366 days of gratitude

A group of USA farmers on tour called on us.

They had lots of questions about farming matters and one had a domestic query.

“Do you have a clothesline?” he said.

I replied in the affirmative and asked if he had wet clothes he wanted to dry.

He said no, but wondered if I had a clothes dryer too.

Again I replied in the affirmative and he responded by saying he’d noticed dryers and lines at all the homes he’d visited and wondered why we needed both.

I said the dryer was used in wet weather or when we needed something dry in a hurry and the line was used the rest of the time.

“Why not just use the dryer?” he asked.

I said there was both economic and environmental rationale  for using the line more than the dryer.

A Presbyterian upbringing taught me not to use power when there was an alternative and the line was also the small g greener option.

But apart from that, line-dried clothes smell better.

Today I’m grateful for the scent of freshly washed, line-dried bed linen that smells of sunshine.

 

For stubborn lids

J Bloggs has been offering suggestions in the Friday’s answers post for tools to open jars with stubborn lids, neither of which are like the one I have.

I don’t know how to get a photo in a comment so here’s what I mean:

When you squeeze the bottom arm it allows you to adjust the size of the grip.

For someone who has everything . . .

A tubemaster from Brix.

It’s a simple idea and it works, not just to get the most out of a tube but also to save arguments about who squeezes it how.

It does not, however, solve the problem of people not putting the lid back on.

That will have to wait for another clever invention.

A pricey cut

On Sunday evening I stabbed myself with a carving knife.

I was taking a metal ring off a wine bottle at the time, the knife slipped and went into the gap between my thumb and forefinger. *

It bled a lot but I didn’t think it needed a stitch.

However, I couldn’t remember the last time I had a tetanus injection so phoned my doctor’s surgery next morning for an appointment.

The nurse, agreed the wound didn’t need a stitch but I did need a tetanus injection – the last one I’d had was in 1996.

She gave me the option of a double vaccine against tetanus and diphtheria or the triple vaccine one which also protected against whooping cough.

I opted for that – and a bill of $65 for the vaccine plus $30 for the consultation.

That made it a pricey cut but the protection will be worth the cost.

* This wasn’t an alcohol related accident. I hadn’t drunk any of the wine.

We’d bought it when in Argentina at least five years ago because we liked the painted bottle.

Our hosts warned us the wine wasn’t very good. When I came across it in the process of decluttering its colour indicated it hadn’t improved with age so I opened it and tipped the contents down the sink.

The smell as I did so confirmed that it wasn’t a good wine but the bottle will serve well for holding water to accompany meals.

If there’s a good time to lose power . . .

. . .it’s not when there’s three builders, a plumber, electrician and floor layer who all require it.

And when you have a bath full of sheets and pillow cases to be washed because there’s been mice in the linen cupboard.

And when you’re in the middle of baking for the Rotary auction tonight.

And when you have a media release to write which requires files on your computer.

Things I’ve learned #1

Sun bleaches scorch marks out of carpet.

In a fit of domestic rearrangement the mat which had been in front of the fire found a new home beside a French door. It’s basked there in sunlight all summer and the scorch marks have faded away.

P.S.
I wasn’t responsible for the scorching nor even at home when it happened but I have grounds to suspect impatience during fire lighting and a bottle of maths meths were involved.

Plus ça change

A new study shows young people don’t become less of a burden on their parents domestically as they get older:

. . . The study from the University of NSW shows young adults are riding the gravy train at their parents’ homes and relying heavily on their mothers to do the housework.

Associate Professor Lyn Craig and Dr Abigail Powell used data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to compare the domestic work done by 5512 people aged between 15 and 34 living at home with that of their parents.

It found 97 per cent of mothers did daily housework, compared with 81 per cent of fathers.

Young women, at 74 per cent, contributed far more than young males, with only 54 per cent of them helping out with household chores.

Young men did seem to start pulling a bit more of their weight once they turned 25.  . .

Plus ça change . . .

Although one difference with this generation of young people is that they are staying at home longer.

But the story doesn’t say whether the parents are working outside the home when doing the domestic work for an adult family would be far more demanding than if they weren’t.

Nor does it say whether the parents are willingly looking after their offspring while they study and get established in their careers or if they feel imposed upon.

However, for their own sakes and that of their offspring and the people they might live with in the future, parents have a responsibility to ensure their children are house trained.

The younger that starts the easier it is for everyone.