Saturday, June 27

Foggy and cool again. We are expecting storm activity later in the day.

We have had a continuing gnat problem in the bathroom for the past couple of weeks. The culprit is the composting toilet. These are fungus gnats that are attracted to dry compost. When the compost is dry fungus begins to form and the gnats thrive on it. These waterless toilets can be a chore to maintain. Microbes, moisture, bacteria, temperature and carbon content need to be maintained for things to work right. The concept is that aerobic bacteria consume waste quickly to produce carbon dioxide and water vapor and leave behind a small amount of the original waste volume in the form of basic minerals. The end result is a mix of minerals and bulking material that has not decomposed. This non-decomposed material resides in the drawer below the unit and it has to be dumped occasionally.

Obviously it has been getting dumped in the past but I don’t think it has been cleaned in quite a while. Now I’m not talking about just cleaning the drawer, but the area where the drawer slides in to (the tank). Once I removed, dumped and cleaned the drawer I used the small plastic rake that comes with the toilet to scrape the insides. Plastic wouldn’t touch it. This stuff was caked on, crusted to a cement consistency and VERY dry. Hence, the gnats. Down to the shop to get the man tools. I returned with a metal hoe, dustpan and brush and a 1X4 as a last resort. I ended up using the 1X4 to scrape the crap out of the chamber. This stuff was really on there. Then, once loosened, I had to get it out. Whoever designed this thing did not consider the process for getting stuff out of the tank. The only way to do it is stick your arm in there (the area is about two feet deep), collect the crap in your hands (like the Allstate commercial) and make your way to the trashcan.

I did this four times before finally making headway and seeing the bottom of the tank. Yes, I was wearing long rubber gloves. All the windows were open because of the smell and I had to leave twice for things to settle down. Brenda stayed downstairs.

Finally the deed was done. We had a clean drawer and a clean tank. I added some composting material, microbes and bacteria.

A picture of the toilet is shown above. As you can see it sits high off the floor requiring a step to get to the throne. If you’re short your legs dangle above the step. Reminds me of Lilly Tomlin in the old Laugh In show (I guess I’m dating myself). Anyway, do you remember the skit she did sitting in the big rocking chair, looking very small? Come use this toilet and you will see what I mean.

Since I made a mess on the floor Brenda felt compelled to clean not only the bathroom floor, but the hallways, two bedrooms, steps, living room, dining room and stairs. She wasn’t too happy because she had just done this yesterday.

All this playing around with the toilet made me hungry, so we had lunch and, yes, I did wash my hands.

Went to the shop after lunch and started putting up the lights. FOSI wanted the fluorescents taken down and incandescents put up. I hung six boxes and wired the lights to come on with the existing switch. Brenda joined me later and worked on the bureau she is refinishing. Now when you turn on the lights, you can actually see to do something!

Fog persisted throughout the day. We had dinner and watched some TV before turning in.