What is at the end of the journey?

Been out of touch for a while!! We spent the last two months in a remote region of Australia, near Mudgee, NSW. We are now home in Canada and getting back on our feet after the plane flight.
While in the Australian bush, we lived with some good friends of ours, Nick and Kirsten, whom have a little homestead called Milkwood. They are in the beginning stages of their great adventure and it was wonderful to help get things going. Milkwood is a great example of permaculture design in action.

We planted trees, planted a small garden, took down old fences and helped out where ever we could. Near the end of our stay we helped in the construction of their Humanure Hacienda, poo compost system.

Poo is a touchy subject!
Everyone we've meet has a different approach to handling poo. Some send it to a septic system others use various forms of composting, all avoid sending it to municipal systems and try to recycle or reuse.
The system being used at Milkwood is one of many techniques out there and it fits well with Nick and Kirsten's comfort zone and circumstance.
Milkwood is located in a remote area and piles of composting Humanure will not draw much attention. Not everyone is in this situation so other options have to be explored. It is great to see how simple it could be to handle poo. Composting poo is safe, practical, efficient and cost effective. The biggest obstacle is getting over any unwarranted fears of poo, one might have.

The Humanure Hacienda is a beautifully simple two structure system.
1. A manure and urine capture.
Basically this structure is an outhouse with a bucket or bin to catch deposits. After a deposit is made the user covers the poop with some sawdust. When the catching bin becomes full it is time to make a trip to the second structure.

2. The three bin composting system, "Humanure Hacienda,"one roof covered for dry straw and two for poo composing piles.

For the average family two composting bays is enough. When a bucket from the outhouse is delivered it is added to the compost pile and covered with straw. The layers of poo and straw build over the course of a year and fill one composting bay. It is then time to start filling the empty composting bay. At the end of the second year the first pile has completely composted and is ready for use in the garden. The designer of this system reckons that the compost is safe for use in the veggie patch!!! Very much up to the individual on this one.
To get a more complete understand of this system you can read The Humanure Handbook. I highly recommend it, whether you live urban, suburban or rural. It is an eye opening read.

Rather than treating poo as waste, it easily turned it a high value product for a fraction of the cost associated with septic and municipal treatment systems.

Composting is a responsible practical and safe way of handling human manure and more of us need to be doing it. We commend Nick and Kirsten for there efforts and thank them for sharing this experience with us. What away to end our year abroad.

An interesting note...
Before all other structures the Humanure Hacienda was the first structure to be raised at Milkwood. Even before a house has been built, Nick and Kirsten have taken responsibility for the most fundamental aspect of human nature.

Keep charging team!!!

The compost at 26 days

The compost at 26 days
Originally uploaded by Jesse and Tanya

We have been turning the pile religiously for the last 11 days. Everyday the pile was steaming, and looking as though it would never cool down. Today it happened, no steam and a lower temperature. The pile is evolving out of the thermophilic stage and into the curing stage. We will still turn it, as it is a bit warm and will still be consuming its fair share of oxygen. The product is looking great with a nice dark brown colour, good diverse structure and a clean smell. We have already started to use some small amounts in the garden to help establish new seedlings and germinate seeds. The pile will only get better with age now.

Based on how things went the, C:N ratio was a bit low in this pile. If it was higher the thermophilic stage may have ended sooner. If we had not turned the pile every day would have been anaerobic with a poor end product. We will let you know when it is well and truly cold and curing.
that's all for now.

Look at this beautiful Pile!

15 day old compost
Originally uploaded by Jesse and Tanya

15 days and still going strong. The shape of this pile is just about ideal. When we turn a pile we try and build the new pile it a nice uniform conical shape. In our experience this shape seems to get the best results. It has also been shown that this shape allows for better oxygenation of the pile. We have found that a lower rounder shape produces more heat and is more likely to turn anaerobic.
Like all aspects of assembling and producing compost achieving an nice shape takes practice, luckily one gets to practice on every turn. We are meticulous about every aspect of making compost. Some days it can take more than 30 mins to turn the pile because we are being very careful to mix and aerate the with each pitch fork and trying to build a nice shape.

Q an A
Some question sent to us via e-mail.

How long can something compost for and produce heat days, weeks or forever if you kept feeding it?

Our pile is still producing a lot of heat. We try to keep the temperate low by turning it every day. If it gets too hot many of the beneficial microbes will be killed off. We expect that it will be starting to cool off in the next few days. It is possible to keep a producing heat by adding more material. Brush turkeys in Australia us a compost heap as a nest. The male bird maintains a constant 30 degree temperature by adding an removing material through the whole incubation period.

Does the composting produce harmful gases?

Most of the gas that is produced by a compost pile is CO2. The C:N of the pile at the start should be about 30:1 by the end of the process it will be something like 10:1. the reduction in C is gassed off as CO2. It is also possible for a pile that has too much N that ammonia be gassed off the pile. We have also noticed a rotten egg smell around composts that are anaerobic, this is likely from a sulphur gas of some kind.

The smells from a compost are excellent patterns to use when working with your pile. One can learn a lot by smelling the pile. If a problem is noticed early enough a pile can be pushed in the right direction.
In order to experience these patterns you have got to turn your pile!!!!