Yesterday I rented a waterless cabin and will be moving in next week. Living waterless is fairly common in the interior of Alaska. Fairbanks is set up to accomodate “cabin dwellers” with showers in the laundry mats and bulk water stations in several locations around town. Having and keeping running water and unfrozen septic in the arctic, is expensive.
I don’t plan on showering at the laundry mat as I think it will be a fairly easy thing to contrive a simple shower set up at home. The biggest expense seems to be a galvanized wash tub to stand in. Oh but I have several large rubbermaid totes, perhaps I can use one of those. See, there is a learning curve, but I have good “tires” (thanks Mom and Dad).
The cabin I rented is currently occupied. I stopped by to ask the current tennent if he would be interested in selling me his water jugs. Actually, he wasn’t there but his girlfriend was. She said there is a definate possibility that he would be interested in that. I left my number. I hope he calls.
I didn’t get a look in the outhouse but I am hoping for two things, that since it it getting pretty far in to the winter, I wont have to deal with someone else’s poopcicle, and that I can find a handy supply of blue foam board. Blue foam is your best friend at _40. It feels warm and keeps your butt from freezing to the seat. You probably don’t care to see a picture of that…
I am currently peddling as fast as I can and have finally had to admit to myself that I am not only not able to get ahead, but am loosing ground. With two kids and one income, there is only so much that can be cut from the budget. I finally figured out that I am supposed to suck it up and do what I have to do in order to get what I want here, my OWN little cabin in the woods. I had been putting off this decision when a friend posted a quote on facebook that spoke to me, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas A. Edison. So here I am, sucking it up and biting the bullet and all those other cliches that are cliches because they are true.
Stay tuned for our upcoming adventures.
Alaska, The Madness 
Our composting toilet cost about 8$ to build 🙂 For the hinges.. Then we bought a compost thermometer for the pile for $15 that was all, we had 5 gallon buckets and had scrap wood. Look up Humanure handbook online, worth the read! Very simple but AMAZING system!!
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Lol you convinced me and I looked. Thanks. It’s much easier then I had thought. Now, to find a local supply of sawdust…
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Yay, several free sources have been located.
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Yes Kim, I have. But since this is just a rental, I probably wont invest in something like that for now. I probably will get a porta pottie, especially for my “20 minute son” but we’ll have to see how we manage the indoor space first.
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Have you considered doing a composting toilet, check out the Humanure Handbook, bucket toilet system, works great and can be set up inside with no smell etc
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Plus in the summer you can let it heat up in the sun!
You can also use a kiddie pool(the plastic ones) to catch the shower water but I don’t know how you’d dump that (pump it out of the house, maybe).
So does your landlord let you have pets?
PS, you can also get water at the B&C laundromat.
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Yes it would, but really, that seems more work and “accessories” then needed. I’ll just heat up water in my stock pot on top of the stove, fill the bag, hang it in my “shower” and turn it on.
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Would something like the heaters here work for you?
http://www.zodi.com/web-content/
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