Is it just me or does it seem really unsanitary, gross, and a bit lazy to have a toilet in 200 ft cabin? Personally no matter what the circumstances I would still go outdoors- especially 2!! Do you think Jeff & Elizabeth seemed a bit grossed as well? LOL- Also isn't that one of the warmer parts of the area? They said they get more rain there than anywhere else....
I thought it was a dumb idea to put a primitive toilet in the cabin as well. There was a reason why people of hundred years ago put their outhouses away from the house/cabin/tent. Besides who wants to hear others relieving themselves? You know it had to smell with that jug full of stale urine. I would of looked disgusted too.
That was kinda gross. I just can't use the bathroom in front of anyone else either. I don't know what would be worse, having to use to facilities in front of your family, or your family using the facilities in front of you! The look on Jeff's face was so funny. He was obviously trying to be polite, but you can tell he wanted to gag a little. Then one of the girls called them for dinner. Good thing they were almost starved or they wouldn't have been able to swallow a thing.
While it may be "not so pleasant" to the other occupants of the cabin or the viewer. Having a toilet under cover from the elements can be a great boost to morale.
Also I don't know what type of regulations they have to deal with on disposal of human waste, but it may involve the removal of their waste from the area by means of collection and "taking it with you", which would mean someone on the support staff has to carry out their waste on a regular basis.
I have trained in many areas where we had to do exactly that due to local laws involving human waste not be left in the wild. (Not even being able to dig a latrine trench to bury it.)
It may smell and may be gross, but if they use proper sanitation amd remove the waste periodically, everything should be okay.
Or they could just have done it for convenience as we all now a days have a bathroom only a few steps away in our homes.
Nope, the camps are not in any wilderness area where human waste has to be taken away. The Wise family had a shallow pit, covered by old corrugated metal and weighed down to prevent bears from exploring, in which they placed their "night soil". They scattered the urine around their camp to deter visits by bears and other animals. It would have been more sanitary and pleasant to have rigged an enclosure on the porch of their cabin for their toilet area. That would have removed the smells from the cabin interior and given everyone a better sense of privacy.
I know about the sometimes onerous rules for wilderness areas. One fellow I know saw his favorite pack horse go off a cliff in a wilderness area in the Cascades of Washington State. He was required to halt his goat hunt and take all traces of the horse carcass out of the wilderness area. That includes the guts. Ironically, if he had shot his goat, he could have left the gutpile from the goat right where he shot it.
Morale may be increased - but the hazard of fecal coliform contamination of the food supplies would be more than enough to have me happy to go outside. The last thing you need is to be rendered ill from either food infection or food poisoning when you need every hand to remain work-ready. A pit privy with a cover would have been preferable. I don't think there is a bag and carry restriction in the experiment location - but the smell of a too-shallow pit has its own problems as well.
Good point mefolkes, they could have used some of that tarp to make a toilet on the porch.
Canadab, I agree that being inside isn't the best place for a toilet (bucket of poo and pee), but as I said, proper sanitation (washing of hands, empty bucket regularly, cleaning of the area regularly) and there is no difference with food safety issues than if they had a working bathroom in a seperate room in the cabin.
Though my best guess for them making their toilet in the cabin was as simple as their (the girls) "comfort", I reckon the dad would be okay with sitting on a bucket behind a bush if need be. The daughters on the other hand...I can't see them answering natures call, out in the actual nature itself.
On a trip to Europe with my mother, uncle, aunt and cousin, we were trying to keep up a good pace to get to a little budget hotel on the Dutch-German border. My uncle insisted that we needed to wait to use restrooms until we got to the hotel. We were all feeling the need, and we were delighted to hear my uncle say that we needed to stop for gas, in the middle of a forest, one of the few unsettled parts of the Netherlands. The gas station building was tiny, and no one could figure out where the restrooms were. The attendant, when asked, used his finger, in a wide arc, to point to the forest. My uncle and I had no problem with that. The three women were horrified, but had no choice.
I believe putting a toilet in the kitchen/everything else area was a bad idea. They already had a divider put up to cut the cabin in half. Why not put it on the back side. Not the most sanitary but better than where it ended up. Going outside to do your business is great when the weather is co-operative and it's daylight but a lot of the time this wasn't the case. When there are bears and wolves in the area, it's dark, freezing and/or raining, an inside toilet is a nice thing to have.
No where do you see any food being cooked in the back room where the honey pot was. Look again! All the cooking was done in the main room where it was warmer. Not once will you see cooking being done in the back room after the honey pot was introduced.
