The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck

TAPE 64 - Move The Shitter 5 feet

Richard Vandentillaart / Nick Vardon Season 1 Episode 64

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 4:20

When asked a simple question about rain, Bootstuck responds the only way it knows how: with large-scale tarp engineering and aggressively sticky-tacked grocery bags. Why spend $800 on a rain shell when you can fashion one from leftover Piggly Wiggly plastic and optimism? Spring has arrived, which means it’s time to string up old military tarps between trees, relocate the outhouse five feet to the left (or left), and reconsider the town’s 72-foot-deep sewage strategy.

Along the way we meet Ricky Martin — possibly a ferret, definitely a little rickety — debate the true meaning of “infrastructure” (apparently a tall chair), and reserve time at Bootstuck’s exclusive seven-by-twenty-two-foot beach. Footwear innovation also reaches new heights with the invention of “sandless” sandals: a Kleenex box you simply step into. Waterproofing, waste management, and weather preparedness have never been handled with less concern and more confidence.

Send a text

www.bootstuck.com

SPEAKER_03

Let's move on that to something else that you do there weather weather being related. Um what's it like there when it when it rains? Like does there flooding.

Hat Guy

Oh, it's it's wet. Woo! Yeah. All of a sudden everybody's wet. So we've decided that we were gonna make a particular type of coat. What we decided to do, get a whole bunch of plastic bags. You have those where you are, and then what you're gonna do is you're gonna sticky-tacky them so then all of a sudden you can put it over top of your coat. Now you got a waterproof shell. Yeah. You can you can get one at the store for$800, or I can sell you one from the piggly wiggly bags we got left over.

SPEAKER_02

Ticky tacky a big one.

Hat Guy

Yeah, may as well. Sticky tacky up a big one. Woo! Then everybody can use it. Maybe you can make a real big one. Yeah. What we used to do when it rained is we had old military tarps. You ever know what those are? They're green and they smell like smoke. But what we do is we string them up, whoop, whoop, pipes, pipe, pipe, whoop, against the trees in the canopy of the forest. And then when we walk through underneath the tarps, the rain doesn't fall on our heads. We've done that in the past. I think we should do it now because it's spring. Caleb, get the tarp and find a rope. No rope? Okay, hold it higher. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Is that how big are these tarps?

Hat Guy

Well, one of them is four. Uh oh. Think this one later. Yep. Think about that. Yeah. Uh oh. My lord.

SPEAKER_02

It's a weird place, Grootstock. You do occupy your times in a very strangest manner.

Hat Guy

We also occupy the land, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

See.

Hat Guy

Sometimes we just stand there in the middle of the road.

SPEAKER_02

You ever get any Ricky Martin up there?

Hat Guy

Yeah. You have? He drinks the gin and he walks around all Rickety all over the place. We call him Ricky Martin. He's a good little guy. I think actually he's a ferret, Ricky Ferret. Ricky Ferret, same thing.

SPEAKER_03

Ricky Ferret, who's a Martin.

Hat Guy

Ricky. I'm not sure. Maybe his middle name's Martin or Sam.

unknown

Oh god.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. I have another question here.

Hat Guy

I have an answer for you, but I have a question too.

SPEAKER_03

They want to know about sewage. How do you handle your sewage in bootstock?

Hat Guy

Oh, we don't touch it. It goes into a hole. I wouldn't be handling any of that. You know what it is? It's mostly poop. We leave everything outside. Let nature take care of it or Dave. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You just pile it outside.

Hat Guy

Yeah, we have it out house. It's outside our house. So most of our sewage is outside.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I see. I see. So do you dig new toilets every year? Do you move them around or has it just been the same toilet?

Hat Guy

That's a good idea. Caleb, will you move the shitter? Yeah. Five feet should be fine. To the left or left.

SPEAKER_03

You've been using this same hole for how long?

Hat Guy

Well, it's 72 feet deep. We haven't come to close to fill it yet. Infrastructure. Do you ever have that near you?

SPEAKER_01

Infrastructure?

Hat Guy

Infrastructure. Cross it off the border, use it in a sentence. Infrastructure.

SPEAKER_01

Infrastructure?

Hat Guy

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Infrastructure.

Hat Guy

Inside all of our houses kind of like a tower, but more like a chair. So you can sit on it and you're a little bit higher up.

SPEAKER_01

It's like a tower, but it's a chair.

Hat Guy

Yeah. It's like a tall chair. High chair.

SPEAKER_03

I guess you could use that for checking out the weather.

Hat Guy

You can. We also put it down at the beach when people are gone swimming. You can't want to come out and sit somewhere.

SPEAKER_03

You have a beach?

Hat Guy

We got a beach. We do, yeah. It's down by the creek.

SPEAKER_03

It's down by the water, isn't it?

Hat Guy

Seven feet wide and twenty two feet long. It's a good size beach. You need a reservation.

SPEAKER_03

A reservation?

Hat Guy

Yeah. I suggest removing your shoes before going into the cozy sand. Because otherwise the cozy sand goes in your shoes and then later not so cozy.

SPEAKER_02

That's true. You don't. That's why they invented sandals.

Hat Guy

Sandals don't have a top to them, so the sand's always in them. Think about that.

SPEAKER_02

That's true.

Hat Guy

Yeah. We know a lot of things up here, so we create our own sandals. They're called sandless. And essentially it's a Kleenex box, and you put your foot inside of it, and then the sand don't go in. Smart. No brothers. No guy.