Winter wash

Obviously it isn't winter yet. It isn't even close - the heat and humidity was so intense here this past week that it felt like a bowl of steam was sitting over us. It was that kind of humidity that even makes sounds more muffled, like even sound is tired of trying to get through that air, and just gives up. Thank heavens the humidity finally broke yesterday - we spent our first week of school/homeschool hiding in the air conditioning. By the way -

First day of school

First day of homeschool.

Eh, it works for them. :)

But winter is coming, said the ant to the grasshopper, and we're starting to prepare. Jake has been building a new wood shed so we won't have to dig around under half-frozen tarps to bring in firewood this year, and I've been thinking about how to handle laundry once it's no longer prudent to hang it outside. I know some people hang things to freeze dry, but I find that the water doesn't sublimate from my clothes - they just freeze and then thaw, still wet when I bring them in.

In previous years I would set up drying racks in front of the wood stove, and while that works VERY well to dry them, the racks get in our way on the floor. But hanging by the fire is so effective that I wanted to come up with a way to continue to dry the clothes that way, especially since it adds much-needed humidity to the fire-dried air.

I thought of those drying racks that go on pulleys, so I could hoist the wash up toward the ceiling, but 1) they're pricey and 2) we have a suspended ceiling downstairs, so there would be no place to anchor it.

Then I found a neat product on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008IE2LTS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

It's a braided line that has holes in it and hooks at the ends. You hook the hooks around whatever you want, stretch the line across, and hang the clothes on hangers THROUGH THE ROPE! The slots in the rope keep the hangers apart and in their own place, so you can hang a bunch of clothes in less space.

So we did this in the walls in front of the wood stove!

I've used it already during wet weather, and it works even without the fire going.

Hopefully we'll have the dryer working again soon, but I want to have this option available to us.