This week we got our new washer and dryer delivered, and wow! You know, in the many years Missus and I have been married, this is the best we have ever done for our laundry. We bought a new washer in the UK once, and that was about it. It was a front loader, so, efficient, and fair at washing. But other than that, we have been in old machines and such. Some have been okay, some have been bad, but nothing we have had has been great.
So last week we decided that rather than go to Home Depot to buy just the dryer, which was not working, we would go ahead and switch from propane to the electric which was already wired and left unused. We also decided to get a matching washer and clear out our thiry year or more old washer that was left here by my grandmother. So we went to see what was up in th furniture store in Preston, our local town.
We looked over a couple of sets which were in the $400 a machine range, and were just about to it, when Missus asked me which I would rather do. I pointed to the Speed Queen set, which I knew were the type used in the laundromats and which the lady advised honestly were the type you bought for a twenty-five year purchase rather than an eight to ten year one, and I said, “honestly I would rather just get this set and be done for a while rather than back here again in a decade or so.
The machines came on the delivery truck yesterday. The guys hooked up the washer and I loaded it with my laundry and got it going while the dryer connections were finalized.
Oh my Hell!
It’s been years since I had a load of laundry come out so clean! I forgot it could! If you are accustomed to it, you would probably not know what I am talking about. But we have been on a tight budget since before we both said “I do! I think!” and “well, maybe…” But as time goes on, it is normal to accept a status quo, and we did.
Apparently in order to have these machines, it is necessary to join some kind of cult. The Speed Queen Cult are die hard fans of the procduct, and it has something to do with the quality, the fact the machines are built like tanks, they are user servicable, and they are made in America. Well, if they can do in twenty-five years what they did to my laundry yesterday, I will be a card carrying member, myself.
The price was twice as high as the other machines. I expect that you do get what you pay for. The programs for washing are exactly what Missus wanted, which is basic, and nothing much more. Apparently, that is how Speed Queen rolls. The clothes get cleaned, not confused.
It’s a little thing. It’s a thing that can easily be taken for granted. But there comes a point, and then it gets fixed, and a person is like to look at the result and say flatly, “oh.” That was me yesterday. Oh. It is possible to get really clean clothes from a basic set of machines!
Our list of things that need doing has been so long. This is one more thing off it. It is always one off, one on, or two off, one on, or one off, two on. It gets tiresome feeling like it is impossible to get ahead, and really feel like we are doing well for our family. There is so much to do in this house! It is more than an hundred years old! There are always things that need attention. Yet, it seems like when the list is complete, this place should hold up for another century. We are just a part of that legacy. There are some things that need doing, which if left undone, will undo the whole house, and leave it an abandoned hulk, wasting away like so many of the hold houses do around here. That would be such a bummer! This place is historic and fascinating in its own ways.
Since I was heading to the salvage yard with the old washer and dryer, I cleaned up some of the metal from behind the future workshop. (That is code for ‘the really old workshop that has served as a house for junk for years.’) I got some of it up there, but still have a few pieces to clean up. When done, I will be able to make much better use of that back end of the barn and put the horse trailer there, then the utility in front of it. Then I can clean up some parts of the yard that I lament for their ugliness now. I have the horse trailer at the back of the granary, and want that to be clear and the grass cut there, so it is a better piece of our driveway for now, and eventually I can work out where to put more useful stuff than an old horse trailer we hardly use for anything. I also love that back part of the barn when it is cleared up, as it looks lovely back there facing the neighbor’s farm and dairy cattle. We have lots of room there, which wants something a lot more useful or fun than old piles of crap that predate our living here.
Stupid little things. We got a truck this summer. What a difference that has made on so many levels! The largest one has been the firewood. We also have the reliability of having two vehincles, now. There is the ability to clean up some of the mess that has been here since my grandparents lived here, which we were unable to deal with while using only a little sport utility. It’s just another thing I think could be taken for granted when one is used to it, so I mention it so I can remind myself in the future what a pain in the butt it was back when we had no truck!
There are still goals. For the farm I want a tractor and irrigation. I would like to raise some beef cows, including our annual slaughter. I want to get the other animals into profit, from llama fiber to chickens raised for eggs and meat, and not pets. Our pig would be better if bread, and the pot belly pigs are just pets. All the pigs need, ah-hem, streamlining. I don’t want to rais chickens jut to have chickens on the farm anymore. They serve little use pooping all over the steps and such, and eating the young plants we are trying to grow, or scratching at them, or dustbathing on them. The egg coop is fine for a dozen birds or even more if we have the facility to sell the excess eggs. A meat flock of cornish rock is fine as long as we raise enough for ourselves and the kids, and no more, unless we have the facility to sell them, and can do so safely.
I half expect the canal to be put underground in the next year or two, tops. I have little insight into this, but I speculate it is so because they worry about losses from leaching and evaporation. This local canal company shuts down too early and starts up too late, while the one in Utah can be seen pumping water for easily a month longer each year. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, the people in charge seem to think there is no water in the river. Still, if we had irrigation, we could do a lot with what they offer. We could at least keep our pasture up and the animals on cheap feed for longer. Or we could put the whole field to hay and raise enough for summer and winter feed. We have access to other water for now, and will have to make do with that. It is one mroe reason for a tractor, especially if I can get a PTO pump. Then I could pump the water we have access to.
I also wish I could get the tractor before winter this year for snow removal. It will improve our ability to work and do so safely and easily in the yard. I am also worried that two of our llamas are past their sell by date, and will fall over in the snow and need removal. Damn animals that freeze to the ground are no good! I don’t want them left hanging about because they are too heavy to lift! Nevermind the billion other chores that can be done with the tractor, not the least is just about everything.
Well, today is October 20th. It is nearly Halloween, and again, I have done nothing of what I want to for it. It is my favorite holiday, and I never get anything done for it. I always want to set up a haunted house, or come up with a super cool costume, or something like that. This year, I just want a few games and some straw bales to play among for the family, then I can dump the staw onto the gardens in time for snowfall. We could carve pumpkins on them, put the apple bobbing tub on them, hide behind them, set them up for a scarecrow or whatever on them, set the candy dish and games on them. It makes sense as a very useful item to have, and I never seem to get them before the holiday. Best go a looking!
The kids are all planning to be over for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Can’t argue with that! We are nearly done with our Christmas shopping, so there is the traditions and food to sort out. All the decorations are in the preliminary organization stage, which is to say they have all been moved en mass into new storage boxes, and will be put up from there, then put back in better after the holiday. But for now, we know where all of them are, at any rate. That is a step above the past. And with the new boxes, everything should be in great shape. We’ll see.
I have finally started with at least listening to some of the classics that I meant to when I got old. I guess I am old now. I put on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass last night and have been listening to that. I have a great set of headphones now, and a tablet dedicated to literary use such as this, and for writing, though all the parts for that are not yet arrived. I am waiting for a Bluetooth keyboard and a wall mount that will allow me to write from in bed with ease. Don’t judge! It is where I close my days. I also have a good stand for the tablet to sit above the keyboard for use at any table arounf the house. I also have my primary tablet, which can access the same programs and cloudservers.
Two weeks till Election Day. I am hoping for a landslide against Trump, just as I was in 2016. That one did not work out so well, so I am not holding my breath, as such, this time. Still, I can dream, can’t I? I am always amazed at how many people try to show real respect for their Trump supporting friends and family. At least they say they do, though I suspect there is a reason they try to emphasize this fact so much! Compensating for something? Trump is so obviously corrupt and so dicatotial that it is damn near impossible to see how some people either don’t see it, or they do, and they see it as a good thing! The man operates on Chaos theory, and without any understaning at all of science, political science, history, humanity, empathy, or just about any virtue that I have been able to identify. I do suffer Trump Fatigue. I don’t know how I could handle four more years of his cultish followers waving their stupid Trump flags, or his face on the evening news. I want to just forget about him. Obama has been quiet since he left office. I doubt Trump will be, at all. But it is a nice dream.
It has been two years, and more than a month now since I socialized on Facebook. I have said ‘hi’ a time or two, but then cut out again. Being on it or thinking about it cut into my time too much, and kept me preoccupied with things other than my own life. Besides, with the politics and such, things were unberable. And now, I think I am reprogrammed to do the worst part of Facebook, which is to be more open than I should be about my own stupid opinion. Let it go. Let it go!
I tried Instagram for a bit. That was hard to get into, because once joined up, I tried to find people to “follow,” but it started limiting me for fear of me plotting an asSPAMination. Well, whatever. When it finally let up on me, I have been able to find a few interesting feeds to follow, and relevant ones, but nothing that is so urgent I need to spend much time with it at all. That makes me someone who will post now and then, but hardly look at another person’s feed, making me a full on spammer!
Well, it is getting bedtime, and I need to go listen to what Walt has got to say.