I Built A Composting Toilet!

 

I'm very proud of my latest project.  I built myself a composting camp toilet!  I've wanted to build this for ages.  As I get older I need a little more glamp when I camp and squatting behind a bush isn't for me anymore.  Campground outhouses aren't my favorite thing either.  They stink.  Composting toilets do not.

 

I raided my wood stash in my garage and found everything I needed

I have been shopping around for a long time for a camp privy, however they're expensive, a little on the rickety side and not that great of quality to stand the test of time.  I don't want to throw my money away on something that isn't going to last or isn't stable.  No one wants to fall off the potty.

 

I predrilled every nail hole so I didn't split any wood
and used wood glue for extra strength

Well, if you want something done right you better do it yourself.  So that is what I did.  I wanted something compact, lightweight and easy to maneuver, easy to empty, easy to clean, easy to use and not ugly or obvious that it's a toilet.  That's a pretty tall order.

 

I'm so pleased because I was able to tick off all the boxes and I am so proud of myself for pulling it off.  To be honest, the reason I put off building this for so long was because I wasn't sure I could do it.  Over the years however, I've put a lot of thought into this build.  By the time I was ready to start this project I was feeling pretty good about how I was going to do this.

 

Checking the fit of the bucket before adding the front and back cleats

The biggest thing I'm proud of is that I built this whole thing with stuff I already had in my garage.  Even the bucket.  The plywood came from the FREE WOOD bin near where I used to work and has been in my garage for quite a while, patiently waiting.  I have so much trim that I had also gleaned from the FREE WOOD bin as well as some leftover 2" X 2" scrap wood from when I rebuilt our gate several years ago.  Did I need to put trim on this pooper?  Of course not, but I did it anyway.

 

I could have totally left this as a plywood box, but I had to add some trim 😁

The bucket is one of three buckets I had bought at Dollar Tree a long time ago.  I've used it to mop my floors so it is in good shape and pretty clean.  I now use a gallon sized ice cream bucket so I no longer need this one for mopping floors.  If I do need a bucket I've got two more in the garage.

 

Jack was my assistant on this project
After rolling around in the sawdust he wanted in the house

I suggested he stay out in the garage with me so he took
refuge on top of the freezer

The "Alaska toilet seat" is made of foam packing material for a printer we got at work.  I had brought that home quite some time ago and had planned to use it in my motorhome, but it turned out I didn't need to.

 

I had hinges and screws in my coffee can of "miscellaneous" items.  Every time I have leftover screws, brackets or other little doo dads I put them in that can in case I will need them later on another project.  That can has saved me on so many projects.  Not only does it save me money, but it also saves me from having to make an extra trip to the hardware store.

 

Fits like a glove!

Such a good helper!

I used wood glue and finish nails to put this together, again things I already had on hand.  When I was done I used sandpaper I had to give it a good once over.  No slivers allowed!  Then I used some leftover stain and an old rag to finish it.

 

I added some feet to the bottom

And a lid to the top

The final touch was to use two chair slides that have been in my toolbox for at least twenty years to make stops for the lid to rest on and a wooden bead from my craft supplies to make a cute little handle to lift the lid with.  It looks kind of fancy, but it's just a bead.

 

All sanded and stained

Finished!

The seat lifts off to easily remove the bucket and there is enough room to stash extra bags in there as well.  When not in use I can keep a gallon sized bag filled with pine shavings and a roll of toilet paper inside the bucket which is lined with nice clean bags making it a self contained unit.  Pretty handy for storage.

 

A gallon bag filled with pine shavings

Having this little honey bucket is going to be so nice when I go camping next time.  Also, if we were to ever have a sewer issue I have a backup crapper to use.  Our neighborhood is older and we have a lot of big trees.  Some of my neighbors have had to have their sewer lines repaired due to invading tree roots and that takes time.  Should that happen to me I won't be displaced from my home because I can't use my flush toilet.  I'm hoping I won't need it for that, but you never know.  I'd rather use it for camping.

 

The top

I put handles on the side to make it easy to carry

I am just thrilled with how it all turned out.  I had so much building this and I don't think it is at all obvious as to what it is.  I'm so happy with my little potty!

My Tireless Retirement - Week 27

 

Helloooooo!  A lot of people have expressed interest in how I do my slow cooker meatloaf.  It is super simple.  Just make your favorite meatloaf recipe, line your slow cooker with a sheet of aluminum foil (not required), set the meatloaf inside and put the lid on.  Set your slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 4 hours and you are good to go.  It is really that simple.  I like the foil because I can grab the edges and lift it out onto a plate when it is finished cooking.  It makes it really easy to get out of the slow cooker that way.

 

This past week was filled with relaxing creativity.  I spent a great deal of time in my craft room making stuff and it was a lot of fun.  I made some journals that I'm thinking about selling because I think they would make great Christmas gifts.  Speaking of, I got a lot of stuff from the Etsy shop listed over on my eBay store.  I still have a lot more to get listed, but I got a really good start.

 

I had quite a collection of spent candles in my hall closet

I rounded up all of my spent candles, loaded up my largest slow cooker and got all of that extra wax melted down.  It gave me enough to make a nice large candle.  I also had a candle I had made last time I did this using a wood wick, but it wouldn't burn so I melted it down and redid it with a regular wick this time.  Now I have two really nice candles to enjoy, both of which were basically made out of garbage.  I also put all the empty glass candle containers into the recycle bin in my garage for the next time I drop off at the glass collection center.

 

It is getting cooler at night although our days have been in the low 80s and high 70s.  Unseasonably warm for our area this time of year, but I have zero complaints about that.  I put the flannel sheets back on my bed but have yet to add my winter blanket.  So far I haven't needed to turn on any heat and the A/C units have been put away so I'm hopeful for another low power bill this month.

 

The first of October is the time to grab my final quarterly housekeeping checklist for the year.  I think I did really well on the last one.  I finished almost all of the tasks and now that I've started over I can focus on completing the ones I didn't last time and move forward.  No pressure and definitely no guilt that I didn't finish everything on the list.

 

Along with the crafting I also worked on some home maintenance chores around the house and did my first big leaf clean up filling an entire bin full of leaves.  The leaves have begun to change color and drop to the ground so I know winter is on its way.  I also know there will be loads of leaves for me to clean up over the next couple of months.  Plenty of things yet to keep me busy

 

So many wonderful comments last week, thank you very much.  I sure do love hearing from you.  The winner of the greeting card giveaway is Mandy!  Congratulations Mandy!  Use the contact form on the right and let me know what your address is so I can get these out to you this week.  Hurray for our first giveaway!  I might be sneaking some other giveaways into my posts, you just never know, kind of like an Easter egg hunt.  That's one way to get you to read my gibberish and follow me along, Ha!

 

I dined on homemade "TV dinners" all week - delish!

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely week and everyone is happy and healthy.  Let me know what kept you busy.

 

A Wooden Christmas Star

This project was extra fun for me.  I had seen a very similar item at Hobby Lobby priced at $33.99 on sale for 50% OFF.  I liked the idea but the overall look and quality of the item left me a little flat, not to mention what they were charging for it.  Even at half price I wasn't willing to pay that much for it.  So I made my own and I think I knocked it right out of the park.

 

I did pick up a couple Christmas picks for 50% OFF at Hobby Lobby though, knowing I was going to make this star spending a total of $4.  The pine bough was $2.99 and the berries were 99¢.

 

I used wood I already had in my garage and cut five pieces to 18 inches in length.  Then using wood glue and some brads I glued and tacked the ends together until I had made a star.  It takes a little fidgeting to get them all lined up and the ends figured out as to which one goes on top or underneath.  Then once I had that part figured out and it shaped the way I wanted I marked on the back which point was the top, made sure everything was even and then added a second brad to each point to keep it from moving.  I also added a couple at two other points in the center along with glue.

 

Next I filled in any holes with some spackle to neaten it up, but not too much as I did want it to look fairly rustic.  Once the spackle had dried I have the entire thing a light sanding with some 220 grit sandpaper.  I didn't do a lot of sanding just enough to smooth it so no one, namely me, would get any and sandpaper and to make sure the spots I had spackled were also nice and smooth.

 

I wiped the entire pieces down with a slightly damp cloth and then it was time for paint.  I watered down some gray acrylic paint and used a paint brush to basically give it a "whitewash" finish.  I took my time turning it over and made sure I got it all nicely painted then let it dry.

 

The fun stuff was next.  I cut the long wire end of the pine bough off with wire cutters and used a piece of wire to secure it to the top of my star arranging the boughs to cover the wire once I had done that.  I twisted it good in the back and added a big dollop of hot glue to it in the back just in case it decided to slide down.  Then with more hot glue I arranged pieces of the berry sprig, tucking them into the pine boughs.

 

I made a bow by accordion folding a 24 inch length of velvet ribbon I had in my gift wrap stash securing it at the bottom of the folds with plenty of hot glue and carefully holding it together while it dried.  Then I attached it to the top of the star with more hot glue.

 

To make a hanger I used the remnants of the wire to make a loop, twisted it several times and made a second loop for the bottom of the hanger.  I used hot glue to secure it where I wanted it on the back of the wooden star.  Once the glue had set I then added a short screw in the bottom loop right through the glob of hot glue to complete the hanger making it much more secure.  Using the hot glue first made it much easier to screw the hanger to the star.

And that is it.  Tada!

Hobby Lobby's Christmas star priced at $33.99 on sale for $16.99

And my version of the Christmas star for $3.98 out of pocket

Not only was making my own star much more affordable than purchasing one, but I think mine turned out much nicer, not to toot my own horn, but I'm tooting my own horn.  Plus!  I had a ton of fun making this.  A ton!!

 

 

It Is Time For New Traditions?

 

Oh my goodness, there has been so much change in my life this year, it is almost completely overwhelming.  Things are definitely different around here, but it is also very good.  Some changes are wanted, others may not be, some are scary while others are exciting.  Life evolves and change is a constant in our lives whether we like it or not.  So is it time for new traditions in my life?  Yes, I believe it is.

 

I have been preparing for some time to venture on into this life on my own.  I raised very independent children with great goals and aspirations of their own and I wholeheartedly respect that, in fact, I encourage it.  This year I will most likely be spending the upcoming holidays by myself because of it and that is completely okay.

 

Right before my youngest moved out on her own she and I had a conversation about, of all things, our Christmas tree.  I had told her that when I was single and had just moved out on my own my mom and I had gone shopping together at Thrifty Drug , sadly no longer around, and I bought myself a three foot fake Christmas tree, some lights and ornaments as well as one of those spinning angel decorations with the candles, anyone remember those?  Anyway I told her it was avery good memory and I thought I might get me another tree like that and do some downsizing this year.  She thought that sounded like a really great idea.  I just so happened to purchase one two weeks ago at Hobby Lobby and then I offered up our six foot tree on the Facebook Buy Nothing Group page.

 

Each time one of my children leaves home I redo their rooms.  When my son left home his room was redone to become a playroom for my daughters.  When my oldest left home her room was redone and is now my bedroom.  When my youngest left home I redid her room and it is now a guest room as well as a place for me to display my beloved doll collection.  As I've shared some of these changes to my home on my other blog I received some unexpected backlash.  Harsh comments and even an accusation that I was erasing my children from my home.

 

None of my children has ever expected me to keep a shrine of their existence.  They took all of their possessions that they wanted to keep with them and got rid of whatever was leftover so other than some furniture and a lot of dust bunnies I didn't really have anything to create a shrine out of anyway.  Also, by the time each child left home their rooms needed to be thoroughly cleaned and renovated because they were completely worn out.  Teenagers can be hard on things.

 

Changing their rooms also helps me to move on.  It would be really difficult for me to look into a bedroom and see their stuff and not see them.  It would hurt my heart.  The same is true if I were to try to keep our family traditions going if they weren't going to be here.  In fact, it makes me tear up just thinking about it.  Our children grow up and have lives of their own, that is the normal course of things.  This year they want to do their own thing with friends and as adults they have every right to do that.  While it may bruise my heart a little bit I am excited for them to branch off and have those new experiences.

 

Also, while my children haven't told me so directly, I think they have reached a point in their lives right now where they no longer wish for me to share about them on my blog.  Again I am going to respect that so you won't hear me mention much about them moving forward.  I love my children so very much and I am ever so proud of who they have become and what they are doing.  And while I'd love nothing more than to scream from the rooftops all of their wonderful accomplishments I will refrain.  It will be hard, I'm a very proud mama.

 

Now is the time for me and living my own life.  My plans, my goals, my big adventures.  That is really what this blog is all about and I hope you will enjoy following along with me.  A new chapter in life with new traditions to make and enjoy as well as new experiences of my own.  Who really knows what our futures hold, I sure don't, but it will be exciting finding out.

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 26 = 6 Months!!

 

Hello my friends!  I hope you are all doing well.  Anyone else amazed it is October already?  And!  That I have been retired for six months already?  That just blows my mind!

 

I bottled up my latest batch of home brew

Last week I worked on a project that has been on my list for quite some time.  It is worthy of a post of its own so watch for it coming up soon.  Here's a hint.  It was on my "bucket" list.  Along with that project I've also been exploring some vacation ideas for my first big retirement trip.  I can honestly say it can get quite overwhelming.  I have way too many options.  This is going to be a process, I can tell that already.  But I've got plenty of time to sort it all out and part of the fun is the planning.

 

I raided my scrap wood stash

Tuesday is typically my day to run my errands, mainly because it is also discount movie ticket day.  I didn't do any grocery shopping, but I did try to do some thrifting.  That was a complete bust.  I'm in search of some artwork for my upstairs guest bedroom as well as a pair of hiking pants.  The search continues.  I also went to the movies and saw Maverick.  OMG!  That was good.  I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting it to be so emotional.  It was definitely exciting as expected, got my heart rate right up there!  One thing that movie did do was cement the fact that we're getting old.  Man!  It happens so fast.

 

Wednesday I was back in project mode out in the garage and got that wrapped up.  I was chomping at the bit to get back out there, but I kindly waited until a respectable hour to make sure no one was sleeping before I started up my power tools.  I'm cool like that.  LOL

 

Friday I did some crafting making a wreath out of wood rounds I sliced up on my miter saw.  I used branches I had pruned off of our sycamore tree a couple years ago.  It was a fun project and something I'd always toyed with making.  I decided to hang it up in my craft/guest bedroom downstairs and I think it fits in nicely with the décor.  I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

I had a full gallon sized Ziploc bag of veggie scraps that I'd been squirreling away in the freezer along with a big pork bone I had saved so I put that into my largest slow cooker with some water, added a couple bay leaves and let that simmer along with a huge bone in chicken breast for four hours.  Then I strained it, took the chicken meat off the bone and chopped it up.  I put everything back in the pot and added a combination of frozen veggies, fresh chopped onion and some chopped up kale plus fresh minced garlic.  After another four hours it was soup!  Boy was it good.  The weather is just starting to change around here and a nice brothy soup and a grilled cheese sandwich makes for a perfect meal.

 

It made a lot of soup so I put a quart and a half in the refrigerator to enjoy and the rest went into freezer containers for later adding several more meals to my others I've made recently.  It will be very nice to have hot homemade soup anytime I want, especially as the weather cools.

 

I also made huge meatloaf in my slow cooker using a pound of lean ground turkey (79¢) and a pound of ground pork ($2.49) I got on markdown and items I already had in my pantry.  It was delicious!  I find doing my meatloaves in the slow cooker makes them come out juicier and this one did not disappoint.  I put a couple meatloaf dinners into containers for the freezer to eat later and the rest in the refrigerator for a couple more meals during the week.  I find I'm averaging about two cooked meals per week right now to keep me fed for an entire week.  That's pretty good I'd say.

 

Homemade "TV dinners" or the freezer

I closed my Etsy shop last week.  They've updated to a new financial platform for payments called Plaid (click and read the last line of the article) and as part of that change I am required to give them the login and password I use to access my bank account online.  Apparently it is the only way for them to sync my bank account with my Etsy account.  I can't believe they operate like this.  My own family doesn’t even have that information.  I think it is the dumbest thing ever and in good conscience I couldn't do it.  Way too risky.  I'll just have to figure out another way to sell my stuff.

 

If you've made it this far, good for you.  I have a surprise.  I'm going to do a giveaway, my first one on this blog, in celebration of my sixth month of retirement.  I am giving away a set of my handcrafted Christmas cards as well as a set of the all occasion cards I make.  All you have to do for your chance to win is leave me a comment.  I'll announce the winner next Monday.