The humanure composting was a big step, as well as our very moderate showering methods, but we also wanted to make sure to re-use our gray water whenever possible.
One important point to make about gray water reclamation has to do with the type of soap you use. You have to make sure the water you are putting back in the ground is not toxic. Just because a detergent claims to be bio-degradable does not mean it contains no chemicals that are harmful to the eco-system. There are very few soaps that claim to be bio-compatible. We use Oasis brand soap which we buy in a gallon jug and use for all of our needs; laundry, dishes, and bathing.
Jill has already been using the water from Charlotte to make one of the Pinon trees a bit greener, and after we got our plumbing inspection completed we also disconnected the kitchen sink to catch the wash water in a bucket.
My understanding is you do not want to pour gray water from the sink directly on the ground, as the fats will clog the soil. Instead you pour them over mulch, which suspends the particles until they can break down.
A happy byproduct of the recent firewood delivery was a good bit of Ponderosa bark which we crumbled up into bark mulch. I was fortunate to have a helper for this chore:
I dug a shallow trench around the base of another Pinon in the front yard and filled it with bark mulch.
In the evening after the last batch of dishes has been washed, Jill takes out the water and pours it over the mulch.
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