Do we live off grid? Yup. Do we have clean, drinkable, running water off grid, and on tap? Yup, got that too! I thought today I’d talk about how we cobbled together our water system to create clean tap water off grid.
Category: Equipment
The Good, The Bad, The Gross – Outhouse Care
Before we decided to go crazy, drop our entire lives, and move to the Alaskan bush, I had rarely used an outhouse. I’d used park maintained porta potties, mostly. And maybe a real, honest to goodness outhouse in an orchard or on a camping trip a few times. But I’d never needed to even think about maintaining an outhouse until now, and as we all know, maintenance matters! Outhouse care is especially important when the outhouse is in use 24/7/365.
Proper outhouse care starts with building an outhouse correctly.
Outhouses are receptacles for waste. This means that they should not be placed to close to buildings, gardens, or water supplies. In many areas, there will be codes regarding the building and use of outhouses. Check with your local municipality to make sure everything will be placed to code. Fines for improper waste disposal can be huge! And there really is an outhouse sweet spot that is not too far from the home, but not too close either, so placement really matters. Next time we move it, I think the outhouse could stand to be a little further away, and actually in line with the house rather than going around the back side.
There are a lot of things to think about that go into caring for a year round outhouse once you get it built.
One of the considerations of using an outhouse vs a septic system is animals. I’ve touched on our issues with the dogs briefly in Dogs and Outhouses, but there are other critters to consider. I’m still trying to figure out how to remove the sneaky wasp nest that showed up before it gets too big. And yes, before we fixed the back of our outhouse, there was the occasional chicken party in there (blech!). There are also mice, voles and squirrels which all love to steal toilet paper, fresh or used! Switching from using a flushing toilet to an outhouse has had a definite ick factor that we needed to get over.
Part of that “ick” factor is what to do with toilet paper and wipes.
Unlike plumbed toilets, an outhouse will only hold so much before a new hole needs to be dug. It’s important to dig the hole deep enough, and fill it slow enough, that the contents have time to compost. A well cared for outhouse can last years in the same spot! To keep our outhouse from filling too quickly, we made the decision to bag butt paper, which tends to decompose slower than other things going down the hole. And wipes take even longer to break down than tissue paper, so we burn them along with the rest of our cardboard and paper garbage. It’s definitely gross, but better than an overflowing outhouse!
Another outhouse issue to consider would be insects.
Composting waste of any kind tends to attract flies, and outhouses are no different. Cutting down on the smell helps prevent this to some extent. We use wood ash from our wood stove for this purpose. Products such as lime and pine shavings (Amazon links) also help cut down on smells, though lime will slow decomposition.
Outhouse buildings should be completely enclosed and have screens over any vents to prevent insects from making their way inside. This will help with flies and mosquitoes (because nobody likes itchy privates). Also, if you are lucky enough to collect a spider in an outhouse, try to leave him be. Spiders make short work of many flying insects and are beneficial to have in outhouses.
Year round outhouse care means additional winter chores.
On top of the gross scale, for outhouse care would be tipping the ‘poopcicle’ in winter. Decomposition slows to a near stop in freezing temperatures, which we definitely had this winter. Freezing temperatures also meant that things would, well, freeze. Combine the two and what’s left is a frozen tower of yuck in the outhouse that gets taller with every use. If the original hole is deep enough, or the outhouse isn’t always in use, there is no need to think about the ‘leaning tower of pee-za’. If one (or neither) of these is true, then it becomes necessary to take a big poking a stick into the outhouse to occasionally knock that sucker over. When things start to thaw out, so will the toppled poo pile.
Freezing weather also means a cold toilet seat. I know some people who hang their outhouse seat near the fireplace when not in use and bring it with them when using the loo, but I didn’t want to carry a toilet seat back and forth all the time. What we did instead was use two-inch foam insulation board as a toilet seat. The foam board reflects body heat back to you and nearly instantly warms up to body temperature. It feels warm to sit on even if there is snow on the seat (ask me how I know!).
The best thing about outhouse care, though, is having the funniest ice breaker for meeting neighbors in the bush!
I’m grateful to everyone who talked outhouses with me when we moved here so we could figure these things out. There’s nothing like a little potty humor (Amazon) to make instant friends 😉
Rookie Mistakes We Made As Beginning Homesteaders
I’ll be the first to admit that when we first started our homesteading journey, we made a lot of rookie mistakes. We spent too much on things we didn’t need. Then we turned around and didn’t buy things we really should have. We skipped around when adding animals, buildings, and tools. That is, until we learned to prioritize better. We have learned a lot of lessons the hard way. Starting a homestead from scratch, and building all our own infrastructure, is much harder than I had ever imagined it could be. Hopefully, writing this all down will help you avoid a few of the mistakes we made!
Our biggest rookie mistake was not planning anything.
Sure, we had ideas for what we wanted to do, and we wrote things down, but we never really had a set plan. There was no “house goes here, chickens go here, garden goes here” kind of plan. Not until we had already put the chickens too close to the house. So as we expanded, we just threw things where it was convenient right then, rather than were we knew we wanted them permanently. If we had planned better, we could have saved ourselves from a lot of the other mistakes. A homestead planning binder is necessary to keep everything organized.
Another mistake we made was jumping in to new things without preparing.
We’d get an idea and go for it. More chickens? Heck yeah. Pigs? Let’s do it! Greenhouse and garden? Check! And then the inevitable fail. We wanted everything to work and be productive right away. Kyle was so disappointed to find out our chickens wouldn’t lay until the spring after we purchased them. At least we were able to push our pig order back to this summer, and have learned enough to hold off on beehives (Amazon) and other animals until next year.
We didn’t understand the weather in our new area well, either.
Personally, coming from a desert area, I didn’t truly understand what living in a rainforest meant until we were hit by our first rainy season here. A little drowned garden and a lot of mud later, know I know how wet it can be! It also helps to know where the low spots collect so we can avoid building there. We also thought we were prepared for long winters, but they are much longer and darker than I could have imagined!
Also, we made the mistake of not budgeting from the beginning.
We have spent so much money on materials for our homestead, when we should have just invested in a sawmill from the beginning. Small purchases can add up really quickly. We should have figured out sooner that just because something is new doesn’t make it better. At least we have a few places we know to go for cheap homestead goods now!
The biggest lesson we’ve learned in starting our homestead from scratch is that it’s okay to go slow.
There is no reason to push to the point of injury to get everything done in one day. Pacing yourself in the endless work (it is endless) of beginning a homestead is extremely important. There should always be a realistic timeline for goals to be completed. This will save so much frustration down the line.
All things aside, we are still learning on our homestead journey. I’m sure there will be many more mistakes and lessons for us in the future!
Three Surprising Places To Find Cheap Homestead Goods
Homesteading is not cheap. From animal feed to fencing (Amazon) to the animals themselves, there are quite a few things a beginning homestead will need. When we first started out we made the mistake of purchasing everything from a big box store. We spend thousands of dollars before we realized we could buy things way cheaper, we just needed to know where to go.
Second-Hand Stores
One thing we’ve figured out is that second-hand stores are often full of tools. Shovels, picks, drills, chainsaws. You name it, a second store probably has it. I’ve even seen a few bigger ticket items at the second-hand stores around here, like tractors. Second-hand stores are also great places to purchase homestead goods because you can usually haggle the price.
Peoples Yards
If there is something in the neighbors’ yard they don’t use that you could, why not ask to buy it? While this may seem somewhat odd, anyone who’s seen the show Pickers (Amazon) knows that it’s worth it to ask. We’ve gotten old trampolines, building materials and even a saw mill this way. It’s also possible to get plant cuttings or seeds and bulbs like this. Even if the person says no, you didn’t lose anything by asking. Just make sure to have cash in hand for an offer!
It seems like Facebook is taking over the world (or at least the internet) these days. We’ve purchased second-hand cars, goats and chickens this way. Facebook is also a great way to get information. Our peninsula has Facebook groups just for animal and garden advice. Take a look around. Maybe there is a group in your area that will be useful. I also find Facebook especially helpful when I have something in mind that I need. It’s easy for responders to tag friends who might know something in the comments. Even if the person reading my question doesn’t have what I need, they usually know someone who knows someone, and I end up getting the things I need.
I’m sure there are a lot of other great places to find cheap homestead items, but these are the main three that we use here. Where do you find your homestead deals?
5 Risks When Living Life By The Tides
One of the biggest challenges of where we live is our access.
We live off-road, and how we get to our home changes by the season. During the fall freeze and spring break up, we are stuck on our property. During winter there is a 4 wheeler trail that, depending on the weather, can be driven on with a truck, wheeler, or snow machine. And during the summer, well, during the summer we live life by the tides.
Living life by the tides brings with it certain risks, and a lot of adventure! Continue reading “5 Risks When Living Life By The Tides”
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