Wash Day

/\ our wonderful washing machine /\ Getting water from the cistern

Today was wash day. Here's how it goes:

step 1 - fill the tub on the left with water, soap, and clothes

step 2 - agitate for 15 minutes

step 3 - move the clothes to the tub on the right

step 4 - spin the soapy water out & pour in clear water

step 5 - put the semi-soapy clothes in a basket

step 6 - do over with the other 4-6 loads of clothes

step 7 - drain the wash water

step 8 - fill the tub on the left with clean water

step 9 - add a load of semi-soapy clothes

step 10 - agitate first load for 6 minutes

step 11 - move the clothes to the tub on the right

step 12 - spin the semi-soapy water out & pour in clear water

step 13 - do over with the other 4-6 loads of clothes

step 14 - hang the clothes on the clothesline

step 15 - wait until they're dry (a few minutes to a few hours)

step 16 - bring in the clothes, fold, and put away

step 17 - collapse in a heap, exhausted but happy, with lots of clean clothes!

Yes, it's hard work. Yes, the weather is hot. Yes, I feel like Pioneer Woman on wash day! Dorothy, how did you DO this every week! And our grandparents did it by hand. And they lugged the water from the river or the well (not a handy cistern right next to the wahing machine). And they must have done it in the snow and rain. And they skipped step 17. And then they churned the butter, shelled the peas, plucked the chickens, fed the field hands.... and ironed for hours and hours. Oh, Lordy! My hat is off to them!

Remember "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Waltons"? How the moms always looked so serene? My theory is - they weren't serene, they were exhausted.