Yes, very true and also an upper leg building exercise. Today they have 12 volt heated toilet seats and the battery could be charged by solar. Still the walk out is the hard part especially if the outhouse door has a 3-foot drift blocking it. I kept a snow shovel by the back door for keeping the trail clear.
I can understand the scary but I don't get the adventure connection. Was it "over the river and through the woods,"
I was born in 1942 and we always had an indoor facility, but there were still a few outhouses around because the owners never got around to getting rid of them. A common practice was to find an outhouse still standing and tip it over as a Halloween prank. We tried it once but I don’t think we got it completely over because the owner came out and started yelling. Where outhouses had once stood but were removed, the area would be filled with dirt but eventually settle. We had a garden at the location and tomatoes really took to the “fertilized” area.
The small church I had been going to was built in the 1800s. It was not that long ago (around the year 2000) that they built a small room with a kitchen and bathrooms onto the back of it. Before then, it was just the single room sanctuary. The 2 stall outhouse still stands.
I went to a country school that had a semi-heated 4 seat outhouse divided girls and boys and also my mom's country church with a 2 seater. Her church was the reason I started calling a trip to the outhouse, a trip to the confessional. I still refer to using the toilet as a confessional visit.
"Forgive me, Father, for what I am about to doo." I was thinking of building a composting outhouse at the end of my property, but my needs changed. It's an interesting concept, and you can use fireplace ashes as part of the system.
Oh yes, fireplace ashes are a necessity to good outhouse maintenance. I always dumped my wood cookstove and fireplace ashes in the privy.
I came across this when I was looking for composting outhouse pics. I thought it was an interesting concept, and it's sorta on topic. The original Bumper Dumper!!! It beats going in the woods and squatting. If you live in an area with no cover (like Arizona or New Mexico), I could see carrying an outdoor shower curtain setup (like they use for the solar showers) to provide a little privacy. Their lawyers made them write this part: Safety Tips The truck hitch toilet seat can get a little slippery when it’s wet. In order to avoid accidents, make sure it’s always dry. Do not use this item when your truck is in motion! Park in a nice but discreet spot before setting up to do your business. The Amazon reviews are pretty funny. $100 and it's yours!
Thinking of composting outhouses? Take a look at the Clivusmultrum, a somewhat dapper outhouse crapper.. I kid you not.
The outhouse i remember at my aunts place, back in the day, was one of a kind. The people in the area reared pigs .... I made sure never ever to eat pork meat at my aunts place.
Not exactly, lol. Just being small and knowing how I am today e.g. being curious, it just fits to say that, lol. I was always getting hurt behind being curious.
Hahaha well, curiosity is the factor behind several of my scars also. I like "adventurous" as it adds class to a girl's childhood resume. After reading Nancy Drew I started carrying a magnifying glass with me. I still have that glass. Adventurous sounds better than eccentric however at my age I think it too late to attempt to sugar coat my past.
I can perhaps put a slightly different spin on scary and adventurous. At the lumber camp I was at as a teenager, the older fellows were always playing pranks on the the greenhorns, of which I was one. Among those pranks was rigging the outhouse seats such that they might give you a date with some muck. I got wind of it (pun intended) and managed to avoid the pitfall but remember one fellow yelling some choice invectives as he headed down to the lake to wash the muck off. There were no other bathing or shower facilities. Thus, a trip to the privy was always an adventure (e.g., was it rigged) and a tad scary until I figured out how to trick the tricksters.
Indeed, especially teenage boys in the wilderness with not much to do except work, eat, sleep, catch food and use the outhouse. Thus, the outhouse was the epicenter of the camp. Being a place of supposed peace, quiet, rest and relief, it was the prime target for juvenile jokes (e.g., that famous book Run To The Outhouse by Willy Makit) and pranks. Now you might think one could escape the uncertainties and anxieties of the outhouse by doing your business in the woods; however, that would have been a very bad idea. There were bears and wolves around the camp, thus making the outhouse a place of relative safety during moments of bodily exposure. Looking back, I've no idea how that summer could have been any better. For the first week, I was one lost, scared and homesick kid who later hated to leave. Dad said I went there as a kid and came back as a more confident young man and it had something to do with events around an outhouse.