Roughing It

We were so excited about our new land that we couldn't wait to stay here.  We decided to camp out for awhile since we had no real plans of building a house here.

The only buildings on the property at this time are a concrete block pump house in serious need of repair and an old shed that was missing a door.  Both are painted barn red.

Obviously there are no facilities, and the closest town is 8 miles away.  After quite a bit of research, I figured out how to make a camping toilet.

We put the camping toilet in the old shed, installed a makeshift door with an old shower curtain, and set a lantern inside. (I really like my Coleman LED because it is bright and battery operated.)

 Since it was winter, I wasn't too worried about snakes or what could be hiding under the broken floor of the shed.

The kids were a little nervous about the whole arrangement, but they were very inexperienced with camping. I wish it wasn't true, I wish I had taken them before now, but I'm resolved to make up for lost time.

The camping toilet relies on composting concepts. I purchased biodegradable bags, a bucket, and a snap on seat. I filled up dried leaves and grass in another bucket at first. After alot more research, I'm thinking about switching to coconut fiber which is found in Kitty's Crumble Cat Litter.  It seems to be better for composting and for odor.

These are the other pieces I used for the camping toilet:

1. A 5 gallon bucket I bought from Lowes.
2. Bucket Toilet Seat Accessory
3. Biodegradable 33 Gallon Black Trash Bags
4. Biodegradable Toilet Paper
5. Hand sanitizer and paper towels (there is also wash water at the hose)

You'll want to double line the bucket and tie the bags loosely in a side knot (like cleaning staff do with waste basket liners) to keep the bag out of the way. Be sure to leave enough slack at the top so that you can easily pull the bag out and tie it off without a lot of mess.

It took the teenagers a little while to get comfortable with the concept, but when you have to go...

We figured the investment in a truck tent would allow Alan and me to camp on our own in the future. We bought a Sportz Truck Tent III for Compact Short Bed Trucks (for Toyota Hilux and Tacoma Models) for our Tacoma.  If you do this, you'll want to get the bed from them with cutouts for the wheel wells.  It is very comfortable.