outhouse....where to place them

[smackiesmommy]

We live in the south so summers can get pretty hot around here. Not looking forward to that smell...not really sure where the water source is yet...it is a property we are just now looking at.

 

[Beekissed]

Lime will be your friend...apply liberally.

 

[moolie]

At our local Girl Guide (like Girl Scouts) camps, the outhouses all have to be at least 200 yards away from water sources.

 

[Beekissed]

Two football fields away from where you get a drink? A kid would pee themselves before they even got there!!!

 

[k15n1]

Think compost, rather than cesspool.

There are lots of composting toilet designs out there. The basic features are separation of solid and liquid waste, ventilation, and temperature control.

My grandfather used a pit latrine successfully for 30 years at his all-summer vacation spot. Mainly, he use lime, thin toilet tissue, and pinestraw. We had to dig it out every year, but it wasn't nearly as bad of a job as it sounds.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I want an outhouse in my barn/garden area. I'm just not sure if it will have to look like a small shed, cuz I don't really think its legal. But sorry....when you gotta go, you gotta go. And I have to agree...think compost. I don't worry about my animals pooping around the place.

 

[smackiesmommy]

Well it is not like my family and I have never ducked down behind a bush or anything if we really had to go (my 3 year old loves to whip it out in public and water the bushes...much to my horror)

 

[animalfarm]

Punishment was delivered right in our house....we didn't have a woodshed. Our outhouse was a goodly distance from the house and our wood was stacked right against the cabin.

Surly you have heard the expression of taking someone to the woodshed. I don't know to this day how the girls got theirs but us boys it was bare bottom.

In most cases thats all it is; an expression from books like Little House on the Prairie and the Waltons. Punishment happens on the spot in most families. Wood sheds were full of wood and if a punishment took place there, it was most likely in the form of chopping the stuff. Physical punishment back in the day was not abnormal and usually done on the spot, in public if need be.

Very few people where I come from stacked much wood against the house. Its a fire hazard and not a good idea. All buildings were placed pretty far apart to avoid losing everything in the event of a fire and that includes a winters supply of fire wood; usually about 20 cords. Winters were pretty hard; fires feared. Wood sheds were always well away from any danger of chimney sparks. We are not talking about modern chimney's, stoves, metal roofs or running water. I lived in the dark ages. I know first hand the life style most people are only guessing at. If the power went out for the rest of eternity I could make the necessities my family needs. I know how its done, what I need to kiss goodbye and how to get on with things.

Expect lots of backbreaking work and sore muscles. Those outhouse holes don't dig themselves. It is most certainly not a romantic lifestyle as portrayed on the tube.

On a side note, when they were evacuating Houston because of Katrina coming, the road sides and gas station parking lots were disgusting because a few million people and their pets took a dump wherever they were while driving along at less then 4mph for a day or two or three.

 

[Beekissed]

Punishment was delivered right in our house....we didn't have a woodshed. Our outhouse was a goodly distance from the house and our wood was stacked right against the cabin.

Surly you have heard the expression of taking someone to the woodshed. I don't know to this day how the girls got theirs but us boys it was bare bottom.

No bare bottoms...I think Dad would have had a problem with that. Just used a belt...had a black one with squares cut into it called "The Black Persuader". If the weather was right, we had to wear shorts to school the next day to show off the welts. Oh, sure, I've heard the expression about taking someone to the woodshed but I don't think my Dad cared about hiding it in the woodshed...we were bent over the couch in front of everyone else.


Stacking firewood against a house made of wood isn't a fire hazard. Sparks from a chimney would catch the woods on fire before it ignited our woodpile under the eaves. If the woods catch on fire, the woodpile being against our log cabin is the least of our problems. The woodpile against the cabin blocked the wind and kept the wood more dry...later we stacked and tarped but that first winter we didn't have such things as tarps or woodsheds.

 

[animalfarm]

Beekissed,

It seems that folks in the Interior of British Columbia were a little more paranoid about fire then in your neck of the woods. We were probably a bit loony as well.

Our yards were cleared of trees and none were allowed near a building with a fire. Forest fires were pretty scarey occurances as well, and there were no modern fire fighting planes or bulldozers where where we were. No telephones either. Houses burned down a lot, our neighbors lost a baby in one. Fire places were more common then stoves which were luxury items. (explains the fires)

If your house burned you trekked to a neighbor and cosied up for the winter. No one had much of anything other then a change of clothes. Cast iron pans don't burn. Food was kept in dug outs under the house and usually could be salvaged. The woodpile was too valuable and difficult to obtain with only the use of an axe and a swede saw. One didn't let it burn frivously. Our winters went down to -50 or more at times. -40 was pretty normal. We didn't have snow plows and if the trails were closed from deep snow, you had to snowshoe out for help. Log cabins buried in snow are amazingly warm.

I know this sounds argumentative, its not mean to be, you seem to have had a similar childhood and I am just comparing notes out of curiosity. Speaking of which, those belts were something. Dad had a big wide tooled belt which didn't hurt much, but Mom had this thin little belt which was just wicked. It some how got misplaced when we got older, but it was then replaced with a birtch switch and that was sooo much worse. We were lucky; our friends Mom was Australian and she had a bull whip. She could sting your backside while you were on the run. Nice lady though. Kids weren't so lippy in the 70's. Anyone could discipline a kid or put one to work. Didn't have to be yours. If an adult found an idle kid, that kid ended up picking sticks or cleaning chicken coops in return for a meal. We liked to get caught by the menonite lady. She had 17 kids who had already done most of the work and she baked wonderful bread and rice puddings with real raisons. Desert at our house on the rare occasions we had it was bread with milk and sugar or more commonly, a jar of canned tomatoes.