The Outdoor Shower

Well, I've decided your picture of the campground and the outhouse would be incomplete without a tour of the shower.

Yes, there is a shower at the campground. My Grandpa built it. He is a very brilliant man and an electrical engineer. He is ingenious and creative. I don't think that there has ever been a project he wanted to do that he didn't find someway to figure it out.

He told me that in the 1960s he was doing an electrical job and they had him deactivate a high voltage switch gear. The green rectangular metal part you see was the housing for the switch gear. They let him take it home. At that time my Grandparents were living in the farmhouse that is closer to the city. He took everything out of it and converted it to an outdoor shower by setting a tank on top of it and adding a shower nozzle and hosing. He said the sun would warm the water in the tank up during the day so the shower wasn't too cold.

Pretty ingenious if I do say so myself.

I remember as a kid taking a shower in it at Grandpa's house. It was in the backyard and it always seemed cold to me. But I was used to having hot water. I'm sure it would have been a lot colder had the sun not warmed it all day.

Several years ago Grandpa thought that since they weren't using the shower back at the farmhouse in town, he would bring it down to the river and rig it up as a shower for the campground.

He put it near the river and took some old roofing and wrapped it around to make more of an extended shower stall with room to change. The river is right on the other side of those trees. He then took a hot pink table cloth and nailed it up as a doorway.

The most incredible part is how he filled up that tank on top. I'm still not for sure how he did this but he said he took a pressure tank and filled it with water and used an air compressor and a hose and and used the air pressure to push the water up into the tank.

I'm still trying to figure that one out.


But I'm sure you would like to see more. Come on in.... I'll show you.


He was thoughtful enough to put up a sign that says VACANT on one side and OCCUPIED on the other. Which is kind of nice to have. It's just embarrassing to walk in on someone changing in the shower. Not that I would know.

With the curtain pulled back you can peek inside. The other table cloth hanging up there is so that you will have privacy just in case anyone is in the river. My Grandpa is thoughtful like that.

So now we are inside. You can see the two doors that open to the shower. I know it's not much to look at, but it sure is nice when you have been playing in the river all day or playing ball in the field to have a clean place to wash up and change.

Grandpa found this stone in the field. I think it fits rather nicely. Makes you feel like you are in one of those fancy spas that have rock floors.

Not that I've ever been to one. But I've heard people talk of such things......

This is looking up at the shower head he rigged up in the 1960s. It still works. Cool.

And if you step outside the shower and look back towards the entry, you will find a handy dandy seat that you can sit you child down on or put your clean dry clothes on. Grandpa even brought in extra gravel and extra big flat rocks to walk on.

As far as homemade campground showers go, I would have to say this is that best one I've ever seen. Okay, so maybe it's the only one I've ever seen.... but still.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. My Grandpa would be pleased to know that his outdoor shower has had a spotlight on my blog. I don't think he actually knows what a blog is..... but if he did, I'm sure he would be pleased.