Solar Clothes Dryer

Spring is here..it's time to take that laundry outside to dry.  Hardcore energy conservationists probably dry their clothes outside in the winter too, but I'm a bit too wimpy for that.  In the winter I dry my clothes on drying racks inside.  But now that it's warm and sunny I'm using my NEW breezecatcher drying rack.  I just purchased and installed it several weeks ago and I LOVE IT.  Jeremy says "you're getting old when your excitement for the week is hanging your laundry up to dry".  But seriously...going outside on a sunny day in April, watching and listening to the robins, seeing my solar panels pumping free hot water into my house, and using my new clothes dryer is a great experience.  I highly recommend it.  

15 minutes

In the past six weeks we have hosted a number of reporters for interviews and tours for newspaper articles on our house.  We've had 5 articles written, including one today in the Waterbury Republican American, that had some of the best pictures so far.  There was a great art shot of our urinal, of all things, a Kohler waterless urinal.  And in the print version they printed several color pictures of Nola on the stairs and playing on the concrete floor.  Jeremy says cute kids sell papers.   It's been fun to see all our hard work be recognized and to be able to tell about our experience building the house.  The PR blitz is in preparation for the Solar Home Tour sponsored by PACE for our home on this Saturday, April 10, from 12 - 4.   So far 76 tickets have sold and PACE expects a flurry of last minute purchases, a real "hit" in the eyes of the organization.  Jeremy and I are going to be busy for those four hours... however, we will have a number of our venders here to help us answer questions about the house.

The other exciting development is that I finally met with a landscape architect that specializes in native plants.  Lisa Turoczi, from Earthtones Nursery, came up with some great suggestions for our "blank canvass" around the house and for some areas down by our brook.  I'm looking forward to getting some plants in the ground around the house and get the birds and other critters back.  I'm not getting anything to my bird feeder because there is no other habitat to attract them. 

Next post will be an update on our solar hot water system (Spring version) and photos of my new solar clothes dryer.