logging update
i spoke with russel, our logger, and he's fixing his machines for a couple weeks. he's sure he can get everything rolling by the last week of august. this may push our schedule forward a week or so, but i don't think it's a big deal. in the mean time, i've been looking into the newly recognized alternative wastewater systems the state has authorized. some of these might be installable with a minimum of tree cutting and might be considerably less expensive than a mound system. so, this delay is giving me some time to explore saving some bucks. cross your fingers.
posted by Matt Bucy at 9:21 PM
5 Comments:
Matt, That's good news..I think? I'd love to hear more details about alternative methods that cost less. Peat
i don't know how much cheaper an alternative system would be yet, but between changing all our toilets to composting toilets we could reduce our waste stream by about 40% according to our engineer. combine this with a less expensive alternative system and we might well save in order of $10,000. but, none of this is clear yet. our engineer returns august 15.
timelinewise, a redesign would require waiting until spring to do the wastewater project. we can still clear (although we might not have to clear the mound), do stumping and sitework, install the privy/composters, install culverts.
Matt, which systems are we looking at? I don't want to go alternative if it involves monitoring by the state or mandating a engineer's contract as VT is doing for many alt. systems. If we're going with composting toilets I think we should explore models which don't smell with heavy usage. It was a problem at Walnut Hill & then had to get ride of them. I'd almost prefer to leave the kitchen alone and use the privy as a composting experiment & see if they work for us. What's one flush toilet.
a smell-less composting toilet is completely possible if it is set up correctly. it does take maintenance and proper use. but coke cans, cigarettes, other trash won't really disturb it. they just have to be sorted out if you want to put the compost in your garden an not have pieces of trash amongst the flowers. a composting toilet is far less likely to stink than a privy, which encourages anerobic activity, the creator of all those bathroom smells. composts are aerobic if properly designed and in short order will digest all waste and turn out beautiful rich soil that smells like clean dirt. of course, if you put too much shit and not enough leaves, sawdust, or other carbon into it, the pile will go anerobic and stink. if it stinks you know you need to put more carbon into it.
whether the state will let us build a straightforward composting toilet has yet to be determined.
After dealing with the disgusting markup on the inital install(about 95% markup), maintain your system with bacterial additives to ensure that you dont need to replace that thing again 10 years down the road.
try rid-x, newtechbio.com or oasisenviro.com to keep the pumpers and the helpfull major markeup installers out of your hair in years to come.
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