Designed for Marine use, this Pirate's dream toilet is welcome aboard our "AAARRRRRR VEEEEE"!
The composting toilet has generated more interest than any other feature of our Airstream.Everywhere we go, people are curious and interested in how it works.Once we got used to talking about our toilet, we are now happy to share this unique feature with our visitors.
Larry and his wife Donna from Nature’s Head, the designer and manufacturer of our system had extended an open invitation to stop by and see them as we came through Ohio.With the Labor Day weekend approaching we decided to hole up for a few days while the campgrounds were full and spend a little time in the town of Van Buren.We arrived early enough to grab a spot at the local State Park right on the edge of town, and hunkered down for the weekend.
We got a hold of Larry, let him know we were in, and immediately got a taste of good old Midwestern hospitality.Larry welcomed us warmly, arranged to come see us the next morning, and suggested dinner with him and wife the next evening.It all sounded good, and the park was surprisingly quite considering the holiday, so we settled in for a good nights sleep.
Larry rolled in the next morning and immediately set about looking at my installation of the toilet.During the construction, a small wire that powers the fan in the toilet had been yanked hard, and we were experiencing intermittent fan operation.We also had some questions about the best ways to handle day to day operations now that we had been using the toilet for two months straight.
We spent some time going over things and finalized our dinner plans for that evening.Both Larry and Donna are charming and engaging people, and despite our different backgrounds and geographical locations, we soon found that we had a lot in common.Larry and I had both owned our share of VW Microbuses “back in the day”, and all of us shared a passion for the environment.
Larry’s extensive marine background, where the option to dump your “black tank” when you are out on the water for weeks does not exist, had inspired him to develop a simple, efficient, and easy to use composting toilet with broad applications.Most of us flush the toilet several times a day without thinking much about it.But when you do think about it, it really doesn’t make much sense to flush human excrement down the pipes with gallons and gallons of perfectly fresh drinking water!The Nature’s Head eliminates the need for water, and simplifies the process of composting by separating the liquid and solid waste.
Dinner was at on of the local restaurants famous for its quality food and generous portions.Our choices of fish and chicken would soon prove this to be accurate on both counts!By the time we were finished eating and solving the world’s problems, both Kate and I were satiated.We rolled heavily back to the Airstream and had another quiet night in the park.
Larry was back the next day, and after a quick tour of his warehouse, we came back to the Airstream with everything we needed to tune up the toilet.We finished our repairs on the fan, and then we went over the best procedures for keeping the composting system working efficiently.As we find ourselves answering dozens of question about the toilet at each show, being able to pick Larry’s brain helped us insure that we really understood the system and were giving accurate information.
With our "head" held high, we said goodbye and realized that this "john" is a lot less maintenance than the other one on this trip!
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