I have this strong desire to move somewhere that land is still very cheap and become a crazy hermit who lives in a shed or something.
Any time I have a piece of this feeling I’m reminded of the most underappreciated technological and society development: the flush toilet.
Its freakin’ magic that usually requires a functioning municipality to run dependably and cheaply. I just don’t think I can live a life long term without it.
I’m building a new building with a washroom and putting in a waterless toilet by choice. Flushing shit is kind of primitive if you ask me, a waste instead of resource, if you excuse the pun.
I agree you can have flush toilets without municipal water or sewage, but therea septic tank solution that subtract from the “easy” part I was referring to with the municipal sewage solution.
With municipal sewage I’ve never had to change a failing septic tank macerator or worry about a impacts to the leech field. This says nothing about the regular pumping needed to maintain a septic tank.
I’ve never had to get my septic cleaned or serviced in over twenty years. Flush an enzyme pack every three months, it’ll never build up to needing flushed unless required when selling one day. I’ve had to replace a well pump once, really easy one day job. I’m sure municipal water and sewage is nice but I’ve never had either, pushing fifty years old. I never realized anyone considered these things difficult or complicated, I’m an idiot and have never ran into anything I couldn’t service myself.
A septic system isn’t that expensive nor hard to maintain. If you have access to well water you can run it near independently. Assuming electricity of course, which is often available even in places without sewer or water.
All you need is to occasionally pay someone to come and pump the tank
A septic system isn’t that expensive nor hard to maintain.
OPs scenario is paraphrased as “shack out in the woods removed from civilization”. Getting the equipment and workers out to such a place would present the first challenge.
If you have access to well water you can run it near independently. Assuming electricity of course, which is often available even in places without sewer or water.
See, now we’ve raised the bar to not only requiring a sewage solution, but also dependable electricity and water source. This is why a functioning society is so valuable. It can provide easy and cheap access to dependable water, sewage, electricity, and skilled workers to build, install, and maintain the systems that let the toilet function without a second though.
All you need is to occasionally pay someone to come and pump the tank
I’ve seen people way out there be able to run septic systems. We’re talking miles of dirt road through the mountains
Also have you even traveled the rural US? You can usually get electricity in the middle of absolutely no where. Thank FDR for that one.
Basically it’s perfectly possible to meet the shack in the woods definition in either of our models. You can find a place without access to these things in a rural setting, but you also can.
Give me a compost toilet any day! A peaceful poo, often with a view. No mixing water with shit and then needing to separate them again. Why make more work out of nothing!? A well kept compost toilet is heavenly. Plus zero splashback - can’t fault that. Keep water free of sewage!
toilets just require a water supply and somewhere to flush to
no need for municipal water supply and wastewater, though that does make it easy, but you can simply use stream water that gravity fills your well located water tanks, then flush into a septic container suitable for the location. or hell even hand pump the water up from a well - bicycles make great transmissions to drive pumps
I think you’re proving my point. Geography can change the experience significantly. This could be because local agricultural producers also use wells for irrigation running a residence’s dry (without drilling deeper), or the climate being more brutal on well pumps and pressure tanks. Quality of the water that comes out may vary drastically with pollution or runoff requiring more frequent home testing or treatment.
I’m not saying well water is impossible to live on, I’m pointing out that its a bunch of work and doesn’t just “happen” like turning the tap on using municipal water.
Any time I have a piece of this feeling I’m reminded of the most underappreciated technological and society development: the flush toilet.
Its freakin’ magic that usually requires a functioning municipality to run dependably and cheaply. I just don’t think I can live a life long term without it.
I’m building a new building with a washroom and putting in a waterless toilet by choice. Flushing shit is kind of primitive if you ask me, a waste instead of resource, if you excuse the pun.
Not always possible in urban settings.
You make a great point for a sane person, but it’s unconvincing to a crazy hermit.
You can of have flushing toilets with a septic tank. It doesn’t have to be an outhouse.
I agree you can have flush toilets without municipal water or sewage, but therea septic tank solution that subtract from the “easy” part I was referring to with the municipal sewage solution.
With municipal sewage I’ve never had to change a failing septic tank macerator or worry about a impacts to the leech field. This says nothing about the regular pumping needed to maintain a septic tank.
I’ve never had to get my septic cleaned or serviced in over twenty years. Flush an enzyme pack every three months, it’ll never build up to needing flushed unless required when selling one day. I’ve had to replace a well pump once, really easy one day job. I’m sure municipal water and sewage is nice but I’ve never had either, pushing fifty years old. I never realized anyone considered these things difficult or complicated, I’m an idiot and have never ran into anything I couldn’t service myself.
Yep. Grew up in a village. We had flushing toilets that flushed into a septic tank.
A septic system isn’t that expensive nor hard to maintain. If you have access to well water you can run it near independently. Assuming electricity of course, which is often available even in places without sewer or water.
All you need is to occasionally pay someone to come and pump the tank
OPs scenario is paraphrased as “shack out in the woods removed from civilization”. Getting the equipment and workers out to such a place would present the first challenge.
See, now we’ve raised the bar to not only requiring a sewage solution, but also dependable electricity and water source. This is why a functioning society is so valuable. It can provide easy and cheap access to dependable water, sewage, electricity, and skilled workers to build, install, and maintain the systems that let the toilet function without a second though.
See point #1.
I’ve seen people way out there be able to run septic systems. We’re talking miles of dirt road through the mountains
Also have you even traveled the rural US? You can usually get electricity in the middle of absolutely no where. Thank FDR for that one.
Basically it’s perfectly possible to meet the shack in the woods definition in either of our models. You can find a place without access to these things in a rural setting, but you also can.
Give me a compost toilet any day! A peaceful poo, often with a view. No mixing water with shit and then needing to separate them again. Why make more work out of nothing!? A well kept compost toilet is heavenly. Plus zero splashback - can’t fault that. Keep water free of sewage!
toilets just require a water supply and somewhere to flush to
no need for municipal water supply and wastewater, though that does make it easy, but you can simply use stream water that gravity fills your well located water tanks, then flush into a septic container suitable for the location. or hell even hand pump the water up from a well - bicycles make great transmissions to drive pumps
My experience with living and depending on a well shows its anything but easy or dependable.
and anecdotally my experience and that of pretty much everybody I knew growing up says otherwise lol
I think you’re proving my point. Geography can change the experience significantly. This could be because local agricultural producers also use wells for irrigation running a residence’s dry (without drilling deeper), or the climate being more brutal on well pumps and pressure tanks. Quality of the water that comes out may vary drastically with pollution or runoff requiring more frequent home testing or treatment.
I’m not saying well water is impossible to live on, I’m pointing out that its a bunch of work and doesn’t just “happen” like turning the tap on using municipal water.
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Look up a blackwater system. That’s my goal if I ever can afford land