All around here are those big rolls of hay sitting out in the fields to be collected.

Suppose you got one of those and set it down on one of the flat sides, pulled out the center third or so of the roll, and used it as a depository for human waste, a la The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins? free online here

Good idea? Part of a good idea? Bad idea?

I would rather just have opinions from those who have read the book, if you don't mind.

Hey, Dagny -- we could spray it pink for deposits from the ladies bucket!

Sue

Hmmm, interesting idea. I'm assuming you are thinking it would be a good impromtu composting toilet. Knock it onto a flat side, dig out the center, put the "holy seat" in place and you are good to, er, go. I wonder how stable they are if you try to dig out some of the center hay for the deposit area? I'm guess you'd need to put some sort of mesh retaining wall around the opening. It'd really suck to have it collapse while in use! I also wonder how much waste one of these bales could hold?

Overall, I think it's an interesting idea, but there's definitely some engineering aspects that would need careful set up.

-Blast

I was thinking more along the lines of a "dump site" for the buckets, an easy compost pile, ready to go.

I think it would be pretty unstable to use as a throne proper. Lousy place to be wobbly, IMHO.

Sue

Those bales weigh about 1200 lbs. Machinery would be required to turn it onto it's side.

Sue is onto something of an idea here, though.

The whole bale, on it's side, would need to be encased in Hog Wire to hold it together.

Those round bales are not just sitting waiting to be collected, the reason farmers switched from square to round was so they could leave them in the field. Rain/snow will only penetrates the top 10% and runs off then so you save labor. Then they came out with wrappers that pick them up and wrap them in plastic so you can save that 10% and still leave them lay in the field.
They have different sized balers, I've never seen ones that were 1200lbs, can't have them quite that large in hilly areas, they are tied with baler twine and I can roll them myself and a couple men can tip them on their side.

Some of the bales here are wrapped almost completely in white plastic, but the most useful-looking ones just seem to have a plastic skin around the circumference, but the flat sides are not covered.

Sue

Here is an article on hay bales,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hay

If you decide to try it the article states that in six years 74 people were killed in the US by haybales.

I think we should ask the cows first; on what they think about that idea.

I have found myself in a wet, cold environment with no shelter, and burrowed deep into a pile of hay. Rain did not get through, I dried out and remained toasty until time to move.

Yes, hay will work. I don't know about parting a rolled bale and making a deposit. Better to build a base of hay and then alternate between your deposits and layers of more hay.

In my experience you can use any loose or fibrous vegetable material as long as it is dry. Hay, straw (yes, there is a difference), dry leaves raked off the lawn, lawn clippings if they are left out in the summer sun and thoroughly dried, dried sphagnum moss. A bout the only thing that I haven't seen work well is pine straw. Even dried it doesn't decompose rapidly enough for composting toilet that gets used more than once a fortnight.

The dry, compressed peat moss sold in blocks at any garden center is what I store for emergency use. I like it because it is tightly compressed, dead-dry, and it comes in a nice cube that is sealed in plastic. It doesn't attract insects or rodents and seems to store forever.

The key is to keep the composting stack, a base of dry material and alternating layers after that, dry. The only moisture should come from the manure you add. Absolutely no urine, water, or, especially, cleaning or deodorizing products. You also need good ventilation. If your compost stack is sealed in a bag or container it will turn foul and it will smell worse than the manure you're trying handle. Odor is controlled by keeping oxygen available to the bacteria until your manure dries. Dry and largely decomposed the waste doesn't have any significant smell and can be stirred into the soil around your shrubbery at any convenient time.