Living Car Free - Illegal Energy Efficient Technology....

You just can't argue with progress. Nursing in public, cats running loose, your drawers hanging in plain view... what kind of society would that be? :)
Its ok for the teenage boys to have their jeans down around their thighs exposing their drawers, but not on the clothesline?

They arrested a woman for nursing on the bus in the suburb where I went to high school. This is another illegal energy efficient technology where I find it incomprehensible that someone would even think to make it illegal, not to mention that the city council would seriously discuss it or pass the law or that a cop would think to enforce it.

Iused a clothesline, even (not sure why...) in winter. Very cold winter air can often be very dry. It is the dry that drys clothes fast more than the temp.

Newfoundland and Ontario might be in the same country but they are two completely different places. Head west, and you'll discover that the Canadian prairies is another completely different place with a different culture from either Newfoundland or Ontario. Head further west, and you'll discover that BC is different again. Head back east and you'll find that Quebec is so different from everyone else that they keep talking about separating.

Canada is a huge country filled with a lot of variety. Canada is not a mixing bowl like the US ... it's more like a salad ... lots of unique ingredients, which remain unique, and each adds a delicious element to the salad.

I have lived in half of the Canadian provinces/territories and spent time in all, as I've lived on both coasts of the USA. So let me dispel the mixing bowl myth in the USA. Florida alone is two entirely different cultures, New England is a different culture, New York, the Deep South, the Bible Belt, California, the NW. In fact many of the cultural differences within the USA are identical to the cultural differences within Canada. Cultural patterns are the result of the immigrant mixes and geographical imperatives. In the Maritimes, the cultural mix involves Roman Catholic religion, a immigrant base from 17th century France (Acadians) and 18th century English speaking Europe, and a relatively small percentage of recent immigrants. Western Canada's mix is much more recent and diverse.

And the most similar cultural rift in the USA and Canada, our middle class' obsession with keeping up with the Jones, clotheslines look "unaesthetic" in well to-to suburbs and gentrified urban neighborhoods. Canada has adopted the USA's meritocracy outlook on citizenship. Lawns may not be crossed by neighborhood children, and yards may not contain anything utilitarian in view, it's all about middle class aesthetics, and the obsession with "moving up" in society, and keeping the lower classes, our own personal histories, out of sight, like a fat person having shed pounds who refuses to look at any older pictures of themselves. The grand illusion that people "move up" because they "deserve" to move up, they have worked hard to "move up", compared to these "lazy asses" next door who refuse to work hard enough to buy a dryer, HOW DARE THEY! In this regard, Canada and the USA are identical.

very cold winter air can often be very dry. It is the dry that drys clothes fast more than the temp.

+1

Very cold winter air can often be very dry. It is the dry that drys clothes fast more than the temp.

Yup, which is why I dry my clothes indoors on a rack in the winter to help keep the humidity levels up.:thumb:

Aaron:)

Yup, which is why I dry my clothes indoors on a rack in the winter to help keep the humidity levels up.:thumb:

Aaron:)

That makes me think... up in Whitehorse, where Winter moisture sometimes drops to 5%, people are still obsessed with dehumidifying their homes. Houses up hear are cracking from dryness, yet every modern house has a humidity control next to the thermostat. I remember in the old days, we had bottles of water on all the electric heaters. Some days I wonder it it's a heating scam for people to send their heated air outside and up their energy consumption. NO, I realise there are condensation issues that people are trying to get away from, but condensation never worried us in the past, during my childhood, our windows were always wet!

And the most similar cultural rift in the USA and Canada, our middle class' obsession with keeping up with the Jones, clotheslines look "unaesthetic" in well to-to suburbs and gentrified urban neighborhoods. Canada has adopted the USA's meritocracy outlook on citizenship. Lawns may not be crossed by neighborhood children, and yards may not contain anything utilitarian in view, it's all about middle class aesthetics, and the obsession with "moving up" in society, and keeping the lower classes, our own personal histories, out of sight, like a fat person having shed pounds who refuses to look at any older pictures of themselves. The grand illusion that people "move up" because they "deserve" to move up, they have worked hard to "move up", compared to these "lazy asses" next door who refuse to work hard enough to buy a dryer, HOW DARE THEY! In this regard, Canada and the USA are identical.

You know I didn't make the connection but a friend's homeowner's association got all uppity about my bike being parked out front. Apparently the rule in the HOA is that bicycles must be parked out of sight around back or in the house. Like you say nothing utilitarian can be in view. I helped the family plant vegetables out front..... the strategy in dealing with the HOA is that the Okra isn't a vegetable but a decorative flower- a hibiscus (Hibiscus esculentus). They got away with the snap peas climbing up the bowxoods but the Okra is out there in front of god and everybody.

You know I didn't make the connection but a friend's homeowner's association got all uppity about my bike being parked out front. Apparently the rule in the HOA is that bicycles must be parked out of sight around back or in the house. Like you say nothing utilitarian can be in view. I helped the family plant vegetables out front..... the strategy in dealing with the HOA is that the Okra isn't a vegetable but a decorative flower- a hibiscus (Hibiscus esculentus). They got away with the snap peas climbing up the bowxoods but the Okra is out there in front of god and everybody.

To me a bike parked out front is a pretty ornament--even prettier than an okra. :)

In my house we have over-door hooks (six hooks on each item) that we hang clothes on hangers from. There are two sets on the folding washer/dryer nook doors, and then there are some on doors throughout the house. You can overlap the clothes in the summertime, but should probably move them around every so often if there are a lot of layers. If I need to dry a sweater, I hang it upside-down from the bottom of a hanger. So I use 2-3 clothespins to hold the bottom hem to the hanger. Then they don't stretch out or get lumpy shoulders or whatever.

Some may try to use the liability angle, but, that's BS. It is a simple case of uppity arseholes equating clotheslines to poor people. These same fools will drive around in their priuses thinking they are "green".

Canada is not a mixing bowl like the US ... it's more like a salad ... lots of unique ingredients, which remain unique, and each adds a delicious element to the salad.

I like this post... A salad! It certainly won't become the national symbol, but it's very appropriate :)

All this belly achin! No need to wash & dry; just but new ones. Quit acting like you live in the 3rd world and get yourself a gas guzzlin Yukon and start littering up the place like a proud American!

Oh, PS: I think it's weird that people freak out about clotheslines when they are such a symbol of idyllic American Heartland life. All of the dryer-sheet commercials show women hanging clothes in a field, with flowers flying through the sky, and there's probably ice-cold lemonade. It's supposed to be like the good old days.

Oh, PS: I think it's weird that people freak out about clotheslines when they are such a symbol of idyllic American Heartland life. All of the dryer-sheet commercials show women hanging clothes in a field, with flowers flying through the sky, and there's probably ice-cold lemonade. It's supposed to be like the good old days.

The whole debate exposes a schism in our world views. Some people see it as a property rights issue:

" Opponents of line drying decry the aesthetic impact of clotheslines and suggest that clotheslines can hurt property values. "

from:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2009/06/clotheslines-right-to-dry-movement-project-laundry-list-linda-lingle-hawaii-dryers.html

A sun dried towel, rocks it. Bring back the clothes line, I put one in this year..they were illegal previously... I can't remember the reasoning for the life of me. BUT thankfully the environmental awareness of late has enabled this no clothesline silliness to be reviewed and stuck down in many places.

I do my part to make the planet greener by using as much electricity as possible. I use a 100% wind power company (we have a choice in TX). The more I can spur demand, the more wind turbines that get created :D

I know that Florida has a state law confirming your right to have a clothesline. Seems the HOAs there are a pain.

Ontario did too. It apparently overrides municipal bylaws and purchase agreements in freehold developments but I don't know whether it affects the bylaws of condo corporations.

I remember moving from Newfoundland to the Ottawa in the 1980s. In Newfoundland, virtually everyone had and used a clothesline, even (not sure why...) in winter. In Ottawa, I discovered some neighbourhoods where it was illegal to hang clothes to dry. I could never figure it out. I'm pretty sure it isn't that way today, but it was a complete culture shock to know that both Newfoundland and Ontario were in the same country.

There's even a big difference between "sophisticated" cities like Ottawa and rural Ontario too. We did all sorts of things in rural Ontario that would have had us condemned as hicks in the eyes of our more "enlightened" fellow citizens. I recall an urbanized friend of mine discussing the merits of a new green technology: composting. He was rather put out when I told him that as kids we fought over who had to drag the peelings out to the pile and my grandparents had compost heaps never mind the little eye pleasing plastic composters.

^^True true^^ Behind the house close to the veggie garden.

I have lived in half of the Canadian provinces/territories and spent time in all, as I've lived on both coasts of the USA. So let me dispel the mixing bowl myth in the USA. Florida alone is two entirely different cultures, New England is a different culture, New York, the Deep South, the Bible Belt, California, the NW. In fact many of the cultural differences within the USA are identical to the cultural differences within Canada. Cultural patterns are the result of the immigrant mixes and geographical imperatives. In the Maritimes, the cultural mix involves Roman Catholic religion, a immigrant base from 17th century France (Acadians) and 18th century English speaking Europe, and a relatively small percentage of recent immigrants. Western Canada's mix is much more recent and diverse.

And the most similar cultural rift in the USA and Canada, our middle class' obsession with keeping up with the Jones, clotheslines look "unaesthetic" in well to-to suburbs and gentrified urban neighborhoods. Canada has adopted the USA's meritocracy outlook on citizenship. Lawns may not be crossed by neighborhood children, and yards may not contain anything utilitarian in view, it's all about middle class aesthetics, and the obsession with "moving up" in society, and keeping the lower classes, our own personal histories, out of sight, like a fat person having shed pounds who refuses to look at any older pictures of themselves. The grand illusion that people "move up" because they "deserve" to move up, they have worked hard to "move up", compared to these "lazy asses" next door who refuse to work hard enough to buy a dryer, HOW DARE THEY! In this regard, Canada and the USA are identical.

Good post.

I recall an urbanized friend of mine discussing the merits of a new green technology: composting. He was rather put out when I told him that as kids we fought over who had to drag the peelings out to the pile and my grandparents had compost heaps never mind the little eye pleasing plastic composters.
I've been composting in an urban area since at least 1986, so I don't see how your friend can claim it's a new technology. Previous to that I had a compost pile in a rural area. I believe my grandfather practiced a form of composting too... although he didn't have a plastic barrel.

It's good to remind these folks that the "new" techniques we read about today are really recycled technologies.

I've been composting in an urban area since at least 1986, so I don't see how your friend can claim it's a new technology. Previous to that I had a compost pile in a rural area. I believe my grandfather practiced a form of composting too... although he didn't have a plastic barrel.

It's good to remind these folks that the "new" techniques we read about today are really recycled technologies.

+1

People have been composting for decades. My grandmother has been doing it since she was a girl, and her mother was doing it before that.

However it did become "all the rage" in the 1980s (possibly even the 1970s) and the equipment used to do so became more sophisticated than just the old scraps bucket.

We had compost piles on my grandparents' dairy farm...some of them dating back to the 1950's:twitchy: Around 1970 my grandfather figured out he could run piping in the larger manure piles and use the hot water for heating.:thumb: A man well ahead of his time.

Aaron:)

People have been composting since we've had agriculture, haven't we? And if you didn't compost the food, then you ran it through a pig first :)

The last two photos in this set are of our new clothes drying system. With signs of spring in the air, and not as much need to use the fireplace, Rowan installed a long clothes line along the edge of our verandah. It works well ... better than the indoor system we had.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14302884@N04/sets/72157619719051119/detail/?page=8

The last two photos in this set are of our new clothes drying system. With signs of spring in the air, and not as much need to use the fireplace, Rowan installed a long clothes line along the edge of our verandah. It works well ... better than the indoor system we had.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14302884@N04/sets/72157619719051119/detail/?page=8


Besides the clothes drying system, it's wonderful to see that new calves have been born, and touches of new green life are covering up the ashes of the wildfire. You and Rowan must have a great sense of hope this spring. :)

Besides the clothes drying system, it's wonderful to see that new calves have been born, and touches of new green life are covering up the ashes of the wildfire. You and Rowan must have a great sense of hope this spring. :)

The calves are almost the size of their moms now ... they were born last fall, April-ish, I think.

And the greenness is a product of the winter rains ... winters here are very green. There has been a reasonable amount of rain this winter.

However, the daffodils and cherry trees are blooming ... one of the first signs of spring here. Some of the non-native trees are starting to bud as well. And the temperature is a bit warmer than it was the last time I was here at the Love Shack ... almost 6 weeks ago ... before being admitted to the hospital for 2 weeks, and before our Tasmanian Tour.

I've dried my jeans, shirts, and sheets without using the electric dryer twice. It seems to be doing OK so I'll continue doing it. I still use the dryer for underwear and socks. I don't know how much money I'm saving.

There is a closet in my apartment for the washer and dryer. It has a plastic coated wire shelf. I put my shirts on hangers and hung them several inches apart on that shelf. To hasten the drying I aimed a fan at them. In the dry climate of the Montana summer the evaporating water becomes air conditioning. The air around the wet clothes is much colder than the surrounding air.

I just hang my jeans over door knobs and around my hat rack. They take about one day to dry.

This new experience of air drying my clothes indoors made me think about something. If I ever move to an apartment without a washer and dryer I could buy a clothes washer and connect it to a sink whenever I need to do a load. When the washing is finished the machine could be rolled away on a dolly and put in a corner somewhere. I could then use a clothes line or another large coat rack to dry the clothes. While living in a dormitory in college I really disliked having to haul my clothes to a laundromat and wait for them to all get done.

When I was a teenager I visited one of my friends houses and his mother had a portable dishwasher. She connected the faucet from the sink to the dishwasher and then took a hose from the dishwasher and put it into the sink to drain the water. When she was done she would just disconnect the machine and roll it to another part of the kitchen where it was used as additional counter space.

This new experience of air drying my clothes indoors made me think about something. If I ever move to an apartment without a washer and dryer I could buy a clothes washer and connect it to a sink whenever I need to do a load. When the washing is finished the machine could be rolled away on a dolly and put in a corner somewhere. I could then use a clothes line or another large coat rack to dry the clothes. While living in a dormitory in college I really disliked having to haul my clothes to a laundromat and wait for them to all get done.

When I was a teenager I visited one of my friends houses and his mother had a portable dishwasher. She connected the faucet from the sink to the dishwasher and then took a hose from the dishwasher and put it into the sink to drain the water. When she was done she would just disconnect the machine and roll it to another part of the kitchen where it was used as additional counter space.

Our wash machine is connected to a tap on the outside of our cabin, where a sink used to be (we brought the sink inside), and the drain tube just hangs there and either drains into another pipe and away, if we hook it up to that (and we usually do to drain away the wash water) ... or into a large bucket to be used for the next load (which is what happens to the rinse water). If we have collected enough rainwater in the large buckets, we don't bother filling the machine with water from the tap, we use the rainwater instead, and adjust the wash setting accordingly.

In this photo you can see how much water it takes to do half a load of wash ... the green bucket contains just the rinse water, not the wash water. But the rinse water will be used as wash water for the next load, thus saving water. You can't see it, but there is a tap behind the lumber which the machine is connected to.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3606/3645950405_52af3b24f9.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14302884@N04/3645950405/in/set-72157619719051119/

It took about 15 minutes of heavy rain to fill these buckets from the overspill off the eaves. That gave us enough for the wash water for one load, and part of another load. The other day, I filled both large green buckets and several other smaller ones with rainwater ... we had a lot of rain that day! I could have done the same yesterday but the buckets were all full. We obviously need more buckets!!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2525/3693432104_168440224b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14302884@N04/3693432104/in/set-72157619719051119/


So, your idea should work. You should be able to connect a washer to your kitchen sink tap, although you may have to make a few adjustments to do that depending on the washer. And if there is a way to collect rainwater, you can bypass the need to use tap water for some of your washing.


And yes, the fan idea is a good one to create that air conditioning effect. I used to do that when I lived in an apartment in Winnipeg ... "air conditioning" in the summer ... added humidity in the winter.

I've dried my jeans, shirts, and sheets without using the electric dryer... I don't know how much money I'm saving.
Clothes last a lot longer if they're not tumble dried. All that lint you find in a dryer is disintegrated fabric.

Tilley sells a line of fast drying "travel underwear" and socks. Their idea is that when you're travelling you can pack much less clothes if you can hand wash & hang dry in a hotel room. But it works just as well at home, that's how I use it. The Tilley stuff is expensive but since it isn't going through a tumble dryer it lasts a long time.

Clothes last a lot longer if they're not tumble dried. All that lint you find in a dryer is disintegrated fabric.

Tilley sells a line of fast drying "travel underwear" and socks. Their idea is that when you're travelling you can pack much less clothes if you can hand wash & hang dry in a hotel room. But it works just as well at home, that's how I use it. The Tilley stuff is expensive but since it isn't going through a tumble dryer it lasts a long time.

That's a good point and when you have very delicate fabrics, it is especially important to hang dry them.

BTW, is this the Tilley underwear? http://www.tilley.com/detail.asp?catId=&gender=&extractBy=CategoryId&id=3&productNo=TU28
At $32 a pair, you could get by with a 2-pack. Wonder how long they would last...

I didn't read the articles coz I hate reading dumb govt laws like that. But my guess is they dont like clothes lines coz people put their under wear on the line which some people find offensive. I heard smething like that in the UK but didn't really look into it.