Going to our land is refreshing because we get to enjoy clean, good-smelling air and plenty of wide open spaces. We get to take walks in the forest and enjoy peaceful moments fishing in our private lake. It is such fun to go exploring in the creek and to listen to the unique sounds of country life.
However, enjoying our land means we get dirty. It's inevitable. One blog buddy wrote about a hazard of country life...nose problems. I put it this way: Being in the country introduces you to "dirt boogers." What? Did I just say "Dirt Boogers?" Yes, I did.
Country life is not prim and proper nor does it offer sparkling clean surfaces. Working the land will make you discover that dirt can be invasive to the nth-degree.
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| Tromping through land that looks like this is not always easy. It is definitely not an experience that leaves you squeaky clean. |
One big noticeable difference that we experience during daily life on our land is the difference between doing our laundry here at the house with a nice air-conditioned laundry room with a luxury, high-end front loading washing machine and a front-loading dryer compared to doing laundry on our land, in the woods, by hand-washing it as we simultaneously take a sun-shower. Using the great outdoors as a dryer is also FREE!
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| On his way to accumulating layers and layers of dirt. |
There, on our land, we soak our dirty clothes with soapy water and we scrub, we rinse, then tightly wring out the excess water. Out there, doing laundry can be a challenge, but it's the way of life on our land. At least for now. And I don't mind at all.
Deputy Dave is ingenious, he strung a pulley line and tightened it between two trees so that we'd have a nice drying line for our wet belongings. Since we always have a ton of gear and equipment to tie down during the trips to and from our land, Deputy Dave brings plenty of pulleys, bungee cords and rope; which we usually need for multiples purposes during our stay.
So, the difference between doing laundry here or there is huge. Maybe the difference in the way we smell when here or there is pretty gaping as well.
At least I do not have to do laundry daily in the conditions that my great-grandmother endured. Here is a photo of her washing machine...
I actually remember, as a young child, sitting on the front porch with her and watching her wash some things with this washing board in a big tub of water. She was a seamstress and had owned a upholstery store in Madisonville, Texas, so she was accustomed to fabric always being in her hands...wet or dry. I hang her washing board in my laundry room as a respectful tribute to her, so we'll remember pre-modern days of hard work.
At least I have the washing board ready, if needed. However, I like my modern day version that only requires me to add high-efficiency detergent, then I can walk away until the beep sounds for me to pull the wet clothes out and shove them into the dryer. Then, I wait until the next beep sounds and the clothes are clean and dry.
Man...life is hard.
6 comments:
Dirt boogers... Lol. Close cousins to "paint boogers", which are acquired when paint spraying the house without a mask. :)
It is so great how memories are stirred when doing things that remind you of your past, like the outdoor laundry! Mmmm, and it smells so good! ~Kari
PS The roasted marshmallows look good too!
Bwahahahaha!!!!!
I have never used a sun shower.
Our pump was out when we got here Saturday night.
$650 to replace it.
Wish we had had a sun shower. Would have saved us $110 when hubby decided he had to have a shower.
Our A/C is on the fritz, too, so we'll be bringing the trailer back with us for hubby to work on. He thinks it's just the circuit breaker going bad, but we don't know for sure.
Fun fun! Instead of a week, we'll be headed back to NC tomorrow.
You all have a great week!
How fun! I know the laundry isn't but just the camping is.
I love the freshness of line-dried laundry. But, I covet your front loader. ;) I know, I know, "Thou shalt not covet...."
Cheers!
Teri
Rae --- after Hurricane Ike, we all had sheetrock dust boogers, and the fine hairs in our nose were usually clearly whitened by the dust. It was normal around here for too long!! Paint boogers are so creative! haha
Tim and Kari O'Brien --- I think we'll be in Livingston next month and that means more outdoor laundry moments. I'm actually looking forward to it. :-)
Linda --- Your trip sounds like a mechanical disaster...some days are like that. Something must have wanted you to leave and come back later. Still, it's not fun to have a trip where "if it CAN go wrong, it does." Not fun at all.
Becky --- we do love camping. We're a well-oiled machine with getting set up and taking down...pros. It's so easy to us and we do love being outdoors via tent camping. Yet, we do some cheating...we do have a generator.
Teri --- you crack me up. It took me about 20 years of marriage to get front-loaders, but I must say that the expense was WORTH IT. That washing machine has a sensor and when you turn it on, it lightly tosses the load a few times to weigh it so it can automatically determine the amount of water. The front loader uses tremendously less water than our top loading washers had used. You can hit a button to add more water, but it tosses the clothes so nicely that our clothes have never been this clean and smelling this great. The front loading dryer is very efficient. We did not get the steam version because I felt as if it was worthless to add. Ours has a "wrinkle free" setting that works great. I didn't get hung up on the bright colors that these machines come in...just wanted white and large to handle our bed comforters. I must say, these were two of the best purchases we've ever made, but it did make us choke a little at the time. Now, the energy/water savings have given us back the extra money we spent for the duo.
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