Okay, so the comment I get the most is how are you guys doing it down there, off-grid, without electricity? Well, we aren’t. We are working towards off-grid but have a long way to go. So, we do have electricity which is a good thing because it is our primary heat source this winter. We have lots of plans to change that next year with wood stoves and the like but that wasn’t an option in all the temporary living spaces or in our timeframe.
Washing and Drying in the Mountains
People are curious how we wash our clothes…I have a nice, modern front loading washer under a lean-to that Paul built on the side of our cottage (The 265 sq ft space that is our living and dining room, school room and my office.) Although I am keeping an eye out for an off-grid washer, I am very happy to have a modern machine right now. There are enough transitions going on that I’ll gladly put off that particular transition until a later date. (I am working on Caleb to come up with a washer driven by a bicycle…as long as he is willing to use his abounding energy to make it go!)
I LOVE line dried clothes!
We do have a very old dryer as well but it doesn’t get much use because I LOVE LINE DRIED CLOTHES. I remember summers at my Great Grandma’s in Texas. She was on a fixed income so we dried everything but the blue jeans on the line. It was just part of the day. I tried line drying things in the city but the exhaust and whatnot from the traffic just made things smell kinda…meh.
Line Drying Lessons Learned the Hard Way
If you know me, I’m kind of a schedule girl. I do all my laundry on one day and I’m all set for the week barring any emergencies. But now that I live in the mountains, I literally plan my laundry days around the weather forecast. We’ve learned a thing or two about line drying down here in the valley:
- If the humidity level is high and it is cloudy, even if it isn’t raining, you are wasting your time to hang the clothes out.
- It is imperative that you get the clothes off the line before the sun sinks behind the mountains and the dew drops.
- Getting the laundry on the line as early as possible is important on winter days but gloves are a must unless you want your figures to freeze into popsicles while you hang everything.
- When it is raining and your dryer stopped working and you now have two huge loads of laundry, you hang it on your inside lines.
- And then you run the heat and/or dehumidifier or it will take about 415 hours for the clothes to dry while you duck around them in your tiny living space.
Worth the Work!
It’s a lot of work to hang clothes out to dry but the smell of sunshine and fresh air makes you that much happier to get dressed in the morning. I actually enjoy the time hanging and gathering the laundry. My hands are occupied and my mind is free to pray and worship and thank God for His many blessings.
Interested in more? Check out our YouTube channel.
And, just for fun, here is our favorite gluten-free, super easy apple cobbler!