septic questions

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Is that basically a whole house system of composting toilets? I wish we could do that. It would not be approved. The only system approved in the county (without city sewer) is a traditional septic system with leach lines. If you don't have it installed, you won't get a permit to build. In fact, if you don't have it installed, you're not allowed to spend more than 14 days a year on "your" property. We are planning to go ahead & have it installed & build with regular toilets. Later, we can switch out individual toilets with composting toilets & not use the septic system. But if we want to build at all, we have to put it in initially. Does that seem stupid? It does to me, too.

FWIW, I found out from the Office of Planning that we will be the first family to build with alternative energy setup. We will have to go before the county board to be approved for it, but as of now, there is nothing against it in their building restrictions. I wish they'd just write down & publish what is or isn't allowed. Right now, it seems it could be very discriminatory & based mostly on favoritism.

what is a humanure system? We are the process of buying a newly built home which I am hoping to get "off the grid" as much as possible but of course will take time as the home is going to take most of our finances. We currently have a septic, which I know nothing about! And the system is right smack in the middle of the yard : such an inconvenient annoying place to put all of that if you ask me. So really I'd love to be rid of it and more self sufficient in that aspect.

Well, we do it based on The Humanure Handbook, which is a fabulous read and everyone should read it imo. Its really very very simple. You poop and pee in a five gallon bucket, cover it with a cover material (we use sawdust and used free grounds from the coffee shop, and chopped up grass from the yard.) When the bucket is full, you take it out to your compost pile, pull out a spot in the middle and upend the bucket, and cover the spot well with old hay, straw, or grass clippings. It does not smell (or it shouldn't!) we have people stand next to it when they are over and they are really surprised that that is where "all the poop goes" We compost it for two years and use it after that. I think the book recommends a one year hot compost, but we just do it two.
We started out by building the standard box around the bucket outlined in the book- basically a nice looking wooden box with a standard toilet seat and the bucket hidden. Last year I was at an antique store and saw the grooviest table/magazine holder with a retro look- it was a perfect toilet box! you can put magazines or books on each side and it opens from the front to pull the bucket out, and put a new one in. (our more standard box opens from the top)
We put the cover stuff in little buckets by the toilet.
One of the greatest things is just how quiet it is, and how simple. Things don't have to be complicated.

I think that might make my dh divorice me he is only as crunchy as I make him and I think that might push him too far. Sounds interesting though!