By Joann M. Ringelstetter
In last week’s blog post, Ruth shared photos from our trip to the Northwoods at the end of September. On the first day of that trip, as we made our way north, we stopped in the middle of the afternoon at Jordan County Park near Stevens Point to have a late picnic lunch.
After enjoying the beautiful autumn reflection on Jordan Pond, we left the picnic area to visit an old brick schoolhouse that is now the park’s nature center. When we arrived at the nature center, we discovered that the school’s matching brick outhouse was still standing behind the school.
Usually when I photograph an old outhouse, I take a look inside, so that’s what I did. This outhouse was a two-seater, so I decided to take a picture of them. I set up my tripod, lined up my shot, and snapped the first image. Then I realigned my camera and shot another image.
It was obvious by the rundown condition of these toilets that the outhouse had been abandoned for quite some time. Then again, maybe not. When I finished, I saw a chipmunk dart out of the pit of the toilets. What I didn’t realize until I processed these outhouse photos was that the chipmunk was peeking out of the pit toilet when I took those first couple of shots. If you look closely at the previous image, you will see him at the bottom left.
He then ran from the left side of the outhouse to the right…
Up onto the right toilet seat…
And then he sat there looking at me like I was invading his space and I should leave immediately.
But before I left, I wanted to photograph the door knob on the outhouse door. It was a very decorative door knob for an outhouse.
My little chipmunk friend, however, was not happy that I was still there. He had gone back to the left pit and sat there watching me with disdain while I finished my work.
When I was done shooting the door knob, I left the outhouse, taking a few parting shots of the door, and leaving that poor chipmunk in peace.
As we headed off to hunt up the old Jordan power plant on the nearby Plover River, I filled Ruth in on my encounter with the chipmunk in the outhouse.
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
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