Hanging Laundry To Dry (with JuJu the donkey and Bruiser the dog)

The Flagyl antibiotics are wearing off.... and just in time for the sunshine to come back out... and i can be in it's bright heat again! I call um' hot hugs.
So, now i have to wash all the new underwear i bought because I burned all the ones i was wearing while having the Giardia parasites. Fuck that parasite, it stole my whole summer... i show no mercy. I play no games, and i take no chances. Out with the old farted panties, in with the new!

Time to wash down all my clothes and really scrub the cabin (to shine like the top of the chrysler building?) too... just in time cause my mom who has cleaning OCD arrived in town yesterday and due to come over this week.... HELP mom, you must use your special talent on my sinks and toilet! Make it safe again! ;) ha ha

Oh yeah, and here is my life in video.... exciting yes? Just me and the animals hanging laundry together.



XOOXoxox

Using My Non-Electric Hand Washer

Remember how i put together my Lehman's Hand Washer a few months ago? Alot of people wanted to know how it worked - or even IF it worked, because the washer itself costs about as much $ money$ as buying an electric clothes washer, which means for most of us eco livin' folks it's a big investment! Up until recently I had been washing my clothes in the tub, and I used to also use the wonder wash hand spun washer (2 pound load ideal for a single person who never needs to wash blankets or sheets)......

Using this larger wash load Lehman's Hand Washer is seriously easy, and I am now using less arm strength then the 2 pound load hand spinner ---> I can fit a shit ton of clothes in there, and even my neglected blankies ( which were really hard for me to wash the last few years!)

The way I have it hooked up for the summer is I set up the washer on my porch, I have a hose running from my Gravity Fed Spring Pump, to the washer to fill it up with water...

I fill up the basin with water, and put either lemon & baking soda or just nothing with the clothes to give them a better wash. I don't use soaps or detergents at all- so when the water drains out it isn't going to do any harm to the dirt, plants, trees and insects it touches.

Once you fill it up, you simply push the handle back and forth and the washer starts making a swooshing, cleaning noise I reallllllly like.....

Oh and ya' have to pose like a happy super model and sit your ass on top the washer for photo ops, and realize only after tha' pic is taken that ya got your butt all wet.

LOOK how nasty dirty that water got, that swooshing thingy pushed all that junk out of my clothes! Isn't that super grody-fied?!! Cat hair, Leslie Hair, pieces of the forest I picked up like crushed leaves and twigs.....

I let the water out the bottom drain by twisting the black nob open (it's underneath the washer), I have the drain hooked to a long hose.

I then fill the water up for a second rinse...

Once I am finished with the final rinse, I let the water out and then I get to the really awesome part------>

SQUEEZin' the clothes through the wringer!!! The wringer is completely worth every penny it costs because it makes it so clothes hanging on a line dry way faster, and more evenly. Wringing my clothes by hand had stretched stuff out and left them much more wet then this cool invention.

You can even put sheets and blankies through this thing, and jeans too! All you do is spin the hand crank round and round...

Even if you use some kind of clothes dryer, the wringer helps - I hang mine on a line to dry though since it's free, good for the earth and smells so good when the sun bakes the water out the fabric. :)

Xoxox

DIY: Bamboo Clothes Drying Rack

During the winter it's a little more complicated to hang dry clothes since it has to be done inside the house. You can save electricity though by not using a conventional clothes dryer, but instead by mooching off your winter heat source with a DIY rack! I made this bamboo clothes rack with only three materials : 1. bamboo cut from my back yard 2. jute twine 3. scissors !

Because the bamboo I had available was very thin I used the twine to tie a few pieces together for greater strength. I made four poles total to hold the cross bars for hanging clothes.

Then I made a tee-pee triangle shape out of the four poles, creating two support beams for the right and left sides. And tied thin bamboo across - laying flat in the open triangle up top.

I added two more bamboo beams across the lower half to hang more clothes - with the twine you can add as many levels as you want, as long as you don't overload the bamboo with too much weight in wet clothes.

Here is where I need the advice of a builder, engineer or 3-D thinker... it is perfectly fine to hang clothes on, but I had to lean it up against one wall to get it completely sturdy - does anyone know what should be added to make this entirely stand alone and supported?

In the meantime, this is one bad ass drying machine! Works like a charm and holds a surprising amount of weight! If you don't have bamboo, you can try using tree branches too - it's all about using resources you have right around you and FREE.

Make sure to place your clothes near your winter heat source so they can dry fully & quickly. :)

xoxo