permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 3/10/2013 2:49 PM, Douglas Hinds wrote:
> Yesterday 03/09/2013 08:17 PM, Lawrence London wrote about doing laundry:
> > ... you suddenly realize you are going to be washing all your laundry by hand 
> > for
> > the rest of your life (driving to laundromat is not an option).
> >
> > What are effective ways to hand wash laundry?
> >
> > cold water OK?
>
> I don't wash clothes often (I have plenty) or by hand but the system I
> use may be worth repeating:
> I don't buy automatic washers (those with cycles) and have purchased 2
> G.E. back-&-forth rotor type machines, one in 1982 and one 15 or 20
> years later that still works fine (except for very large items, which is
> where you need that front loader you mentioned, with the vertically
> rotating cage and no rotor).

Thanks, Douglas, that is quite a dissertation; reminds me of people I 
knew in the 60's who paid a lot of attention to detail, made or grew 
their own, put up and stored home grown food for future use, wasted not, 
lived frugally and sensibly, i.e. serious about back to the land 
homesteading.

I did manage to get the machine working in two steps 1) forgot to 
tighten the plug on the cleanout at the bottom 2) water inlet hose was 
clogged with trash. Performed the necessary maintenance and am now doing 
my second load today. Great relief. I don't overuse this thing, only do 
a load a month, want it to last a long time, can't replace it
but see that I can easily do laundry by hand with ease, so will plan on
doing it this way in coming years. I bought the front loader because I 
have down filled sleeping bags and winter jackets and they have to be 
laundered in a front loader or by hand.

This thread certainly produced a ton of excellent information and now it 
is all in the message archives for easy retrieval in case anyone ever 
needs it. Thanks to everyone who contributed advice.

LL