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    CLJobe
  • CLJobe
  • Author
  • 02/03/2025
  • 510 Words
  • 733 Views
  • 16 Comments
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

David C. McLavic - 31. Chapter 31

I stayed home, wanted to design my cabin, and had the tools to do that at home. The basic cabin will be like the one I designed for Uncle Joe. It will consist of three parts, a kitchen area, an area equivalent to a living room, and a bedroom area. Dad asked what I would do for a toilet, there isn’t a sewage system. Then I remembered reading about the earlier settlers and the outhouse. Now I’ll need to design an outhouse as well.

I basically used the outline I did for Uncle Joe’s cabin. Only I rearranged the rooms. Walking into the front door, was the kitchen, then moving toward the back was a living area and last, a bedroom. I would need a door in the back, to access the outhouse.

Dad asked how was I going to heat the cabin. I told him about a fireplace and an old-fashioned cooking stove.

“Do you have access to electricity?”

“No, I’ll use kerosene lamps, a wood-fired cook stove, and a window cooler.”

The kerosene lamps and wood-fired cookstoves, he knew about. But the window coolers he didn’t.

“It is cold there on the mountain. So if I have a window with an outside box attached, I could store items that will stay cold there.”

“If the water in that stream is cold, you could create a cold box as they did in the early days.”

Now I needed to see how they did that.

Using Uncle Joe’s cabin as a model, it didn’t take me long to plan my home. Walking into the cabin, on my left would be a fireplace, then there would be a sink, next to a wood fire stove. I would have a small table with two chairs. Above the stove and sink, I would have a cabinet.

Then as you walked toward the back, I would have a small sofa and easy chair with a hanging lantern for light and my bed would be at the very back. On one side, of the back, I would have shelves and a closet for my clothes.

Dad asked about bathing and washing clothes. I told him about the Lodge and the amenities that it has. Now dad wants to see this Lodge.

When the drawings were finished, I sent them to the people who built Uncle Joe’s cabin. I wanted to know the cost and timing.

Now I was ready to return to my mountain. I’d stay at Mrs. Cummings until my home was ready.

I took the out-house design with me so that I could get it done. My design for the outhouse was a two-bowl unit with a storage area behind it. I’ll need a dry place to store bags of lime to use in the out house.

When I arrived at the Lodge, Bobby was there. “I thought you weren’t coming back?”

“Bobby, I was only gone for a couple of weeks. I had to design my living quarters and that takes time.” Now he wants to see what I designed.

Copyright © 2023 CLJobe; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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  • Popular Comment
Anton_Cloche
  • Popular Comment

Thanks for this new chapter @CLJobe with young David designing an off the Grid cabin. Now, being off the Grid does not mean no power. David could use solar arrays or even propane to power some appliances. But you mention David using Kerosene, which may indicate a timeframe that predates use of solar. 

@VBlew mentions composting toilets for inside the cabin, and there are 'dry' versions that require no chemicals, lime etc., but the require an exhaust fan to deal with odors, and turning/rotating the 'contents' to ensure proper breakdown.

@weinerdog queried keeping certain foods chilled during warm weather. If there is a natural spring or a river that flows down the mountain, that water would likely be cold enough to keep most items chilled.

And now we wait to see what happens next ✌️.

 

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Philippe
On 2/3/2025 at 10:28 PM, VBlew said:

Not so sure about having to go to an outhouse, I believe I heard about composting toilets for inside the house… but it depends on what the year round weather is like. And if he plans on living there year round.

Dark night trips and those during bad weather, we had the alternative honey pot; and trust me, it sure wasn’t anything sweet about it. But even as a kid 👦, dark cold nights, to sit you butt over a cutout board, with nightmares already keyed up in your nighttime mind…., yup, monsters ready to bite your butt through a cutout. The honey pot is just fine at the point, plus it was much quicker to jump back under the quilts.

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Philippe
On 2/4/2025 at 11:05 AM, drsawzall said:

There are so many other sustainable, 'green' living designs out there...we've come a long way from going to the outhouse and using the old Sears catalogue or corn cobs to clean your bum...

Hey now, cream style corn is great, and a properly stripped and dried corn cob is; easy to hold, the fingers don’t pop through tears, a simple rotation gives a clean slate, and it’s recycling with many supporters; just dry them proper and avoid bugs with a good hard rap up against the wall before using, plus that lets anyone waiting in the area know you’re rapping up…literally.

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Philippe

Philippe 12,022

Posted (edited)

11 hours ago, Anton_Cloche said:

Composting ... Cookies? 

Composting? Nah, just simple in the front door, out the back door (pun intended)….that’s the out house lifestyle. 😆 I would probably put toilet and septic tank, then simple plumbing using a gravity hydraulic water pump. 😆 But I was joking about the kitchen just inside the front door.

For our cabin, we had a home built in 1963 houseboat; with a hand pump head, a well pump head for the sinks, a propane refrigerator and stove, and the lights/wiring was a 12VDC system powered by a car battery with charging from a small gas engine and an old alternator/regulator; it was a river cabin with the comforts of home. Like a studio apartment with living area bed, foldout sofa, kitchenette, and one bedroom with bunk beds for us kids.

Connecting to the cloud was limited to sticking your head out into the morning river fog, the newsfeed was in the kitchen when we got back home. I can also attest that robo calls were unheard of and any calls received had better have the caller introducing themselves by full name and stating what/who they were calling for or they got hung up on.

Edited by Philippe
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Anton_Cloche
9 hours ago, Philippe said:

Connecting to the cloud was limited to sticking your head out into the morning river fog, the newsfeed was in the kitchen when we got back home. I can also attest that robo calls were unheard of and any calls received had better have the caller introducing themselves by name and stating what/who they were calling for or they got hung up on

Given the current state of affairs, the "good old days", while far from perfect, were idyllic in comparison.

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CLJobe
On 2/2/2025 at 10:30 PM, weinerdog said:

I'm asking as somebody that doesn't know thing about  living off the land .About the cold box even the mountains have warm days what does he do on those days?

I do like his design though the first room you're in when you open the front door the kitchen get right to the snack

 

The water that flows behind the cabin results from snow melting from the top of the mountain and it will be cold. The winter will be cold even if the stream dries up or reduces the flow considerably. He is planning on building a pit that will be cold from any of the stream that will flow through the box. 

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CLJobe
On 2/3/2025 at 10:28 PM, VBlew said:

Not so sure about having to go to an outhouse, I believe I heard about composting toilets for inside the house… but it depends on what the year round weather is like. And if he plans on living there year round.

They were not available at the time. They can be messy. A neighbor had one in his cabin, he said he had to clean it when they left or the smell when they returned was enough to book a night at a motel

 

On 2/7/2025 at 11:54 PM, Philippe said:

Composting? Nah, just simple in the front door, out the back door (pun intended)….that’s the out house lifestyle. 😆 I would probably put toilet and septic tank, then simple plumbing using a gravity hydraulic water pump. 😆 But I was joking about the kitchen just inside the front door.

For our cabin, we had a home built in 1963 houseboat; with a hand pump head, a well pump head for the sinks, a propane refrigerator and stove, and the lights/wiring was a 12VDC system powered by a car battery with charging from a small gas engine and an old alternator/regulator; it was a river cabin with the comforts of home. Like a studio apartment with living area bed, foldout sofa, kitchenette, and one bedroom with bunk beds for us kids.

Connecting to the cloud was limited to sticking your head out into the morning river fog, the newsfeed was in the kitchen when we got back home. I can also attest that robo calls were unheard of and any calls received had better have the caller introducing themselves by full name and stating what/who they were calling for or they got hung up on.

. Besides having an outhouse, he would have a bedroom pot. He could empty it in the morning, wash it out, and start fresh the next evening.

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Anton_Cloche
2 hours ago, CLJobe said:

grew up in the forties and used the out house. I only used the bedroom pot when I stayed and slept over at my grandparents

I wonder how many know why it was called "honey pot" instead of the more appropriate (?) "Chamber Pot"? 

My grandfather said it was because 💩 attracts more flies than 🍯. 

As a young child, that description might turn you off eating honey 😄

Winnie The Pooh GIF by Disney

(Pooh 'squirming' on the seat?) 🤣

Edited by Anton_Cloche
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