I Think He Killed Her!

Have you ever had something that you kept staring at and didn't know what to do with?

Meet Ms. Washer Machine

I realize a normal person would just love to have her and keep her as she is.  After all, she is definitely an antique.  However, she is a falling apart, heavier-than-a-freight-train-antique that just doesn't work well anywhere or with anything.  Sigh.  One of those things I could probably sell, but just can't part with.  She isn't completely authentic though, the wringer is not made by the same manufacturer as the washer.  She is, however, one of the many treasures that came with the place when we bought our little acreage.

She falls apart quite easily on a very regular basis.

The last time we put her back together, we thought it would be the LAST time we'd have to put her back together.  We were wrong.  So, I stared at her for a few more months and finally decided what I would do.

I decided to take all the metal off her, get rid of the lid and the agitator (looks like cow udders anyway) and be left with a nice open-top tub to put flowers in.  Alas, I was only able to remove 2 bolts.  The rest were rusted together, so I asked Glen to help.

As you can probably tell, my projects are always on the back burner.  It was late last night when I begged him to help me get the metal off.  He was game, but it took his grinder to get through those rusty old bolts.

I was getting pretty excited!  I was thinking about what I could do with that lovely, large wheel that used to hold the belt that ran the motor.

However...

Things really fell apart before all the metal was removed.

Not to fear, it won't take all the King's horses and all the King's men to put her back together again.  It is just going to take some time.  (Sheesh, I wish I could buy time!)  I would have loved to have been able to work on her today, but we were preoccupied with the perpetual clean-up from winter's wrath.

But at least we had a very good foreman for the job!

Both my boys and all their boys were here today helping us take care of the storm damaged trees.  Everyone worked very hard all day long and we sure did appreciate the help.  We still have a looooooooooong way to go to have everything cleaned up, so I have a feeling it will be quite some time before I will be able to return to Ms. Washer.