My nephews from Chicago were here last week.
They love coming to the farm.
They love the wide open spaces.
They love shooting movies with my kids.
They love shooting bunnies in the garden with the bow and arrows (they even hit one!)
We love to teach them new skills that are foreign to city life – skills like gathering eggs, burning trash, and hauling wood with the 4 wheeler.
And yes…even hanging laundry.
They did pretty well, all things considered.
I am thrilled to be doing laundry today!
Seriously. I’m not being sarcastic here!
My wonderful husband has spent three days running wires, water lines and drain lines so that my washer and dryer could be hooked up in the new house.
After 3 days with no laundry and seven people in the house- it was time. We had dusty dirty clothes from cleaning out and sorting through the storage room. There were my smelly and sticky painting and varnishing clothes. There were piles of towels and wet wash clothes.
I even found a bag of my parents dirty clothes from their last visit that had somehow gotten left on the porch when they were packing up! (It was a little confusing that afternoon!)
The pile was growing and beginning to take on a life of its own!
Still it wasn’t quite as bad as the ice storm last December when we went without power and water for 6 days…
Or as bad as after our week long camping trip every summer…
But still I am grateful. My Amish neighbors still use wringer washers and hang everything outside, even in the dead of winter. My 87 year neighbor still hand washes all of her clothes on a wash board (by choice).
But my washer and dryer are modern conveniences that I appreciate.
The sound of the washer changing cycles is like music to my ears!
The hum of the dryer sounds so normal and homey.
So on this Thanksgiving eve I would like to express my thanks for the wonders of modern washers and the convenience of my dryer. Ahh- there’s the ringer for the dryer now- what a sweet sound!
I love my clothesline. As a new bride living in suburbia years ago, I asked my husband to put one up in our backyard. The neighbors looked askance for awhile, but soon got used to seeing our towels and sheets blowing in the breeze.
Now that I’m living in rural America, a clothesline is just part of the landscape. I guess farm wives have known for centuries that the wind and sun are a great way to dry your clothes and they cost nothing.
Better yet, they deodorize and sanitize for free! And they even remove some stubborn stains.
But I don’t hang my laundry on the line just too save money, although the savings is substantial! I do it because I love it.
I love hanging my clothes out in the cool of the morning as the birds are singing all around me.
I love seeing them hanging there, blowing in the breeze, a testimony to my family life. Jeans of all sizes, cotton t-shirts, towels, and denim skirts all remind me that I am blessed to have family at home.
I love gathering them in later in the afternoon and smelling their freshness. Then folding them, putting them in piles, and the process begins again.
Saving money by doing things I love to do is the best way to be Thrifty!
