Building our first Lovable Loo

I do not have a secret toilet file that is 150 pages long. That is a complete fabrication and I resent the associated implications.

It is only 117 pages long.

And I might add, that includes some reference material and contents pages.

The reason I have spent so much time and effort on designing, what I hope will be an odourless and insect-less (read flies) double seater, is that I like spending time on the loo.

I really like it.

Give me a good book and a quiet loo and I am a happy man.

The loo is the only place in our house that I can get any peace and quiet. Really.

And even then, only if you plan it carefully.

Too early in the evening and 33.5 seconds after my bum has hit the seat I get a reasonably chilly "please can you do that later, you have been at work all day and this is the one time you can help out and spend some time with the kids".

Then, if I don't lock the door, by page two of my reading material I normally have a 4 year old elbow resting on my naked knee, supporting a very vocal face, asking question after question. I mean, doesn't the smell mean anything to them. Perhaps they are genetically protected.

And then if I do lock the door, three times out of four, I have very small hands pounding on the outside calling me out. (I suspect to their mothers glee)

"Don't blame me that I have to go to the loo once each morning and once each evening. It is a sign of good health."

Anyway, I very rarely get a chance to have a good read.

So for me, a loo is a sacred place. An escape. The good Lord knows I need one.

Importantly, living in Nqileni means that if I build well I can sit on the loo and watch dolphins.

I am not joking, nor am I exaggerating. This is true.

So yes, a lot of effort has gone into having a good loo.

We will have a double-seater. One for wet and one for solids.

(Dry solids won't smell. You want to separate the two in a way that is practical)
Our wet loo is a very simple bucket system that either get emptied each day, or if the landscape allows I will drain with a 20mm irrigation pipe.
The solid loo is slightly more complex and includes an extraction pipe, a clever way to make sure you don't get flies, and is completely biodegradable. Anyway, I will post the technical specs of this is later (with drawings of course)

back to today, today we had a dry run on our wet loo (the bucket one remember)

Basically, you build a box without a bottom (I used 18mm shutter ply)

Our box dimensions are 350mm x 500mm x 536mm. This perfectly fits a 20 litre plastic bucket inside.

The lid of the box is hinged so that it can be lifted up. You then cut a hole in the lid of the box to match and line up with the bucket below, pop on a comfortable loo seat, give everything a good sanding, and Bob's your uncle.

Good result. All it needs is a touch more sanding and a couple of coats of varnish.

The smiling, helpful chap below is our wonderful neighbour, Bruce, who kindly helped me rout out perfect circles in our lids.

He also very kindly lent us two manual drills. Those old ones you turn by hand. Lifesavers in an area without electricity.

Sonja gave us a dry run and a comfort level test (after a glass of wine.)

Followed by Mila, who, bless her soul, gave me a wet run. (Poop in there my girl and you can kiss (your arse as well as) your pocket money goodbye!)

So, we have had our first deposit - so to speak.

Our lovable loo has been christened.

Master Bird List

This is the start of our master birding list that we will keep updated. Photographs are by Gene Gage from our September 2008 site visit.

Cape Gannet - Sula capensis
Grey Headed Gull - Larus cirrocephalus
Kelp Gull - Larus dominicanus
Swift Tern - Sterna bergii
Reed Comorant -Phalacrocorax africanus
Grey Heron - Ardea cinerea
Blackheaded Heron - Ardea melanocephala
Little Egret - Egretta garzetta
Cattle Egret - Bubulcus ibis
Hammerkop - Scopus umbretta
Greater Flamingo - Phoenicopterus ruber
African spoonbill - Platalea alba
Sacred Ibis - Threskiornis aethiopicus
Hadeda Ibis - Bostrychia hagedash
Egyptian Goose - Alopochen aegyptiacus
African Black Duck - Anus sparsa
Yellow Billed Duck - Anus undulata
Water Dikkop - Burhinus vermiculatus
Black Kite - Milvus migrans migrans
African Fish Eagle - Haliaeetus vocifer
Lanner Falcon - Falco biarmicus
Crowned Crane - Balearica regulorum
Whitefronted Plover - Charadrius marginatus
Threebanded Plover - Charadrius tricollaris
Blacksmith Plover - Vanellus armatus
Turnstone - Arenaria interpres
Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus
Cape Turtle Dove - Streptopelia capicola
Green Pigeon - Treron calva
Purple Crested Lourie - Tauraco porphyreolophus
Burchell's Coucal - Centropus burchelli
Speckled Mousebird - Colius striatus
Pied Kingfisher - Ceryl rudis
Giant Kingfisher - Ceryl maxima
Halfcollared Kingfisher - Alcedo semitorquata
Malachite Kingfisher - Alcedo cristata
Brownhooded Kingfisher - Halcyon albiventris
Redbilled Woodhoopoe - Phoeniculus purpureus
Crowned Hornbill - Tockus erythrorhynchus
Ground Hornbill- Bucorvus leadbeateri
Blackcollared Barbet - Lybius torquatus
Olive Woodpecker - Mesopicos griseocephalus
Golden Tailed Woodpecker - Campethera abingoni
Rufousnaped Lark - Mirafra africana
Lesser Striped Swallow - Hirundo abyssinica
European Swallow - Hirundo rustica
Brown Throated Martin (African Sand Martin)- Riparia paludicola
Rock Martin - Hirundo fuligula
Black Saw-wing Swallow - Psalidoprocne holomelas
Forktailed Drongo - Dicurus adsimilis
Black Flycatcher - Melaenornis pammelaina
Whitenecked Raven - Corvus albicollis
Blackeyed bulbul - Pycnonotus barbatus
Sombre Bulbul - Andropadus importunus
Olive Thrush - Turdus olivaceus
Orange Thrush - Turdus gurneyi
Cape Robin - Cossypha caffra
Natal Robin - Cossypha natalensis
Barthroated Apalis - Apalis thoracica
Greenbacked Bleating Warbler - Camaroptera brachyura
Fantailed Cisticola - Cisticola juncidis
Tawnyflanked Prinia - Prinia subflava
Dusky Flycatcher - Muscicapa adusta
Black Flycatcher - Melaenoris pammelaina
Paradise Flycatcher - Terpsiphone viridis
Southern Boubou - Laniarius ferrugineus
Longtailed Wagtail - Motacilla clara
Cape Wagtail - Motacilla capensis
Plainbacked Pipit - Anthus leucophrys
Orangethroated Longclaw - Macronyx capensis
Redwing Starling - Onychognathus morio
European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris
Cape Glossy Starling - Lamprotornis nitens
Blackbellied Glossy Starling - Lamprotornis corruscus
Greater Doublecollared Sunbird - Nectarinia afra
Collared Sunbird - Anthreptes collaris
Black Sunbird - Nectarinia amethystina
Cape White-eye - Zosterops pallidus
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus
Cape Sparrow - Passer melanurus
Spectacled Weaver - Ploceus ocularis
Forest Weaver - Ploceus bicolor
Red Shouldered Widow - Euplectes axillaris
Redcollared Widow - Euplectes ardens
Longtailed Widow - Euplectes progne
Bluebilled Firefinch - Lagonosticta rubricata
Common Waxbill - Estrilda astrild

Pintailed Whydah - Vidua macroura

Sustainable Living Introduction

We will record all of our experiences in setting up our sustainable living systems. Successes and failures. If you are planning something similar, you might be able to figure out what not to try. This catagory will include projects like showers, toilets, solar power solutions, cooking solutions, collecting fresh water, building wind generators, testing various lighting systems, refuse removal, grey water systems and more. We will be completely off grid and setting some of these systems up might be helpful to you, or others.

Home Schooling Introduction

We will keep a blog of all of our home schooling experiences. Neither of us has any experience in schooling, but we feel confident (and anxious) and have researched things reasonably well. The idea is to mix some formal home schooling with lots of project work. The kids have already starting making lists of all the interesting projects they will be able to run with an abundance of forests, rock pools, beaches, shells, bee hives, vegetable plots, chickens, goats and other lifestock.

We will have internet conectivity and will be taking up our microscope, telescope and ant farm.

For those who aren't family we have three children to home school.

Skye is turning nine on the 10th of March of 2009.

Mila is turning five on the 10th of February of 2009.

Caleb is three years old and turns four in October of 2009.

It will be interesting to see what ahppens in reality. We are planning to spend two hours per day home schooling Skye (splitting the time between us)

Sonja will probably focus on teaching her numeracy and biology, while I will teach her literacy natural sciences.

The two younger ones will spend about four hours per day at the early learning centre that Sonja is busy setting up within the community.

Fishing and Foraging Introduction

This warranted its own catagory. The first box I packed was all our fishing gear. Each of the kids has their own rod. The plan is that we will have about three fish meals per week, and sustain ourselves as much as we can from the environment. That means we have to catch fish, collect mussels, oysters and crayfish. There are obviously other more exotic seafood lines we can harvest such as red bait, octopus and other shell life. We will keep track of all the fishing and foraging try and post pictures and comments just what we have been able to eat.
Remember it is a six hour return drive to the shops.
Foraging will include everything from Guineafowl, to pigeons, to field mice, to mushrooms. One of us is more keen than the other to see jsut what we can catch, forage and eat.

We will of course do all of this within environmentally sustainable bounds.

Lifestock and Amimals Introduction

This catagory will deal with our attempts at keeping a few chickens, perhaps a couple of geese, a dog well past his sell-by date, and hopefully two milk goats. If the kids and their dad have their way this may also include a horse.
We are planning to keep a rooster and about two dozen chickens to get a reasonable supply of eggs, and take one or two for the pot each week.
If we do get the goats, it will be for milk, and this will not only give us fresh milk, but will allow us to try our hand at some cheese and yogurt making.
We will definitly also get a bee hive established.
Oh, and the good news (not) is that Skye is saving up for a kitten.
If I can find a way to ensure that there is no environmental impact, and everything is legal and above board I would also like to try a few rabbits (to eat and for their pelts) and a pig or two to help dispose of our waste, and for the pot.

Introduction to From our Kitchen

The great news is, we can, and will, have a total gastronomic adventure for two years.
We will be cooking on open coals, supplemented with a little two plate gas cooker, and I will definitely be building a mud and clay wood burning oven. We will also have a hot box (thanks mum and dad) and of course will try a solar cooker as well.
Can you imagine catching fish for your dinner three nights a week from one of the top fishing spots on the East coast of South Africa, or dispatching a chicken or two to the pot each week.
Lots of fresh organic vegetables grown locally, eggs warm from under the chickens.
This will be a cooking adventure. And I can't wait.
On my list of to cook and taste. Other than the obvious, are: Red Bait, Sea Urchins, Various fish, pigs head, sheeps head, brains, chickens feet, field mice, snakes, birds, all sorts of offal, tongues, trotters and tails.
We will aim to create an air of culinary authority, and will be sure to lend extravagant experimentation to all cooking proceedings. We might even get Sonja to try a dish that she would never normally do. I will be eating alone otherwise.
We will see just how far we can push the envelope with what we have. We will get pigs ears grilled to perfection, and sheeps brain spread on toast.
We will catch what we need from the sea, or pick it fresh from an organic garden, dispatch it, dress it and hang it. We will have fresh goats milk and lots of opportunity for dairy. Watch us build a mud and clay adobe oven to cook it all in, or grill with us over our open flames.
We can show you how to make traditional African beer, sour milk in a gourd, and perhaps even snake, fieldmouse or guineafowl.
Absolute gastronomic inspiration to last the two years we will be here.
Of course we will have to try cookies too.
Besides all the above we will both be experimenting with variations on more common dishes, bottling and preserving, baking our own bread generally seeing how effectively we can sustain ourselves.

Introduction to our garden

We definitely plan to establish an organic vergetabel and herb garden as soon as we are able to. . We hope to fence off a small area as soon as possible and have our first crop ready to harvest just before winter sets in, if we are lucky. Until then we will visit the village's own organic vegetable project where we can choose exactly what it is we want and watch it being cut or picked.

Bird Watching Introduction

Nqileni village offers superb birdwatching. The village is situated on the coast between two rivers that flow into the Indian ocean. With five different habitats within an area of only a several square kilometers there are always good sightings to be had. We will try and maintain a growing bird list, and photograph birds where we can. If you are coming up, a good pair of binoculars and a bird book are a must.

(photo of African Spoonbill by Gene Gage from our September 2008 field trip)

By the tips of our fingers

Okay, so I'm sitting in the meeting and to be honest I'm slightly distracted.
Trying not to be, but I am.
Everything is conducted in Xhosa and I can't speak a word. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the wind starting to blow my new roof off. Damn.
I sneak a few glances around the circle of men from the village.
I notice that 5 out of the 7 men sitting closest to me are missing the top of their little finger.
mmmm? Interesting. Must be a common mining accident, maybe they didn't keep their fingers out the way when they were practicing their stick fighting.
So later that evening I make a passing comment about the missing fingers.
Bad mistake.
Parents in the village cut off the tip of their kids little fingers. (okay)
No medication, just a knife from the kitchen and whack, off with you finger.
We met a little kid who had it done a few weeks earlier.
We also spoke to a kid of about 18 and asked if he remembered it. (You bet your arse)
When the kids reach about 3 or 4 years of age, it gets done.
I heard a number of reasons, but none really made sense.
I know one thing though.

If I took my three year old son, held down his hand, looked him in the eyes, picked up a knife, forced him to keep still, and then cut his finger off, well, its just not something I could do.
I therefore took a unilateral decision, that this would be the perfect name for our blog.
It perfectly describes the risks we are taking.
It perfectly describes how we will be feeling when we are all stuck in our tiny cottage, with the kids screaming at each other, and the rain into it's 5th day.
It perfectly describes our sanity when it is 3am, one of the kids has a temperature of 40 degrees, and we are 3 hours from the closest hospital. (I told you not to let him swim with a cold!)
And it will be a lone memorial to all the fingertips taken in the name of tradition.
(It will also be a great threat when the kids are naughty - "be quiet now or I will...")

By the tips of our fingers.

Perfect

A Point of Departure

This is just that. A point of departure.
Departure. In 16 days we are climbing into our cars and departing.
We, being our small, and slightly volatile, family of five.
We are leaving our reasonably comfortable, but stressful, closeted but risky - life in the city to go and spend two years living in a small Xhosa village on the wild coast of South Africa.
The fact that none of us can speak a word of Xhosa should bother us. Frighteningly it doesn't.
My partner (secretly my beautiful, brave, patient, kind, frustratingly correct wife) and I have both resigned from our jobs, taken the kids out of school, and decided to go and spend two years in the remote village of Nqileni, in one of the poorest areas in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Nqileni has no electricity, no roads, no infrastructure, no toilets and no running water.
They also have no traffic, no Big Mac's, no television, no crime, no pollution, no noise and nowhere to hide.

In about 17 days from now, however, we will have passed the halfway mark and will be closer to the destination, then we will in fact be arriving rather than departing.
Arrival. A point of arrival.
A new opportunity to learn. A massive challenge.
We will be moving from a 300 square meter house to a cottage less than 40 square meters.
This is small. Very small in fact. Our little house has a cow dung and mud floor, mud bricks, and a skew roof that I put up myself in our last visit in October.
We will have to dig our own toilet, rig up a shower under a Jerrycan, survive on what rainwater we can collect, grow our own vegetables, keep a few chickens, fish for a lot of our supper, home school the kids, and amongst it all, find each other and ourselves.
We will be hanging on by our fingertips through the whole wild ride.
Which at least means that we won't be able to point fingers at each other.
Shout , scream, laugh, cry and swear - yes.
Point fingers - no.

We have started packing and are both working flat out to get all of our work, packing and project planning in place before we leave.
We have a manic two weeks ahead of us.

We will keep the blog as a family. When in doubt go with my version of events.
Claims that I am prone to wild exaggeration are wildly exaggerated and not at all accurate.
I suspect that having got the ball rolling, I might be shunted to the back of the blog line by a thirty-something achiever, a nine year old teenage girl, a five year old bossy little dynamo, and a three year old independent little chap who quietly sows angelic destruction in his wake.

Well, the start is made.
Bravely by me, because it was done without consultation or prior approval.

Remind me next time to tell you why I was so wickedly clever calling the site "by the tips of our fingers" and not something like, "returning to the country life", or "Organic country living".
I am a clever little chap.

But let me depart.
For now.