In Praise Of Our Outhouse

     Living the very rural lifestyle that we do, means that sometimes we lose our water.  Unfortunately that can happen during winter when our waterline freezes.  There have been a few times when we had to live without our water for a month or so.  During those times, we could always find supplies of water for drinking and cooking to keep us going, but the whole business of “going to the bathroom” became very stressful and burdensome.  We were sometimes forced just to do our “business” out in the woods.  Luckily, we are surrounded by woods.

    In 2010 we had a lot of family members coming for a reunion, and I feared that the tiny bathroom we have in our house might not be able to service the big influx of family that were coming, so I decided to build (and dig) an outhouse to help share the load.  I picked a spot on the edge of the woods beside the greenhouse and began to build it.

    Digging the pit was the most difficult part of the project.  There were a lot of tree roots that I had to deal with in the digging.  Once I got passed them, I found it difficult to maneuver within the narrow confines of the pit I was digging as the hole got deeper.  I only was able to dig down about three and a half feet (1 m.),  before running into another problem.  The underground water table on our land is very high, and as I dug, water began to slowly seep into the pit, so I had to stop.

    I constructed the outhouse and put it into place and it worked very well when I family was here.  I was very glad I had made it.  Normally we never use it, except during those rare occasions when someone else is using the bathroom and so we go outside and use the outhouse.  When that occurs, we find the outhouse odor-free and really a comfortable alternative.

    It is also very convenient whenever we lose our water.  It certainly takes a lot of the stress away.  Of course, using an outhouse in the dead of winter is not as comfortable as using it during the summer.  It means putting on coats, boots, and gloves, shuffling through the snow to get there, and then slowly lowering your naked bum onto the freezing wood of the toilet seat--not a wonderful experience, but what other choice do we have.

    With the recent visit of my brothers and sisters, again the outhouse came into regular use, and luckily it didn’t really begin to emit any odor until their week of visiting was over.

    While I realize that urban dwellers might think negatively about having to use an outhouse, which if open to the public, often means a smelly and unpleasant experience, but our outhouse has served us well, and has been a very welcome addition to our rural property.

    

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