Snow Day

When schools are closed like they were today due to snow, the neighborhood kids are out in force, making forts, throwing snowballs, and sledding.

I love watching all of the different ways that kids interact with snow. Laying in it making snow angels, digging it, sliding on it, marching in it, tasting it, packing it, totally interacting, immersing themselves in this wonderful gift from the sky.

On days like this, there are few children left inside, and I am hopeful that these snow experiences will help to foster a connection to the joys of nature for our children.

One good reason to have a clothes dryer...

I wondered when not having a dryer was going to get me and it came this past Saturday. My son and his friends had been playing outside in the snow and had come inside to warm up. As I started to make them some hot chocolate, they began to strip off their wet snowpants and coats and gloves. Without thinking I started to say, "throw those things in the dryer...". Suddenly I remembered that while I could warm them up with hot chocolate, no longer having a working dryer meant I would not be able to dry and warm up their snow gear. Unlike years past when it felt good to send them back outside with both their gear and bodies warmed, this year I would have to send them back out into the snow with everything soaking wet and cold. YUCK! It was enough to make me want a dryer for Christmas.

Well, my son and his friends have been in and out of the house many times refueling on hot chocolate since last weekend and so far they don't seem to mind that I can't warm up their clothing with a dryer when they stop in. If I can just get myself to feel O.K. with it, then I can get past this desire to buy a dryer. Unfortunately, it is the little things like this, the desire for perceived comfort that generates the want, which results in the purchase. Wish me luck in staying strong.

Goodbye dryer for good!

As winter approached, I wondered if it was really going to be possible to manage without a dryer. From what I have read from other folks experiences, winter line drying has meant stringing lines in the basement or drying things outdoors in the cold and finishing them off indoors while draped over furniture. Because my washing machine is located on the first floor, walking my wet clothing down into the basement to dry on lines seemed like a lot of extra work and I knew once I got it down there, I would never be inclined to retrieve it.

My outdoor line that I used when the weather was warmer, was just steps from the laundry room which made the drying job simple and possible. I think the key as I move my drying operation indoors for the winter is to continue to keep things simple and enjoyable. Then

I will never be tempted to fall back on the dryer.

Last week, I figured out a way to hang two loads in my 8x8 laundry room but sometimes it is necessary for me to do the weekly washing of three loads in one day. Well this afternoon, I hung my entire weeks wash up by stringing an additional line across the room and more efficiently hanging the shorter items from a wire shelf that runs above the washer and dryer. Now I feel like I have mastered the art of winter drying and don't think that I will ever have a need for a dryer again.

Goodbye dryer...for good!!!

All of my experiences with line drying outdoors can be found by clicking here.

Hanging it up

Looks like I am moving my laundry drying operation indoors for the winter. While it was sunny and 41 yesterday, my clothes hanging outside on the line never did get completely dry and I ended up re-hanging them inside to finish them off. I think that the sun lays too far down in the sky at this time of year and my clothesline doesn't get the sun it needs for as long as it needs given the colder temperatures. Even just a few weeks back, I was able to dry at 41 degrees and sunny, but the sun was just that much higher in the sky. Once we get past the winter solstice and the days get longer, I will bring my wash back outdoors.

Moving my drying indoors does present some challenges given that I wash at least 3 loads a week. I have figured out a way to hang a total 2 loads of laundry at a time in my laundry room and because the room has a south facing window, things dry fairly fast in there. Larger bedsheets present some problems but I can string them across the room using a combination of hooks and clothespins. It will simply require some creative planning.

Creative planning is really all that has been required to make living without a dryer possible. When my dryer broke at the beginning of the summer, I didn't have a clue about how to go about all of this, but things fell into place fairly easily. Because I didn't have a working dryer to fall back on when things got tough, I just made it work.

Here are a few bits of information I have discovered along the way to make living without a dryer easier:

- reduce the sheer amount of laundry that goes into your wash in the first place. Don't wash clothing until it needs to be washed. Many items can be worn several days before laundering. This is especially important for kids to understand when they seem to think it is easier to wear something once and then throw it into the hamper. I take things out of the dirty wash pile and give them back to my son to put in his closet if they don't pass the "dirty enough" test.

-Don't wash bedsheets or towels as often. Believe me, you can go much longer than what grandma told you when it comes to washing these items, with no adverse affects.

-clothes don't need to be finished off in the dryer to get the wrinkles out after hanging on the line. Granted, clothes do come off the line more wrinkled than out of the dryer, but these wrinkles will fall out soon after you put the clothing on. I believe that your body heat acts like a natural iron, allowing the wrinkes to naturally subside.

I find it interesting that exactly when the outdoor air becomes too cold to dry clothing outdoors, it is exactly when we need more humidity indoors anyway. Bringing the outdoor drying operation indoors at this time of year will add much needed humidity to dry heated indoor air. When the cycles of my life work out and connect like this, I feel like I am operating more in tune with the natural world.

All of my experiments with outdoor line drying can be found by clicking here.

Line Drying in the Winter

Am I committed or crazy?

According to weather.com, the temperature in Chicago was 29 degrees this morning when I was hanging my clothes out on the line, with a feel-like temp of 19. I wondered then what the feel-like temperature was for my hands as they repeatedly dipped into my laundry basket full of wet clothing and pinned it to the line. Based on how frozen my hands were as I came back insidethe house, they must have been around 10 degrees at least! I can see where a pair of warm gloves would come in handy.

It was five months ago to the day that my dryer gave out and I have been exclusively line drying all of my clothes since then. This really hasn't been an accomplishment given the sun kissed days of summer, with its balmy breezes, perfect for line drying. No, the real accomplishment as I see it will come this winter as I tackle outdoor winter line drying.

There is a great website devoted to the cause of clotheslines called Project Laundry List
http://www.laundrylist.org/ where they discuss drying clothes outdoors in the winter amongst many other clothesline topics. Here is their response to the question, "Can clothes be hung out to dry in the winter?"

In northern climates, people often ask, "What do you do in the winter time?" Ironically, historic districts are one of the prevalent places that restrict or even ban clotheslines. We ask, "What do you think people did 100 years ago?" Because of sublimation, it is possible to hang out on many below-freezing days. As long as it's sunny, your sheets and other laundry will dry quickly. You just need tough fingers! We suggest purchasing a wooden drying rack or getting another apparatus for indoors.

So, I wondered, did people 100 years ago hang their clothes outside all winter long, or did they hang them in a basement or a sheltered semi-warm place? Also, what is sublimation?

The Library of Congress website http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/household-transcript.html offers up information of what winter line drying was like in the mid-nineteenth century. Here is an excerpt from the page "The History of Household Technology":

One homemaker wrote in her diary on a cold December day, "Left our clothes out but, they cannot dry. They are frozen too hard." The clothes had to be brought indoors and draped on furniture or racks to dry.

After doing a bit of searching, I also discovered the following from the "How Stuff Works" website:

Sublimation can occur when wet clothes are hung out on the line on a winter day when the temperature is below freezing. The water on the clothes freezes and then evaporates into vapor without melting.

I guess in a perfect world, clothes would go from wet to dry on a winter day due to sublimation, but the Library of Congress explanation above probably is closer to the truth. The clothes freeze and fail to dry and end up draped onto racks in the house.

It sounds like winter drying depends on a combination of temperature, humidity, wind, and sunshine just like the factors that impact summer drying. Determining good days for drying in the summer meant keeping a close eye on the weather and I can see this skill will be ever more important in the winter. As fall gives way to winter, I'd like to be able to hang my clothing out as long as possible into November or December before resorting to the use of indoor drying racks.

But I certainly don't want to end up the way my son predicts I will, with a load of wash hung out on the line the day that a foot of snow falls, snowshoes needing to be employed to retrieve my clothing. My neighbors really would think I was crazy then.

By the way, I just checked on the laundry that I hung out almost four hours ago. The sunny day and high temperature of 41 degrees is certainly helping to move things along. The clothing closest to the sun is dry and I removed those items so that the second line will receive full sun. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything is dry by nightfall.

Have any of you tried to dry clothes in the winter and if so, how did it go? I would like to hear from you.

All of my experiences with outdoor line drying can be found by clicking here.

Fall on the Fox River

I spent yesterday out at Red Oaks nature preserve located along the Fox River with my unschooling group. After they had all left and things were quiet, I went back along the path we had traveled and took these pictures. The weather was perfect and the leaves were at their peak, thus making it difficult to leave.

Everything slows right down when I am surrounded by nature. My to do list seems less pressing and I am at peace. Nature settles my soul.

This beautiful weather is forecast for the next week and I am going to take advantage of it and get outside into another nature preserve. It won't be long before the cold and snow of winter blows in, bringing a different version of beauty with it.

Last Child in the Woods

Working their way through a large stand of tall reeds near the edge of a small pond, my son and his friend are drawn in by the lure of the "green green forest". Urged further and further into the unknown, wondering what lay ahead, they make their way toward a group of large trees swaying in the distance. They have never pushed this far into the forest before and the fear of what they may encounter makes them become more and more hesitant with each step. Suddenly, a large roar leaps out at them and the ground begins to shake. They turn around and are about to run when they realize it is only a freight train lumbering nearby on the Union Pacific tracks bound for Chicago.

But the scare is enough to make them turn back and take refuge in their tree fort, leaving the forest and pond to explore another day. Their fort, assembled in a large oak tree, just down the embankment from the railroad tracks, has been built and abandoned by different neighborhood kids over the years. It is somewhat of a community tree fort, owned by nobody, but loved by all. This scrap of the natural world in which the tree fort resides, bounded by railroad tracks, a pond and a parcel of undeveloped land, is a haven for not only wildlife but for nature deprived kids growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.

Most suburban kids being raised on poison perfect lawns don’t experience the wildness of nature, the beauty of it. Their yards don’t offer up many opportunities to explore and figure out how the natural world works, to fall in love with the rough bark of a tree, the rushing of a stream, or being tucked deep into the woods. How can these children learn to appreciate nature, fall in love with it, and consequently want to protect it, if they can not spend time in it?

That was my concern for my own son when I first read “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv. Louv speaks of how important it is for our children to have wild places to explore at their own pace, a place where they can spend time digging in the dirt or building a tree fort which will in turn help them to build a lifetime of love for the out-of-doors. He talks about how children today spend most of their time in front of televisions or computers and are missing out on the lessons that can come from being in nature. That nature can soothe and nurture- exactly what the stressed-out, over-scheduled kids of today need.

After reading Louv’s book, I became concerned that my son did not have a wild playground in which to explore. My small prairie garden was wild compared to the suburban lawns that surround my yard, but would not present enough “wildness” to satisfy a 12 year old boy. It wan’t much later that my son asked if he could visit the "green green forest" adjacent to the railroad tracks. This scrap of land, about two blocks from my home, has been left wild as a buffer between the railroad tracks and our neighborhood. Fear of the trains and tracks have kept me from letting my son play in this place. But, older now and more responsible, I feel he is ready to explore amongst the reeds and water and trees of this natural area. Though the area is small, to a kid, it appears huge and full of wonderment and I am glad that he wants to spend time there. He and his friends are making their mark on the tree fort and hopefully each successive generation of kids in this neighborhood will find their way to this place. To glean from it what the magic of nature will bring.

Just too Hard...

Something changed with me when my brother died. Not sure what it was, just a feeling that what mattered to me yesterday no longer does, and that what didn't matter seems to now. As a result, I don't have much to say about environmental concerns right now. But, because I care so deeply for the environment, I know I will be back to this blog soon.

My Brother at the Cottage

Sunday Morning Coffee

As I sat on my patio drinking coffee this morning, watching birds and bees feast on nectar and seeds from my garden, I was reminded of the continuity of life. Sitting amongst plants, wrapped in the cloak of nature, I felt a small bit of the sadness over my brother's recent death lift, and was reminded of the true healing powers of the natural world.