Our Washer

This is our washing machine. Thought I would post pictures since I was telling my family about it before.
The water runs in from the green striped hose and turns on with the red knob.
The first dial is to set the washing time in minutes and the second on is to let the water out of the washer. The third is for the spinning time.
Washing process:
1. Fill big part with water, clothes and detergent and wash desired time.
2. Take out and put in spinning drum, clothes lid and spin the water out.
3. Take out and put in a tub. (You can see the wet clothes in Josiah´s bath tub on the floor.)
4. Fill with clean water and fabric softener (I usually use it for jeans and towels at least since the line dry they can be a little rough and stiff and Randall does not like this). This is to rinse the clothes.
5. Put in the spinning drum and then hang up.
I sort the clothes by colors and do one white, one light and one dark load and one load of jeans each week. Josiah´s clothes I was usually a few every day or two since they often get wet. The load size is about 2 or 3 jeans or towels or maybe 10 other garments like shirts. I reuse the water unless the clothes had an extra dirty week. Example: In the first wash water I do whites and then lights and then let the water out. I do the same with the rinse water. The second wash water I do darks and then jeans and let it out and repeat with the rinse water. The water runs out a hose in the bottom into a hole (which most of the houses have just for this) in the cement floor.
There are very few regular American washers here but this works great for me because it is so easy just to fill it up to where you want and wash the clothes that just got dirty from a leaky diaper or a messy meal.
The one down to it is that you can´t just turn on the water, throw in the clothes and soap and forget about it for 30 minutes or more because the water will just keep running and you have to be forwarding it every 5 to 10 minutes to keep the process going. So I usually spend all morning washing clothes and in the in-between minutes I clean up the kitchen, make the bed, cook breakfast, feed baby, push Josiah in his swing, sweep, etc. that way I am just not standing there. You can see Josiah´s red swing at the front of the clotes line. It is right besiede the washer and just under the roof, perfect for mommy baby time! I can also take it and hang it in the kitchen doorway. The only problem is that after just a little time in the swing he wants to get down and go exploring by walking (holding on to stuff or crawling) and his favorite play in the dirt from the potted plantes.