Pastoral Laundry

Let’s talk about laundry.

Almost six months ago, when we were about to move in with our dear friends and their not-quite-yet-born baby, Daniel ordered this little baby.

Oh yes. A wonder wash.

So you don’t have to read the amazon link, it’s basically a little hand-crank washing machine. So for six months, before moving into an RV, Daniel and I were hand-washing all of our laundry. Yes, you read that correctly.

Hand. Washing. Laundry.

In 2015.

Anyways, I’m glad we did. Because I would have had severe shock when I moved out here. So, we’ve rigged up some pseudo laundry line, and put all of our gray water in the woods somewhere, and that’s that.

I always feel like when I would read blogs or hear stories about people who lived “off the grid” (meaning people who are not connected to city water or city power), I was so impressed. How quaint! How provincial! Those people are so above everyone else!

Well let me shine some light on hand-washed laundry. IT IS NOT FUN. IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF FUN. ALSO THE RAIN RAINS ON YOUR CLOTHES THAT ARE GENTLY BLOWING IN THE BREEZE. ALSO THAT COOL HAND WRINGER THING IS REALLY ANNOYING.

Here is what our setup looks like:   We’ve since abandoned the whole cooler thing, which we attached our wringer to, because the screws of the wringer were stabbing into the sides of the cooler, permanently gouging it out, and thus excluding it from coolering the rest of its life.

No but really, this is no walk in the park. Or the woods. Or wherever you are.

This is Victoria doing laundy:

1) Carries out boiling water from RV

2) Tries to pour in wonder washer, but pours on foot. Drat.

3) Schleps “eco-friendly” (whatever) detergent into washer. Shoves way too many clothes in washer because WOOPS I was busy not working all day and haven’t done laundry in a long time.

4) Crank washer for two minutes.

Breathe.

5) Pull boiling hot laundry out and put into a metal tub. Burn hands, curse, burn feet again from dripping water.

6) Attempt to hold cooler/wringer combo in between my feet while feeding clothing into wringer and cranking it with the other hand. I hope you read that sentence twice because, yes, that is what happens. Needless to say, one of those things gets messed up every single time. It’s like an insane wrestling match with a large plastic box. Not flattering.

7) Plop wrung laundry in another bucket.

8) Hang on line.

Awwwwww isn’t that sweet?

Well don’t get your hopes up. Because it’s going to rain later. And your fellow farmer’s younger brother will come bring your mail to you and your undies are all going to be out and it will be awkward.

….

But to be fair, it is kind of cool to only use a gallon of water and no electricity.

But maybe not that cool. Still deciding.