Mountain Lane Homesteaders

Hand wash...line dry...

Hand wash, line dry.  Five months......oh my! Sorry......sometimes a rhyme gets in my head and just slips out.  In this case it has good reason I guess.

As you can see under my About Me section, we moved here to our property just one year ago this month to begin our adventure in the woods.  Do you remember the Gilligan's Island theme song? "No boats, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxery........"  Well, that was us, no luxery!  No house, no electricity, no running water, no phone, and of course.......no potty.  About the only thing we did have was each other, and a plan.

We have had so many adventures that I can't wait to share with you......our family members all call us the "Wilderness Family"......but I must take today and write about how we have handled laundry over the past year.   

For the first month or so we did what you would expect, we got filthy dirty, I spent forever spot treating all of our clothes, and then I loaded up overflowing laundry baskets, bottles of soap and dryer sheets, and 3 not so thrilled kids into our truck, and carted all of us off to spend a fascinating day at the laundromat.  In case you have never had the thrill of this experience, it gets real old.....real fast!  Soon, the owner of a house near our property offered to let us use her laundry facilities.  She had moved to Florida and having us going in and out made her place look lived in and not so enticing to vandals.  This was a life saver for about 6 months.  Then came the day we were informed she wanted to put the house on the market so would like us not to go in and out any more.  Understandable perhaps, but we were NOT ready!  It was February.  It was COLD.  I did not want to go back to the laundromat. 

Which leads us right into my little rhyme. That's right, for the past 5 months we have been hand washing ALL of our laundry.  We have taught each child to do their own.  Sam and I both share the chore of doing our own, each others, and the towels and sheets.  We have taught each child (Ages 13,11, and 9) to do their own.  At first we had only cold water and heated up a huge stockpot on the woodstove to add to the cold when we did laundry.  It was about a month of doing this and we finally had our hot water heater installed.  We have one sink which is one of the deep utility tubs for laundry rooms.  It has been our plan all along to handwash while we are in this building so we had planned ahead.  One side has ridges so the washboard is built right in.  A load of laundry goes something like this......heat the water and add it to the cold in the sink.  Refill the pot to reheat for rinse water while laundry is being washed.  Sort clothes according to "filthiness factor", the least dirty clothes go first whether they are white or bright red.  Wash as many clothes as you can until the water turns a shade that if it were labled on a crayon it would be called "eeeewwww!"  Wring out soapy clothes, drain water, fill sink again with cold then hot water, refill stock pot,  rinse first load, add laundry soap to rinse water and wash anything else needing done.  As you can imagine, this is tiring, back aching work for everyone and the addition of the hot water heater only makes the task slightly easier.  Once the laundry is all washed we hang it on a drying rack and put it near the woodstove during the cold months.  It has been going outside now that the weather is hot. 

Handwashing laundry isn't too bad.  We could continue it if we had to.  Did I mention that our electric bill is only $30?  But it is more time consuming than we had imagined.  One afternoon this week I looked at all the laundry that had accumulated (I'm sure all my time on the computer had nothing to do with THAT!) and realized that we have so many other things to be doing around the homestead.  This building may be nearly complete but we have "The big house" to build!  Hand washing has had it's season but it's time to put it behind us for now so we can accomplish other things. 

So as I sit here writing this all down, I hear the thunk thunk thunk of the spin cycle going outside the cabin wall.  My "laundry room" is a wooden platform nailed together and stabalized in the dark this past Wednesday night.  With the spot light shining we ran our first load of machine washed laundry here on our property.  It was a strange moment.  A mix of excitement over knowing the laborous task of handwashing was relieved, yet a sense of sadness that we are already getting "civilized" again.  

Well.........at least we still have the porta potty! 

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5:02 PM, Friday, July 28, 2006 .. Posted by TChannel4

And I thought my ringer washer was hard enough,lugging the buckets of water and emptying it but my sister you have that beat by a long shot. LOL

God Bless,
Tammy

Untitled Comment

7:58 PM, Friday, July 28, 2006 .. Posted by GrandmaRosie

What an adventure you are living. I remember my grandmother's doing laundry out side over a fire and in a big cast iron pot. I hang most things out to dry. But I am not ready to give up my washer!

My first husband, whom i loved dearly, but he would not work and could not be faithful, never provided very us very well. my 3 girls and I have washed many a load of laundry in the bath tub and hung it out on a fence to dry. I would put my 5 year old in the tub to march up and down on it. She was our agitator. She would sing" I'm in the Lord's Army".

But that marriage only lasted 18 years. I have been married to a wonderful provider now for over 18 years and really appreciate him.

I'm impressed

8:02 PM, Friday, July 28, 2006 .. Posted by Patti

Wow!! You really could have lived in The Little House on the Prairie Days, couldn't you?
I have recently started line-drying my laundry, and just doing that adds alot more time to doing laundry. I mean, it's way quicker to just toss the clothes into the dryer instead of lugging them upstairs and into the backyard and then spend 10 minutes hanging it all. But I love doing it!! They smell so wonderful.
But you are doing that, plus you were handwashing. Truly a pioneer woman!!

Hi, Pal!

8:28 PM, Friday, July 28, 2006 .. Posted by teapots66

So, did you find a laundry graphic to add to your blog? No wonder you're so busy... I am bad in the laundry department, I use a washer AND dryer all the time, and I still don't have it all done. What an experience. I would really be impressed, though, if you SPUN YOUR OWN THREAD & SEWED ALL YOUR OWN CLOTHES AND THEN WASHED THEM BY HAND... just kidding! Thanks for another enjoyable read. - Chris

hard work

10:15 PM, Friday, July 28, 2006 .. Posted by deedee06

Excuse me a minute. I'm going into the next room to give my washing machine a kiss. Great story. Your kids will be telling it to your grandchildren only it will be embellished a bit.....Blessings to you..........Denise (prairiemom)