You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone

I'm sure that applies to much of life, but right now I'm specifically thinking "wash machine". How long should it take to wash 2 loads of laundry? Hmm, let me see, put the wash in, turn the knob to the right cycle and power on. 2 minutes max? How about 4.5 hours later, bleeding skinned knuckles, 72 mosquito bites, and aching shoulders and back? Okay, I really have nothing to complain about, people here do it all the time, but still, like I said, "You really don't know what you've got till it's gone."
Let me back up. About a month ago the wash machine started smoking, smelling like burned rubber and then blew off it's belt and came to a grinding halt. Jason spent a lot of time opening up the machine, replacing the belt, and then troubleshooting and researching why it still didn't work.

He finally decided it needed new bearings, but all though we've worked together for hours trying to get the old bearings out, they are stuck on tight and nothing we've tried or researched has been successful. With all the guests and teams that we will be housing in the next weeks, we've stepped up the pace to search for a new one here, but so far that's been pretty disappointing. For the cheapest, lowest-end model, $790 USD just seems too high. So while we brainstorm ideas, I scrub everything by hand.


Once each inch of clothing has been soaped and scrubbed, it then gets placed in rinse basin number one. Once it's gone through rinse number one, it goes into rinse basin number two, after that it's rung out, towels are especially fun for this, and then shaken out and hung up.



I have to admit though, this is really limiting the amount of clothes we put in the laundry basket. Once you realize how much time it takes to wash, you think twice before putting it in.