St. Patty's Day & other stuff

Yesterday, of course, was St. Patty's Day. Other than wearing o' the green, we really did nothing to celebrate the day! Jerry's dad came for to visit for the day and we went to HuHot Mongolian Grill for lunch with two of Jerry's four boys D & A... and one little one, L. No family day would be complete without playing cards... so we went to A's house (close to HuHot) and played call your partner 10 point pitch for about 3hours! Always a fun time! Jerry's dad left about 4:30 and we headed to the auction.
At first glance there was really nothing I was interested in. Jerry did find a few things: a replacement propane tank (for the camper), a box of 3 throw rugs and a couple other things. Upon further examination I discovered there was a clothesline that would be perfect for the cabin... and it was NIB (new in box). It's a 4-line retractable clothesline that could attach to the outside of the cabin and a post (that could be the tricky part!). This is the very same clothesline that our landlords have provided for us to use hree! I love the way laundry looks hanging on the line and the smell of it when it's dry! I do wonder if my laundry will take on the smell of the pinon trees and sagebrush at the cabin! At any rate I'm pretty jazzed about the prospect of having a way to dry clothes - hanging clothes in trees was the other option! ;o) We did buy a 110v electric dryer at an auction which we can use at the cabin but we'd have to run the generator in order to use it. We used it a little here and discovered that it doesn't dry as hot as a 220v dryer and had to dry clothes in smaller loads or dry them twice as long! We've not yet figured out HOW we're (I'm) going to do our laundry at the cabin... but I'm thinking that we'll (I'll) use a Rubbermaid tote since I have several of them. One website I saw had galvanized wash tubs that they used - using their feet to do the work! Good exercise, clean clothes AND clean feet!
Laundry and toilet facilities were two of the mini-discussions I had with my Aunt & a handful of cousins in Kansas. We'd really like to have a composting toilet but the cost is a bit prohibitive. We may resort to the Humanure method! They were amused? I think! But I reminded them that our plan is not something new - it's the same things their parents/grandparents did 100+ years ago! Here's a link to watch a video about how it works. Just copy & paste into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPg-n4czGE0&eurl=http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/videos.html&feature=player_embedded


We won't have our refrigerator ready to use this summer and the one in the camper doesn't seem to run on propane, although it's supposed to. We don't have and won't have a root cellar (I'm not sure I'd go in it if we had one!). But Jerry & I did discuss the possibility of using one of our water barrels for keeping food cool. The water stays quite chilly so keeping perishable food (in water-tight containers) in the cool water should work.
Anyway ~ last night as I was lying in bed I kept thinking that I should have put our corned beef in the crockpot in the morning so it would be ready to eat today (yes, I'm a day late!) and I was tempted to get up & put it in to cook before I went to sleep... but alas, as I was thinking about it I fell asleep so this morning when I got up I put it in to cook. It will be tender & ready to eat tomorrow!
I'm currently looking for cheap plane tix to North Carolina to see my girls. Lani found tix on Expedia.com for $152. I need to get those ASAP!