FarmHer Dilemma #1

You know you’ve had a “good” week when you end up doing the laundry earlier than normal. I usually do laundry on Sunday. It’s our down day and we just do the minimum amount of work required so we usually don’t end of going through too many changes of clothes. This week by today, Friday, we were out of work pants as we’d each gone through several pairs each day. So I thought I would take a little look at really goes into farm laundry.

1. Manure, dirt, grease, cow bodily fluids other than manure, teat dip, manure……there is an endless array of “dirt” that ends up on barn clothing. Oh the horrors my washing machine has seen.

2. Because of those horrors we have designated barn clothes. Town clothes are never to see the light of the barn because………..

3. There is no hope for getting stains out of barn clothes, hence them being designated barn clothes!

4. All pockets are to be thoroughly frisked before anything enters the washing machine. Dirt is not the only horror the washing machine has seen: rubber gloves, syringes, machine parts and every imaginable piece of metal, ai straws, needle caps, strings, not to mention the endless pockets full of hay. Just heard of a friend putting a livestock marker through the wash, she said the washer was ok, the dryer is where all havoc broke loose! I’ve washed one of my boys’ crayons before I can only imagine a giant sticky version of that! Never forget the frisking of the pockets!!!

5. Don’t get caught up the laundry piles. Living on a farm really does generate a huge amount of laundry and at times can feel rather overwhelming. I’m just happy when at least we have clean clothes to wear to the barn.

And of course clean clothes are just an invitation for Farmher Dilemma #16. It’s amazing how quickly one can get dirty in this profession. I won’t even talk about the little farmers, that’s a whole other story!

Happy farm laundry to all my other farmers out there battling the same dilemma!!