A Journey into Creation - The Compost Loo !!

Before encountering the wholesome life of a eco village resident, I did not know the significance of an authentic, state of the art compost toilet. Trevor is an officianado of their construction, as he has lived for many years in Southern Spain in the wilds of Alpujarran mountains. Within 6 to 9 months of composting 'humanure', it is ready for fertilizer to the veg garden! What comes out of the brick and limecrete sealed chambers is not a scary sight, but completely broken down nitrogen rich compost. 
We decided to build it from straw bales, adding additional space for a shower and wash room, and the compost toilet structure from bricks and lime. This was a chance to get a feel for a straw bale build on a small scale in preparation for the 10 meter round straw bale house we plan to build in the near future. 
We decided to situate the build on one of the terraces that is level to the new veg patch (possibly a blog post in the making), this is for the convenience of wheelbarrowing the compost over, the objective, to keep work to a minimum whilst maintaining maximum efficiency. Permaculture offers this common sense approach, and our quinta appears to offer itself to this way, due to the land having many centuries of loving care and diligent attention put into it's crops, veg and livestock.
Here is a photo diary of the process so far : 

Trevor and Sam (one of our special wwoofers) getting started on the foundations, the two rectangles at the back are the start of the chambers to the compost toilet.

Sam and Emily, his partner, and an equally good wwoofer (Willing Worker On Organic Farms), wheelbarrowing a load of stones for the wall. 

Stone and limecrete foundations for the walls & brick for the chamber walls to the toilet.

Trev has done this sort of a work countless times before - he has been a builder for many years in the UK, Spain and now Portugal. 

Metal rebar to secure the straw bales and beams in place

Green pine pools from our woodland are stripped for the beams that will be the structure to hold the roof up and keep the bales in place.


       

Reclaimed terracotta tiles that were already on our quinta. The toilet area has now been lime rendered.

Chambers to the compost loo.

Davey, Jo and Jane come up for a visit from South Spain and get stuck in - helping to create the bale walls and wooden structure.

The round 'window' is an old water wheel reclaimed from one our wells. There was a system of cogs that was turned by an animal such as a cow or donkey that would walk around the outer circle of the well. It used to have buckets attached that were then poured into stone irrigation channels onto the land

The straw walls coming together with the help our friends. 

These wall are looking a bit shaggy, next time we will source more compact bales !

Some old bus windows will be the ventilation and daylight for the shower room.

Jo and Trev playing a few tunes, they used to be in an Irish band in Spain.

Anthony stayed and worked with our neighbours Bob and Annette, he spent a few days helping us too. We hope he returns for a visit one day soon, a very lovely guy. Goggles are used as the lime, although a natural product, can burn on the skin and in the eyes. 

Trevor melding with the mud and lime, we improvised this mixture, as clay for cob is in short supply in our area. After a few days this is rock hard.

Don't wear your clean clothes ! 

Getting there.

Reminds me of an African mud hut at this stage.

Carl, a friend and neighbour, helps 'tosh' the lime render to give a smooth finish.

Trev applying the lime and sand render.

 Back entrance steps to the toilet. Front entrance for the bathroom area.

We have new residents on our quinta - Isaac (Trevor's son), baby Kaileb and SJ, Isaac's partner. They are now helping out and helping us to build the dream. Also with the goggles, one of our helpful neighbours, Cameron getting messy with the mud.

Jude & Cam mixing straw with the lime and mud to get a sticky mix to throw at the walls. 

 Cameron 'squishing' and smoothing onto the straw.

 Love this photo, Kaileb is so cute, and SJ looking angelic :)

Father and son getting stuck in.

Isaac making a nice job of the window.

 The satisfying job of the final render to the internal walls.

 The soft contours of the finished walls.

 Lovely job on the round window


Floor preparation for the loo, then next job is the partition brick wall to separate the areas.

 The story so far.................