We’ve had a long cold snap recently—nothing severe, just daytime highs in the low to mid-20s, but enough to make going to the outhouse a strictly B.Y.O.D. event—Bring Your Own Duff.
Our main outhouse is a composter, which means that “deposits” are covered with a scoop or two of duff: squirrel midden, old leaves, rakings from the forest floor and other organic material. We mine this stuff from the larger squirrel towns around the property and store it in buckets or bags until needed. To work properly, it needs a certain level of moisture, which it has. Unfortunately, in cold snaps, that moisture can freeze the whole container into an icy, rock-hard mass. Continue reading