ROCKDOCKERS- boonypoopin' and whizzdockin'

[Ray Eklund]

Ken. You have coined two NEW camping terms when I am wandering off into the backcountry to do my "business". See... Boondocking vs Freestyling thread.

Yes, I am the one who "rarely" uses the stool in our AS. Occasionally the wife will use the stool to whizz when camped on the edge of civilization and the local facilities are not available in a public area. Once we are in the backcountry it becomes whizzdockin. Thank you. I will add these two terms to my limited verbal expressions of true back country camping, Rockdocking.

When we are in the Rockdocking mode, water becomes as valuable as beer and wine for drinking and for cooking. It is a waste of a precious commodity when spending a week or two camped in difficult area to tow our AS, and flushing wastes into a black tank. Before we leave the asphalt, I fill our water tank and four six gallon water jugs, drinking bottles and the dog's water jug. We term this, traveling heavy. When we leave we are traveling light, no black water, no grey water and if there is excess water we will dump fresh water down to 1/4 tank for weight reduction. If we misuse our water, the travel time may be in the hours to refill our water jugs in the nearest town to bring back to the camp site. In two weeks I will make a day trip of exploring to tie in with coming to our water source, filling up our water, gasoline, maybe ice and complete the round trip. Just frugal as well, with gasoline in the small western towns in the $3.50 to $4.25 ranges.

The wife and I can "shower" in less than 3 gallons of water. We can "washdock" in a half gallon with a face towel. We will use the shower when we are coming back into some form of civilization, since the intent is to use excess water/weight on the way out. I try to reserve a six gallon jug in the event we have a break down and the water is a life and death factor. You will note our "showerdocker tent" in the photo.

There is a fecal phobia in today's population. Camping at a RV Park in Columbus, Ohio is not the same as being camped where bear out number people. We all have our idea of back country camping. I respect anyone who tries it. It is just our back country camping requires a different set of standards. As a child in the 1950's, living near Lakeside, Montana, we had no running water, electricity and used an outdoor privy. I never thought anyone else lived any better nor worse. Now million dollar homes populate the area. The view is the same, just conditions have improved. It does not make me "arrogant" as someone had commented on a thread. It makes me proud to be a self sufficient American, living the dream. I know what being poor is like. I know what it is like to live... well. There is no better lesson in life to know the extremes. As I get older, I enjoyed my roots in those Montana mountains and our small boat on the Flathead Lake as a happy proud Montanan. So I need not apologize nor do I feel arrogant for boonypoopin' nor whizzdockin' where most AS owners dare not to venture.

If there are any other potential Rockdockers with terms for this type of camping, please add to the vocabulary. I think I am up to five or six terms as of today. And, please. If you have only negative things to say, keep them to yourself. It is not needed. AS camping is meant to be a fun experience, not a downer.

[Crusty]

I remember the first time that I was invited to hunt at an established deer lease and I discovered that they had a two-holer outhouse, and I remember thinking "What a nice camp". It sure beat finding an out of the way bush and the possible risk of poison oak rash where the sun never shines. I guess I grew up before everything became plastic wrapped and sanitized for your protection, too.

[Gringo]

Big hunks of my youth were spent in a dog-run cabin in east texas. Two bedrooms in one half, open porch between that half and the half with the fireplace. The kitchen/living room. The outhouse was out the door, down three wooden steps, about ten feet to a barbed wire fence, then a hard right for about 40 yards on a narrow path, to a single holer. Sears catalog nailed to the wall. Bucket of corn cobs on the floor.

In the middle of the night, in the cold of mid winter, barefoot on the ice or wait to put your shoes on? Sometimes a critical decision. And in the summer, one step off the path equalled a dozen sand spurs.

the remains of that cabin burned this summer, in Leon Co. Texas.

[AirsDream]

See, the trouble is that hardly anyone on this forum is gonna' understand the references to the Sears catalog and corn cobs. But when you've "been there, done that," an Airstream seems awfully cushy, no matter where you manage to tow it!

The February wind can really whistle thorugh an old outhouse and make you real appreciative of a warm fire back indoors. Once everyone lived like that - today very few do - but we all could again if we needed to.

[BigAl]

OK! I gotta ask. What's with the corn cobs?
Al

[xrvr]

Wipin'! jim

[polarlyse]

Our family summered in the Adirondacks of NYS when I was a kid. Not trailering it but at a family cabin in the woods. Had a single hole outhouse and no running water. That is unless you call totin it a quarter mile, running water. I don't remember the totin days cuz when I was a kid they had installed a well and a pitcher pump out back. Still the single holer though. It wasn't until the late 80's that an Uncle winterized the cabin and put in running water and a water heater. What luxury. And an indoor head. Wow. But it was only intended for summertime use back then anyhow. Still there with all it's luxuries too. I remember talk of the corn cobs and sears catalogs but we had regular paper.

[Ag&Au]

Ray,

Gene of Crawford Gene fame, coined the terms., boonypoopin' and whizzdockin'. I just put them to music.

Ken

[Ag&Au]

Perhaps this would be of use for boonypoopin' :

Off-Road Commode | www.kotulas.com | Free Shipping

I am sure the warning about not using it in motion is just some silly government requirement. I would pay it no mind. Using it while in motion could help obtain maximum dispersion.

Ken

[Nuvite-F]

NHTSA will require a shoulder harness seat belt and air bags for use in motion. . .
.

[Ray Eklund]

There just were no walking distance corn fields in the south Kalispell, Somers and Lakeside area that I remember as a kid. So no cobs to speak of. Lots of watermelon, cherry, berries and ice melting at the ice house in the summer. Probably an experience I may have just been happy to have not needed.

Sears catalogs. It is sad to see what has happened to Sears. Their catalog was where my clothes and shoes were purchased. The catalogs were common to find in the outdoor johns for paper. And do not forget to toss in some lye into the "pit" when you were finished... I remember when the new catalog was received in the mail, the women would gather around with their wish lists, looking at the "latest styles". When I attended first grade in Somers, Montana in 1956, I saw my first flushing toilet. The smell of kerosene lamps is another thing I remember. When lights were out, they were out. Times change, but these memories make the old days come back to life.

Somers being a lumber town with Anaconda, you would get your winter supply of firewood from the board trimmings for the hauling. Everyone worked at the mill and the town was owned by Anaconda, until they quit the local lumber business and you could buy property in Somers. Best wood for a wood burning stove to date! When the mill was running, the smell of pine covered everyone downwind from the saws cutting fresh timber! The smell of tar paper in the summer was the other smell I still remember.

Back to AStreaming:
A wonderful Boondocking site is on the west side of Flathead Lake operated by the State of Montana. You can camp alongside the lake with a gravel beach. Crystal clear water and there is a shower house and restrooms. It is called Big Arm Unit of the Flathead Lake State Park right off the east side of Highway 93, going north from Polson. When you begin to see Montana license plates with a 7, you are in Flathead/Lake county, for sure. It offers great swimming and relaxing along the cool lake waters. It has been five years since we were there, so I cannot recall the daily cost. Now they have an internet reservation system and keep some available for "stragglers".

[Gringo]

remember sleeping under a tin roof?

My grandparents lived in a 'dry' county in Texas. My grandfather and uncles would take me to an 'ice house', but it wasn't full of watermelons and strawberries. It was full of Texas farmers drinking beer.

I learned to drive at 12 by taking my grandfather back and forth from Buffalo Texas to Groesbeck to buy beer. The Local towncops got excited if they saw him driving himself back, and they probably knew about the several cases of Pearl in the trunk, but they never bothered to stop us when I was driving. they knew I was too young to have a license. Now I realize they were keeping an eye on me and were just relieved he wasn't driving. I must have a whole bunch of community service brownie points stacked up somewhere in the universe.

When we weren't living with my grandparents, we were on a land seismic crew travelling around the country blowing holes in the ground with dynamite. They were called Doodlebuggers. Some of my earliest words included 'jug hustler', 'party chief','dog house', 'cap wire', 'shooter', 'blaster', 'tool pusher','honky tonk'...

I was going "in the field" with my father when I was three. They let me flip the switch that started the cameras and set the explosion off. A crew of about two dozen young Texans and some of their familes traveled around together, living in rented rooms and mobile homes. From what I've seen since, I don't think it was a normal childhood.

[Airtandem]

as for the corn cobs in the outhouse; one would "wipe" with a red one, than a white one to see if they needed another red one. cobs worked better than catalog paper and they were softer.

[Gringo]

you could turn em and get two swipes with one cob, too. Sometimes three. Depending on whether dinner had been heavy veggies again, or there was some meat this time....

[Foiled Again]

How much has changed in how short a time.

A friend of mine lives in Nags Head NC, and his soil won't perk, so he has a propane toilet that burns the waste products - like the advice, "never squat when you're wearing spurs" this one contains severe warnings about not flushing until one is standing clear. No gopher holes allowed in this day and age.

I grew up in a small town in N.E. Ohio - and everyone had flush toilets in the "city". Once you got out in the township, the story differed. Many middle class people were JUST getting septic tanks and indoor facilities. During the War, rationing made it difficult to add those things even though there was plenty of money. Poorer people were saving up for the day that their facilities could be moved indoors. I remember taking a tour of Stan Hyatt - a Tudor mansion rebuilt in Akron Ohio by the Seiberling family - I was astounded by the huge bathroom that contained tubs, sitz baths, and two pedastal sinks, and perhaps even a bidet? Even the swimming pool in the basement didn't impress me as much as that bathroom.

The campground I went to as a Brownie and Girl Scout had a 5 hole outhouse, and many of the rural state parks had multiple "unflushables" too. Modesty - oddly we accepted it as just normal for country living.

I distinctly remember my aunt and uncle having a party to show off their new bathroom and kitchen remodel. They had a hand pump in the kitchen by the sink until then, the electric pump and the upstairs bath replaced the "four rooms and a path" description of their cottage house. They had a fun ribbon cutting ceremony too for the "throne room".

Aunt Martha had a real flare for decorating. Ralph Lauren could have taken a few cues from her. My favorite as a small child? The use of a lawn jockey as a hand towel holder in her bathroom. Today it would be so politically incorrect - but in the little town where I grew up, cast iron hitching posts and sandstone mounting blocks were leftovers from the horse drawn era - which actually didn't end until about 1920. The things weighed a ton, were normally set in cement, and didn't get removed until after they were hit by a car or truck. Her lawn jockey had seen regular service in the yard for decades before she incorporated it into the bathroom.

Paula

[Lily&Me]

Call me a wimp but I like a real potty with toilet paper, and don't care much for trying to squat in the bushes. Just plain wouldn't do it, but for an emergency.

Aside from my bad knees that don't take well to such actions, trying to squat in the bushes gives me fits of giggles that cause other problems. :blush

I would have thought the wiping-with-a-corncob reference had to be some kind of joke, but for my Iowa-raised husband who remembers hearing the old folks talk about this! He never had this experience. One of the advantages of living in corn country.

Hubby also remembers the well behind the Grace Hill Moravian church, drawing buckets of water, and the community bucket with dipper that all used when they needed a drink.

I have digressed just a bit. Good for you folks who can boonypoop and whizzdock!


Maggie

[Gringo]

I absolutely was not joking about the corn cobs. The sears catalog was 'for the ladies'. In the summer, wasps and 'dirt daubers' loved building nests in that outhouse. All kinds of bugs lived in there, of course. It was not a place to linger over a novel.

We pulled water up from a brick lined well on a bucket, and drank from the bucket with a long handled dipper. The old farm burned this summer in the Texas fires, but I'm told the well is still there.

A bath for us kids was sitting in a big round galvanized wash tub on the ground next to the well, with water that had been heated in a kettle poured over us. There is no privacy in this situation.

As for squatting, I spent three months working on the Tarbela Dam resovoir in the NW frontier province of Pakistan. Had to accomodate to their style of bathroom. I ain't never going to squat again if I can help it.

My new titanium knee might let me, but the other,original one wouldn't, anyhow. I'd turn into the leaning tower of........well.....never mind.

[mello mike]

This thread has been very educational. Corn cobs? Who whuda thunk it.

Paula,
Didn't know you were from NE Ohio. I grew up in Kent. How about you?

[kposey]

I remember playing in the Georgia clay all day then our parents would strip all us cousins and hose us down with the water hose (at my grandmother's house that had running water). THEN we could take a bath in the galvanized tubs that had set out with water in them all day to warm at my great grandmother's house. There were a lot of us and we had to switch out with the galvanized tubs and the real bath tub. Luckily they lived next door to each other.

I also remember the outhouse with the Sears catalog and the well water with the dipper. Man, that well water was the best I have ever tasted!

But the besest childhood memory is waking up at my great grandmother's house in the morning and smelling the coffee, sausage and biscuits cooking downstairs. That was the best memory of all.

Ah, the good ole days!

[whitsend]

Originally Posted by BigAl

OK! I gotta ask. What's with the corn cobs?
Al

Al - Two brown cobs, if used properly, usually got most of the job done. One white'ish cob answered any questions if you needed to use another darker cob .

Apologies to any what might have offended by our country ways a while back in rural Texas . Country folks were a much tougher breed back then. You used what you had & complaining didn't accomplish much.