My clothesline.....present and past.

I had had a clothesline strung in the back yard between 3 maple trees for the last couple years, but when the ice storm hit it was torn down by the falling trees branches. Out of nessessity during the resulting power outage, Hubby proceeded to put one up for me in the carport.

I enjoy hanging out a wash ....... maybe because it slows a person down enough to relax, and take a deep breath of fresh air, look up into the sky and watch the birds, or the wind blowing through the leaves, or notice the first wildflowers starting to bloom......

Then there is also the fact that we are not "burning up" electricity for that 45 minutes it takes to run that dryer load. It used to be that it took about $.17 per load to run the dryer on medium heat. Now.... with the increase of electricity costing us 25% more, it is more like $.22-.23 per load, x's 8/wk, x's 52wks per yr, well that adds up to $92/yr at the low end. And that is just for 2 people. Now I am not saying everyone should hang out their wash...

But I do remember the time I didn't have a dryer ........ when my children were little ...... I took my 4th child out in the stroller one day in the fall time of year, while I hung out the wash. It was a warm day... breezy, and the fall leaves were scattered all over the ground. As I hung the clothes to dry, I heard this chuckling belly laugh behind me. Turning around I saw my daughter laughing at the wind blowing the leaves, making them dance as they scurried along across the ground. She laughed and laughed at the sight of them going this way, then that. THAT memory, my friends, is a PRICELESS gift that I would not trade for any dryer.