Hanging around....

Though I really don't see a lot of people hanging out clothes these days, other than the Amish, most times if I see clothespins on a line, they are like the single one above...that one that is pinched on the clothesline....not the ones hanging upside down. Then, this morning I was blog hopping...actually looking at quilting blogs for a few minutes....just trying to get a little inspiration and one of the girls had a picture of clothespins on the line, and they were hanging upside down...like mine below.
I have just spent 30 minutes trying to find that blog again, and cannot for the life of me find where I seen it. But I had been meaning to do a post about clothespins for a while now, and being that Roger re-set my clotheslines posts this week, I thought now would be a good time to do it.

Anyway, there is a method to my madness....I always keep mine hanging upside down, their 'jaws' around the line for the simple reason they are easy to slide along as I need them. You know how sometimes you hang out socks and need one every 3 or 4 inches, then other times it is towels and you need one every couple of feet....if the clothespins are just hanging there like above, it is a simple matter to just slide them along in front of the towels. Or if you need a lot and they are more scattered....you can just walk along sliding them back to where you need them.

Now my mom, nor my BFF's mom never, ever left their clothespins on the line....I don't know why. I think because of how weathered they become...they wear out quicker. Back then, they did not have money just to throw away...they took care of what they had. A few cents here and a few cents there really adds up.

I went to plastic for outside because of the organic nature of wood...if I leave them out, they get really, really nasty. I think because of all the traffic, being that we are in a small town...it stirs up more dust that settles on the clothespins and they get just black and gritty. But even the plastic ones wear out quicker being in all the extreme temps....I will go to hang something up one side of the pin will simply break.

And notice the size of the clothespins above...I needed some new plastic ones, so one day Roger was headed to the store. I told him to pick me up a new bag of plastic clothespins...those huge ones are what he came home with! Our local Wal-mart does not carry the small ones any more. The big ones do not have as strong of a spring and are not as good. No matter how I pinch them over the clothes on the line...if it is windy, it seems like they slide together.

So, I was looking at Wal-mart at the wooden ones....all they had were the ones made in China. I have been that route before, and if things have not changed, they are not worth carrying home. They come apart at the spring at the least little thing. Several years ago, I either read it in Heloise's hints or heard Martha Stewart tell to make sure to get the ones Made In MAINE...mind you not the Main Stay brand that Walmart carries. So, that was what I done several years ago, and I am still using those down in the basement.

When we went over to Arthur, Illinois at the beginning of the week, we went to this Miller's Dry Goods that is out in the country...I found two packages of the wooden ones made in Maine and I grabbed them up too quick to talk about.

There now...isn't that the longest thing you have ever read on clothespins????

Just posting another picture of a barn...I need to make a web album just of barns. I also realize now that I need to take notes of where the barns are when I take their picture. I think this is another in Parke County, and even think I can find it. But I had to think a moment to remember where it is.

It was a beautiful day today...I should have been working in my yard but I was in the mood to sew a little so that is what I did while I did some laundry. When my husband got home, we put up new clotheslines...so now I can hang sheets, and towels outside when the weather is nice. There is just something so nice about going to bed on sheets that have hung in the sunshine.

I have also got to try to be prepared to get a picture of Mama Squirrel and Puss Puss, aka the princess. She comes up on our back porch to eat sunflower seeds and to have me feed her nuts. She realizes that Shelby, our dog will not hurt her. She will be sitting on one side of me and Shelby on the other and she is fine with that.

However, Puss Puss wants out so bad...if the inside door is open, she is always sitting looking out the storm door. Tonight, I fed Mama Squirrel before we put up the clotheslines. As we were working on that, I looked toward the house, and there was Mama Squirrel nose to nose with Puss Puss with only the glass separating them! I do not know if it was because Shelby was also there, or if she was actually just teasing the cat.

Then after I came in, I happened in the kitchen and there they were again, but she was gone before I could get my camera. I would like to know what goes through her mind...and I am wondering will she have babies again this spring. We are wanting to have this old maple tree cut down, or at least topped real good. So I am kind of wondering how she will react to that. We are really hoping it doesn't bother her...last fall she had her second litter across the street in a different tree.