A long time ago I helped dig out an old septic tank. It was in the way for new foundations. It was empty, any last residue had dried out. It hadn't been used for decades. I had this stink on me for a week, even after multiple showers every day with every type of soap I could think of. The smell gets into your skin.
__________________
Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
My Dad was born on a farm. When he was young, he made the mistake of standing behind a cow when it coughed and farted at the same time. He was hosed down in the yard in the middle of Winter. Yes, it really happened. I had to laugh when he told me about it.
__________________
"Some days you are the Dog and some days you are the tree."
We had pan toilets at the house when we were kids. The men who collected them and their families had a permanent aroma, no one liked sitting next to the kids at school.
Many years ago there was a woman in a VERY expensive Merc driving in my home town.
As we went up the police station hill, she was tail-gating a cattle truck.
I learned a lesson this day but the posh lady in the flash white Mercedes Benz learned it more so than me.
All was good in her tailgating efforts until the cattle truck stopped at the roundabout at the top of the hill.
As the truck braked, all of the fluid and excreta must have washed to the front on the cattle crate.
Then the tsunami rushed back as gravity would dictate.
That image will NEVER leave my mind, she was absolutely sprayed with the most awful mess of sh*te I have ever seen!!!
I think she was in a state of shock as the bonnet, windscreen and roof got a coating of a very vile substance.
Lesson learned, she would never have tailgated a cattle truck again I will wager.
Me also, I give cattle and sheep trucks a very wide berth since when I spot one.
Re (I learned a lesson this day but the posh lady in the flash SILVER Mercedes Benz learned it more so than me.)
In heavy Traffic braked aggressively to avoid running over a Koala, that had moved off from the medium strip, the tail gating MB rear ended me and wrote off wife's Yaris. (and the MB)
Not 20 sec earlier I mentioned to SWMBO about the tail- gating. The Koala ambled back to the medium strip and his adjacent gum tree.
Wife treated by Ambo's and the attending police officer knew about the Koala as it had caused similat accidents in the past.
My first paid job outside of the farm was working on the summer fire crew what was then know as the Forest Commission way back in 1978. It's now know as Forest Fire Management here in Victoria. I was 18.
One job we had was to clean out the long drop toilets in a major camp ground in Mt. Cole. Contractors we called in with their vacuum suction truck.
The "contents" had to be liquidfied which we did by using the tanker to add a lot of water.
My job, being the young new chum, was to assist the contractor to remove the contents. This was done by repeatedly plunging the suction hose down into the contents. lifting the suction hose up was a gut turning experience as it was covered in you know what! Some of my workmates bolted and one vomited!
Even now, some nearly fifty years later, it makes my stomach squirm.
It was a very long day!! It's the reason we only stay in parks....I can't stomach long drop toilets or cassettes.
Collo.
-- Edited by Collo on Tuesday 28th of April 2026 04:20:28 PM
My Grandmother told me that before flushing loos there was some sort of tray under the toilet in the outhouse. The tray was accessible through a little door in the back of the outhouse and in Sydney the 'night soil men' used to come along at night and take away the used tray and replace it with an empty one.
Usually on those nights Grandma would use a length of timber with a notch in it to raise the clothesline (which was just a cable between the house and an upright post). One night she forgot to raise the clothesline, and as it was about 5 and a half feet high the night soil man ran into it while carrying a full tray of excrement. He fell over backwards, emptying the tray all over himself.
I think the family were in the bad books with the night soil men for a while.
I don't remember a 'tray' in outer Melbourne, but I do remember a black can and if my memory serves me correct, not a good idea these days, the can had like a black tar covering it and the dunny can man put a lid on top then carried it out on his head, sometimes shoulder.
Our man had a similar problem walking down the driveway, the bottom gave way and all the contents ended up over him. I got the job of hosing him down, I think I was about 10. He said it often happens because no one checked the bottom after they cleaned out. Funny the things we remember.
It was a ****ty job, but someone had to do it.
__________________
Live Life On Your Terms
DOUGChief One Feather (Losing feathers with age)
TUG.......2014 Holden LT Colorado Twin Cab Ute with Canopy
DEN....... 2014 "Chief" Arrow CV (with some changes)
