Saturday, June 19, 2010

Of laundry and the search for a gasoline powered washing machine

You see my son, Anders and his fiance Emily and future farmer,  baby Joel live in a tepee. No running water, no electric, lots of laundry. So several months ago we started searching for a ringer washer that was gas powered. No luck on that account.
Brian mentioned that the kids really needed a washer to his dad. Now Brian's dad is the king of junk hunting. Just mention whatever oddity you are looking for and sooner or later he'll find it. That's how we got our hand cranked corn sheller.  
Brian's dad called this week.He found us 2 ringer washers for $80 in good condition except they don't have motors.
Hmmmm..... Brian and I put our heads together, hunted through the "just in case we need it" junk in the garages and came up with a lawn mower engine to use on one washer for the kids. Hurrah!
We decided we could probably splurge on another electric motor like the one on our chicken plucker for the other washer for us.
To most people it will sound weird that I am excited about a ringer washer, but I love doing laundry in them. My grandma taught me. First you do the lightly soiled whites, then the colors, then the dirty ol' farm jeans. You use far less water. The laundry gets done all on one day. And when you hang all that laundry out on the line to dry it comes back in the house smelling like fresh air and sunshine! What more could you ask for?

I can't wait to get the one refurbished for the kids. I think I'll pitch in some clothes line and clothes pins so they are all set. ;^)

2 comments:

Anne said...

It would be good to see a woman washing with this wringer washer for our memory of childhood
it would be good to make a video I'd like to see, Thanks
Clothes can wrap around the wringer and be torn ?

Anne said...

It would be good to see a woman washing with this wringer washer for our memory of childhood
it would be good to make a video I'd like to see, Thanks
Clothes can wrap around the wringer and be torn ?