The Out House

The out house was a very important building on our trips to the cabin at South Fork, Colorado, but sometimes it got to be just as full of shit as old Hawg Jaw Bill. This story describes the procedure we used to solve that problem.

The Out House

 

In about 1984, we were up at my Dad”s cabin in South Fork, Colorado. The old one holer out house was getting close to being full so we planned to move it, and cover the old hole with the dirt we dug out of the new hole. We moved the house off the original hole and started digging the new hole. My Dad took the first shift and my brother Craig and I covered up the old crap with the dirt he threw out. He dug down about a foot and a half and Craig took a turn in the hole. He dug down to about 3 feet and then I dug the hole down to about 5 feet and were about ready to call that good. We had long since covered the old hole and were just piling dirt now. I climbed out of the hole and about that time my wife’s Dad who we called PoPo, drove up. He had his gloves on and he saiid he came to help. So PoPo jumped down the hole, You could not see him, but just the dirt flying out of the hole. Craig, my Dad, and I went in the house to get a drink of water. The phone rang and it was my Uncle Harold asking for help with a job at his cabin. I went by the hole and told PoPo we would be back in a few minutes. The job actually took about an hour. When we got back to the hole, the dirt was still flying out of the hole. I looked in and PoPos head was about 4 feet down in the hole. Old PoPo had dug that hole down to 10 feet deep. We got a ladder and and stuck it down in the hole and he came out. He had dirt all over him and his hair looked like a mud pile from the sweat. We spread the dirt around and moved the outhouse over the hole, leveled it, and staked it down.

 

From r-l my Mom, Bueldine, Bill, Pam, Emily, Neighbor, Kristi, Neighbor enjoying water melon beside the South Fork Cabin. That’s my raft tied up to the side of the cabin. The Out House is about 150 feet straight back behind Pam.

 

 

That evening, I was the first to try the outhouse with the new hole. It was a bit windy outside. I dropped my pants and sat down on the hole. The breeze must have been moving air down in the deep hole because I could feel a cool breeze on the crack of my butt that felt refreshingly good. I thought,…. “We should have done this a long time ago.” I cut off my first turd and I heard nothing but silence for a full second, and then I finally heard a loud plop. This first crap had turned out to be quite an experience.

 

From l-r Bill, Neighbor, Kristi, Tamara, Dad.  Looks like I popped a button from eating all that food on the table. There’s a hummingbird feeder just outside that window behind me at the the cabin.

 

That’s Kristi, Dad and Tamara out beside the cabin. The Yuccas were blooming that year.

 

 

My Dad had an electric crapper inside the cabin for night time use and emergencies.but I never used it. We hauled all our drinking water and had a cistern for baths and washing dishes. He had a phone and electricity. When we came up in the summers it was kind of roughing it, but we loved every minute of it. There was a water well a half a block from his cabin with a hand pump. We put the water cans on a wagon and filled them up and pulled them back. It always got cold at night, so he had an iron stove that we fired up in the early morning.

 

That’s Carl stoking the iron stove in the early morning at the cabin. The stove will be glowing red in a few minutes.

 

 

Thanks for reading The Out House,
Bill