Five Loads in two and a half hours!

Well all I can say is “For goodness sake!” 

We had a really close shave.  Michael smelled plastic and thought it was the radiator but actually turned out to be the washing machine which had caught fire and then set the tumble drier alight too!  He then proceeded to put out said fire with water from the hose pipe!  The only thing I can think is that the short circuit thingy had cut out and so he was not electrocuted!  He DID put out the fire, but sadly my machines, one of which was only a year old were ruined.

 Now that was distressing!

However my family having been taught well over the years, mentioned cheerfully that at least they would now be able to have a go with my old mangle and green clean washing machine.  Well, we were able to use the mangle but sadly not my green washing machine as that is currently hidden under all the pile of things for the new (second hand) conservatory.  But we DID get to use the mangle. 

Mimz and Jack got up early… now there is something to mention!!! …… and we set about heating water in my huge preserving pan, truly larger than average.  We got my lovely handmade soap powder and duly sorted the washing into piles.  These piles, of course all housewives know about.  However as we wash usually on cold or 30 degrees most washing can go into the machine no problem.  Anyway we ended up with 5 piles of generous size and Mimz’s face fell as she anticipated her Saturday morning disappearing.  So I used the opportunity, ever willing, to increase both knowledge and breadth of experience.  I mentioned the fact that years ago in living memory of some, washing took all day and was usually done on a Monday, never on a Sunday.  That washing would start early in the morning, with the copper or boiler being heated up, and then started with the white wash.  We talked about what people used before spin driers or even mangles.  

Wringing posts were part of everyday life, and washing often was done communally.  Well at least they could chat while they could work.  Mimz’ face fell further.  She was not impressed by a Saturday morning history lesson or re-enactment.  Her face became more and more gloomy as the animated chat went on.

Not Jack’s though.  Oh no.  He was up for the task and couldn't wait to get on with it.  So we did.  The white wash was being pounded away using the wooden tongs I still owned in the absence of a dolly, and then wrung out to the best of our ability to save the hot water.  It WAS very hot.  

Wooden tongs.... actually I have two pairs,
but the others are in the cupboard.
Aren't they great?

Then over to the mangle.  They were most impressed.  The mangle was super-efficient, just as I remembered it, but I did have to tell Mimz to tie her hair back.  I also remembered having my long hair getting caught in the mangle.  Jack was turning the handle manfully and Mimz was gingerly feeding the rollers one sock at a time!  Well I soon changed that approach and reminded her how much we had to get on and do!  Jack was really impressed and enormously enjoyed using the mangle. Later on more strapping young folk wanted a go too and soon it became something that they had to take turns in.

We washed, mangled rinsed, mangled, rinsed and mangled again until one load was done.  Then Jack had a thought.  How were we to get it all dry?  It was raining outside! Don’t worry says I.  We have the wooden lady! 

Wooden Lady... mine is much older,
darker and more wobbly.
The plastic one?
You don't need to see it.

I dragged it out of the cupboard, and a decrepit plastic one and started to show them how to load it so that all the washing has a chance to dry.   Then, no tea break… Mimz thought she had earned one…. on to all the rest.  We went through the above process for all the wash.  However we were running out of room to dry things, so cheated and asked our neighbour if she would mind putting the towels in her drier.  Thankfully she agreed after commiserating with me on our loss. 

 What utterly amazed Jack and Mimz was that after 2 ½ hours all 5 loads were washed and drying, one way or another.  Now our washing machine takes at a minimum 45 minutes per load.  So that was good going.  Yes it was hard work, and we had to be on top of it all the time, but we got a lot done.

Would I like to do it regularly?  NO!!!  Not unless I had to.  But I could.  And now so could Mimz and Jack.  They have experienced a significant lesson in self-sufficiency and have a vague idea of the sheer physicality of the past work load of women.

What a while ago, was deemed by one at least of my offspring as ‘clutter’ was now seen for the value that it holds in my eyes.  The mangle, my galvanised wash tubs, the wooden tongs etc all are now respected not rejected as ‘junk’. 

My mangle and
galvansied tubs.

 As to my green washing machine!  Well isn't it just the way of it that it couldn't be used when it was needed?  There is a lesson there for me I think!   

   

Freezers! I'm all hot and bothered about them.

Do you remember me saying I didn’t trust freezers?

I should have kept my mouth shut.  It heard me!  Then in a huff it packed up!

That’s right a totally full freezer with goods lovingly stored from good purchases and harvests, all gone.  Food I had started to purchase for when my son comes home from uni’- all gone!

While I was away too! 

Luckily I was/am insured but we had to go through the heart breaking task of writing a list, costing it all up and then cleaning out the debris – well I didn't do that but a nice young man did!

What to do? Well of course I am still waiting for the claim forms.  Haven’t you noticed if they want money from you the demand is there within 24 hours, but if you want money from them it could take weeks?

In the mean time I will slowly – as there isn’t much cash, build it all up again.  I so wish I had a cellar, a very cold cellar to store more foods in without the freezer. I have visions some nights of digging away as in the Great Escape, bit by bit, making myself a cellar that only I know about, and storing all sorts of wonderful things in it for a rainy day….. well such is the dream.  The reality is that I have a freezer indoors and a chest freezer that will be put back on when the new conservatory goes up. (read second hand for that).

I can’t wait… well I guess I will have to.  Roni is doing it for me.  Roni was working for a family who were having an extension on their house just where their conservatory was!  It was going to the tip…..   “Not so fast” says our frugal Roni, and for the cost of foundations, bricks and bits I will, eventually, have a beautiful, double glazed conservatory with a proper door J and roof that doesn’t leak J.  THEN I will put on the freezer.  Until then I have a hole in the ground in which a little moat is forming and of which the cats are most suspicious.

I keep telling myself it will be lovely when its done, and it will….. but you know?  I don’t like transition.  I try to hurry through that phase as quickly as possible. Often it has led to me not getting jobs done as well as perhaps I could, but the job was DONE.  However, this is a master class in patience and learning to enjoy the process of transition.  Well enjoy may be a bit extreme, but at least I can learn to put up with it.

I have watched my mother in law go through a similar process with her central heating.  A much bigger job and I am SO glad I don’t have that to go through…. But you know while it is true that she too did not enjoy the transition period, she was much better at going through the process than I.  It led me to think of all the times she has had to be patient in her life time, and how so many women have waited for things over the years.  Food to cook, plants to grow, husbands to come back from the war, children to grow in the womb, be birthed and then grow in the home….. (I mention women as I know more about them, but I am sure men are good at waiting too… though to be fair, in my life, I don’t know many….. lol.)

We put so much effort into our homes, and our work and we forget that the effort we put into relationships is so much more rewarding.  The presence of my mother in law in my home during the period of her central heating being done,  has been a real gift, and revealed surprising things to me.  She may have many periods of deep confusion and consequent fear, but she remembers the past well.  She remembers whole conversations, and people’s histories and lineage.  She came up with all sorts of tales from her past.  Some we knew, others were new to us and had such poignancy that it made one realise how much she has seen over the years.  In her time she has been a strong woman used to facing difficulties and adversity head on.  Not prone to self-absorbed introspection, she just got on with it as, in her words “You just have to get on with it, and everything passes in the end.” 

What a truth to live by.  /|\