Yesterday we arose early and spent 8 hours looking for wildlife.  Unlike last weekend’s phenomenal day, we saw few animals  (primarily 6 caribou and 1 porcupine).   Today I am shifting gears to a theme I put off while writing about more exciting things.

2 a.m., South bedroom window

If we had indoor plumbing, I would have used it when I got up in the darkest part of the night to check if the Aurora was visible.  But it wasn’t urgent enough to get dressed and go outside in the 30ish degree night.  Not even urgent enough to pee in a bottle (not that I mind the first step, but I didn’t want to have to empty the bottle later).  While much of the US is enjoying excellent Aurora viewing during the current solar storm, so far, it is too light and/or too many clouds here.  Despite repeated attempts during the darkest few hours that we get, I have seen nothing but the indigo sky of nautical twilight (see photo above, lighter blue on the eastern horizon as seen below).

2 a.m., East bedroom window

When I arise for the day, I reluctantly pull on layers of clothes to go outside first thing at 37F.  Once outside, I am thrilled to hear Varied Thrush and Yellow-rumped Warblers.  That makes up for the inconvenience of an outhouse! 

I carefully check for moose or bear and revel in the birdsong. Last year I casually checked for moose or bear and somehow missed a moose eating tree bark near the outhouse.  I haven’t repeated that mistake.  After using the outhouse I use hand sanitizer,  no water used yet!

Back inside, I use the first water for the day, drinking and heating up water for tea.  Most of the water we use each day goes into our bodies.  Since any water that goes down the drain splashes into a bucket under the sink (top of bucket barely pictured above), I can clearly see how much water we throw out after rinsing produce, washing the dishes and our hands, and brushing our teeth.  Since we shower and do laundry elsewhere,  the slop bucket averages about 3 gallons a week.  I like to dump it twice a week so it doesn’t get heavy or smelly.  I haven’t overflowed the 5 gallon bucket here yet, but did overflow once in our first dry cabin in seasonal park housing.  Before I knew how to be efficient,  we were dumping 4 to 7 gallons per day!  Now we don’t have that much grey water in a week.  In seasonal housing, fresh water was only 150 yards away, and there was an excellent grey water disposal system.   Now water is a 20-minute drive, and the disposal is in the yard.

Here are some of last year’s dry cabin posts –    https://roaming-nature.com/2023/03/21/dry-cabin-dishes-day-4/    https://roaming-nature.com/2023/08/11/summer-washstation-at-our-dry-cabin/

Winter Outhouse