Building an Outhouse

The trailer we are living in does have a toilet but to empty it, once a week or so Don dumps it's contents into a bucket and dumps it down the outhouse. We have chosen to use it minimally. Don planned to build an outhouse from the outset.

The supports. These are laid over a trench that we had to have dug for a pert test. This is measuring the soil for sewage purposes. The trench was to have gone down 13 feet but the rock became so hard at 8 feet, the guy digging the hole gave up.

Don and Pat had to cut the pieces for the outhouse at Pat's house as we had no electricity at the site yet.

Finished outhouse pieces, ready for construction.
We were still living at the bed and breakfast on the day of construction and I forgot my phone so there are no pictures of that process.

Margaret, both the proprietor of the Tintic Goldminer's Inn and the owner of the trailer we are renting gave Don some wood and metal pieces to cover the trench outside of the outhouse.

Above is the finished outhouse before the door was added. Don is constructing the door below.

Putting the hinges on.

And the finished door.

Pat had some left-over singles from some project he gave us for the roof.

Barbara is sitting on the bottom of the ladder holding it steady as Don works on the roof.

The outhouse has all of amenities.

A real toilet seat for comfort. The toilet seat was donated by Gary who is also building a cabin here. Gary stayed with my dad at his sheep camp when he was taking pictures for a book about Sanpete County. Gary's picture is below.

A toilet paper holder.

Ashes for "flushing".

A screw to hold your light for a nighttime visit.

A handle to help the older folks lift themselves up. The wood block and the nail to the right of the handle is the mechanism for locking the door from the inside.

The door lock and door pull from the outside.

A day time view from the outhouse. At night, you see a wonderful array of stars.

There is an outdoor hand washing station.

And a view of the hummingbird feeder from there.

One day Don was missing his drill. He looked everywhere and couldn't find it. He asked Barbara if she had knocked it down the outhouse hole. She didn't think so but Don thought maybe he had left it in the outhouse. Don took the flashlight and looked down the outhouse hole. He saw something that looked like his drill. At this point, he thought a neighbor had played mischief with him. One neighbor is very unhappy with us being here. When Don went over to introduce himself, the neighbor said, (first thing out of his mouth), "Are you one of those damned Mormons." Don wishes he had responded with, "No, I'm one of those saved Mormons." Or Pat says he should have said, "I'm one of those damned good Mormons." Another neighbor came over to tell us that outhouses are no longer permitted in Juab county. There are quite a number of outhouses in Mammoth but I don't know if any of them are actually used. We anticipated the county shutting us down but nothing has been said. The neighbor was probably concerned about flies but the outhouse seems fly tight. There is no discernible odor and there are not flies flying around inside it. Don reluctantly removed the metal coverings on one edge of the trench. He covered his hands and feet with plastic bags and climbed down a ladder into the outhouse trench. He poked the item that had looked like his drill. It was a piece of wood. Well, the neighbors were free of suspicion. He eventually found the drill under some things on the kitchen table. Lesson learned: Don't be too quick to judge. Kind of funny after but not so much at the time.

Lest you Tolstoy farm kids fear, there will be real toilets inside our house--three to be exact.

The Out House had a Growth Spurt