Bunnies and Clotheslines

I’ve never been good with laundry. Somehow I end up shrinking my favorite blouses and pulling pants from the dryer only to discover blotches of contrasting dye from a shirt that wasn’t ready to be washed with other colors.

At those moments, I am especially glad that I shop at Goodwill. Even though the shrunken blouse might have been a favorite, it is somewhat comforting to know that I’m only out about three bucks.

After suffering several such incidents (shrinking and blotching) in the past two weeks, I’ve been growing more and more anxious about getting a clothesline up. If I wash the clothes in cold and hang them on the line, they’re fine. No shrinking, and far less chance of colors bleeding.

A few weeks ago I’d tried to put up the old rope, but it snapped and all the clothes fell to the ground. I had to wash them again. Sigh.

The rope was too weak–probably it was out in winter weather and was used for some stretchy creative application by the young people in my family.

The past few weeks, life was so full of soccer and landscaping projects that I couldn’t even slip out and get a clothesline rope. I tried to pick one up when I was out and about, but they were sold out at Target and Wal-mart. I had to make a special trip to Menards. Thankfully, they had exactly what I wanted.

When I was off shopping at Menards, the oldest girl and a neighbor friend discovered that the dog had unearthed a nest of baby bunnies and seriously injured one. In fact, they discovered it because he had one in his mouth that squeaked. Our eldest heard it and called out, “Drop it!” The dog, the sweet spat-upon dog who was only being a dog, obeyed immediately. He dropped the bunny and the two girls rushed over to scoop it up.

The dog was sent to his crate inside, away from the bunny rescue mission. One bunny was a goner, but the one that the dog dropped seemed okay. Two more were untouched, huddled in the hole.

The girls crossed over into the neighbor’s yard and dug a hole for the remaining bunnies and made a soft bed for the one who had been most seriously hurt.

All of this happened while I was out. I got that whole story via cell phone while I was at Menards. I came home to get that line up, letting the dog out of the crate to roam the back yard again. As I started to hang my prized clothesline, I heard a panicked squeak come from, well, the dog’s jaws.”Drop it!”

He dropped it.

A bonus bunny that the girls missed.

A bonus, slightly injured, bunny.

So I set down my clothesline and scooped up the bunny in a little rag after sending the dog to the crate again, and ran it over to the nature-loving neighbors who are happy to rescue critters of all shapes and sizes (they even raise caterpillars from eggs to butterfly). We cleaned up the injured guy and put him with his siblings in the manmade hole.

The neighbors and I ended up talking for a long time about more than just bunnies. They offered me a snack, which I accepted. We talked more. The sun set. I walked home in the dark.Obviously, I didn’t bother with the clothesline that day.

The bunnies, by the way, made it through the night. Here’s a shot from today (Sunday afternoon):

 

We hope that the mama found them and is feeding them.

I finally got the clothesline up.

See the sheets wafting in the breeze? Isn’t that nice? The previously load was whites. The pure white sheets would have made a pretty picture for the blog, but I didn’t think of it before I folded that load and clipped up these colored items.

Technically, I’m not supposed to have any permanent clothesline installed, so I tie it to the end of the kids playset and weave it around the big tree.

Everything smells so fresh and hardly needs ironing.

I love it.

Clean clothes and bunnies. The simple life.