Poo and Pee: February in Alaska

With an outhouse sometimes you need a reminder to bring out the essentials...


"Penelopee, the miniature moose"


If it ain't one thing it's another. We needed to fill up our water tank (did we mention we have a one thousand gallon water tank buried somewhere under the frozen ground around our cabin??). Every 2-3 months we go to the pump station with our landlord who lets us use his 500 gallon water tank mounted on his trailer. It took an especially long time to get the water last night (450 gallons = a mere $7 at our local pump station) but you can't put a price on hauling a fully loaded water tank up a steep grade on icy roads on a Monday night against the time clock of freezing temperatures to a cabin nine miles hence tucked into a narrow driveway surrounded by trees through which you have to maneuver and thread 30 or so feet of hose to connect to the underground reservoir. It involved endless backing and forwarding of Simon's pickup, plus some last-minute landscaping (snow shoveling, sawing away of small obstacles, etc etc) and by 10:30 PM---VOILA! Gallons and gallons of water!

Except now the pump in our cabin seems to be broken |:-{

Thank god for bottled water and baby wipes {:-(

Not to confuse you, we don't use a drop of our water for the toilet. It's strictly for drinking, cooking and bathing. The outhouse is just good old-fashioned 19th century no-flush "technology". In fact the most modern thing we use in there is 21st century toilet paper.

Oh, and the cute little moose in our yard we named "Penelopee" (Me: "Was it a boy moose or a girl?" Joe: "Well, when it peed in our yard it peed like a girl.")

O Cabin, My Cabin!

We are in the middle of our very own wood-neck as Joe likes to say.

Yesterday evening we rode our bikes home from dinner at my boss' place, our first rainy night in Fairbanks. About a mile from home, chugging up that last bit of hill in the near pitch dark to our "street" we heard an enormous rattling of bushes to our right. We'd surprised a moose on his or her evening forage, and heard him dash away into the forest. Whew!

But where'd the Jeep come from? That is on loan as of today from my boss, a second car that she's thinking of selling. We're giving her a test drive to see if we like her. The car has been nicknamed Kaneesha. We have a week to decide if we like her. More on Kaneesha later...

Hope the pictures convey something of the warmth and beauty of our new place. And check out that swell outhouse! As far as outhouses go, this is a good one. Don't be intimidated by that burlap flap of a door, either: what I've learned is that an outhouse with a wooden door will warm up inside and create condensation on the walls, floor, and seat, which turn to ice in the dead of winter. So rather than have an ice-coated floor and toilet seat, by keeping the door open, or gently screened, the inside stays dry. Alaskans buy lots of thick blue insulating foam at the local Home Depot that they cut into toilet seats, because this stuff stays warm at any temperature. Also great for blocking up extra windows. Aren't you glad you don't have to worry about that?

Our Very Own Outhouse (with Cabin). All we need is a Pee Pot now...

So we disappeared from family and friends radar while in Northwestern Canada (which must be quite common).

Neither Joe nor me could get a signal on our phones, mile after mile. But, phenomenally, Joe got us to Fairbanks in just 5.5 days of driving. Besides mad road skills, the good weather probably helped. We saw the corn and wheatfields of late summer give way to autumn tinged forests as logging trucks plied the highways, and finally we crossed hours and hours of black spruce and numerous rivers spanned by bridges of all sizes. If you've the time and inclination, a trip up the Alaska Highway is well worth it. Plus you can stay in a beautiful cabin when you get here!

Just by chance on our first morning in Fairbanks I ran into a friendly New Zealander with a pickup truck who just happened to have a cabin for rent a few miles from our hosts' place. We got lost on the way to give it a look, and I ended up calling him on my cell when the road dead ended at a swamp and a mean, burned out shack. "Uh, Simon, we're basically at a dead end road with a burned out shack. Is this the place?"

It turned out we'd gone far past it, and once we arrived, we got to walk in to the unoccupied two story log and cedar cabin. Joe and I immediately fell in love with it. As far as cabins go, it is deluxe. Most cabins are "dry" meaning no running water, and an outhouse. We do have an outhouse, but after looking at several I think it's a good one, and the house itself is solid, beautiful, and snug. It's a dream come true for both of us. Joe had wanted a wood burning stove; I'd wanted free wireless, somehow they came together plus we have hot and cold running water. Our commute is about 8 miles from the University, which is doable in the now beautiful fall weather, but come the first snow things will change. We realize we'll need a vehicle, but as with the cabin, serendipity seems to smile on us. The only thing I regret is that I can't show you this beautiful little House on the Boreal Forest; my camera died and until I can figure out the situation you will have to take my word for it. Or come visit. This is a beautiful little place. We feel very lucky to have found it. Stay tuned!