Thank You

Only 8 days to go to raise the money for our crowdfunded compost loo. Still over £1000 to go to hit the target or we get none of the funds that have been pledged so far.

That sounds pretty daunting to me. I've been putting out the word to family, friends, friends of friends and possibly even their friends too on facebook and twitter and our blog. I'm starting to feel that maybe I am getting close to resembling tinned meat (spam!).
So, why should you help fund our compost loo project? Let's think about what we will get out of it:

• A toilet. Currently our family of four create a fair bit of human waste which we dig regular holes to bury. This is time consuming (we'd love to be doing more productive things on the croft instead), a bit of a grim job (I have to be honest, it is mostly Ady who does the hole digging and loo emptying, but I do always make him a nice cup of coffee and praise him lots for doing it) and with winter on the way will either be a wetter, muddier job (if it rains) or a cold and lonely job (if it doesn't). A compost loo will mean we can just nip outside to do our business rather than store it in a portapotty or walk down to the village, a mile away.
• Improved facilities for guests / visitors / volunteers. Until we have decent toilet facilities we are not able to offer camping on the croft, play host to the people we'd love to invite to stay or start getting volunteers to come and stay on the croft and work with us. We spent last year traveling the UK as WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms) volunteers on a scheme where in exchange for food and lodgings you work an agreed number of hours per day for your host. An excellent scheme where everyone wins - except without a toilet we are not able to accept volunteers.
• A feeling that we are indeed doing something that people support and believe in. It would be fantastic to know that even though our chosen lifestyle is not for everyone there is still a lot of support for a simpler life, a less consumer driven existance and a return to the basics.

What you get:

• The chance to make all of the above happen - yay you! Feels good to have a magic wand eh?!
• Rewards - you can choose to come and visit or camp on the croft, you can have a piece of the toilet wall to do what you wish with - post a message, advertise something, do some graffiti, whatever you like,
• An interesting fact about yourself to talk about at dinner parties, at work tomorrow, to add to your facebook status or tweet about. You can add it to your CV and tell anyone you like about how you helped fund a compost loo for a family of crazies who upped and left the world they knew to go and live in a field on an island!

I believe that's what they call win:win!

But you know what, if we don't do it this time, if we hit the end date for the crowdfunder website next Monday then I still want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has pledged money so far. We launched the crowdfunding idea with reservations as to whether it would work. It felt odd asking people to send money for a loo they'd probably never use themselves. It's been overwhelming to have the levels of support from family, friends, friends of friends and complete strangers in this project. I'm still believing we could make it happen this time, this way and it's you out there sharing this on twitter, facebook and blogs aswell as pledging money that gives me that belief. So thankyou :)