Wow, time is just flying by. Certainly is hard to believe that I've been closed up in here for 3 weeks already.
This last week was one spent primarily on non-ISECCo stuff. I did
not do any more than keep up with the chores. Perhaps I should go
into just what the chores are, since we will be inviting others to live
inside next fall:
1. Most important: harvest the food. Since we are running this as
an experiment there is slightly more involved that going out and
pulling carrots or digging potatoes; we want a complete record
too. So when I dig a potato plant I record the number and weight
of each potato and the weight of the left overs (stalk and everything
that is routed to the compost pile).
2. Cook and prepare the food, which some might not think is a
part of the Mars Base Zero chores, but it is usually slightly more
involved than most cooking because there are usually a few extra
preparation steps (like washing the dirt-covered potatoes).
3. Dealing with wastes. These come in three general
forms. The easiest is the compost bucket. This is where I
throw carrot tops, potato stalks, etc. after they have been
weighted. When the bucket is full (about once a week, though it
would have been more often except I cut most of the tops off the
potatoes in square B all at once) I haul it over to square A (the
bucket is kept by the table for handy use) and pour it on the compost
pile. Then I put a thin layer of dirt over it, and lightly water
so it will decompose. With solid human waste I had been
sterilizing it so it could be decomposed and then put directly on the
garden, but it was very odorous. Two years ago when we did our
last closure (for a week) I sterilized it after it had decomposed,
which was not smelly at all. When someone (thanks, Ralph!)
wondered why I was sterilize it before composting I decided it was too
smelly to sterilize it before, and went back to using a bucket.
After each use a little dirt keeps it smelling, well, maybe not fine
but it certainly doesn’t stink. After decomposition (a year for
us; our ecosystem is pretty cool and it slows decomposition) we'll
sterilize it. The third waste is urine, which gets sterilized
right away. This, too, is a little smelly, but since it gets put
in a hole dug in the garden (after diluting 10:1 with water) it needs
to be sterile [note: most urine *is* sterile, but we will have many
people living in here, so we need to be careful because there are a
couple of diseases that can be transmitted through urine]. Both
feces and urine are being weighed/measured during this testing period.
4. [I think it is taking longer to do this than to write than to
actually do!] Watering. Although I don't water quite every
day, especially this last week since the water was in short supply
(Frankie didn't make it over to give me water last weekend because she
wasn't feeling very good), I do on a regular basis...every other day at
a minimum. [Note: this week Frankie didn't manage to get me water
either, so I asked Kraig to do it.] Watering also keeps the dust
down, which (among other things) I have a problem with because it is
giving me a persistent cough.
5. Plowing. About once a week I plow the areas where I've
harvested potatoes. This will allow us to plant next spring with
a minimum of work.
6. Logging data. About every second or third day I'll log
the data I've generated (foods eaten; water used; wastes produced, all
of which is written in a notebook) into the computer, and more
intermittently I'll update the web site with the data.
7. Dishes, etc. Dishes I do as needed, which isn't very
often because with this diet few things stick very hard and the dishes
can be wiped clean quite easily (how much gets left on a salad
plate?! Also quite a bit of my food I eat straight from the
garden, like turnips or carrots--no plate needed). I have not had
to weed very much because the crop area was fairly clean when I
started, and with the short daylight and cool soil temperatures (50
degrees F) weeks aren't growing very fast--nor is anything else,
alas--next year when we want to run on into the winter we are going to
keep the crops a lot warmer, like 70 degrees, than I'm doing now.
Now I keep the temperature comfortable in the loft, and don't worry
about what it is downstairs (as long as it is above freezing).
Then there is the occasional maintenance item (like when the furnace
thermostatic controller went down and the heater pump didn't come on)
but these are pretty infrequent.
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Foods are holding up pretty well. I finished digging all the
potatoes in square B this week, and have dug about 1/3 of the potatoes
in square D [the last square with potatoes]. I am getting low on
onions; I have divided the remaining area in 2 equal portions, one for
this week and one for the following week. Carrots are a bit low,
but holding out. I have a lot of turnip plants left, but many do
not have bulbs so I may be running out of those before too long.
Everything else is holding out very well.
As I go into week four I'm well settled in and, in some ways, not
looking foreword to coming out and going back to work! But it is
approaching, though not imminent: I estimate 12-18 days. Unless,
of course, my wife has major problems with her pregnancy!
Through the dirt, to the Stars!
Ray C.
Mars Base Zero inhabitant
ps more questions from week 3.
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2004