Sunday 26 January 2014

Pit toilet update








At last we have restarted work on the long planned five star pit toilet. It has become increasingly urgent for us to have a new toilet hole (the old one is getting uncomfortably near the end of it's usefulness).
Over the previous month or so we have all had a go at digging the pit deeper and wider, and it is almost deep enough at last. Today my (fairly reluctant) partner and eldest daughter were chased outside to begin building the framing for cement frame that will support the floor over the pit. Once the cementing is completed we will lay the floor over the pit (two sheets of really thick ply wood with a hole drilled in one), organize a pedestal (of some sort), put up a temporary shelter and it will be usable. The building part will be put together over the next six months or so.



The start of the frame for cement 'stem walls' to hold the floor up above the moisture and stuff.









The finished frame work, ready for cement.

The two sheets of ply for the floor, 


Nothing to do with toilets, but our baby guinea fowls have grown up enough to be out in the yard with their mum.

Everyone watches the cement mixer go around and around and around and...

Six or seven mixes later.

It's almost full.

Smoothing out the top.

All done.

Roady (the butcher bird) fancies himself a building inspector.

Last minute touch ups after the dogs and sheep have inspected the work.

We admire our work as the sun goes down.
The next stage is to dig some more out of the pit (the deeper the better) and to  begin the building of the toilet. I look forward to it.

Just updating this post with a photo or two of the recent digging.

The hole is now 1.4 x 0.8 x 0.9 m; a tiny bit over one cubic metre of hole (I think)


My eldest daughter busily scooping out gravelly soil.

3 comments:

  1. I thought they were deeper then that

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    1. It will be much deeper than that (about twice as deep to be exact). The ground is as hard as rock though so the going is really slow. We just decided to do the cementing and floor now and continue digging tomorrow. My usual (20 week) hole is about 1 and a half metres deep but only 40 cm wide at the top. I want this one to be much bigger in capacity. It has to be usable soon though.

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    2. The 'almost deep enough' was wishful thinking really.

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