8/26/09

I am grateful for the lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and floors that need waxing, because it means I have a home. -Unknown


I love my routine on the farm. Usually. Today more than most days, though, cause we’ve been gone for the weekend and I’m missing all the daily chores that tend to get so…daily when I haven’t had a break in a while. Gone three days and, oh, my word, there is not one piece of clean laundry between the four of us! One of the things I truly love about this house, though, is the clothesline. When it’s hot out, it is the clothes dryer. The electric one in the laundry room sees no action at all this time of year.
If you’ve never hung out your laundry, I highly suggest you give it a try. We have a great set up. Our long, covered back porch has a retractable, 5 string clothes line that you can pull across and secure so that it runs the length of the porch. It’s perfect, ‘cause it’s under cover. That means that should the unthinkable happen and I become distracted and leave the clean clothes hanging out for, oh, say, 6 days they are safe and sound even if it rains. There is something about hanging out your laundry. First of all, if I’m doing it, the weather is probably pretty decent. It’s also probably pretty early in the day. I like to give the clothes every opportunity to be dry by dinner time so that I can bring them in before bed. Except for the fore mentioned times when I hang them out and then leave them so long that the kids have outgrown them before I bring them in. Ha ha. Just kidding. That never happens. I’m on top of it. Always.
So anyway, if I’m out on my back porch, barefoot, hanging clean, wet clothes on the line, it’s usually at the beginning of a beautiful, sunny day, before it gets too hot. The robins and woodpeckers are making a racket. The dogs are out in the yard following the invisible scent trails left by coyotes, raccoon, deer and who knows what else crossing our property in the middle of the night. I can look in through the windows and see the boys making their own breakfast as they get ready for a summer day full of all the stuff two brothers can dream up. (Did I mention that I love the fact that my boys can make their own breakfast? There really are upsides to your babies getting bigger.) Sometimes there is a hummingbird visiting the feeder on the porch.
There is a pine tree growing right off one corner of my porch and right at eye level there is a robin’s nest. This spring there were three babies in it. It was so great! Every morning we watched the mama feeding the babies. Actually, it was a little disgusting, seeing as how the mama had to regurgitate everything the babies ate. They didn’t seem to mind though.
I love that laundry goes so much faster when you don’t have to wait for the dryer. In a couple of hours I can have 4 loads done and hung out and then I can just forget about laundry until after dinner. Then, at the end of the day I’ll have an excellent excuse to leave the dinner dishes to Mark and the boys. “I have to bring in the laundry,” I’ll say, all virtuous. The boys grumble less than usual about the dishes because they think they are getting out of helping with an even less desirable chore. Little do they know that I’ve been looking forward to this all day. It gives me a chance to be outside again, just as the weather is cooling a little. I’m not leaving the porch so I don’t need to mess with putting shoes on. I can feel the weathered porch boards under my bare feet and the sun on my shoulders as I unpin each shirt and sock and pair of jeans. The red plaid hanging bag steadily fills with discarded clothes pins and the stacks of clean clothes grow higher on the picnic table. I fold as I go and sort by owner, so that by the time I’m done everything is ready to be claimed and put away, not by me. Having all the laundry in the house clean, folded and put away at the end of the day is very, very satisfying. And it always is. Really.

1 comment:

  1. What a great picture! It makes me either a) want a clothesline or b) want to come live with you!

    ReplyDelete

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