Taking the Scenic Route

I am really enjoying reading wemoon’s adventures in building a home from nothing in the wilderness.  An entry a few days back was about outhouses and I had to chuckle at her comments.  My mom grew up using an out house more regularly, and I grew up using it mostly in the summertime when I was a mess from being outside. Some things I learned:

1. keep an old sears catalog in there.  toilet paper melts when it rains.
2. grab some velvet leaves if you can, much softer than catalog pages
3. as soon as you sit down, grab a catalog page and start crinkling it up to make it softer and more toilet paper like
4. keep the door CLOSED when not in use or critters will get in there, including cats, and they can fall in the hole and there is no way to get them out.
5. check for critters when you get in there to make sure you don’t have unwanted company
6. sit carefully….splinters in the tush are not fun.  (I don’t remember this happeneng, but I was always afraid of it happening)
7. if it is not secured into the ground, on halloween, the high school kids will come around and try to tip it over.  (this and dumping hedge apples on main street seem to be the main activity of h.s. boys around here on halloween).  I remember my dad going out and yelling at the kids and them speeding off the time they tried it at our farm.