OUTDOORS

I’m always looking for ways to save money, so recently we’ve begun hanging clothes on the line in the backyard, to see if that might reduce our the electric bill. This past month, the bill was $6 lower than last year at this time. Is that because we’re not using the dryer? Or might it have more to do with how much the air conditioner or heater might be running? I’m not sure, and I don’t know if there’s any way we ever really can be sure, but I have come to really enjoy hanging the laundry on the line. It always smells so fresh when you bring it in! The only thing we’re not drying on the line is the bed sheets. Towels are okay if they’re a little rough, it makes them more absorbent. And the clothes are fine. But we still want the sheets to feel soft and silky.

Another idea we recently came up with was to cut our own lawn, so we can save the $35 we used to pay for someone else to do it for us. Over the summer, the grass needs cutting at least twice a month, so that’s $70 a month for the next several months. We figure the lawnmower and edger/trimmer will pay for themselves the first summer. After that, it’s all money in the bank.

So we got the lawn equipment and have cut the lawn ourselves a couple of times now. Today was the first time we used the edging mode, and it came out quite nice! I’m glad that we decided to do this. Of course, we haven’t gotten to the heat of summer yet. It might not be so much fun then. But we’ll have our routine better figured out by that time. Today it took an hour and fifteen minutes to do the back and front lawn, and the sides of the house as well. I’m hoping we get so good at this we can eventually get it all done in one hour flat.

Now, one more thing. When we went to Lowe’s to get the lawn equipment, we could get it all on a line of credit with no interest for six months IF we charged at least $300. We didn’t quite get to $300 with the lawn equpment, and we saw a great deal on a backyard grill, so we decided to get one. We’ve been grilling a couple of times a week now. Tonight we had hamburgers and corn on the cob. Last week we did salmon. I’m looking forward to cooking some baked potatoes some time in the near future. AND a steak. Yum!

It’s nice to sit out on the porch and smell the food cooking. We have a very small backyard, but up till now we haven’t used it much at all. Now we’re hanging laundry, mowing grass, cooking dinner! Getting a lot of use out of our yard lately. It feels good.

Oh yes! And one more thing: the hummingbirds. I like looking for them as well. We’ve only had a few sightings so far, but I think we’ll see a lot more of them before the summer’s over.