Clean'n m'brane out. Clean'n outhouses too. [Jesus Talk]

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Have troubles drivin screws with a battery drill? Try takin a wax ring [ used for stool gaskets ] and stick the screw in the wax before drivin. I've put mine [one I stole from ole jeep] in a butter tub and it's melted before. Now it's settled and is even all over the tub. Works wonders on nails used to drive in oak lumber. If'n ya'll don't like the idea of a stool gasket/wax thingy the same thing can also be accomplished by usin a bar of soap to coat the screw or nail.

Have ya'll ever looked at the sharp point of a nail? Get one and have a "look see" at that dude. You'll notice that of the 4 sharp edges two will be more pronounced than the other two. Those two wider ones are "cutters" that are to be positioned ACROSS the grain. Their job is to cut the grain to keep the lumber from splittin. An OLD carpenter showed me that abut 40 years ago. He was right-they won't split the wood positioned this way. Turn'm a quarter turn and the lumber will split almost every time.

Maintain'n an outhouse in the 1940's. Clean it rite good, sweepin out all the clutter, old catalogues, corn cobs and scrap pieces of britches legs, pockets and bibs. Sweep down all the cobwebs, wasp nests and mud duabers abodes. When the inside is tolerable don't forget to replace the old Sears catalogue with the brand new one WITHOUT the slick pages!! Corncobs are just too primitive for these modern society folks---so----don't replace'm. Replenish the lime supply and also put in a new tin can to dip it with. WE don't want to get our hands all white and messy, ya'll know.

Newspaper makes good wall coverin's so go ahead and use all ya'll want. NOthin any more handsome than a well kept outhouse. Ya'll'll be the envy of all ya'lls nabors!

When Jesus Christ calls will He be callin ya'lls name in vain? ole hoot. Matt.24:44

-- hoot- the old know it all. (hoot@pcinetwork.com), July 07, 2001

Answers

Hi hoot, Didn"t see you over at the old stomping grounds, found you over here, I just found my way here too. We had a two holler, I hated the spiders, I would take a stick and run it around the hole before I would sit down. Had a chamber pot in the house for night time, It was pretty dark trying to get to the two holler at night. I remember the sears catalog too. Do you remember hand pumping the water outside and hauling it into the house, We had to prime the old pump to get it started. they were hand dug wells, Lord knows what got into them, but we are all alive, so quess a mouse or two didn"t hurt us. God bless Irene

-- Irene texas (catlady@cs.com), July 07, 2001.

Same song--Different verse! When the outhouse was cleaned rite smart on the inside a nice coat of whitewash was [generally considered to be in good taste] smeared on the outside. We didn't have electric lights in'm back then but as later inovations came upon the scene--a few DID have electricity run to'm and a light bulb hang'n down from the celin. [A friend built a new outhouse couple years ago and it's carpeted, electric lit and even has a STEREO!]

These old "necessities of country life" most usually had a TRAP DOOR on the backside. We would never had even considered it but one family we know not only considered it but actully did it! Open'd up that trap door for a "Buffet" for there free roamin chickens!!!!

We were very careful to not eat any egg dishes [ actually ANY dish] of theirs at community gatherings. Still nuff to gag a maggot as I set here and think about it.

In later years the WPA outhouses were starting to come into being. A concrete base with the hole, also poured concrete, rising from the center of the floor. Kinda like the Taj Mahau I guess. The "one hole'r" seat set right on top of that concrete thingy jutting upward about 18" or so. Venelation ducts and screenwire around the soffets-- why it was just like bein uptown with the rich folks but without all the hustle and bustle of city folk life.

Ornery country boys would gather at halloween time and go on raids. One old dude got tired of his outhouse bein turned over each year as a halloween prank. He moved the "throne" forward just about 3 foot! Ya'll know the thread about "watermellons, barbed wire and ole rubbergut" that's in the c.s. archives? Well this same guy that ran into the barbed wire was one of the "Lucky"? ones that happened to turn over this outhouse. He had to sleep in the barn for better part of a week--that is even after he'd washed several times in the creek!

Ah, the good ole days!!! No, I wasn't involved in this little exercise of outhouse tippin. I did hear about it as the young man was our neighbor and a little older than ole jeep and me. The whole county knew about it as I recall.

Treat ya'lls neighbor good. Ya'll'll feel better for doin it--even if ya'll don't have an outhouse! Matt.24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), July 07, 2001.


Irene--spiders and cobwebs didn't bother me but I was always terrified I'd see a snake in the outhouse or on the way to and from. Don't remember that I ever did. We had geese and they loved to chase me. Another of their tricks was to catch me in the outhouse and then stand in front of the door, knowing I wouldn't venture out because they pinched. I'd be stranded out there until Mom or someone else missed me and came looking.

-- ruth in se Illinois (bobtravous@email.com), July 07, 2001.

We had a two holer in the place we moved to when I was in HS. It wasn't a continual usage facility, but just a back-up in the even of a back up. it was clean and comfortable in the cool and the cold months, but it was too dang hot in the summertime! Since we didn't use it too much we just put wood ashes in a bucket to apply when it was used. It never smelled, but I have to tell you it took courage for me to sit down...fear of the unknown!

Thank the Lord we never had geese. Geese absolutely hate me and will smell me a half mile off and decide to come and harass me! I've never met a goose I liked, or more appropriately a goose that liked me. The neighbors had a goose named Huey when I was young, and I took care of their animals when they were out of town. That goose made my life miserable. I had to bend over to get into one of the coops in the pen he was kept in and without fail her would dart in and twist my skin on the upper inside of my thigh! He should have been named Diablo.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), July 08, 2001.


One of my regrets in life is that I never got to go to one of our family reunions in Arkansas..Izard County to be precise. My father's family were all "country" people. Daddy used to make me roar with laughter when he would call and tell me about his cousins, the twins, Hester & Chester (really) and the outhouse at the family reunion. Seems they had it at their farm and the farm had one of those trapdoor outhouses and yup, free-ranging hens. Daddy said that the twins were overfed folks who wore bib overalls, and he got quite a chuckle out of watching them tramp up the hill to the outhouse because when the hens spotted them, they would race 90 MPH in pursuit, making a sharp left turn to run down in back of the outhouse for their, ahem, "snack". Daddy always said that he felt watching this was a great way to lose his appetite at the reunion. Years ago in Maine when we were camping next to a lake, I HAD to get up at night to use the outhouse. I took a flashlight with me, and when I opened the unlatched door, saw two bright eyes staring at me. I do not know who was more frightened..me or the racoon that came flying out the door and ran between my feet. After that, we always brought #10 cans with us for nighttime use in the woods!

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), July 09, 2001.


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