It is just the right size, 20X20 or 800 square feet with enough room for a sit down dinner for 8 but small enough to clean in 10 minutes if necessary.
We start our day with David getting up very early to trudge downstairs and outside in nothing more than a jacket and a pair of boots to go to the outhouse. Unfortunately, one wintery morning about a month ago, he was rushing and fell on the steps and broke a rib! What a sight! But all is well.
I get up a bit later and that is when Fred, the lazy luxury dog stirs. When David goes down he burrows under his blankets, afraid he will be spotted. But by the time I get up at a civilized 7:00 or 7:30 he is ready and as soon as he hears my bracelets jingling I can hear the thump s he leaves the couch and heads for the door. It takes me a bit longer as I wear sweat pants and sweat shirt, socks and boots for my trudge outside. Of course, in the dead of winter, I have to wear hat, gloves and coat so I have to leave extra time, and now that it is sunny in the morning, David better start wearing pants!
The water issue is a bit cumbersome, but not too bad. We prefer the water from a freshwater spring in Fox which is about 7 miles from our house.
When I was going mushing twice a week I would stop on the way home, which was just a little detour. But now that my schedule is a bit erratic, either David or I or both of us load up the 5 and 7 gallon jugs and make our way to Fox. We could go to the water dispensaries around town which sell water for about 25 cents per 14 gallons, delivered from a nozzle much like a gasoline hose, but we don’t like the taste.
The Fox adventure is quite interesting.
First we load up the car with the jugs. The water from the spring is collected in a large two-part tank with two spouts. The water spouts are in a hut with two spouts from which water comes when you push a button.
Of course, the dripping water creates quite an ice build-up and the distance from spout to top of jug decreases significantly as time goes on. I load the jugs onto a sled and drag them, two by two to the car, load them up and go on my way. The place is quite popular and sometimes there is a line of folks waiting to fill their jugs. And sometimes folks have 10-15 jugs!Once home we drag the jugs into the house and we are lucky enough to have a 40 gallon holding tank under our sink. So we pour them into the tank and then we access the water via a foot pump.
This is much better than some folks who have to stack their jugs on their counters and then use the water right from the jugs. 
HOWEVER….the water from the sink flows into the dreaded 5 gallon slop bucket under the sink drain. 
Which means toting
it outside and emptying it in the designated area BEFORE it overflows. 
Often we are not so lucky and we have a little mess. We have learned, and now keep a dish pan under the bucket, but if to gets too full, removing it from under the sink is a challenge.And, of course, the water is COLD. If we are very conscientious, we put a kettle on the stove before we eat dinner and then have nice hot water to do the dishes afterwards. If not, we have to wait.
Showers we take at work. Since many people live in dry cabins, many places have showers for their employees. I have showers on my floor in my building, as well as the gym, and David has showers at work, but often we share a shower at my workplace.
All the "dry-ness" is forgotten when I look out my bedroom window while I put on my makeup.
