Laundry Day 11/19/14

I have always wondered why people have clothes hanging out to dry every day in Bluefields.  Now I know!!!!!
It looked like it would be a sunny day, so let's do some wash.  We do have a washing machine in our apartment - but it just trickles in to fill the machine.  So, we take a 5 gallon bucket and fill from a spigot outside, taking about 4-5 minutes to fill.

Dave has little patience for this so he goes down to the giant tub where they catch rain water and fills the bucket.  3 buckets full to make a small load. Miss Sylvia asks "why are you taking rain water to fill your machine - you are hooked up to water upstairs." After washing clothes, you need to repeat the process to rinse the clothes - back down to the rain water - Dave doesn't care what anybody thinks anymore - it's just faster.  I (David) have also used the "save suds" method to do a 2nd load.  When it rains, we put the 5 gallon bucket under the downspout by our door, it fills in less than a minute as we have been getting between 4 - 9 mm of rain daily.

We will be ready for the maple syrup season with all the hauling of 5 gallon buckets!

We hang our clothes on the line to dry - sunny - and within 30 minutes, it starts to sprinkle. Oh well, the sun will come out again - sometime.

By the afternoon, most clothes are dry, the ones that are not - we bring into our air-conditioned bedroom and crank the air - they are dry by the next morning.

Needless to say - we are thankful for our washing machine. 95% of people in Bluefields wash clothes by hand in a cement washboard.  They drop a bucket in the well to get water for the wash - and the clothes are on the line until they dry. They do this everyday!  In 5 weeks, I return to my washer and dryer back home. What an easy life I have in Michigan washing clothes.