Hoot Owl Hollow: The Clothesline in my Garden

It's a bit of a long story - about 14 years long to be exact. When I moved to this farm in 1995, I left my clothesline behind in West Virginia and started using an electric dryer. Time saving, maybe, but not fun and not nearly as satisfying as a clothesline full of clean clothes flapping in the breeze on a nice sunny day. This spring I finally decided that I was done with the dryer and was going to have my clothesline back. All it took was threatening to go to Lowe's for a bag of cement and 2 posts to get Hank to finally get around to it. the line runs from the huge Salix irrorata near the back barn, through the barberries (this part I can't use) and to a post on which a clematis is growing. It than attaches to a Pseudoacacia frisia and finally a Salix 'Rubykins'. See, this makes it a legal gardening post. The bed through which it runs is filled with daylilies, only a few of which are still blooming in the picture. Actually what precipitated the abrupt decision was when the water pump on my washing maching broke a few months ago. Too busy to go and get a new part right then, I brought my old washer that I used in West Virginia back down from the back barn. A little dusting and it was good as new. Clothes put through a ringer aren't so good dried in an electric dryer because they just aren't as dry as those spun dry in an electric washer, so the clothesline became more or less necessary.

Now this is about as basic as you can get. No electricity, no plumbing connections, just the hose and my own energy. (Inside the house I just fill buckets to fill it and the drain empties into a bucket to empty it) It actually takes the same amount of time or less than my electric machine and I get so much good exercise moving the agitator back and forth for 5 minutes. Better than lifting weights, especially if you manage to do a few loads a week. Then more exercise wringing out the clothes and hanging them. I'm in no hurry to go back to the electric washer and dryer (though I may feel a little differently in January), and plan on keeping up with this one for now, at least. The washer is now 26 or 27 years old and since there's not much to go wrong and it's made of stainless steel, it is pretty much as good as the day I got it.