My first experience with a moldering privy was at Spence Field in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in February of 2002. 

I've had a fair bit of experience backpacking, and when I'm alone I enjoy the cathole experience as much as the next guy.  I've used the outhouses without flush toilets in some National Forest Service campgrounds, and they were a decidedly unpleasant experience, surpassed only by the pit-toilet outhouses at the campsites along the Allagash Waterway in Maine.  In the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, I'd learned about "biffies" - pit toilets with plastic "thrones", but without the houses that contained - and concentrated - the odor.  At least in the BWCA a little breeze could minimize the most unpleasant aspects of the experience. 

But when I used the privy at Spence Field, not knowing it yet as "moldering," I knew one thing - I wanted one.  I will admit that there was a slight odor, but it was light years away from the gagging days of the Allagash outhouses.  And the only thing pleasant about the BW biffies was the view.  And I have subsequently learned that the minor odor around the Spence Field privy might be attributable to the cold weather, which stops the composting process until warmer weather (remember - it was February.) 

Now, after just over five years, we have an operating moldering privy on some property in Grundy County, Tennessee, in which my wife's nephew and brother have kindly allowed me to be a minor partner.  The privy was built in April, 2007, and that event, along with the availability of the domain name "molderingprivy.com" inspired this site, dedicated to promoting the use of moldering privies wherever a semi-private, low-maintenance, ecologically friendly toilet facility is needed (and where the requisite bulking agents and climate are available.)

gcw