Let It All Hang Out!

The laundry that is!

Nature’s clothes dryer! Solar dryer! Clothesline! Whatever you call it - letting it all hang out is a quiet, fossil fuel-free, frugal, natural way to dry clothes!

I remember as a little girl my mother would hang laundry out on the line. There was a bag hanging on a wire contraption that held the clothespins. Then we moved from that house to the gray house… and the clothesline poles leaned against the back of the house the entire time we lived in the gray house. When we moved to my grandfather’s farm… where I’m sure in bygone times my grandmother hung clothes on the line…the clothesline poles also moved with us. I’m not sure where they wound up…maybe in the barn or Quonset… but they were never planted & clothes were never hung on the farm.

On beautiful, warm, sunny days I love to hang out the laundry. I love the smell of sun-dried laundry! I’ve been fortunate enough to live in homes where I had access to a clothesline, although I admit - I’ve not always used them for one reason or another. Usually just out of sheer laziness since I had an electric dryer at my disposal.

Years ago when I lived in “Smallville“, Nebraska - my husband (now ex) put a clothesline in the backyard. It was all cute with an 1940’s washing machine full of dirt - planted with petunias as I recall - at one end. I used the clothesline… but there were a few problems with it. 1) Three small children who would tear thru the yard at break-neck speed. 2) A dog who would chase these three small children & often decided that any laundry within reach was hers to play with. 3) The neighbor’s tree hung directly over it & the birds thought it was a place for them to relieve themselves!


There’s a clothesline in the backyard here - & it’s been utilized on days when the weather permits. I hang shirts on hangers & hang them on the line; hate putting my jeans in the dryer so they get hung on the line as well; sheets, towels & jammies… nearly everything but my under things. Our neighbors on either side are single men… I don’t think they need to see what I wear under my clothes! Do you recall seeing photos of clotheslines strung between buildings in the city that are run on pulleys? Underwear flapping in the breeze above the street for the whole world to see?? Modesty prevails!


We went to an auction earlier this year & I got a retractable clothesline - new in the box! This will be attached to the cabin & either a tree or maybe one of the clothesline poles (from the farm) so I’ll be able to hang out our laundry! I also need to “invest” a few bucks & buy a folding dryer rack so I can dry clothes during snowy weather. Nothing worse than freeze-dried clothes!


Sadly, there are some cities or new housing developments that do not allow clotheslines - because they’re “eyesores”. What would our grandmothers say about that? With the rising cost of electricity (or gas - if you happen to have a gas dryer) - why not use something free… like the sun & breeze?

Finally Friday!

This week went by quickly! I got my airline tickets purchased for my trip to North Carolina to see my girls! I'll get to spend Easter with them! Is it too soon to start packing? It's been over a year since I've seen Lani, my daughter...I can't wait to see them all!!
Tuesday at the auction the kitchen guys (we'll call them Joe & Tommy, cuz that's their names!) made corned beef & cabbage. It smelled SO good but we had had a BIG lunch & I wasn't hungry. I knew there was a corned beef in the freezer and while I laid in bed reading I kept thinking I should go put it in the crockpot... but I fell asleep. I DID put it in Wednesday morning & let it cook all day...and all night... and we had it yesterday for lunch. This slab of meat stuck out of the crockpot - I had to put foil over it because the lid wouldn't fit... but by the time we ate it yesterday it had shrunk to about a third of the size it was going in! We ate almost all of the meat & scooped out the veggies into a casserole dish......... and put ANOTHER corned beef in to cook in the juice! It should be ready for dinner tonite! Do you get the idea that we like corned beef??
Yesterday I washed sheets & towels & hung them on the clothesline to dry. I love how laundry looks on the line... and how it smells! I had washed a load of light colored clothes... but evidently some of the fringe from the red throw rugs I'd washed was left in the washer & turned a couple shirts PINK! I soaked them in OxiClean... one (Jerry's) came clean, the other (mine) did not! I hate using regular bleach, but I may have to resort to it in this instance as this shirt was a favorite! Ugh!
Anyway...while my laundry was hanging out Jerry & I ran a couple errands... followed by a trip to the hardware store & thrift store. While at the hardware store I was looking at the different rubs & spices that were displayed by the grills. I commented to Jerry (er, I thought it was Jerry), rather loudly, "Hey honey! How about some butt rub?!" and a voice from my past said "I don't really care for butt rub!". I turned around to find a guy I had worked with more than 15 years ago! Thank goodness he has a good sense of humor! Jerry also knew him & we talked for a while!
At the thrift store I picked up a few more books (I'll have a library when I'm done!), a pair of Eddie Bauer capris, a black tank top with faux turqoise stones around the neckline and a little black skirt. Jerry found a couple "Sunshine Family" toy sets (still in the box) which he purchase to sell on eBay.
I think tonite is a stay at home nite. Tomorrow there is an auction Jerry wants to go to... about 2 hours from here. The auction bill listed three apartment size gas stoves (we only need one!). We had priced them at Menards - around $350 - so if we can pick one up for less than $100 that would be great! Tomorrow night we have a 50th birthday party to go to! Busy, busy, busy!

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!