Fire & Water

Fire and water.  That's what the 19th century is all about.

Water.

I tried washing my hair with this shampoo soap.

http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/product/shampoo-soap-jr-liggetts-bar-soap-91062.aspx

Yes, soap.  In a bar.  Then I cheated a bit and used modern conditioner.  It was still gross!  Hailey says my hair feels like the tail on a My Little Pony toy.  My hair looks like this:

It's supposed to look like this:

Fire & Water

Friday was Wash Day.  It's supposed to be Cleaning Day, but we were traveling on Monday, which threw off our week.  Did you know that there are certain jobs you are supposed to do each day?  Victorian women stuck to a pretty strict and widely understood work schedule:

Monday - Wash
Tuesday - Iron
Wednesday - Mend
Thursday - Churn or Market
Friday - Clean
Saturday - Bake
Sunday - Rest (Phew!)

I'm going to try to follow the proper schedule next week, and we have friends coming to help with the wash on Monday.  But that brings up a question: What did late 19th century women in the Pacific Northwest do when it rains on washday?!

After a filthy weekend shooting Yankees in Oregon, we couldn't wait until Monday to wash clothes, so we began our laundry yesterday.  Brennan hauled countless tubs of water and kept the stove at full blast all day long to heat them.

First, we boiled the whites.  That's what you're supposed to do, in lieu of bleach, and I think it must help, because although I didn't think the whites were that dirty, the water certainly was.

Then we scrubbed, rinsed and hung them on the (new) clothesline.

Sound easy?  It wasn't.  Although in comparison with the dark clothes, which we washed after these, it wasn't bad at all.  Do you know how heavy 5 yards of sopping wet calico can be?!  Actually, 7 yards, because before I finished, the whole front of my dress was soaked as well.

Fire.

Even though it was a very busy washday, the kids still managed to get some school work done, and we cooked up this wonderful lunch!  The girls made macaroni and cheese (not the boxed kind) and green beans from our garden.  We cooked the macaroni in our oven, which was so hot from all the washing that we had to keep the door open for part of the cooking.  I guess I needn't have worried about it not getting hot enough to bake in.

I know.  Macaroni and green beans isn't actually exciting.  You probably had a big leafy salad for lunch, or Vietnamese Bun, or maybe an intriguing sandwich.  Lucky you.  But after a morning of washing, I see why heavier meals seemed appealing, and we all were pretty excited about pulling it off!

Autumn