Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 23:46:46 -0700
From: borischen <borischen@zoho.com>
Subject: camping in kentucky -13

Chapter Thirteen.

Our next trip to Kentucky was in late February. The pace at Atlas Tire had
been hectic. Our business is seasonal with lots of industrial-mining
downtime scheduled for winter which is when we get the most shipping
deadlines for the huge tires that go on those three story tall Caterpillar
dump trucks. We are the OEM manufacturer for Cat. Well, we're one of
them. We are the leading supplier of replacement tires.

Our trip was scheduled for after work on Friday February 27th. Same as
previous trips. This time we had several bags of mortar mix, a collection
of rocks, some steel barbecue racks, the wheelbarrow, more lumber, nails,
and about ten bags of ready-mix concrete. Our projects this time were to
seal the cabin floor, insulate the underside of the roof and dig the pit
for the outhouse septic tank.

A backhoe was going to be delivered to Lee's uncle's front yard at 6am on
Saturday, we had to be there and ready. We'd drive the truck to his uncle's
place and meet the delivery guy someone Lee says he knows. I was paying for
the backhoe. Lee got us two piles of used cement blocks delivered to his
uncle's front yard a week ago.  ---- We drove to his uncle's place in the
dark, it was cold outside, maybe 40 degrees and cloudy. The trailer showed
up, the guy backed it off, we inspected it. Lee signed and drove it into
the yard. We started tossing blocks into the bucket on front, it might take
two trips. He turned across the yard, around his house, towards the field
to the east heading away from the road at an angle following what looked
like a seldom used trail. I caught a glimpse of the creek way over to our
left. We drove slowly, bouncing, cold as hell in the open air cab. I stood
next to Lee who drove and was concentrating with all his ability since the
lighting on this backhoe was poor at best. After about ten minutes we
turned to the right which is when everything suddenly looked familiar.

We drove past the places where we took river-water bucket showers then
started up the hill for his valley, over the crest and down the other side
we tried to ride over the trail and not on it.

Eventually we got to our clearing, Lee gently dumped the load of blocks
near the clearing but not in the way, then we drove to about fifteen feet
from the cabin and set down the outrigger legs. He turned the seat over and
started digging the hole for the septic tank, even with the back hoe it
took almost twenty minutes. Lee looked a little rusty in his backhoe
control technique.

He dug a square hole almost six feet deep and four feet on each side with
straight sides, almost like the hole for a grave but not rectangular. The
tree roots weren't as bad as I thought it would be. We were down to a
little over half a tank of fuel in the backhoe by now.

Next we drove to the parking spot and hand loaded all our rocks, mortar mix
bags and the rest of the boulders we brought down over the fall and winter
with heavy stuff we got back in Dayton. He used the bucket to first scoop
up all our extra rocks from the pile we'd been making, most were bigger
than a football, a few the size of a softball. We dumped the biggest ones
in the bottom of the pit and used the bucket to pound them down in the
dirt. This was the foundation for the septic tank.

Next thing we drove back to his uncle's house and hand loaded the rest of
the used blocks into the bucket, nearly filling it again. Then drove those
back to the site dumping them near the hole. Last trip was to drive our
most used foot paths picking out some of our most hated rocks and boulders
we already pulled from the ground and rolled along the trails. Finally the
backhoe got returned back to his uncle's front yard and left there, we rode
in his truck back to our parking spot. We casually walked back to the cabin
with the remaining things from the truck we intended to leave here.

Next came building the block walls. With a couple trips to the creek for
un-filtered water we made a big batch of concrete to pour something like a
floor on top of the largest rocks we already dumped in the hole. We gave
that a little time to harden then started laying blocks forming the walls
of the septic tank on top of that. Every once in a while we laid a random
broken block to allow fluid to seep out into the soil. By noon the walls
were done. We also hand tossed the huge pile of rocks left over into the
pit between the dirt walls and our new block walls to aid in water
absorption by the ground from inside the tank. When we ran out of rocks we
hand shoveled the rest of the way to the top with dirt from the pit
itself. We packed it down by stomping over and over with our boots and body
weight. The top of the block walls were about two inches above ground level
around the pit.

We laid a few 2x4 boards over the top of the walls, then the half sheet of
plywood with a large round hole near the middle over those. Next we put 2x4
boards around the perimeter of the plywood and pushed rocks and dirt next
to them to keep those in place. This was the form for the top of the tank
and floor of the outhouse.

Next step was to return to the creek for more water to mix the concrete in
the wheelbarrow like all the rest using a shovel and hoe. We took turns
mixing and working the mix onto the cover board until it was a uniform five
inches thick.

Lee got us another plastic bucket and took a hack saw to cut off the bottom
making it into a large short piece of pipe. This would become our homemade
outhouse toilet and kept the concrete from running down the hole into the
bottom of our septic tank.

>From the old farm house outside Dayton being torn down he got us a toilet
seat and lid, modified it to screw onto the bucket which meant we'd not be
able to lift the seat to pee, so we had to use good aim and keep some wipes
by the toilet all the time. After the floor was done we rinsed out the
wheelbarrow and cleaned up the site, burning our trash and trying to make
it look as natural as possible which was hard after the backhoe tore up the
ground badly.

 By 4pm all was reasonably back to normal, it was just a flat concrete slab
sitting on the ground. We'd build the actual outhouse another time. For now
we were still crapping into hand dug holes around the area.

It was a long day. We opened a bottle of wine to celebrate. I took a photo
of us in the cabin, arm in arm. I turned on the radio, we ate canned stuff
after deciding not to drive into Claryville for carry-out food. Lee showed
me a paper he had folded up of a basic outhouse plan he found online. We
had my catalytic camping heater running on the floor keeping it super warm
inside the cabin.

Tonight we did something rather sexy too, we stripped naked and gave each
other baby wipe baths from head to toe. We both got hard doing that. Then
we laid on the bottom bunk, which is a tight fit for two, I laid on my
back, Lee on his side next to me.

Mostly what we did was talk about our lives, our dreams, what we felt each
of us was on earth to accomplish, that sort of talk. One of the hanging
flashlights quit working while we were talking. It was odd, we both briefly
froze trying to figure out what happened. These hanging lights are so small
they just kind of disappear into the air in the cabin. Eventually we both
laughed and went back to talking.

Lee had his hand on my chest. Sometimes he put his finger tip on one of my
tits and ran it in circles gently around and around while we shared our
tales. It got personal, it got happy, it got silly, it got sad too. The
time we spent just talking really helped us.

Lee told me about a speech he had to give in front of a class in freshman
year of high school. He decided to do his paper on the life of Richard
Starkey before he became famous. Like nobody in his school believed the
report was true, they thought he made it up that Ringo Star was born
Richard Starkey and from then on in his school people always called him
`Starkey.'

I confessed to breaking my right arm in fifth grade track competition. I
was running on a 300 meter relay team, I was the third member. I had just
started running, grabbed the baton, made the first turn when my shoe lace
broke, my foot slipped out of my shoe, I fell forward into another runner
knocking both of us down.

Ever since that day I was called `Fracture.' I secretly thought it was a
cool name but acted like being mocked was really hurtful. Deep down inside
I liked the name. Better `Fracture' than `Fagboy!`

Our evening of stories went on until one by one we fell asleep, Lee with
the side of his head on my shoulder and chest, me with the side of my
forehead pressed into the side of his head.

I woke up a couple hours later, slid his hand down to my belly and left it
there then fell back asleep. It was warm, snuggly, and romantic.  ---- We
left for home the next morning after stopping for breakfast in town at a
local diner where it seemed lots of people recognized Lee and asked how his
uncle was doing. So much for the 'my uncle is a hermit story' I guess.

We also used the diner bathroom to poop and brush our teeth with actual
running water. All the time we spent down there made me appreciate the
comforts of modern society even more, but now we knew how to survive should
it all collapse.

Over the rest of the winter we discussed a garden, finishing the outhouse,
and starting on the outdoor kitchen, which was not a huge
priority. Gradually the place became more comfortable.

Lee built us a much larger bed mounted to the side wall and roof inside the
cabin above the love seat, it's a bit larger than a real twin mattress. He
also add a tiny screened window on the back wall just below the peak of the
roof for venting heat. We figured with the fans and shade from the trees
and a layer of foam insulation under the roof boards it shouldn't be too
bad during the summer. He did this stuff on one of his secret solo trips to
LV.

We continued to make once a month trips to Kentucky to gather more stones
we pulled from the trails, the ones we named after leg and ankle injuries
they tried to cause. Our pile of rocks for the outdoor kitchen got larger
and larger until Lee announced we had more than what we needed.

Even after some bad rain storms our outhouse tank didn't fill with rain
water like I suspected it would. The sloped ground worked fine and the
heavy trees surrounding it soaked up most of the free rain water. Lee had
drawn up plans for a traditional wooden outhouse then started to collect
scrap grade lumber in Dayton. When they tore down an old farm house north
west of Dayton near Clayton he collected enough scrap lumber to build the
kitchen and outhouse and have left over wood for later use.  ---- By the
end of May we had our outhouse done, just a tiny wood shack with a large
door, drop your drawers, back in and sit down. The roof and walls were
water proof but allowed gas to escape. We actually kept it pretty
clean. Then we built the stone kitchen and assembled the shelter overhead,
this was close to our cabin and blocked the view of the outhouse from most
of the clearing. We ended up with an old stainless steel countertop, a two
foot steel grille and something like a brick oven made of stone which all
was heated by a fire box in the middle venting out a seven foot tall
chimney. We knew the rocks would shatter if we got them too hot but it was
good for slow cooking and moderate fires. It took us two trips to 'LV' to
build the kitchen and the lean-to over head. The whole place looked very
rustic, very Mother Earth News-ish. We took photos.

With the addition of a steel pipe and a very long directional antenna we
got marginal 3G wireless internet service but it wasn't very reliable since
we were talking to a tower almost eight miles away through the trees. When
it rained hard the signal would fade completely. And the addition of a deep
cycle battery gave us lighting and fans all night into the next day. Last
came the CB antenna on top. The CB radio also ran off the solar power but
we mostly left it shut off.

Lee's uncle returned in early May but like he said David never came back to
the valley. I saw him from the truck once cutting his front yard, he looked
frail, skinny, and gray. He had an oxygen tank in a backpack he wore while
slowly pushing the mower. But you gotta hand it to him cutting his own
grass must take a lot of work. Lee stopped-in monthly to visit for a few
hours while I stayed at the cabin to read. He said he had no plans to tell
his uncle about the construction.

Atlas Custom Tire closes each year for the first half of July for annual
maintenance. We both planned on taking the time off. The lab where I work
would be shut down.  ---- At work we mostly ignore each other. We sit at
nearby tables but never talk or acknowledge each other. Nobody there
suspects us. My mom suspects I have a love thing going on. I'm sure my
family suspects I'm gay but we never had the talk. I really don't think
it's any of their business who I screw, nor do I want to know that about
their love lives. I went to Mom's for Memorial Day like always, the family
cook out. Lee spent the weekend at his uncle's helping him on home
maintenance and repair stuff.  ---- July arrived. We had continued to make
our once a month trips south to Lee's Valley. I have no idea how many trips
Lee is making alone to LV to do stuff and get out of town. He never tells
me. But he did say that since we started going there together he's never
seen any sign of any other humans walking into the valley. I guess he
watches for foreign shoe prints on the trails every time he goes there.

Our plans were to head to Kentucky for a week in the cabin, then two nights
at my place, then back to our normal routine.

Like always we had lists of stuff to do, bring, buy, etc. Slowly the place
got better and better, slowly we figured out how to cook stuff on the stone
grille. We actually smoked a thin crust pizza one time that came out
fantastic. We bought the pizza pre-made but not cooked. We were also
getting better at preparing food in general.

We decided to build our shower as our main project over vacation. We took
apart our old bunk bed frame to make the main structure.

First we built the shower frame from three 2x4 boards set in concrete. Then
we made a platform up high with a hole in the bottom. We put an old 20
gallon water heater on top of that with part of the side cut off so we
could mount a drain pipe on the bottom and a hole to fill with buckets of
water and a funnel on top. The drain pipe from the tank had a simple ball
valve on the end. Next we built a wood floor a foot above the ground, and
ran a drain pipe from that over to the center of our garden plot so all our
waste shower water went to sustain the crops. This also meant we'd have to
be mindful about what kind of soap we used in the shower.

Last we added ladder legs to one side of the shower frame so either of us
could climb up and pour the water into the tank on top to warm up in the
afternoon sun. We painted the tank black.

Our tradition became to assist each other with washing, which was sexy and
fun but also saved water because four hands gets you washed faster than two
hands.  ---- We arrived after vacation started on Sunday July 3rd. We got
there about 3pm with lots of fried chicken and canned stuff, a box of wine,
and plenty of veggies. We experimented with planting a garden next to the
rifle range hoping the rabbits wouldn't get the best of us, which sort of
worked. They really don't eat potatoes much and the fencing kept them out
of the carrots and onions. Lee planted two apple trees so we'll see ten
years from now if that ever worked. The soil here is too rich for lots of
crops, it's great for tobacco but we don't smoke.

The first night we played the radio and heated the chicken over the grille,
Lee took the wheelbarrow to the river for ten gallons of water for the
shower. During our wonderful meal I had him take off his shirt so I could
watch him eat and enjoy his beauty, which got me hard, which made it hard
to concentrate on anything except satisfying my urge to come, but I managed
to finish dinner.

Lee showed me a sketch he made for a bicycle pump to push water from the
creek up to our site via garden hose hanging in the trees, several hundred
feet, more like a thousand feet across the property. He said if we started
buying garden hose on sale at the end of summer we could get enough to pump
water from the stream up here in one year, a thousand feet was after all
only ten lengths of garden hose.

His plan included a check valve, a filter to keep stuff out of the pump and
hose, a bicycle converted to a pump, human powered, and a chain driven
pump. The bike frame needed some simple welding then driven into the ground
near the creek along with an added base for a pump. The plan was simple and
could be made mostly for free out of an old bike and a junkyard pool water
pump. The hose could be got for maybe $100 bucks on sale at the end of the
lawn mowing season when the big stores mark garden hose 70% off.

I thought his plan was neat, he appreciated my comments. We shelved the
plan for next year except he may go ahead and start getting the steel
parts. The idea of river water sitting in a hose for possibly weeks on end
didn't sit really good with me but his plan was early, I never voiced my
concerns. I thought I'd wait and see what other ideas we'd come up with for
water.

Since we didn't do much physical today the plan was to sponge bath each
other with wipes and go to bed early. We climbed up the ladder into our
loft bed. It was warmish and we were both slightly drunk off several
glasses of wine each.

"You know something Jim?"

"No, what?"

"I really love you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me." Lee
said with an honest expression of happiness on his face.

"Same with me hon, I really love you too, thanks for being patient with my
nerdy ways and crap like that. I love you too."

We kissed briefly then snuggled together. The battery powered fan
helped. The sounds from outside were loud, the crickets, bats, frogs, birds
and other insects all chirping made a loud symphony that I loved to sleep
to.

I was behind Lee, my hand on his front side gently rubbing him from belly
to chest. We slept that night until the alarm went off at 6am, the sun was
already up, it was about eighty outside. We had some flies outside not too
bad really. We swatted them everywhere they landed and the snakes and frogs
in the valley really kept their numbers down plus we were obsessed about
not leaving anything out they could eat or lay eggs on.

Today we went fishing again on the lake to the south of us across the line
onto state property. Neither of us have fishing licenses, the place was so
remote I doubt any of the game wardens knew the lake was there. They had
the Ohio River and large bodies of water with boaters and fisherman to keep
track of, not our tiny spit of water in the middle of the forest.

Lee now had a proper fishing pole, bait, bobbers, and line. We caught
crappie and perch which were always good eating for supper. Any snakes we
caught near our home got moved over the hill but never killed since they
eat lots of bugs.

At the lake I asked Lee to take his shirt off for me, which he did tying it
around my waist, he sat there all edible and boyish with his fishing pole,
cap, jeans and boots. It took all my self-control to keep my hands to
myself. Lee was focused on fishing, I didn't want to ruin his karma by
asking to borrow his dick for my own personal use.

That night we celebrated life by cooking the fish on the actual log fire in
the central fire pit of the clearing. The pan got a little blackened but it
scrubbed off. We made a big fire, drank wine, told dumb jokes and had a
great time just being buddies.

As the evening went by I was really getting hot for his body, I think he
had a similar problem. When it felt like I was getting tired I decided to
do it myself sitting right next to him.

We've both put on solo shows before, although we never talking about it I
think we both really liked watching each other stroking ourselves to
orgasm. Sometimes we sit on each other's legs and come on his stomach which
is also very enjoyable.

At first I slid my hand down my pants to try to wake him up. Before too
long I started sliding my hand up and down, then I opened my pants. Forming
a ring with my thumb and first finger I gently slid it up and down over the
lower rim of the head. Up and down I went just over that one spot. It's a
super tease and torments my body into a quick and very intense orgasm.

While I was doing that Jim opened his pants and joined the party. I spunked
on my stomach while he sat watching the show. Then Lee did the same. His
show was hot and made me ready to go again, but we were both too tired
after the long day.

We walked holding hands into the cabin, up into our bed. It was so sweet
being in a place where we could just be ourselves without having to hide
anything or worry about what the neighbors might say if they saw. Here in
LV we were totally alone. I'm sure there were some critters watching but no
people. I wasn't worried about what the chipmunks thought.

We slept well that night.