The Houghs: All Hail Kromdor II

What up, Internet.

July is definitely shaping up to be the Hough family's big 'camping' month this summer. Nearly every weekend this month has seen us staying out in tents for a few nights, and this weekend was no exception. While my roommates hung out back home in Midland, Yours Truly reconvened with my old high school crew - Sean, Lee, Trevor, Scrunge - and several others for a weekend of tenting out on Trevor's 80-acre property.

You folks may recall that I usually go on a couple rustic trips per year with this bunch - usually one in the winter (when we stay in Trevor's family's hunting cabin) and one in the summer, where we camp out in tents. The winter one fell through this year, so this was actually the first time I had been out to Trevor's property since we did this whole song-and-dance a year ago.

Weather was perfect for being outdoors, though - high 70s and sunny, with little rain to speak of (we had a brief scare with some ominous storm clouds on Day Two, but they passed us by without more than a brief sprinkle.) Only things that differentiated this time around from our previous years' trips was a.) Trevor commanded us to help him build a new outhouse for the property (seriously), and b.) Sean brought up a fully-functional karaoke set up. . . something one wouldn't expect to find in the middle of the frickin' woods on a rustic camping trip.

So yeah, without further adieu, here you go - another adventure in the woods with Clare High School's finest. Enjoy. . .

The camp site area of the property, down the drive from the hunting cabin. Trevor and his cousins recently bulldozed down a large triangle of trees to open the area up more, but lots of roots and stumps were still popping up out of the ground. Place looked like some World War I battlefield.

I arrived late in the morning and quickly set up my tent, the first non-McNerney to show aside from Scrunge (I've got it down to a science these days.)

After tents were set up, Trevor, Scruge and I walked over to the cabin area to inspect the area where we'd be building the outhouse on the following day.

Hard to tell from this angle, but this latrine hole is about six to eight feet deep and three feet wide - a considerable pit you wouldn't want to fall into.

Inside the cabin (that we didn't stay in at all this weekend.)

While waiting for everyone else to arrive, Trevor and Scrunge decided to kill some time by prepping some firewood for later on in the evening.

(I wanted no part of this.)

Handguns and forties (I had no idea they still made forties, but when Trevor and I made a quick beer run into Rosebush - a small village close to his property - I stumbled upon them in the beer section of a gas station. Haven't seen one of 'em in years.)

Lunch break, post- firewood collection and beer fetching.

We sat around most of the afternoon, waiting for folks to show up. Most folks weren't rolling in until the early evening.

The embedded compass on the hilt of my bush knife. Not the greatest quality, but the gimmick is cool.

Trevor's wife, Sara, found this old chair at her aunt's house, in like brand new condition. I had this exact, same chair growing up in the '80s - same color scheme and everything - so I was extremely jealous. It's not sun-faded, or frayed, or anything.

This pond's gross as hell.

Scrunge's friend, Chad, showed up after a few hours and quasi-set up his tent (but it was a hot mess for most of the weekend.)

Trevor inspects his row boat (his older daughter, Raegan, wanted to go fishing later in the evening.)

Getting a fire going for dinner. . .

McNerney's begin fishing. . .

This cast iron contraption they have for cooking over a fire is pretty sweet.

Trevor shows off a bass (sorry for the quality, I was zooming in with a phone from like 200 feet away.)

Folks continued to show up throughout the evening - Sean and his crew, Scrunge's girlfriend (forget her name), Luke, Lee, etc. - but things remained pretty chill as the night came on.

Marlboro Reds, Pepto Bismal, a Chainsaw. . . you can tell Trevor's been here.

Hanging out by the fire at the end of the night.

Late morning of Day Two.

Sean begins construction on his annual, wooden idol that serves as a sacrifice to the bonfire at the end of Day Two.

This dude always has to keep himself busy with shit like this. . .

While Sean began assembling his wooden sacrifice, the rest of us headed up to the hunting cabin to start constructing the new outhouse. This process would take about seven hours from start to finish (with a few breaks thrown in here and there.)

Dragging the floor beams into position over the latrine pit.

The measuring component of all of this was far more difficult than the actual physical labor aspect of it.

Scrunge, Luke, and Chad

Matt Lee and Trevor

The construction of this was pretty straight forward, just lots of measuring and cutting that made the project drag on and on and on. . .

The floor takes shape.

I wanted nothing to do with those frickin' saws. . .

Wall frames secured. Time to break for lunch.

Sean's annual sacrifice is complete. All hail Kromdor, second of his name.

Sandwich time.

Another run into Rosebush for more ice (and beer.)

Once lunch was finished and the coolers were restocked, Trevor, Scrunge Chad, and I continued throwing up the outhouse (the other three guys quit the project out of boredom.)

Building the seat.

That plastic sheet is to keep urine from soaking into the wood and making the entire outhouse smell like crap.

Scrunge gives the thing a test drive. . .

The siding goes up.

These nail guns sure got a shit-ton of use throughout the day.

Putting on the roof (Trevor went with a clear roof so that it had better lighting inside.)

We had to stop construction part way through the afternoon as the skies started to look incredibly perilous. Everyone scurried over to the hunting cabin for shelter, but I ran back to zip up the windows of my tent (and grab a beer for the time being - this was pretty good, as far as summer beers go.)

The assembled masses, hanging out outside the cabin (the storm passed over without so much as a drop, so construction on the outhouse resumed after an hour or so.)

The construction crew.

Taking another break from construction, back at the camp site.

Assembling the door.

Scrunge cuts out the hole for the toilet.

Hanging the door was, by far, the trickiest part of this entire process. It had to hang exactly right in order to open and close freely.

After multiple adjustments, we finally got the door to sit correctly.

Gotta have one of these.

Installing a motion light above the door.

She's a beaut.

With the weekend's mission complete, we returned to the camp site for dinner. Some other members of Sean's family had arrived by then, including his sister, Emily. Sean tried feeding her rat day a hotdog, but the thing wasn't having any of it.

As evening came on, Scrunge and I began chopping down more firewood, and Sean began to prep his karaoke set up (which included hooking up his generator.)