Now I Get It.

Driving up and down Highway 93, I have often wondered why so many older homesteads have retained their aging, and supposedly unused, outhouses....Alas, now I kow why. Living this far out of town, we are all on individual septic systems and sometimes these systems fail. Reasons for failure are all a mystery, and these mysteries may take a few days to sort out....

Here is a picture of our outhouse. It is a 'two-holer'. Each hole has a name painted around it with red paint. One hole belonged to 'Wendell' and the other to 'Smokey'. Maybe Wendell and Smokey were the ones who wall papered the inside with yellow flowered paper; but that is all peeling off now. Perhaps it was also Wendell and Smokey who supplied large round countertop cutouts, laminated to plywood, for hole covers.

The outhouse contains an antique, rusty iron toilet paper stand and a 3 lb. coffee can painted with the words 'Put your Butts here'. It is all quite posh.


11:15 Problem solved

Here's what Dad had to do: leave home at 8:00 to get to the nearest town with a rental shop, by 9:30 (Hamilton, Montana). Rent an 'electric snake'.

Arrive back home at 10:30.

Employ electric snake.

Drive back to rental shop in Hamilton by 1:00 to get a reduced rate on the rental.

Drive back home in time for an afternoon nap at 2:30.



Caption to this photo - a quote from Professor Neale: "Real Men Do Sewer Stuff"