Comments on: Log Flume…Get It? "Log" Flume?

By: Charles Gill

Charles Gill — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:01:23 +0000

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.

By: Magister Ludi

Magister Ludi — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:36:37 +0000

How did I miss that Chair’s Alaskan relative is made of sturdier material? Doh (strikes forehead)!

By: Lisa W.

Lisa W. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:27:33 +0000

Did anyone else notice this place is in Livengood?
I think not!

By: Lisa W.

Lisa W. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:26:24 +0000

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.

By: Magister Ludi

Magister Ludi — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:28:17 +0000

Wow, they make Chair work hard up there in Alaska. Look at him carrying the propane tank! There’s your pioneer spirit!

By: Trish

Trish — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:16:42 +0000

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!

By: azurelunatic

azurelunatic — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:12:49 +0000

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.

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:43:46 +0000

Good points. I retract the awesomeness.

By: Land of shimp

Land of shimp — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:27:05 +0000

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.

By: Vivian

Vivian — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:26:50 +0000

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?)