Flushing With a Bucket

I have just been reading a popular blog in thebucket*, previously filled from my rainwater
survival genre, and was prompted to write a fewcatchment tank.
comments about off-grid water supplies andI was happy as a lark for awhile, but then I
waste disposal, based upon my own experiences.decided to improve on things by setting a 55
My point here is not to find any fault with thegallon drum on a stack of concrete blocks outside
blog's commentary, but rather to add to it. Ithe (exterior) bathroom wall behind the toilet, run
understand that one writes about what one hasa line from the drum to the water inlet of the
experience with. That's all I am doing, too.toilet, and direct the water from one gutter to
The blog owner is an advocate (as am I) ofthe drum. Ah, such luxury! I no longer had to flush
buying a cheap piece of land and living thereon, invia a poured bucket of water; I now had an
an off-grid manner, in a cheap, older travel trailer.actual flush toilet, with the little handle and
He recognizes that a deep well and accompanyingeverything! The only thing I had to do in the way
pump is financially and logistically out of reach forof maintenance was, if there was an extended
most who are contemplating or living suchperiod of no or little rain, I had to go to the creek
lifestyle, and that this fact results in severe waterand get a jug of water to pour into the tank
rationing in many cases, whether one is haulingbefore I could flush. Or, as was more often the
water or using rainfall catchment, or a combinationcase, I would discover this when the water
thereof.actually ran out, resulting in no action when I pulled
Within this context, "Popular Blogger" (heretoforethe handle. In such cases, I would usually just go
identified as PB) talks about using a pump-upahead and pour the water directly into the bowl
sprayer as a shower, using water heated on aas before, after returning from the creek several
camp stove or, in winter, the woodstove. PB putshours later (surely you don't expect me to go to
forth the small hand-held sprayers, those lackingthe creek and not fish!).
any sort of hose, as ideal. He also is a believer inDuring one such dry spell, upon reaching back to
the sawdust toilet as a solution for human wastepull the handle and discovering that it didn't work, I
disposal. Of course, even such a frugal use ofstarted wondering if I should just use the water I
water creates some greywater from showering,had allocated for dishwashing rather than make
washing dishes, etcetera; and PB advises athe trip to the creek. Unfortunately, this would
"drywell" comprised of a 55 gallon oil drum withnecessitate putting off washing the dishes for
holes punched in the bottom, filled with rocks andanother day or two, and I was out of clean
buried.dishes, and paper plates for that matter. Then it
This makes a lot of sense, and is a workablesuddenly occurred to me that I could use the
solution. In fact, I have used just such a system,water for both purposes! By golly, just because
exactly as presented. I have also used similarwater has been used for washing dishes, does
systems which incorporated larger pump-upnot preclude its use for flushing a toilet!
sprayers (which I much prefer), stove orUp to now, I had been allowing the greywater to
solar-heated (I have a 1.5 gallon black plastic pumpjust run out onto the ground in the yard, using
up sprayer which, filled with water and placed inthe greywater drainpipe already installed in the
the sun, quickly gets hot enough for a nicetrailer. I showered in the tub using my pump-up
shower), as well as various types of RV andsprayer, occasionally took an actual bath when it
portable toilets. What I eventually ended up withrained enough that I was flush (no pun intended)
and used for awhile was a system which farwith water; used water bottles and the standard
surpassed any of the foregoing in convenience,lavatory for hand washing, toothbrushing and
and in fact would be sufficient as a permanentshaving; and heated water in a stock pot to fill
solution.the kitchen sink for dishwashing. All that
The way it happened was, I stumbled across angreywater, going to waste. Enough of that; I
old single-wide house trailer that needed to befound my hacksaw and proceeded to saw off
moved from the trailer park it was in, so that Ithe drain line from the kitchen sink and the
was able to acquire it for the grand sum of $50.lavatory, capping the end that went outside and
This trailer was replete with, among other things,placing a mud bucket under the stub coming from
a standard flush toilet in the bathroom. At thethe sink/lavatory to catch the water issueing
time I had been using an old portable toilet and,therefrom. I setup a 55 gallon plastic drum outside
while the portable was a workable solution, I fairlyat the end of the greywater line, to catch water
relished the possibility of having a standard flushfrom the tub. All this water, I used for flushing
toilet. So once I got the "new" abode in place andthe toilet.
leveled (relatively speaking), I used my oldThis worked well. Indeed, it worked so well that I
WWII-era Marlin bolt-action .22 rifle to shoot abegan having a problem with mosquito larvae
few holes in the sides and bottom of a 55 gallongrowing in the now-rarely-used toilet supply tank,
drum, then sunk it in a previously-dug hole.as well as water overflowing and running under
Instead of filling the drum with rocks as in PB'sthe trailer, so that I finally removed it altogether
drywell, I left the drum empty and filled the holeand diverted the output from that gutter to a
around it with rocks, as a sort of leach field. This,new fish pond. But that's a story for another day.
I covered with plastic sheeting and a layer of soil.Of course, I was back to flushing with a bucket
Then I ran a sewer line to the drum from myagain, but that's not such a big deal, is it?
newly acquired toilet and proceeded to start*5 gallon plastic bucket, so called because
utilizing same, flushing it by pouring about 3 gallons"sheetrock mud" is sold in such a bucket.
of water directly into the bowl from a mud