As I work to set up the habitat for the family, with all the ways the home structure will be interconnected and be a part of the ecosystem that is the land, I get mad at the way my current home is set up at times. Not only because of the old cobbled together aspects of the previous owner’s work that leaked and cried for change, but the way the process is on a larger scale. I wasn’t really keen to focus on this house and the problems it faced and was hoping it to be more of a weigh station to hold us until we get our home finished. The house had other plans, first with a groaning greeting from a gurgle in the shower.

Having dealt with problems like this before I thought of the way to fix it. The main line of the house’s sewer had obstructions. A one hundred foot sewer snake was rented and I went to work. Several hours were spent hunched over the clean out hole, feeding this spinning metal monstrosity to the maximum length. No relief was given. Even with all of the roots that were extracted the line remained obstructed. What I had feared may be the case, a broken down line.

Replacing or repairing a sewer line can either be an extensive process for the individual to undertake or a massive expense to shell out to another person. If something can be done by my own hands, then for the most part I will endeavor to complete the task. What needs to be done for a repair or replacing a line? It needs to be located, dug up, and the problem area has to be found. In many instances it may be more beneficial to replaced the whole line, might as well trench the whole thing if you are digging something up anyway because chances are that line will have another problem down the road. The snag was the jurisdiction over the process. I would be required to pull permits, dig up more than I want to tap into the city main at a more convenient place for them, and then they plan to change their set up down the road. There must be a better solution.

The house filled with storm and matter as thoughts rumbled in my mind… Most of the water and sewer infrastructure of towns are probable set up in the same manner. People by the water the municipality has available, poison the water with chemicals and waste, and pay to flush it back to the municipal system. They then treat the unusable water, dress it up with some different chemicals, sell off the waste sludge to farmers to “help” grow crops, and then sell the water back to the people. Time to take the house partially out of the loop.

The sewer lines need to be categorized and their destination needs to be separated. The black water goes directly to the city’s sewer system at this point, Mainly because there are laws regarding black water, the water poisoned with human waste, and while ideally I don’t want to create any, there still may be some. Essentially now the system is to collect it in buckets with a heaping amount of cover material and store it in a secure area for composting with other organic material, and sometimes the original toilet system will be needed. The bucket contents needs to be allowed go through the natural break down process after being added to the pile, I like to give it around eighteen months to make sure all processes have taken place, and transform it from poison to rich fertile dirt feed. All of the grey water lines have been diverted to a holding tank with ejection pump. Grey lines are those that may contain soap like from sinks and showers, you know basically not the toilet lines. When the tank is full the pump sends the water outside.

Outside is where beauty takes place. Along with hard work. Armed with hammer and shovel the driveway was dismantled, and transformed into a garden stream with tiny pond. Around it life will spring and bare fruit. Beside it, an industrial colored box that more and more makes itself known to be a home, looking closer and closer like that habitat that I work to create elsewhere.

As the new ecosystem changes I will add photos below. From above, the top of the page pictures, I have broken up the driveway to a point and started creating the channel for the stream. I am allowing the water to cut in deeper into the dirt before I add small rocks. The rocks help the water go further down the area. As the area changes I will decide how and where to pool water. In the meantime the central part will be made into garden space, starting with flowers and mushrooms to help filter any toxins there may be out of the water before it reaches the area that will have fruits and vegetables growing. Really it should be good nutrient rich water with food bits from the sink and biosafe soaps, so no toxins really, but better to be cautious.

I hope this may be of some use. Pretty much a way to keep some resources and use them again. Send me an email if you would like any more detailed information. There is a lot in the pictures and the words, so I don’t mind answering any questions if you want to set something useful up for yourself.

Footnote.

I could keep adding picture after picture of the overgrown garden.

I would rather just stop the notation of this project and share the outcome and thoughts going forward.

The constant supply of water allowed the entire area to flourish. From the creation in early in the year (2023) to this assessment towards the end of October the same year, the plants were green and produced fruit.

It really got out of control if one were to look at it from the outside. Around late August early September the sunflowers begin to die off, but the tomatoes went crazy… They small varities of tomatoes overgrew everything and are still producing. Even with record heat and it remaining exposed the plants were able to get a constant source of water and nutrients. It seems as though they will last until the freeze and wel will winterize and ready it for the same thing next year, but maybe we will keep it a little better pruned….