Snail Spirals

OK, this is belated. During my blogging paralysis of a couple weeks ago, I had this whole spiel planned out about Earth Day and environmentalism and people not thinking. But the days ticked by and I still hadn't written the post, and it seemed like the moment had passed.

It's still bugging me though, so bear with me.

Item One: Laundry.



I am the only person on my street that hangs wash on a clothesline. On the weekends and sometimes in the evenings, I can smell that dryer smell, all linty and warm, like a fog from the houses around me. My left-hand neighbor looks at me like I'm nutso when I hang out clothes.

I am not completely anti-dryer. However, in the 15 years since college, I have only used a dryer on a regular basis for about 4 years, when we were in Friday Harbor. There, I had a dryer and used it almost exclusively. The first place we lived was completely shaded by huge firs and never got any sun. It was so damp and cold in the winter that a dryer was pretty much a necessity. After we moved to the new house, though, when it was warm and sunny in the spring, summer, and fall, I used a drying rack on the deck.

Here in La Grande, the winters are also cold and dark. I can understand using a dryer in the winter. I don't have one, so I use a drying rack over the central air vent. It works just fine and the clothes dry overnight. If there is a rare precious winter day that is clear and breezy, I can get a load or two dried on the line if I hang them out by 10:00 or so. I do single loads more often, rather than multiple loads once a week. No big deal to me, but I realize that most people don't want to have a drying rack set up in their living room all winter.

But in the spring and summer and fall? Here we are, living in a rural town, the air isn't smoggy, and it's sunny and dry and breezy from mid-April to October. A load of clothes, even heavy clothes like jeans and towels, will dry in 30-40 minutes here in the height of summer. That is the same amount of time a dryer takes! It's free and uses no electricity or gas. Fabrics smell amazing after drying outside, and sheets get whiter from bleaching in the sun. There is nothing like snuggling into a bed made up with crisp, white, line dried sheets.

I guess my point is to use a dryer if you have to, otherwise use a clothesline.

Item Two: Yard Maintenance.



I mowed my lawn yesterday, along with many of my neighbors. I used my trusty reel mower, my Mother's Day present to myself in 2005. I must preface this by saying that a perfectly green lawn, perfectly manicured, is not my #1 priority in life. I like dandelions. I went out after lunch, ran the mower around once, left the clipping where they fell, used the string trimmer briefly around the edges, and moved on with my day.

In contrast, one of my neighbors spent most of the afternoon on his lawn. He mowed, catching the clippings and carefully bagging them for the trash. Then lowered the blades on his mower and mowed again, perpendicular to the first mower tracks, again bagging all the clippings. This was not just because it is early in the season and the grass was overly long. He does this double mowing every time he mows, every weekend. Then he got out the string trimmer and did the edges. Then he got out the edger and dug in along the pavement of the driveway and curb. Then he proceeded to get out the fertilizer spreader and fertilize his scalped, clipping-less lawn. Then he set up the sprinklers and watered for two hours. Then he got out his weed sprayer backpack tank, and went around scrutinizing the grass for interlopers like dandelions and crabgrass. Then he was done.

I guess it's his hobby. Me, I prefer a lawn cut high so it retains moisture, and leave the clippings so they return their nutrients to the soil. I don't fertilize or water, and by midsummer my lawn has gone dormant. Yes, it's somewhat brown, but I don't have to mow as often and my water bill is lower. It greens up again in the fall. I also feel very happy as I push my quietly whirring mower around the yard, not adding to the grass-cutting drone of the neighborhood (except for my five minutes with the string trimmer). If I had a larger yard, perhaps I would dream of a riding mower, but my feeling is that any yard small enough to mow with a walk-behind gas mower is fine with a reel mower.

We both happened to be out mowing (well, I was mowing, he was doing everything described above) a couple weeks ago, on the day after Earth Day. He waved and hollered over to me "Happy Earth Day!" I smiled and nodded back. And kept pushing my little mower.

And that's all I have to say about that.