Typed October 10th...Washing Day!!

Today was dedicated to cleaning. The temperature has been dropping (only reaching 40 degrees today) and I wanted to get a good wash in before the cold unmotivates me. I did several loads of laundry--which reminded me how badly I need gloves! There are some available here, but I just forget to buy them, or usually when I see them I look at the price and I think "I don't REALLY need them" But dang. I do really need them. They are only about $1!! I have a cut from a knife on the palm of my hand from using my pocket knife while peeling potatoes. It stung quite a bit in the water. Also the temperature dropped below freezing last night and so our water in our barrel was literally freezing. My hands were numb. Then, I used a little bit of bleach in each load (what I mean by load is just a group of clothing that I wash in one tumpin of water--before I dump that water out and fill it up with clean water for the next load) and now my hands have bleach burns on them. Oh, and then wringing the clothes! OMG! As if my hands didn't hurt enough from being numb, the cut and the bleach--they were rubbed raw from handwashing, then burned more from wringing. We use two tumpins while doing laundry. One tumpin I use for washing. Then I wring the clothes well and set them in the clean water (rinse) tumpin. Then I give them a good rinse and yet again another wring. After that they go outside to the clothes line. Anyway, this is my 'chore'. I do it every Saturday, but because we were so busy yesterday I did it today (Sunday). Justin and I have divided the chores up pretty equally in our ger (which is necessary because of all the work it takes to keep it comfortable).

Because of the washing, our floor was soaking, so it deserved a mop (using a rag, a tumpin of water and me on my hands and knees). As a result, our home is once again comfortable and sparkling clean.

My favorite part of today was this morning....before all the washing. Well, it was pretty nice afterwards, too!



Update(Oct. 20th): I now have gloves and have done the laundry with my new gloves made in China---works miracles--No numbing, burning, or drying out!