A Wonderful Discovery

 

I have a composting toilet in the camper.  I removed the factory flushing toilet back in 2016 and installed the composting toilet before hitting the road for good.  One of the best modifications I have ever made.  You can use various mediums in composting toilets such as pine pellets, wood shavings (like for hamster cages) and coco coir which is what I have always used.  Coco coir is compressed coconut husk fiber and is used in gardening.  I chose it because it comes in compressed bricks (the size of a brick) which makes for easy storage where storage space is at a premium in a camper.

The only drawback is they are a bear to breakdown.  I usually wait until I am at a campground that has concrete picnic tables.  There I can beat the crap out of them with my hatchet and shave off chunks and slices with a large military knife with great effort.  Most of the time my wrists give out before I get halfway breaking down the brick.  I have to stop.

Here at San Pedro there was a concrete table.  Okay, I gotta do this.  The first whack with the hatchet the sound was amplified within that metal roofed awning resonating throughout the campground.  Crap!  Not putting up with that.  I put everything away and went inside to brew a cup of tea.  What to do?

There’s gotta be a better way.  I Googled it.  

Well golly Sargent Carter!  Soak the brick in water!

I went back outside, dug out my collapsable bucket, dumped in a gallon of water and dropped in my partially shaved brick from the last time of fruitless labor.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The brick began to separate away in layers within a minute.  This just might work.  I reached in and the layers were soft to the touch easily crumbling away like peat moss garden mulch you buy in big bags at the garden center.

Amazing!

I dug out from the back these cookie sheet pans I bought years ago in a failed attempt to create a windbreak screen for my little barbecue.  I have been hauling them around for years, never using them.  Now finally, they have a use.  The brick easily crumbled away.  I spread the crumbly coconut coir out in the three pans to dry in the sun.

Now most people would whoop and holler, jumping for joy when they come upon a great solution for a problem they have long suffered with for years  Me?  I just quietly stand there shaking my head trying to not say to myself stupid, stupid, STUPID!