C. Jenkins is an amazing book for anyone interested in composting their own human waste (which you all should be!) As gross is it may sound, it isn't, if you do it correctly. This book gives tons and tons of background info for composting all around, and will easily show you how to build a cheap but effective sawdust toilet. Almost all reviewers have stated that it has practically no smell, at least no more than any other bathroom.

You may be asking yourself why in the hell should you compost your human waste? If you enjoy flushing about 6 gallons of clean drinking water down the drain every time you use your porcelain piece-of-shit, please, stick your head in it next time. Maybe it will swirl some sense into you. I'm sure at one point the modern toilet was an amazing technological advancement, but continuing to use it on a wide-scale basis is absurd. And if you think 6 gallons is a lot, read my post on 30 minute showers.

If that's not enough convincing, did I mention you're getting FREE amazing compost out of the deal? You might think it's gross to picture a cycle of eating, excreting, and growing, but it makes perfect sense. And when done correctly, you won't be able to tell your finished humanure from overpriced bags of compost at a garden center.

Even if you don't think you're ready to undertake that task quite yet, I strongly recommend you read this book just because of it's wealth of information and ecological viewpoint of the author. If you're at all interested in improving the quality of life on this planet, I guarantee you will find something useful and motivating in this book. Click here to get the Humanure Handbook

I promise it won't smell.

How to: Rain barrel

Rain barrels are a great way to utilize water that is otherwise running rampant across your lawn. While it can be even more effective to landscape your yard and rain gutters to naturally water your garden and lawn, doing so can be much more expensive, and usually permanent.

Rain barrels are cheap, easy to make, and much more customizable with many more uses.In addition to watering, you can generally use them in place of your hose, like washing your car, rinsing off that patio furniture, or giving the dog a bath.

You can purchase rain barrels from various places, but it's monumentally cheaper and more rewarding to build your own. Here's the best way I found to make a rain barrel from instructables.com, by stylnpzzalvr

2 liter soda bottle self watering plant container

This has got to be the cheapest, easiest, and coolest way to build a self watering container for plants, and start your own indoor garden. There are a million different ways to do this project, the important thing is that your re-using plastic bottles and building effective containers to grow your plants. 2 liter soda bottles, milk jugs, and large juice containers can all work for this project.

Since there are so many ways to do this project (it's pretty hard to do it wrong), I'm gonna show you the three best methods I found. Try what's best for you with the materials you have on hand.


Materials

• 2 liter soda bottle
• Scissors
• Drill or sharp object to poke holes in cap and/or bottle
• Soil
• Plant or seeds

Optional materials (depending on method)

• String of some kind (shoelace, t-shirt strips, candle wick, etc. Even polyester will work.)
• Paper towels
• Straw
• Funnel

How to build an indoor (or outdoor) compost bin

Here's an easy and cheap way to start composting your household waste and turn it into black gold. I literally didn't spend a dime on this project, I found everything lying around my house. Altogether it probably would've cost around $25.00. I'm doing this project in my basement, but this can be applied to a much smaller space, or even outdoors. Whether you live in a house, apartment, RV, dungeon, YOU can compost easily and effectively. Contrary to popular belief, composting (when done correctly) should give off little to no odor, so using the excuse that you don't want your house to smell like rotting garbage goes out the window.

Large Composting bins. Can be smaller or bigger.

I could go on and on about why everyone should compost and the benefits of it (and I probably will at some point), but for now I'll just give you the How-To.

Materials for bin:

• Container with lid
• Drill or sharp object to make holes
• Tray for excess water
• Stilts or supports (nothing fancy)
• Stirring tool (must be long and sturdy)

Basic materials for composting:

• Soil to start off, layering throughout as your compost grows.
• Dry, paper-like ingredients ( newspaper, leaves, yard trimmings, sawdust, printer paper, cardboard, wood shavings, etc. Anything chemical free is generally ok.) 
• Wet materials (These are things like your kitchen scraps, veggies, fruits, eggshells, coffee grounds, etc.)

NOTE: The list above for acceptable materials is very conservative. Almost ANYTHING can be composted. Those people who say that meat, bones and oils can not be composted are FULL OF IT. However, composting these materials can complicate matters, and require a more tentative approach. For example, composting meat can attract bugs and smells, IF you don't bury it in your compost and layer your materials effectively. For this project I'm gonna focus on keeping it simple, just know that you can compost those supposed "taboo" compost items, it just requires more work and thought.