Alan miehiä ja naisia - the fans of the DT!

We had been living in a rented house next to Pellas for months but since March-April 2011 we got too home-sick. So every evening we cleaned the day's building dust away, put our sleeping-bags on the floor and filled our hot-water-bottles... We had still plastic covers at the windows but the old ovens did their best to keep us warm.

Olimme olleet kuukausia evakossa remontin tieltä, mutta nyt emme malttaneet enää. Maalis-huhtikuusta 2011 lähtien asettelimme iltaisin patjamme sahanpurua lakaisten ja hämähäkkejä hätistellen. Ja niin kuin englantilaiset tekevät vetoisia taloja ja käyttävät kuumavesipulloja, mekin. Kömmimme nukkumaan hölskyvät putelit kainalossa, kakluulit hehkuivat kamareissa ja suojamuovit heiluivat ikkunoissa, kun mereltä nousi tuuli. Päivällä ei aina uskonut, että illalla pärjäisi vain tuplavillasukin. Se oli vuosi sitten...

Kitchen in the spring 2011. We sat in our sleeping-bags in the evening and read brochures. We had  to decide what kind of toilet and water-cleaning system we would choose. The more we read the more we understood that ours would be the DT and a system of small biological purification plant. Water is so crusial for us humans - there are already wars fought for water. Over half of our bodies is water. 

Muovi pullisteli. Me levitimme makuupussien päälle sänkylukemista ja ahmimme DT-tietoutta. Vertailimme, opimme ja ihastuimme. Tämä on meidän juttumme! DT, Dry Toilet eli kotokieleksi kuivakäymälä on nykypäivän moderniteetti, jonka ystävillä on yhdistyskin. Vesivessoja käytettiin jo ennen ajanlaskun alkua mm. indus-kulttuurissa ja Rooman valtakunnassa, mutta water closetien totinen aika alkoi viktoriaanisesta Englannista. Nykyihmisen näkökulmasta ne ovat siis historiallisia. 

They had water-closets already in the ancient Indus culture and in Rome, although the modern ones were introduced in the Victorian England - so history! It is always short of water in the archipelago, and when we counted that with a family of this size we would need over 100 000 litres clean water only to flush the toilet, we were convinced that the dry toilets - that even have their own fan-club in Finland - would be the most modern solution.

Turkulainen DT-alan mies näyttää meille omin kourin, että multaa siitä tulee kovimmastakin keitoksesta! Liemet voi laimentaa, ja joku neropatti on keksinyt niitä varten oman kannun. Kultainen Suihku kourassa voi sitten pirskotella kovettua kasvuvoimaa pitkin kasvitarhaa vähän salaattipenkkiä vain vältellen.

Our purification system was installed - the three green pots -  and pipe lines from the DTs inside the houses during summer 2011. The owner of Pikku Vihreä showed us litteraly with his own hands how everything eventually turns into soil that you can then use in your garden.

And the urine you can mix with water and fertilize your land - perhaps a bit avoid the sallads.. - after 2 months of rest in a barrel. And some wise-guy had even invented a watering-can called the Golden Shower! Our big green pot under-ground has to be emptied once a year by a waste collection firm. The whole system was easy and cheap thanks to the dry toilets and the using of environmental friendly products in cleaning.

Vedestä soditaan jo tällä pallolla. Elämää ei ole ilman vettä, ja meistä ihmisistä yli puolet on sitä. Vaikka meillä suomalaisilla riittää vettä pyttyyn asti, täällä saaristossa makeaa vettä on niukalti. Laskimme omaa suurperhekulutustamme. Kun pelkkä vessavesilukema vuodessa nousi yli sadantuhannen litran, DT-läisyytemme vahvistui. Jätevesijärjestelmästäkin tuli helppo ja halpa. On niitä pyttyjä muuten city-malleinakin, vaikka me päädyimme purutettuun jättisaavisysteemiin, sattuneesta syystä.

In our tiny bathroom inside the house we chose a small dry-toilet model.  It is simple and clean, and meant for an extreme hurry, rainy days or dark nights. 

Just in case our guests are not so used to visiting a DT we wrote some instructions on the door. ..

In all the other cases it is to run across the yard to the big DT, by the old barn. That is EXTREME on a different scale. On windy days you won't even need any toilet paper... This is the main DT until  the new one will be built ready - hopefully by next winter!

The big pot underneath is replaced after becoming full and is waiting to turn into a gardening product... Same kind of system will be used in the new DT, too. The piss is collected in a barrel to fertilize the garden this spring.

Me isot nautimme aamu- ja iltakylvystä käyttäen vanhan saunan pesuvateja, on savun tuoksua iltapesulla ja hilpaisua yli pihan hyysikkään. Katselemme uusin silmin sisävessoja, ja kirjoitamme kauppalistaan munakellon. Suihkusta seonneet teinilotraajat kuitenkin nauttivat myös juoksevasta vedestä, eivätkä muuten osaa ulos kaapista. Meilläkin soditaan vedestä!

We grown-ups enjoy the simple pleasures of the old sauna, smell of the smoke, run over the yard in a star-clear night. The teenagers prefer the small shower-cabin inside the house. But we need to get a timer - they would stand there for ages and the boiler is tiny - so we fight for the water, too...

 ... And for those of you who got interested:) http://www.pikkuvihrea.fi/ - ours is the Green Toilet 330 and inside the house Separett Villa. And the club: http://www.huussi.net/ 

Tiny tiny bathroom

Over 50 years ago the old baking oven in the kitchen had to give room for a small bathroom behind it - so instead of over 30 bread it now takes seven, and the tiny room behind it was a some kind of utilitity room with a wash-basin and our washing-machine during the first summer here.

Under 4 squaremetres of well-planned surface!

The new building-rules required though a shower inside the house if we were to have bedrooms in two floors - even if we are building a new utility-cabin, a separate house with a shower, sauna, laundry and the main DT only 8 metres from the main building. We wanted to minimize the risk of humidity in an old log-house and to have the original rooms, so the small room behind the oven was our only hope.

A steady log wall was hidden behind a plastic tile imitation

We started with the digging. No treasures but rotten timber that had to be replaced and instead of the old cement floor a sewerage system for the shower and DT to be built. 

At some point it did feel a bit challenging...

A natural air-conditioning?

The sewerage system on its way in and out..

We wanted to save the old white ceramic tiles and instead of wrapping the whole room in plastic have a good floor carpet and a shower cabin.

Wooden panelling ready and the plastic carpet ordered!

But until our new utility cabin is ready our best friends are the old sauna and the old DT, hyysikkä, even if it sometimes takes super powers - and will - to run across the yard in dark, in rain and freezing.