The Farm and Living Sustainably

The Big Dome and Kitchen at sunset

At first glance the farm seems very different from an everyday convenient apartment or house. But really it’s very similar. We have bedrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and showers. The students in the Eco program, that includes me, share a dome with a roommate. The domes are formed with wooden frames, with a tent like plastic material over them. We have real windows that we can open or replace with screened versions on hot days. Our domes even come with covered stoops at the entry.

Down along the path from our living quarters you come to what we lovingly call the Big Dome. Inside it is much bigger than our personal domes and there are couches, bookshelves, rugs, and a wood-burning stove. This is where we have lots of meetings as well as eating Breakfast and Dinner.

To the right of the Big Dome and up a few stairs is our kitchen and outdoor dish washing sink area. The kitchen is small but bigger than most Manhattan ones. A marble counter top surrounds the stove and sink with lots of shelving underneath for all our food supplies. I think I’ve finally gotten used to the placement of everything in the kitchen to feel really comfortable cooking in there. Opposite the main kitchen entrance there is another door that leads down to our herb garden. It’s not much right now because we are just coming out of winter. But there is mint, oregano, lemongrass, sage, cilantro, and rosemary growing there for the picking and using.

One of the best parts about the farm is that there is food everywhere. Parts of the teachings in permaculture is to stop growing plants in a monoculture environment and have lots of types of plants growing together in one area. So wherever you walk on the farm you will see random plants for the eating. I’m lucky that I already know how to identify most plants so it’s easy for me to grocery shop. But for some of the others students in my program its taking some time. I’ll go more into food/harvesting later, for now I’m going to get back to the farm lay out.

Next to the kitchen are the showers. We have two enclosed showers including a sink and mirror like every typical bathroom. We have hot water too, which is heated by solar panels and stored in a hot water heater near by. Even on cloudy days we can get hot water. Not much…lol..but enough for a quick rinse off. There is also an outdoor shower not to far away. It’s really quite beautiful. The mud sculpting team created an adobe wall and bench that surrounds the shower for privacy but because its located in a grove of trees its really quite secluded. This is definitely my favorite spot. As everyone in my family knows how the beach outdoor showers can be, this is just as fabulous.

And last but not least the toilets. The toilets are on the opposite side of the perimeter from the kitchen and showers because we use the grey water from the showers and kitchen to water the plants in the immediate area. And gravity plays a big part in that system. But really quick I think I should go into what Grey water is. There are two types of wastewater that we create in our everyday usage, Grey water and Black water. Grey water is wastewater but its everything that comes from typical washing activities and Black water is wastewater that is typically from toilets. It is basically sewage. Obviously this cannot be used to water plants. Our Grey water does go through a filtering process before it touches the plants though. That was my chore for this last month was to change out the filters (i.e. straw) to keep the process clean. Also we only use biodegradable soaps on the farm so as not to kill the plants. But back to the toilets and Black water. On the farm there are no sewer lines or septic tanks. The goal of this farm is to be completely sustainable. So we use compost toilets. This thought can sometime make people cringe but I’ve learned in the last few weeks how sanitary and smell-less they can be. We have two restrooms side by side. They are raised up on a platform surrounded by an adobe walls and door. Inside its like most typical toilets with toilet seats, toilet paper, even reading materials. The main difference is that once you are finished instead of flushing you scoop a bowl full of mulch (that is provided inside the bathroom) into the hole below. This stops smells and the whole disgusting liquid effect that port-a-potties get. If it does start to smell that means the pH is out of balance so we burn dried sage and throw some ash down there. Eventually when the hole gets full we have to change it out. Now I know how this sounds, pretty awful, but that too was a part of my chores this month and it wasn’t bad. I was prepared for something totally horrible and disgusting, but it’s not because of this great system they have put together here. Basically the hole you do your business in is really a large round container, it kind of looks like a keg. So when its full we cover what’s inside with a bunch more mulch, stuff some lavender down there (you don’t have to touch any fecal matter), and put the lid on. We roll the container out, unscrew the lid and put some more dried materials over it and let it sit. I haven’t gotten through the entire process but eventually it will be used as some kind of compost. We refer to as Humanure. Now the Health board won’t let it be used on any of the plants we consume. But once the composting as been thoroughly processed (lots of heat, added bacterias, worms, and time) it becomes a completely usable material. They’ve taken the material to labs and had it tested for all kinds of things and there are no traces of sewage materials or harmful bacteria once the process is completely done. I still have qualms about it but once you realize it’s not smelly it makes the process easier to deal with. In an environment and on a land where plant material and compost are so important because the lacks of rain, all resource are used including humanure, which are vitally important to keeping the soil healthy and fertilized.