Log Flume…Get It? "Log" Flume?
Another for the “Actually I think this is awesome” file. Not that I’d want to live there, because I take fully-functioning indoor plumbing very, very seriously. But look at this! It’s like something out of a Richard Scarry book! The water goes up the pump and then down the gutter into the toilet tank… at that point I’m not certain exactly what happens. If they have a septic system, wouldn’t they have bothered putting in a real line to the toilet? And if they don’t have a septic system, where does.. it all… go?
Found By: Linda L
Loveliest comment, by Lisa W, referring to the propane-bearing chair Magister Ludi found: If you look closely, you’ll see that is chair’s Alaskan cousin, made of sturdy timber found on the land. Alaskan Chair is used to working hard, braving the weather, and generating interest wherever he goes.
Is that really a hand pump? Wow. All I can figure is that the water pressure to the house is so bad, everything has to be pumped by hand. The septic system might be ok with just the power of gravity.
Living here could be a step back in time… “Ma, look, Pa put in a new water pump, right in your very own kitchen! Now we don’t have to haul buckets from the well any more!”
By the way, Sara, could you find it in your heart to let “Kinder-Chair” see light of day on the front page? I’m rather fond of him, I confess, and I’ve been home sick all week with a nasty fever and cough so it would cheer me up. *is not above a little pathetic begging*
I think you’ve nailed it. (The water pressure issue, I mean!)
Awww. Of course, Vivian. I’ll do it tomorrow if not sooner (a statement which sort of makes it sound like I can do time travel).
Aww, thanks.
I know I can go visit him any time on the voting page, but it’s just not quite the same without your scintillating commentary. (Brownie points for flattery?)
I think this is where serial killers take their victims just before doing the dastardly deed. There area a lot of outbuildings that could be used to store the remains. Like the “grage”
Boo! I hate it when I make typos when making fun of other people’s typos!
And then when it’s bath time, you just move the gutter over a bit and fill the tub! Genius!
Seriously, though, this isn’t a half bad idea. Why use good water to flush bad?
Looks like a good prospect for thereifixedit.com to me… :}
I thought the same thing!
It’s a a slide for your rubber ducky! Whee!
That’s quite a deep sink for a bathroom and probably not the most sanitary place to store the toilet brush.
It gets stopped up sometimes.
Out of the six pictures, two feature the improvised plumbing. But…it has PHONE SERVICE! Deal!
This looks like it might me a hunting camp. It is in Alaska. There is no electricity, just generators. Appliances that they do have are run off propane. At least it isn’t an outhouse. I did see a large blue water container on the floor in the kitchen. I think it is funny that one of the features is phone service.
There’s no sink in the kitchen, is there? Sara, this might be from you “secretly, I think this is awesome” file, but no running water in the house moves it directly to my, “Both privately and publicly; I’d really rather die.”
I am not made of pioneer stock. If I can’t properly wash the fruits and veggies purchased out of season at the nearby grocery, where I will whine as if I have suffered great hardship if the lines are too long, I’m likely to cry. A lot. Loudly. Then try to book a flight the heck out of there on Expedia or something.
Don’t get me started on how I react to not having internet. Oh woe betide those in hearing distance.
Yup, I really, really need running water to be happy. Apparently even in pictures.
Good points. I retract the awesomeness.
Alaskan plumbing. That explains it all. View any Alaskan house with a good degree of caution and an eye to the city boundaries at the time the thing was constructed. Little things like building codes do not bother all Alaskan builders, because unless they’re in an area that has them, they don’t have to comply with them. The more remote the building date and the earlier the house was built, the odds increase that it was built by the owner. And when I say “built by the owner”, I don’t mean “the owner found some contractors and hired them to build a house rather than find a nice pre-built house in a nice little development”, I mean “the owner went down to Spenard Builders Supply and got a truckload of lumber and some insulation and a hammer and nails and started in”. I have fond memories of sitting on what later became our front door in my footie pajamas as my father hammered nails into it and taught me all kinds of new words.
If they have a septic system, wouldn’t they have bothered putting in a real line to the toilet?
This betrays your lack of experience with plumbing (not that I have much experience, but I paid attention when my family was finally getting indoor plumbing, for which my father did hire a contractor to help out, as he had never had any practical experience himself and the well was too far away to make hand-digging practical). Water-in and water-out are two separate systems of pipes, and never must the two meet directly (although they do appear together in the same item).
In Alaskan plumbing, the presence of one does not imply the presence of the other, although it can get very scary when a sophisticated water-in system is combined with a primitive water-out system. The usual thing with that combination is a gravity-fed cistern going through proper piping to modern taps on the sink, but the drain of the sink not leading to a garbage disposal and sewer or septic system, but instead a straight shot to a slop bucket, which is then emptied out of doors or down the outhouse. Anybody can pretty much get a septic system, though; all it needs is a tank and some digging.
For incoming water, you’ll need a source of water, a source of pressure, and then all sorts of fiddly piping to get it to its destination. (Hot water is another luxury.) Sometimes you have a well, a pressure tank, a gravity tank and water delivery if you don’t have accessible or safe water on your property (our well had arsenic; we hauled in drinking water in jugs).
My household had a pressure tank so we could have little things like regular showers. I do not think I could have coped with being a teenager without daily access to a shower.
Alaska? I’ve seen Dirty Jobs, you probably have to take whatever comes out of the bottom of the toilet and burn it in an incinerator in the back yard!
Wow, they make Chair work hard up there in Alaska. Look at him carrying the propane tank! There’s your pioneer spirit!
If you look closely, you’ll see that is chair’s Alaskan cousin, made of sturdy timber found on the land. Alaskan Chair is used to working hard, braving the weather, and generating interest wherever he goes.
How did I miss that Chair’s Alaskan relative is made of sturdier material? Doh (strikes forehead)!
Did anyone else notice this place is in Livengood?
I think not!
Howsa bout they recycle the dish/wash water into the toilet, flushing with “grey” water. It’s “green” and one has to carry less water. Two uses, one water.