Let's talk shit.

Specifically, dog shit.

SO, there's a dog in the house. About 70 lbs. that is a pit bull and lab mix. The dog shits once or twice a day. Big turds too.

Anyway, he loves to play ball. However, I have to pick up his poop first, or we would be playing in poop. So the poop bucket lived on the fence and I would transfer the poop from the back yard into the 5-gallon paint bucket. -The gate was always locked because the damn dog has some pit bull in him. When there was enough in the bucket, I would take the bucket and empty it into the trash can.

It rained hard a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to empty the bucket. So there was about 4 inches of poop and water in the poop bucket. It was brown, bubbly and it was horribly putrid after 4 days of sitting in the sun. I finally emptied it in the most remote corner of the back yard and I nearly puked several times transporting it. Gawd that was disgusting. I never want to do that ever again.

So, here's my solution. Instead of buying a $60 dog composting unit, I decided to build one on the cheap.



The bucket on its side in the top left of the pic is the bucket which housed the poop water. The brown stain to the right of that bucket, in the corner is the drying diarrhea which nearly made me puke. The bucket in the ground in the pic is the dog poop pit.

So I took a new 5-gallon paint bucket and cut the bottom off. I drilled holes at about 6 inches apart on the side of the bucket. I took the handle off of the bucket and attached it to the lid. Then I dug a hole about 2 feet deep. I placed 50 lbs. of pea gravel at the bottom of the hole. The empty gravel bag is just below the bucket in the pic. Inside the bucket is all the poop I could gather.

The way it will work is once there's more poop accumulated, I will use a product called Rid-X. It's a septic system treatment powder. It contains an enzyme and or bacteria. It's usually flushed down a toilet into the septic tank and it helps digest the poop. I will mix 3 tablespoons with 5 gallons of water and pour it in to my poop pit once or twice a month. It will make the poop break down and leach away through the holes and gravel into the surrounding soil after having been decomposed.

The little rake and dust bin looking thing in the pic is what I use to pick up the poop.

Here's what it looks like when closed.



So there you have it.

1x 5-gallon paint bucket with lid
1x bag pea gravel 50 lbs.
1x box Rid-x Septic Tank Treatment, good for 3000 gallons of treatment.


Total project time: 1 hr
Total project cost: $17
Never having to deal with dog shitwater ever again: Priceless

Scottish Terriers for the win. Small enough to use a litter box. =P

So, there was leftover petrified dogshit all over the path to the poo bucket. It's hard to tell the old poop from the rocks as they are the same color as the rocks. I didn't want to pick out each piece. I had pulled out the bigger pieces and dropped them into the bucket in the initial load.

The solution was to drop some paving stones to create islands to step on to avoid the shit. I think there are 10 stones purchased at 78 cents a piece. They were the cheapest I could find at Lowes.

2 feet is all I was willing to dig. The bottom is about 10 inches of little river pebbles. They're about the diameter and thickness of say Fruit Loops.

When I dug the hole it was slightly wider at the top than the bottom because of the angle of the shovel strikes to get down that deep. So the the bottom of the bucket is resting on the river pebbles. I had river pebbles left over so I back filled the sides with them. Only the top two inches around the top of the bucket is dirt. Under the dirt is a layer of about an inch of river pebbles around the bucket for the contents to leach out the sides.

However, the contents are relatively dry - no standing water. It rained about a week ago and some interesting chemistry is occurring now. I'm waiting a few more loads before posting a pic. The earlier poop seems to be covered by some kind of white fuzzy coating that is eating away at it.

One of the unintended consequences of using this bucket is that the lid has a rubber seal around it. Though I don't lock it down, I do step on it with enough gentle force to make the rubber seal contact the top of the bucket. The sun heats it up, which creates condensation in the evening when the water vapor from the surrounding soil cools down. That gives the bacteria the water it needs to reach the newly-added poop. Also, the heating helps the bacteria multiply.

But there is no standing water, or any that I can see. And all that would be in the layer of pebbles.

I have a slight problem with the dog pooping in the rocky area of the yard - not what you see posted above, but another area on the other side of the gate which is covered in the same rocks. When I pick up the poop, some rocks which stick to the poop go down into the pit. So I will eventually fill the pit with rocks, but I'm removing them - more on that later.

Anyway, I had anticipated that if the pit didn't break down the poop quick enough, I could always hit it with the garden hose with pressure nozzle so that the poop churned up and turned to liquid. Then the poop would leach downward. I haven't had the need to do that and don't think I will if the fuzz eats away at the poop at the bottom.

But the pit is dry. I surmise any breakdown of the poop is going down into the layer of pebbles at the bottom.

Remember, this is poop generated from only one, albeit big, dog. I'll post a pic in a few days showing the breakdown.

I think the layer of pebbles may not be necessary if you used a bigger diameter can, that went down deeper. Just some rocks at the bottom to allow for some drainage. I just wanted to dig as little as possible.

So in a few days I will post a pic of the activity. I haven't even added any more Rid-X septic powder since the first dose.

It seems like forever because it progresses at the speed of poop drying. Or in this case, decaying.

Here's a pic I took a little while ago. The underside of the lid was very wet. I then added a bunch of the Rid-X after I took the pic. Will wait a week, then churn it with the pressure nozzle if the level doesn't drop dramatically.

Notice the fuzz on the poop. Looks like it's breaking down, and this is without a pool of liquid for it to sit in. Also, notice poop splatter up on the sides of the bucket. I think there's been an eruption of liquid from the bottom for it to splatter like that. Don't know what is causing it. But something is happening for sure.

More later.

yea, I'm no septic pro but I think you need a liquid bottom. maybe should have left the bottom of the bucket intact and drilled holes above a certain level?

obviously different because of the constant water in system, but similar enough. Theyre showing what you were talking about with a drainage off the top but allowing the solids to be broken down while submerged

Believe me, I researched this - or so I thought.

I looked up Youtube vids on this and they all had a system with a hole cut in the bottom of the container.

But I see your point about the septic system.

Here is a patent on Google Patent for a septic type, which I assume is an overflow system:

http://www.google.com/pa...=bCeiT-y2DIqNigKbmIS2Bw

Also, I looked up a commercial system and they have both an overflow type, like a septic system and a type that just breaks down and leaches down into the ground after treatment.

Here's a description an pics on both:

http://www.doggiedooley.com/Order/Models.htm

I will wait a couple of weeks and if it is filling faster than breaking down, I will pull the paint bucket and replace it with one which doesn't have a hole cut in the bottom so it turns into an overflow type.

I don't enjoy the thought of having to pull out a poo bucket to replace it, but if that's what it takes, I will.

I dumped a bunch more of the enzyme powder so we'll see.

I am not abandoning the poo pit. I will make the damn thing work. It makes my life so much easier. But like the ever-growing national debt, something may have to give.