solar dryer comes to use

With my husband and two college sons working this summer at deep down, dirty jobs, I wash clothes every day.
The 6 a.m. starter mowed lawns, collecting a green tinge and the smile of ripe silage as the sun warmed him.
The 7 a.m. clock puncher had a blue jump suit with splashes and globs of red, yellow, white and tan paint attesting to his summer job.
At 7:30 a.m. my while collar husband left for work wearing a blue collar. Basic necessity: Except for a couple of people who work in the front office, everyone finishes the day looking like a chimney sweep.
At 1:30 the lawn mower returned, showered and changed into blue jeans, a neat T-shirt and a green apron for his 3 p.m. job at a restaurant.
By the time the place closed, he had bussed tables, mopped the floors and messed up another set of clothes and towels.
Last summer, when our dryer was not working right, I tired of listening to its perpetual hum as it dried blue jeans and towels.
I took the jeans outside and tossed them over the branches of the plum tree. My handyman husband saw them, “Are you trying to tell me that you want a clothesline?”
“No, only that I am tired of the dryer noise and they smell fresher when dried outside.”
He put up a clothesline and fixed the dryer.
This summer I have carried loads of towels and work clothes to and from the clothesline nearly every day. When I took down the stiff-as-a-board blue jeans, uniforms and jump suits, the smelled fresh, but failed to endorse any fabric softener. The men didn’t complain, but I heard a few comments about the stiff towels. Not every one loves crisp linens the way I do.
Considering that where we used to live, every back yard (except mine) had an extensive clothesline, I have come a long way, baby.
In the old neighborhood, my next-door neighbor was always the first to have something on the line every Monday morning.
I was not interested in lugging baskets of baby clothes, diapers and toddlers’ rompers out to a clothesline. I washed clothes when the basket was full and dried them in the dryer.
Only the faint trail of fog from the dryer vent revealed my erratic laundry schedule.
During the years of 2 a.m. feedings, before feeding the baby, I would toss cleaned towels from the washer to dryer and put a load of diapers in to wash.
When the baby was up at 5 a.m., I started a load of rompers. By the time morning came and the neighbors were competing to see who would be the first out to the line with their wash, mine was ready to be sorted and folded.
As the diapers disappeared and rompers became blue jeans, I still declined to totes loads of clothes for four children outside to dry.
But with the last baby now in high school, I finally have a solar dryer. I discovered that some days I actually enjoy the few minutes it takes to carry few towels or jeans to the line and pin them up. So little time and such a fresh, fresh smell to clothes that were so smelly and dirty.


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