Back in March I introduced TAT reader to our unique plumbing situation. Today I learned a little bit more about how our non-plumbing works.

My fourth hour class was out taking pictures for an Alaska History assignment (they're going to learn the corresponding Inupiaq words tomorrow). They came back with images of typical Shishmaref life, including some of the finer points of Shishmaref plumbing.

The photo above shows the waste bins. No big deal. You saw these in the last blog post about plumbing.

Here are the anuq men in action. They use the hose to suck up the waste from the bins.

Here's another view. This one nicely highlights the waste tank.

This wide angle shot shows the anuq vacuum attached to a truck. The vacuum attaches to the truck via a regular trailer hitch.

Nice, huh? Now you know for a fact that these guys actually use a gigantic vacuum cleaner to remove the waste from the bins. I wasn't exaggerating.