Honeybuckets (mobile home, costs, plumbing)

[1stimestar]

Heh, he was licking the door knob. Probably for salt from hands.

[keyman51]

I have an outhouse that I use and then a 5 gallon bucket for the night and also dirty water for the day. All of this water is just dumped in a different area. In the winter, if you dumped it in the outhouse before the ground thawed, it would fill up quickly. A lid on the bucket was an inconvenience, as it got in the way putting dirty water in it, and dumping it, they snap on and don't come off easily. Liquid is only in the bucket. A few people here have a crib (large hole in the ground lined with logs - the standard septic system here) that is also hooked up to the dry cabin so you don't have to do the dumping thing.

[1stimestar]

[AlaskaNana]

love the pic. gotta love the Northern Lights

[Meadow-Mama]

There are some sweet outhouses on this thread. Out of curiosity....is there any indoor plumbing in your cabins? I know, lower 48'r with questions! Sorry, just trying to educate myself on the true Alaskan way before we move so I don't sond TOO silly when I finally arrive!

[AlaskaNana]

I have a composting toilet, inside. For "in-door" plumbing in the kitchen, a LARGE water jug hung above the sink and a bucket underneath to catch it when you drain. But there are no utilities to my property. In Anc, and Tok, I had utilities just like in the -48. Around Fairbanks you find a fair amount of "dry" cabins which means YOU provide the water. But there are "regular" plumbing places also. The farther away from towns you get the more you have to rely on your own ingenuity.

[Meadow-Mama]

Originally Posted by AlaskaNana

I have a composting toilet, inside. For "in-door" plumbing in the kitchen, a LARGE water jug hung above the sink and a bucket underneath to catch it when you drain. But there are no utilities to my property. In Anc, and Tok, I had utilities just like in the -48. Around Fairbanks you find a fair amount of "dry" cabins which means YOU provide the water. But there are "regular" plumbing places also. The farther away from towns you get the more you have to rely on your own ingenuity.

Alaskanana,

What do you use for electricity? A generator? I honestly love how resourceful people are when all of the regular city stuff is not available. My in-laws have a similar set-up here in MT, but they have running water from a tank they fill every few months. We are currently living with them, so it has been an adjustment for my city-fried kids to get used to really being conservative with water usage.

[AlaskaNana]

Originally Posted by Meadow-Mama

Alaskanana,

What do you use for electricity? A generator? I honestly love how resourceful people are when all of the regular city stuff is not available. My in-laws have a similar set-up here in MT, but they have running water from a tank they fill every few months. We are currently living with them, so it has been an adjustment for my city-fried kids to get used to really being conservative with water usage.

Propane (for small uses like canning etc as no way to get it in in bulk), and good old fashion technology, ie lanterns, wood stove etc, Gen only for charging cell, laptop etc when I haven't been able to charge when out and about. A fairly new set-up so we'll see how it works. I did use the same system in the -48 so I am pretty used to doing it "primitive" style. lol Gas co, in Az, told me I could NOT turn off my service as it was illegal to go without gas. Said the city would condemn my place. Jokes on them since I went without for 10 years and no my place was never condemned, in fact the ex lives in it.

[1stimestar]

Originally Posted by Meadow-Mama

There are some sweet outhouses on this thread. Out of curiosity....is there any indoor plumbing in your cabins? I know, lower 48'r with questions! Sorry, just trying to educate myself on the true Alaskan way before we move so I don't sond TOO silly when I finally arrive!

I am just in the process of moving back into a dry cabin. We lived in one but moved into a watered place last November for the winter due to extenuating circumstances. This new place has some indoor plumbing but still have to haul in water and use an outhouse. You can read about it and see the pictures on my blog.
Alaska, The Madness

If you go to the beginning of my blog, you can see the process of moving into the first one and how I set that one up.

[Frostnip]

Originally Posted by Meadow-Mama

There are some sweet outhouses on this thread. Out of curiosity....is there any indoor plumbing in your cabins? I know, lower 48'r with questions! Sorry, just trying to educate myself on the true Alaskan way before we move so I don't sond TOO silly when I finally arrive!

I have indoor plumbing. My cabin is situated in a spot where it's not too hard to access the water table, and it's near enough to the highway to have electricity, so an indoor bathroom was doable even though I am pretty far away from a population center. Not super reliable, though, so gotta have a backup