Mice and Men

[helwen]

When fitzw read in my previous LJ post that the chiabatta would be for breakfast, he was quietly wistful... so we had them for a late dessert last night. They were extremely yummy, although we both agreed that next time we might have only 1/2 a square at a given time, esp. with the hotter weather.

Went out for both chili powder (found a bigger bottle than last time) and a few things from Highland Hardware, which I think brought my walk up to a full 2 miles... plus lugging things home should count for something. Got a new bike helmet. Bell Solar, in blue & white. Bike helmets are supposed to be replaced every 5-7 years, even if you've never been in an accident; the foam ages. Also, they should be stored in a cool place when not in use (yes, ours were in the basement). Our helmets are around 9 years, so definitely time. The Solar is a very cool-looking helmet, and only 34.99. Now I must continue to get in better shape, so that I can look as cool as my hat...

We looked for chili pepper plants at the farmers market, but they only had bell, cayenne, jalapeno and habanero (sorry for the lack of accent marks). Blah. At some point we'll end up near a real nursery and I may be able to get one. It is hard to make chili without chili powder, and if I'm going to make it on a regular basis, I would prefer to make my own pepper too. If it is anything like the little bird pepper plant we had in Hong Kong, it will be very manageable. Although almost anything is more easily managed than a rosemary.

Tried out washing clothing by hand, just as an experiment. I've been thinking about it for a bit, but hadn't done anything about it. We have a big tub. Stuffed clothing in the washing machine 'til it was full, then took the clothing out and put it into the tub (ensuring parity in the comparisons). Put tub on newly rebuilt brick wall in the backyard so it was at a comfortable height. Added first batch of water from the rain barrel, and detergent (hey, we have it, might as well use it - A&H unscented). fitzw came out and saw what was up, and had fun smooshing the clothing around in the water. Then I went to get the chili powder, and stuff from the hardware store, including a new plunger. So the clothing soaked for a while -- a little scarey, since there was red-based clothing in there. Come home, we smoosh with the plunger, then I squeezed things out and put them into a laundry basket. Dump out water into non-edible plant areas. Rinse with water from the garden hose, as rain barrel water isn't clean enough for that. Squeeze/wring again, hang up clothing.

Stagger into house, make a quick lunch, grab Roz and take her to the vet for her rabies shot, checkup, and a blood sample. Up to 7 lb. 9 oz. (half a pound since last weigh-in this winter). Come home and do other stuff.

Water to wash (rain water): 11.6 gallons (43.96 litres)
Water to rinse (tap): 9.7 gallons (36.76 litres)

So at maximum load, I'm apparently using less water than the newest front-loading Maytag washing machine. That's pretty cool, especially when you consider that what we have in the basement is a very, very old top-loading Maytag.... and _no_ electricity used :)

HOWEVER.

I will _not_ be doing this again until we have a wringer. Quite aside from the exertion, it takes way too much time to wring with just my two little hands. And the bigger items were rather sloppy to work with :P

So, eventually we'll have time to go to a flea market, and look for one. They have them on eBay too, but I'd rather get a local one, or from somebody I know.

Meantime, I'll just keep adding a couple of buckets of dehumidifier/rainwater to the initial wash water for the washing machine. And get fitzw's help with sheets... there are many good things about being short, but dealing with sheets and clotheslines is not one of them...

Comments

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I think you're wise to wait until you have a wringer. Washing was THE biggest time-suck for a housewife prior to electrification, and traditionally took an entire day since it took that long to boil water to wash the whites, rinse out the clothes, and hang them to dry. Then the clothing would have to be ironed, which took another whole day.

Be glad you don't have kids. Then it would be so very much worse....

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yah. Although I find ironing to be over-rated. Generally speaking, if you straighten out the hems and edges as soon as you've hung it up, the clothing dries pretty nicely. I've actually had things come out of the dryer more wrinkled than off the line, interestingly enough.

Kids are only a nuisance laundry-wise until they're old enough to help ;)

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more in terms of the sheer *amount* of laundry a kid can generate....

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know that's what you were talking about. But when they're old enough, they get to help with the laundry (folding, mostly. But also they can do other chores instead, like polishing all the furniture, etc. That was one of my jobs from age 8 or 9 on)...

In the meantime.... well, who says they have to be clean all the time anyway...

I can well believe it took all day to do the laundry. Of course, I only do one to two loads on any given day, because we don't have enough places to hang more than that. We'd need to put up another 4-6 lines. S'okay, I prefer spreading things out.

Saving wash water

[flouncytrouncy.livejournal.com]

This is what my mom used to do when we were on well water, and a septic tank. Really cuts down on water used, and discarded.

Fill the washer with hot water from the well, and wash white sheets. Lightly soiled, quick wash. Run the wash water out into a tub, and save it. Spin the sheets. Put white clothes into the washer, and put the used sheet water back. It's not really that dirty, and it's still warm. Soak and wash this stuff, and run water out.

Now, put the sheets back into the washer, and fill with cold water. Rinse, and save the water.

Use the saved rinse water to wash a third load and fourth load.

Keep up this pattern until you run out of dirty laundry. Then, rinse all the washed stuff that's been sitting by. Wash 2, rinse 1, wash 2, rinse 1. And the rinse water can be piped into a compost pit, or the garden, or saved to flush toilets.

JMM