Houses and bathrooms? (Fairbanks, Kenai: live, floor, cabin)

[Las Vegan Cajun]

Originally Posted by GSD101

and the question came up about your butt freezing to the outhouse toilet seat. Has this ever happened to anyone here or anyone that they know of?

No.....Butt when I was in Korea the temporary latrines were made from 3/4" plywood including the toilet seats, gotta love the Red Horse CE troops for their ingenuity. I can tell you many stories of how I pulled splinters out of my A$$. No I didn't get a Purple Heart out of it either, you'd have to be John Kerry to do that. LOL!!!

[Liz1_06]

Great set of questions.....

Since I will be relocating to the Kenai ~ Sterling area this set of questions is something that I have thought about also and was in fact getting ready to ask the same ones....

So Thank You for the great information .....

[Rance]

Liz1 06 I'm pretty sure you won't have to use an out house living on the Kenai Pen. But of those I know that have an outhouse...they run an extension cord out there and have a small electric heater running, or a heat lamp.

[Las Vegan Cajun]

If you check Spencer Gifts they may have a battery operated toilet seat with heating elements attached. LOL!!!

[Liz1_06]

LOL ~

Seriosly though..... we used to have an out house and YES .... we did have a heat lamp in it... my dad even nailed a switch to a tree ~ LOL ..... Just like downtown !!!!!!!

These Mn winters can get mighty cold....

and ps ... never got my butt stuck, and don't know of anyone who really has.. but it's a good logical question....

[Rance]

When they were kids back in MN...one Halloween (in the 1950's) my Mom and some friends were going around outhouse tipping. They tipped one over and 3 of the girls fell in the hole. They never ever did that again!

[kelwood]

My husband and I dug (there is a formula for figuring out the size of hole to dig, but I don't remember it) and used an outhouse for several years before putting in a septic system. I was a newbie at the time and was very afraid of sticking to the seat! A wood seat is cold at low temps but warms up from your body heat in about 30 seconds. This problem is easily solved with a cut out of blue foam insulation board layed on top of the hole. Blue foam is available just about anywhere in Alaska.

To tell you the truth I had more trouble in the summer with the mosquitos getting a free lunch than I did in the winter. The very first winter I got so used to it that I could throw on a robe and slip on a pair of boots and be done with the entire process in less than 3 minutes!

A word of caution here ... keep a pair of boots that are easy to slip on close to the back door in case you are in a really big hurry! Also, my family and friends got a real big kick out of the resulting S***cicle that forms at the bottom and grow up much like a stalagmite. (What did you think happened at -30?) Everyone had great fun in suggesting removal techniques, although I passed on the "shoot it down with a shotgun" suggestion and finally went with the safer version of "push it over with a stick" method.

[GSD101]

That was just too funny! Ahh, memories Thanks for the laugh.

[skibladnir]

Originally Posted by GSD101

Okay one more question regarding the outhouse. My husband and I were taking about composting toilets and having to maintain a certain tempereature, and the question came up about your butt freezing to the outhouse toilet seat. Has this ever happened to anyone here or anyone that they know of?

If you have an outhouse you can keep the seat in the house and just take it with you as you go.. or you can put it on a 5 gal bucket and dump the bucket mornings when it is light if you are afraid of the dark.
And yes I had a brother who got froze to a toilet in Oregon once and we just packed out warm water to thaw him from it.
As for the cold in alaska..you dress accordingly or stay in with your books until it warms up in the spring..it is all a matter of choice.
Personally I like the dry cold. When you get older, it doesn't hurt as bad as moist cold..again preferrences.

[Unhappycamper]

My buddy has a hunting camp in northern Maine in the middle of no where. In the winter during hunting and snowmobiling trips they put a wood stove in the outhouse. They keep it on a low flame but man does it make a difference.