Clothesline Profile – Caitlin in North Carolina

     Caitlin in North Carolina is our newest profile on the clothesline!  She is a modern day back to the lander and independent spirit who is living in a way that most of us would struggle with for more than a few days.  Her blog, Ubiquitous non sequitur, is full of her adventures of growing her own food, living in the middle of no where and doing laundry BY HAND.  I hope that you’ll wander over to her site and check out all of the fun!  

     Caitilin also proves that you don’t need a big line, or even a line at all, to dry your clothes in the sun – or shade!  Just more of the old fashioned spirit of “making do with what you have” that I totally love!

      And, coming soon, I’ll be guest posting on her site about… how I lived much lower on the consumer food chain than even she is doing!  I’ll let you know when my post is up over at her site. 

     I currently live in a 1974 Airstream with my beloved dog and 15 chickens on lakefront property in North Carolina. The property has been in my family for 60 years, and has never been lived on. And now here I am! It took us months to get reliable running water, electricity and phone out here, but both my garden and I flourish, and as you can imagine, living in the woods produces some laundry!

     I grew up in Japan where the cost of electricity was so high we dried everything outside on the line, pretty much year-round. I think we may have run the dryer a handful of times in our 13 year stint there, and even then it was to either a) dry the gym uniform we had conveniently forgotten to tell our mom we needed that day quickly before going to school, or b) to heat up our towels in the dead of winter for when we got out of the shower (no heated bathrooms…)

When I first came out to North Carolina, I would tote my laundry 173 miles away to my manfriend’s house to wash in a real washer and hang out on a glorious seemingly mile long clothesline that could hold 2 loads of laundry. *sigh* (soon! Big changes are coming!)

     Now I have a job and due to conflicting schedules, I don’t make it out there much anymore, and taking my laundry into town is too big of a time commitment. So for now (I am told the manfriend is bringing me a washer soon – fingers crossed!) I wash my clothes in my bathtub – by hand – and then hang everything outside on my heretofore backup/for utility items only line. As I mentioned, I live in the woods, so I had to get creative….

     At my manfriend’s house – he is more than happy to let me take over the laundry, and I love doing it. Both grandmothers had clothesline outside, and one of them used a clothespin bag just like the ones featured here! Now I don’t have to drive 3 1/2 hrs, and I still get to relish being outside with my clean clothes.

     And there’s nothing like coming in after working outside to shower and grabbing a clean towel that’s stiff with sunshine and fresh air. I love it!

At first glance, you might think this is all the real estate, I’ve got (top picture)…   Guess again! I freely use tree limbs whenever I need to. So far they have willingly obliged.

     Laundry corner. The chickens love to hang out under the wet clothes. I sometimes get a bit lazy with the hand wringing and they go out a little wet… the chickens LOVE to attack the drops of water when they hit the ground. I’m not convinced they don’t think they’re treats!

     Me. 32 and farmsteading. Woot!

     The manfriend who keeps everything on the property running. No joke.