# Perils of the outhouse



## Warrigal (Nov 13, 2015)

In OZ we all know that an outhouse may contains certain hazards.
Redback spiders can be found in toilets that are not regularly used and a quick reccy  is advisable before sitting down.
Likewise a look upwards towards the cistern is a good idea in case a snake is curled up above your head.
This, however, is a new one on me. It was seen in a toilet at Broken Hill NSW



Nup. Count me out. I'm going behind a tree.


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## Davey Jones (Nov 13, 2015)

I always thought outhouses were gone BUT they still around in the thousands. Go to any big outdoor event there are from 5 to 100 scattered all over the event area. It has to be a BIG emergency for me to use one and I have to hold my breath the whole time I'm in there.
,


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## Kadee (Nov 13, 2015)

I know only to well the stories and the experiences of using a dunny ( toilet) right down the back yard in Broken Hill DW :eewwk::eewwk:
I will have to get some photos of old and falling down toilets from hubby which he  took during our two years of traveling arround our great country ..
DW it's fine at our ages  to make sure the areas clear to 'go, behind a "bush" but the hard part is getting up again once you get down :laugh:


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## Warrigal (Nov 13, 2015)

Where I lived in Bankstown as a child we were unsewered and we had the classic brick outhouse situated in the backyard well away from the house.
It had no light and if necessary you went there carrying a kerosene lamp. It housed three species of spider - redbacks, daddy long legs and huntsman.

We never had to worry about snakes or bees.


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## Kadee (Nov 13, 2015)

Here's a typical outback dunny at a tourist attraction town called Silverton  just out of Broken Hill , New South Wales


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## Ameriscot (Nov 13, 2015)

On my first visit to Australia my BIL who has lived in Oz for about 35 years, was driving hubby and me up to Sydney.  We stopped at a roadside dunny.  I used it but hubby didn't like the smell so went in the woods and bushes behind it.  My BIL told him that had been a bad idea because of snakes.


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## Pappy (Nov 13, 2015)

The worst part of using the outhouse, was those below freezing trips and having to shovel  a pathway to get there. When we purchase the homestead from my great grandfather, it did not have indoor plumbing. It also served as a sanctuary to me when the mean Billy goat got loose and I was cut off from the house. I would yell my head off until my grandpa came out and put Buttons back in his pen.


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## grannyjo (Nov 13, 2015)

Remember the old outhouse in the Bankstown area from a great many years ago.

Braved it one night with the kero lamp in hand.

Had just sat down to do what came naturally and heard a gravelly voice say "hello sweetheart"!

I beat Usain Bolt back up the path into the house.

My Mum investigated and found that the Major Mitchell cockatoo had finally found his voice!

I also remember visiting Silverton, outside Broken Hill,  also a great many years ago,  way before it became a visitor spot.

We camped near a graveyard, because it was the only place that had any water - no toilets available,  so we needed to dig a hole.


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## Warrigal (Nov 13, 2015)

:lofl:

 My great aunts had an old sulphur crested that they used to give a bath to on a regular basis.
 The old devil was always escaping from his cage but on bath days he would refuse to come out.

 One morning before sunup the great aunts heard a woman shriek in front of their house. 
 It was Anzac Day and the poor woman was on her way to the dawn service 
 when a creepy voice from behind the hedge was heard to say "Have you had your bath yet?"


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## Kadee (Nov 13, 2015)

My grandparents had a very old galah ..his cage was between the house and the laundry .. Anyway the Catholic priest would visit unannounced, Old cockey would hear the front gate which was an old wood and iron gate He seemed to recognise the footsteps of the priest walking down the side of the house ( you would never go to the front door of anyone's home in BH) 
Anyway the galah would shriek out "P" Off not you again .......Think grandparents would say that as gran had a drinking/ poker machine problem wasting money out of their fort nightly social security as it was called back then ( Centrelink now) In place  of buying food, and the old father used visit her about the problem .. Poor ole cocky as we called him always used his water tin which was an old camp pie tin :yuk::yuk: as a hat when at night putting the empty tin on his head ....He passed away shortly after both G/P passed within 9 months of each other .


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## Pappy (Nov 13, 2015)

Kadee. Had to look up galah. What a pretty bird. Never heard of it here in states.


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## IKE (Nov 13, 2015)

It's not only outdoor johns that may contain hazards.

It was on the news a couple years back that a woman sat on the pot in her house to do her business and she felt something nudge her butt, she stood up and looked down and there was a boas head in the bowl.

She called the police who in turn called a plumbing company, with a pipe camera, and after a considerable amount of time and money they were able to locate and remove the snake from the plumbing.......they figured it was an escaped pet that had entered her plumbing from her back yard through a clean out that was left uncovered. 

No joke.......to this day I ALWAYS, ALWAYS look before I sit.


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## Kadee (Nov 13, 2015)

Pappy said:


> Kadee. Had to look up galah. What a pretty bird. Never heard of it here in states.


Oh sorry Pappy will post a picture in case others don't know them either


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## Kadee (Nov 13, 2015)

When we were traveling in 2004-2006 with our caravan we had the watch for snakes and frogs in tropical areas of Aust.
We seen this sign in a caravan park amenities block .....

Switch Off light after use......BECAUSE 

Lights attract bugs....
Bugs attract frogs...
Frogs attract Snakes ..

SO IF YOU DONT WANT Them in here Turn off the "B....y" Light


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## Warrigal (Nov 13, 2015)

I love galahs. They are not only pretty but they are also clowns of the bird world. They make me laugh whenever I see a flock of them down on a lawn.


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## Warrigal (Nov 13, 2015)

Kadee46 said:


> When we were traveling in 2004-2006 with our caravan we had the watch for snakes and frogs in tropical areas of Aust.
> We seen this sign in a caravan park amenities block .....
> 
> Switch Off light after use......BECAUSE
> ...



Yes, I remember well the large green frogs that were found in the toilet bowls in the Northern Territory. They could be seen wedged under the lip where the water flushes. It seemed terribly impolite to pee in their home pond.







Snakes do come for the frogs. Not all are as small as this one.


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## Grumpy Ol' Man (Nov 13, 2015)

We moved into our first home with running water in 1951.  Up until then, we had only an outdoor toilet and a "thunder bucket".  The "thunder bucket" was used at night or during storms when we chose not to walk from the house to the outdoor toilet.  My first three years of elementary school we had outdoor toilets.  The girls was at one end of the playground and the boys at the other.  Of course, at the country school, we had a water bucket just inside the door and a dipper that hung on the wall.  Everyone drank from the same dipper.  Today, the local health department would go nuts if they found a school operating this way.


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## Ameriscot (Nov 14, 2015)

Outhouses are a luxury compared to pit toilets. You just have to squat, no seat. But most don't smell as the holes are very very deep. Only smells if someone misses. layful:


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## Warrigal (Nov 14, 2015)

Country toilets where water is scarce used to be pit toilets but they always had four walls and a throne above the pit to sit on.
One of my aunts had one and everything was fine until the rooster fell in.


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## Ameriscot (Nov 14, 2015)

In Uganda pit toilets have no seats. My biggest worry when going there to live was that our house would have a pit toilet. But to my huge relief it had a pit toilet outside but a flushing toilet inside.


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## Kadee (Nov 14, 2015)

Warrigal said:


> Country toilets where water is scarce used to be pit toilets but they always had four walls and a throne above the pit to sit on.
> One of my aunts had one and everything was fine until the rooster fell in.



:lofl: DW ..about the rooster , I showed your post to hubby ..


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## Warrigal (Nov 14, 2015)

None of the hens would come near him when he was finally rescued. 
The humans didn't fancy him either.


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## Kadee (Nov 14, 2015)

Warrigal said:


> None of the hens would come near him when he was finally rescued.
> The humans didn't fancy him either.


Oh good grief DW now I need to go to the toilet :laugh:


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## IKE (Nov 14, 2015)

As a westerner I've always thought it amusing but I know it's a cultural thing as many other Muslim and non Muslim countries have them, for some reason Indonesia comes to mind because I've worked and seen them there.

Anyway, Gaddafi spent several million to build a new airport in Tripoli in 77, 78 and 79 while I was in country and it was a showplace with marble pillars and floors throughout......absolutely beautiful.

Working there as a civilian I was stationed a long way from Tripoli, closer to the Egyptian and later the Chad border, while the airport was being built and never got to see it till I left country and what impressed me in a negative way were the new bathrooms.

There were stalls with western style sit down toilets, with toilet paper, but there were also squat over toilet stalls (we referred to them as bombardiers) which were two foot pads next to a hole in the floor with no toilet paper but they had a rubber hose with a shower head on them and a bucket of water.....those stalls were filthy, gross and just plain nasty while the western stalls were clean.


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 14, 2015)

Ma was in the kitchen            fiddling around when she hollers out.... "Pa!  You need to go out            and fix the  outhouse!"           ​ Pa replies, "There            ain't nuthin wrong with the  outhouse."           ​ Ma yells back, "Yes            there is, now git out there and fix it." ​ So......Pa mosies out            to the  outhouse,            looks around and yells back, "Ma!  There ain't nuthin wrong with            the  outhouse!"​ Ma replies, "Stick yur            head in the hole!" ​ Pa yells back, "I            ain't stickin my head in that hole!" ​
Ma says, "Ya have to stick        yur head in the hole to see what to fix." ​ So with that, Pa sticks        his head in the hole, looks around and yells back, "Ma!  There ain't        nuthin wrong with this  outhouse!"       ​ Ma hollers back, "Now take        your head out of the hole!" ​ Pa proceeds to pull his        head out of the hole, then starts yelling, "Ma! Help!  My beard is        stuck in the cracks in the toilet seat!" ​ To which Ma replies,        "Hurt's, don't it ?!"​


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## Pappy (Nov 14, 2015)

Warri. Are they a talking bird like a parrot?


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## Warrigal (Nov 14, 2015)

Galahs are parrots. This one sings, meows and does a bit of talking. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NdKkFcr5JQ

This one is a bit of a chatterbox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTOekgm_-XQ

And this one too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rcYcz3YPBY


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## Davey Jones (Nov 14, 2015)

Ameriscot said:


> Outhouses are a luxury compared to pit toilets. You just have to squat, no seat. But most don't smell as the holes are very very deep. Only smells if someone misses. layful:




OR if you fall in that pit.


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## Ameriscot (Nov 14, 2015)

Davey Jones said:


> OR if you fall in that pit.



The hole is too small for other than a baby or toddler to fall in.  layful:


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## fureverywhere (Nov 14, 2015)

I guess I'm a bit too uh hem...sensitive on the issue of bathroom habits. We used to go to a campsite that was fairly rustic. It was in the woods but you could hook up on the main electrical line if you wanted. They also had several indoor restroom facilities. The one closest to the campsite wasn't maintained so well...spiders and any number of creepy crawlies. There was a second building maybe three miles down. Single room toilet and coin operated shower. I learned how to hold it long enough to not venture into the "spider bathroom". I applaud the rest of you not being afraid of nature.


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 15, 2015)




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## Pappy (Nov 15, 2015)

Sears and Roebuck use to sell them, $41.00. Couldn't buy the materials, these days, for that.


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## hangover (Nov 15, 2015)

Then there was the book called "Race to the outhouse" by Willie Makit...illustrated by Betty Dont.


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