Households and the Mother of Invention: Part 3

Gaps in the Week-in-Klamath-Falls Migration Planning don't always mean Household splurges.  Sometimes it just means I have to get a little more clever in my inventive thinking.

For instance, rice is part of tonight's dinner, but I've overlooked packing a sauce pan and lid.  The only thing I have on hand which is along the lines of what I need is a cast iron skillet and foil (by the way, foil?  Excellent, excellent invention.  One of the best inventions ever.).  I'm not about to go out and waste a precious household splurge on a rice cooker, so here is the result - which by the way, worked very well:

  

 

Perfect rice.  Some of the best I've ever made.

Not quite a gap in the planning, but a hole, for sure, is laundry.

While we do have access to a coin operated washer and dryer, I rarely remember the quarters needed to run them.  I suppose I do  keep the apartment's laundry area in the back of my mind for catastrophes – which are not unlikely given we are still in the final throes of potty training – but for several little things dirtied, meet my K Falls no-coins-necessary clothes washer: 

The Listerine did manage to sneak in a cameo, but is not a part of the process.  ...Although things would smell mintily germ-free.

Hot, hot water and soap.  Swish swish swish.

 

More hot water.  Rinse rinse rinse.  No fabric softener though - haven't gotten that clever.

As for the dryer, I use an old technique my mother taught me for delicates that require air drying.  After rinsing the articles, I wring them, lay them flat on a towel, roll the towel up – sandwich wrap style – and then proceed to step on it.  Step, step, step, STOMP STOMP STOMP.

 

 

Please ignore the unpainted toenails and the house pants.  Yoga pants and a pedicure - that's all I ask.

Then the little things are hung with care in the spots of the house most likely to assist with their drying.  

Yeah, I wonder about the neighbors.  But they wonder about me, too.

In this colder, wetter season, prime drying real estate is on the drapery rods, directly beneath the heating vents.  The example above is the living room picture window.  When not being used as a dryer, it gives us nice little views like this one:

  There are a family of pheasants that live in this little cove of trees.  We've been able to watch them quite a few times.  They don't say much to us; I secretly wonder if they frown on my clothes line in the front window.