Hi. We are in eastern cape. Living in tents for the past 2 years. We use a 20L bucket system as well. We also work for an organization where we have installed waterless Ecosan toilets. Anyway. Our bucket system Do not smell at all. We do not urinate in our buckets. It dries very very fast without urine. You can urinate in a separate bucket and use the urine on your garden. You can do this by perhaps dosing the urine through biochar and then into your irrigation lines. We are now experimenting with this and working with the university. It was a game changer when we seperate sout fecal matter and urine as much as possible. I put the bucket one side when it full with a lid that allows for air but prevent rain getting inside. We use a mix of fine sand and broken down leaves. This contains microbial life that helps break it down. In two weeks, it’s broken down already and much lighter for us to carry down to the pit we dug. No smell when we empty. Hope this helps!
Hi please upload everyweek. I love watching farms, homesteads grow. I always come back to you All homesteaders farmers back yard gargening. I'm here to stay😮
Hi Jonathan. We're up in Heidelberg Gauteng and began our self sustainability adventure 14 years ago. Been living on the farm now for 10 years now and never had municipal power or water from day 1. We used sawdust toilets for many years before we got our septic tank going. Still use them here and there and tend to build up the bucket collection until we just have to empty them. Then we spend a crappy morning doing them all at once And until we empty them we leave them (black buckets, nogal) out in the sun to cook. Not sure if it's better to do it fresh or when they've been left out in the sun for a few months. We just layer a well out of the way open compost heap with grass cuttings and a top scraping from the sheep enclosure to cover it all. Two years and it's beautiful compost. A good book to get all the basics is The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins. I did find a free download copy on the internet somewhere a while ago, can't remember where though. Happy homesteading.
Hi there! Yes, not too sure whats best at the moment - to leave the buckets out until we have to empty them all or do them one by one as they fill up. To empty and clean all our buckets at once is working for us for now - looking forward to compost in the future! Thanks for watching.
New Subbie. Watching from London, UK. 😅😅😅😅 I died with laughter, you're hilarious. Thank you for your wit and dry humour, just what the doctor order after a VERY STRESSFUL afternoon at work- bless you. Sidenote, I'm actually coming to South Africa at the end of February for 3 weeks, I'm exploring the idea of relocating to SA and setting up a small homestead. If you have any ideas or real esatate websites, I should look at- that would be so greatly appreciated. I have been investigating on the web, but its always better when one can converses with folks on tne ground, who are LIVING IT. Keep up the excellent work/ beautiful content. 😊
A very good morning to you and thanks for the compliments and watching our shenanigans here while we try and build our homestead! The most popular site used by estate agents is probably Property24.co.za and I would recommend looking around in the Western Cape region. It's the most well run (and most stable province) and an absolutely beautiful part of the country. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of the ride here with us on the channel!
Thanks for your video. Liked and subscribed. I have a compost toilet in the Kamiesberg, Namaqualand, and don't have much of an issue with smell. Just ammonia smell, but nothing more. Maybe because we empty the buckets as soon as they're full. I get sawdust from the Western Cape. Probably the only con for me
Hi! Thanks for watching and subscribing - I think maybe that is what we should should be doing as well - emptying the buckets on a more regular basis as opposed to waiting until the last one is full and then emptying them all at once. How long do you compost for before using if you don't mind me asking? I've just picked up in the comments that some people go for as long as 5 years and others I've heard are only a few months....
Hi there! We're in Wolvengat and also just started our own compost toilet. We use a wheelie bin for ours which requires no emptying haha but it also takes 2-3 months to fill (we're only 2 weeks into our first one though). Might be worth looking into that! I've been struggling to find a supplier of the wood chips/shavings/sawdust, where did you get yours from? I tried Fynbos Logging and got their sawdust but it's not 100% suitable.
Hi there neighbour, that's an interesting idea, we'll definitely look into it! Due to us travelling quite regularly to Cape Town and back, we sometimes get from the sawmill in Stanford, and then also there is a sawmill on the highway just before Grabouw (after Houwhoek Farmstall - going to Cape Town) where we get huge bags filled for R10 per bag - cheap and works well. Good luck with the toilet!
Thank you@@overberghomesteading! I go to the city fairly often too so I'll check both Stanford and Grabouw out. That's such a good price, I think I paid like R50 a bag from Fynbos 😅 One thing you could do with your toilet to help with the smell is get/make a urine separator and pipe out the urine into a drain outside by gravity. One thing that really helps with the smell as well is ventilation! So far the only smell we get from our wheelie bin is just the sawdust. Anyway, keep us posted how it goes and if you need anything give us a shout, we're just down the road 😊
The "funny farm" How much poop? 11 buckets later! You even changed the little song. Not even earmuffs will save you! Monkey, what 🤣🤣🤣🤣 its nitrogen-rich. This was so informative and funny. Thank you for making homesteading fun. Also, when we inquired about our septic tank, we were told they only come after 5 years. so we have 2 more to go before they empty it.
Hey Audry! Yea, it was a rough video to make lol but glad you enjoyed it. Only every 5 years to empty your tank!!! Wow, thats hectic. Good luck for the next two years 😆 Always a pleasure hearing from fellow homesteaders trying to figure it all out 😁👍🏻
We followed the Lulu noordhoek guy, years ago .. I'm sure you'll find the tutorials on you tube .. The humanure must stand first time around is 5 years.. that's why you use wheelie bins first.. When it's full you empty into the middle section of the compost area(sectioned out) ..layering humanure brown garden refuse and green garden refuse in layers.. By this stage the compost does not smell like poo, just like compost!! You should not be letting your buckets stand around with poo in the heat.. Have shade trees over the wheelie bins.. 2 bins to alternate..when one is full use the other and leave full one till the current one full.. Empty current one in centre of compost by first spading the last lot alternating left and right sides.then layering as above. When the wheelie bin empty ..wash down thoroughly..remember strong chemicals kill the process.. I just use our salty borehole water and hose.. leave in sunshine to dry.. ready to use!? The daily bucket.. boys wee outside and use sawdust to poo.. pop in wheelie bin using dogs pooper scooper immediately.. rinse and refill the sawdust.. Have fun .. no more yukkie smellies.
Thanks for sharing your experience, it's really useful! Wow, we still have soo much to learn. I've heard of some people only composting for a few months before using. Ok great, will definitely implement some of your suggestions! Thanks a ton and thanks for watching!
Long drop. Is much better with the method of adding composting materials after every drop. Besides a sceptic tank is way more practical if you have good rain water catchment. Why live in the dark ages.
I may or may not have binged all your videos. I am done now. Figured out where you guys are based. (The art route gave it away). This video reminded me a lot about an Offgrid wit Doug and Stacy video they did a while back on the same topic. He leaves his buckets for a long time before throwing it on the heap. (They have a lot of buckets) I wonder if that will make a difference to the smell. That being said, it doesn't get very hot there like it does around here. Thanks for the crappy video.
I forgot to add, some people separate their number 1s and number 2s. Apparently it is the urine that makes everything else keep its smell (Don't ask me how it works) I believe Rob Greenfield spoke about this. I believe people use funnels in the front for the urine, Which is then diverted to a separate bottle. You can use this in your garden when watered down.
Yes, we watched that same Doug and Stacy video a while back and thats actually where we got our inspiration from to do the compost toilet, and then also leave the buckets until they're all full and then do the emptying. Not sure if emptying more regularly will affect the smell - think it will still be vile whichever way we do it. Thanks for watching!
O man, I laughed so hard! Thank you for putting a smile on my face. Love that you are giving the raw truths. I am trying to understand why the septic tank needs emptying? Is it not suppose to clean itself? Do you have a very small tank? I know it gets cleaned but didn't know it was so regularly. Love old Fanie.
Thanks for watching! We thought we'd give the cold hard truth about our journey throughout so glad you had a laugh 😆 All our septic tanks need to be emptied here as we are no longer allowed to build what used to be called "Soak Aways". Septic tanks have to be water tight and as a result will need to be emptied by the municipality - unfortunately. Yeah, we love our little piggies - Fanie just came in for... wait for it... another nap 😆
Ok that makes sense. Such a pity because the sewage system we currently have is also not working so why do away with septic tanks. Crazy. Fanie would make me extremely lazy...
Haha - yes, it was a bit of a kak job - but we're getting there slowly but surely! Yes, we saw some info on the methane thing and will maybe look at it in the future. For now, we still trying to get the basics right.
In the beginning we had the toilet and buckets, but nowhere to compost. So the buckets accumulated until we got the composting section built and then we emptied and cleaned them all from there. I suppose we've just stuck with that system. Some people have also commented that they empty their buckets more regularly - we may try that in the future.
In 🇨🇦 it's common to use sawdust or peat moss. Urine mixed with poo makes it more gross. Such darling little piggi💓s. Total cuteness overload. I have two indulged purr monsters. We sure love our pets. 🙂👍👍🇨🇦
Thanks for watching! Yes, we've heard about peat moss as well. For us sawdust seems to work well and as long as its covering what it must cover, and its not treated, and it's cheap, we'll keep on using it for now. But we'll see how it goes and maybe do a follow up video with how the compost turned out etc etc.
Hi. We are in eastern cape. Living in tents for the past 2 years. We use a 20L bucket system as well. We also work for an organization where we have installed waterless Ecosan toilets. Anyway. Our bucket system Do not smell at all. We do not urinate in our buckets. It dries very very fast without urine. You can urinate in a separate bucket and use the urine on your garden. You can do this by perhaps dosing the urine through biochar and then into your irrigation lines. We are now experimenting with this and working with the university.
It was a game changer when we seperate sout fecal matter and urine as much as possible. I put the bucket one side when it full with a lid that allows for air but prevent rain getting inside. We use a mix of fine sand and broken down leaves. This contains microbial life that helps break it down. In two weeks, it’s broken down already and much lighter for us to carry down to the pit we dug. No smell when we empty. Hope this helps!
Hi please upload everyweek. I love watching farms, homesteads grow. I always come back to you All homesteaders farmers back yard gargening. I'm here to stay😮
We're so glad you're here - we'll try our best!
Hi Jonathan. We're up in Heidelberg Gauteng and began our self sustainability adventure 14 years ago. Been living on the farm now for 10 years now and never had municipal power or water from day 1. We used sawdust toilets for many years before we got our septic tank going. Still use them here and there and tend to build up the bucket collection until we just have to empty them. Then we spend a crappy morning doing them all at once And until we empty them we leave them (black buckets, nogal) out in the sun to cook. Not sure if it's better to do it fresh or when they've been left out in the sun for a few months. We just layer a well out of the way open compost heap with grass cuttings and a top scraping from the sheep enclosure to cover it all. Two years and it's beautiful compost. A good book to get all the basics is The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins. I did find a free download copy on the internet somewhere a while ago, can't remember where though. Happy homesteading.
Hi there! Yes, not too sure whats best at the moment - to leave the buckets out until we have to empty them all or do them one by one as they fill up. To empty and clean all our buckets at once is working for us for now - looking forward to compost in the future! Thanks for watching.
New Subbie. Watching from London, UK. 😅😅😅😅 I died with laughter, you're hilarious. Thank you for your wit and dry humour, just what the doctor order after a VERY STRESSFUL afternoon at work- bless you.
Sidenote, I'm actually coming to South Africa at the end of February for 3 weeks, I'm exploring the idea of relocating to SA and setting up a small homestead.
If you have any ideas or real esatate websites, I should look at- that would be so greatly appreciated.
I have been investigating on the web, but its always better when one can converses with folks on tne ground, who are LIVING IT.
Keep up the excellent work/ beautiful content. 😊
A very good morning to you and thanks for the compliments and watching our shenanigans here while we try and build our homestead! The most popular site used by estate agents is probably Property24.co.za and I would recommend looking around in the Western Cape region. It's the most well run (and most stable province) and an absolutely beautiful part of the country. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of the ride here with us on the channel!
@@overberghomesteadingthank you so much for responding. I really appreciate your time and support. All the best for 2025 🎉🎉🎉
Really enjoyed this video 😂 great job of turn a crappy situation into a fruitful one...keep it up 🌻
LOL, thanks and thanks for watching, hope you're well on the way to recovery after your surgery 🤟
Beatifull.
Thanks for your video. Liked and subscribed. I have a compost toilet in the Kamiesberg, Namaqualand, and don't have much of an issue with smell. Just ammonia smell, but nothing more. Maybe because we empty the buckets as soon as they're full. I get sawdust from the Western Cape. Probably the only con for me
Hi! Thanks for watching and subscribing - I think maybe that is what we should should be doing as well - emptying the buckets on a more regular basis as opposed to waiting until the last one is full and then emptying them all at once. How long do you compost for before using if you don't mind me asking? I've just picked up in the comments that some people go for as long as 5 years and others I've heard are only a few months....
Love it, we do the same in Grabouw using 70l buckets & have a similar 2setup Humanure compost pile.
Excellent! Thanks for watching!
Hi there! We're in Wolvengat and also just started our own compost toilet. We use a wheelie bin for ours which requires no emptying haha but it also takes 2-3 months to fill (we're only 2 weeks into our first one though). Might be worth looking into that! I've been struggling to find a supplier of the wood chips/shavings/sawdust, where did you get yours from? I tried Fynbos Logging and got their sawdust but it's not 100% suitable.
Hi there neighbour, that's an interesting idea, we'll definitely look into it! Due to us travelling quite regularly to Cape Town and back, we sometimes get from the sawmill in Stanford, and then also there is a sawmill on the highway just before Grabouw (after Houwhoek Farmstall - going to Cape Town) where we get huge bags filled for R10 per bag - cheap and works well. Good luck with the toilet!
Thank you@@overberghomesteading! I go to the city fairly often too so I'll check both Stanford and Grabouw out. That's such a good price, I think I paid like R50 a bag from Fynbos 😅
One thing you could do with your toilet to help with the smell is get/make a urine separator and pipe out the urine into a drain outside by gravity. One thing that really helps with the smell as well is ventilation! So far the only smell we get from our wheelie bin is just the sawdust. Anyway, keep us posted how it goes and if you need anything give us a shout, we're just down the road 😊
The wheelie bin compost toilet looks the most practical to me.
Great video!!!! Haha love your share of the cons, the wind direction, sound etc 😂 Also very relevant thank you for the ‘crappy’ video 🙌
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi, thank you for sharing.
You're very welcome!
Nice grass out in the Overberg. Is this Tesselaarsdal?
Hi there, no but pretty close - we're in Baardskeersdebos.
The "funny farm" How much poop? 11 buckets later! You even changed the little song. Not even earmuffs will save you! Monkey, what 🤣🤣🤣🤣 its nitrogen-rich. This was so informative and funny. Thank you for making homesteading fun. Also, when we inquired about our septic tank, we were told they only come after 5 years. so we have 2 more to go before they empty it.
Hey Audry! Yea, it was a rough video to make lol but glad you enjoyed it. Only every 5 years to empty your tank!!! Wow, thats hectic. Good luck for the next two years 😆 Always a pleasure hearing from fellow homesteaders trying to figure it all out 😁👍🏻
We followed the Lulu noordhoek guy, years ago .. I'm sure you'll find the tutorials on you tube ..
The humanure must stand first time around is 5 years.. that's why you use wheelie bins first..
When it's full you empty into the middle section of the compost area(sectioned out) ..layering humanure brown garden refuse and green garden refuse in layers..
By this stage the compost does not smell like poo, just like compost!!
You should not be letting your buckets stand around with poo in the heat..
Have shade trees over the wheelie bins..
2 bins to alternate..when one is full use the other and leave full one till the current one full..
Empty current one in centre of compost by first spading the last lot alternating left and right sides.then layering as above.
When the wheelie bin empty ..wash down thoroughly..remember strong chemicals kill the process.. I just use our salty borehole water and hose.. leave in sunshine to dry.. ready to use!?
The daily bucket.. boys wee outside and use sawdust to poo.. pop in wheelie bin using dogs pooper scooper immediately.. rinse and refill the sawdust..
Have fun .. no more yukkie smellies.
Thanks for sharing your experience, it's really useful! Wow, we still have soo much to learn. I've heard of some people only composting for a few months before using. Ok great, will definitely implement some of your suggestions! Thanks a ton and thanks for watching!
what area have you living in in the overberg?
Hi - we're in Baardskeerdersbos.
In south Africa we all need to get off the grid
Would highly recommend it!
Long drop. Is much better with the method of adding composting materials after every drop. Besides a sceptic tank is way more practical if you have good rain water catchment. Why live in the dark ages.
Do you drive a donkey cart around or do you have car.
Donkey Cart LOL - We have cars.
What did you pour into the empty buckets from the bottle?
Hi neighbour - we use a product called Clean Green to clean the buckets.
I may or may not have binged all your videos. I am done now. Figured out where you guys are based. (The art route gave it away). This video reminded me a lot about an Offgrid wit Doug and Stacy video they did a while back on the same topic. He leaves his buckets for a long time before throwing it on the heap. (They have a lot of buckets) I wonder if that will make a difference to the smell. That being said, it doesn't get very hot there like it does around here. Thanks for the crappy video.
I forgot to add, some people separate their number 1s and number 2s. Apparently it is the urine that makes everything else keep its smell (Don't ask me how it works) I believe Rob Greenfield spoke about this. I believe people use funnels in the front for the urine, Which is then diverted to a separate bottle. You can use this in your garden when watered down.
Yes, we watched that same Doug and Stacy video a while back and thats actually where we got our inspiration from to do the compost toilet, and then also leave the buckets until they're all full and then do the emptying. Not sure if emptying more regularly will affect the smell - think it will still be vile whichever way we do it. Thanks for watching!
Hi hope you well like your idea get InTouch with me I can advise you on a more effective method for your toilet composting in also in the region
this is my dream just dont have funds,living in the country that is
O man, I laughed so hard! Thank you for putting a smile on my face. Love that you are giving the raw truths. I am trying to understand why the septic tank needs emptying? Is it not suppose to clean itself? Do you have a very small tank? I know it gets cleaned but didn't know it was so regularly. Love old Fanie.
Thanks for watching! We thought we'd give the cold hard truth about our journey throughout so glad you had a laugh 😆
All our septic tanks need to be emptied here as we are no longer allowed to build what used to be called "Soak Aways". Septic tanks have to be water tight and as a result will need to be emptied by the municipality - unfortunately. Yeah, we love our little piggies - Fanie just came in for... wait for it... another nap 😆
Ok that makes sense. Such a pity because the sewage system we currently have is also not working so why do away with septic tanks. Crazy. Fanie would make me extremely lazy...
Kak job mate.....but we'll done.
Have you thought about producing your own methane gas to cook with and possible heat water.
Haha - yes, it was a bit of a kak job - but we're getting there slowly but surely! Yes, we saw some info on the methane thing and will maybe look at it in the future. For now, we still trying to get the basics right.
Why not empty the buckets individually, instead of waiting untl you have 11 buckets.... do not understand the rational in that.
In the beginning we had the toilet and buckets, but nowhere to compost. So the buckets accumulated until we got the composting section built and then we emptied and cleaned them all from there. I suppose we've just stuck with that system. Some people have also commented that they empty their buckets more regularly - we may try that in the future.
In 🇨🇦 it's common to use sawdust or peat moss. Urine mixed with poo makes it more gross. Such darling little piggi💓s. Total cuteness overload. I have two indulged purr monsters. We sure love our pets. 🙂👍👍🇨🇦
Thanks for watching! Yes, we've heard about peat moss as well. For us sawdust seems to work well and as long as its covering what it must cover, and its not treated, and it's cheap, we'll keep on using it for now. But we'll see how it goes and maybe do a follow up video with how the compost turned out etc etc.