Dry-er?

Oil rig in the distance

Last Saturday Josh and I went on an adventure.  The reason for our quest was to retrieve a free dryer from Tracey's neighbors Betty Lou and Milton (by neighbors I mean, people who live about four miles from Tracey's house and by Betty Lou and Milton I mean in their 70's, at least).  The details Tracey gave me on the dry sitch were:  the dryer is "isn't too old" and works great; she'll lead the way to Betty Lou and Milton's because it isn't easy to get there; and we have to take four wheel drive vehicles to get the house because the driveway is steep and zig-zaggy.  Well, ok, let's go!

Don't talk to strange horses Tracey!

Josh had a good idea of where we were headed and as we turned off HWY 200 and down a side road to meet Tracey and her son Austin.  As we came around a bend I asked "are those horses just standing in the road?"  Yes, yes they were.  All of us stopped at a house just beyond the horses to borrow a dolly.  We were promptly invited into the house for soup, something to drink and to please sit down.  We managed to graciously skip all of those invitations and just chatted in the doorway for about fifteen minutes with Dorothy and her husband.  Topics of discussion: weather/it isn't snowing today, calving, and sheriff's deputies pulling over locals.

You have a lovely winter coat sir.

We got back on the road, drove under Betty Lou and Milton's ranch sign with the lazy J brand and did some zig-zagging down a hill.  I didn't think it was so bad until we got to the actual zig-zag part of the driveway.  Josh put the truck into four wheel drive as we almost got stuck and I tried to take pictures of the ravine and quirky signs ("don't worry, be happy" with a bee) while be bumped down the driveway.  I hear Milton has put his truck into the ravine more than once... yikes. 

This isn't steep?

Betty Lou met us and very quickly invited Tracey and I inside for coffee while dismissing the boys to the basement where Milton was waiting for them to do the dirty work.  She ushered us into the house which happens to be the original homestead on the property (with some renovations... that were likely completed no later than 1965).  I was like a kid in a candy shop taking in the antiques and western decor (I wanted to take pictures but thought it would be rude).  Betty Lou put coffee on and pulled out a plate of cookies and fruit cake.  I heard the boys coming up from the basement and I snuck a peak at the dryer... it appeared to be from sometime around 1976.  Eeesh, at first I wanted to tell them to take it back into the basement but I thought better of it and decided to keep an open mind.  The boys joined us in the kitchen for a visit, cookies and coffee.  Topics of discussion: weather again, the house (Milton says, "it's so quiet in here.  We never hear anything outside... and we're deaf."), and something about the dryer's power cord. 

"The older we get the better we was"

Watch out for crumbing cliff edges!

By the time we got into the truck I figured Josh was going to have another stroke about not getting in and out as quickly as possible but he was alright.  He said it's what people do around here... the whole BSing with the neighbors bit.  It's what you do to fit in with the locals. Huh, ok, sounds good and I had fun.

He's not a plumber.

On Sunday the dryer made it to our little townhouse on the prairie.  It needed some electrical work before we could use it... Milton's "custom work" with the wiring had to be altered.  Josh tinkered away all morning (he also bleached it, then bleached it a couple more times... dirty,dirty, dirty dryer).  Eventually he had to call Stoos for some electrical assistance.  Let's just say all of the electrical work has been coated in layer upon layer of electrical tape.  And neither of us has been electrocuted... yet. 

Later in the day we got the beast into the house and plugged in.  Josh pushed the start button.  She worked!  I opened the door, started waving the lint out of my face and exclaimed, "GOOD LORD IT SMELLS LIKE FIRE."  More tinkering and cleaning of the obscene amounts of lint lead us to believe the burnt smell was dirt built up on the heating coils. 

Don't get zapped!

Josh did a bit more work during the week after getting the hose thing for the vent and found the seal on the door is terrible and allows large amounts of air to blow out around the door.  He cleaned more lint out of the seal and decided it'll be a great dryer for getting things partially dry.  Oh, and not having crunchy towels anymore. 

I have a load in there right now.  The buzzer just went off for about a minute alerting me to the done-ness of my laundry.  Really, it buzzes for about a minute.  It's comical.  I laughed.  I opened the door and was greeted by a face full of floating lint.  How lovely.  It's stuck in my chapstick.  Ew.  And in twenty minutes my stuff is mostly dry on the low setting.  Oooo and I love the wool dryer balls Nancy gave me for Christmas, they're making everything soft and fluffy. 

Lesson learned:  free dryers might work but should be inspected long before they are accepted.