Spring is...where?

Officially, it's spring.  Temperature wise, I think Ol' Man Winter's dragging his heels making way for Spring.

With milder temps, I love hanging clothes out on the line.  Not only does it cut down drastically on energy usage, but my energy bills go way down.  So...I carry out my first basket of clothes fresh from my cold water wash.  It's a little breezy, but not too bad.  My youngest daughter, however, has a habit of pulling off her clothes and leaving them inside out, and I have a hard time hanging them that way.  So, I turn them rightside out.  And before I finish hanging one load, my fingers are throbbing and stiff from the cold, making it a little tricky to use the clothespins.  After a brief defrost inside the house, I went out to finish, learning from my lesson, and determining with the next load to turn the clothes rightside out while still INSIDE the house...or grit my teeth and hang them inside out.

The good news is, that little breeze picked up a bit more, so as cool as it is outside (9 degrees celsius, about 48 fahrenheit--but they don't mention the wind chill!) they should be pretty dry by the time I pull them in.

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OKAY.  Left this partway through to hang my last load.  Two loads on the line, I was almost in my door, and heard a strange noise behind me.  Wondering what our little Westie had gotten into, I turned around, then almost laughed.  But I thought I would save the laughing till later, in case I wouldn't be able to stop myself.  There, no longer upright and proud but flat on the ground, was my clothesline.  With the clothes.  (Two loads, did I mention?)
I opened the door, called out to hubby that he just *had* to see this, he came to check out what I meant...and thankfully, he didn't laugh, but was kind of sympathetic.
The bright side:  (yes, there IS one) we've been putting off getting a new clothesline because it would be a pain in the keister to dig up a deep block of cement so chose instead to use this one as long as we could.  Turns out the previous homeowner was not exactly a great DIY'er, and instead of digging a deep hole, chose to dig one about 4-5" deep, lay some gravel, then a few INCHES of cement.  What with the weight of the clothes, the wind, and the excessive sogginess that comes with spring, that bit of cement pulled away from the earth.
Now, like a slightly better DIY'er, I did some research on clotheslines, now that we no longer have to worry about digging up a 2-3 foot deep block.  The smart thing to do, when living in areas that freeze, is to dig the hole below the frostline (they recommend about 3 feet), and to make the bottom of the hole slightly wider than the top.  Well, obviously this past hole was not dug even close to the frostline, and was bowl shaped, with the narrow part of the bowl at the bottom.

What did I do?  I DID laugh.  That's me.  Out in the windy cold (they don't give the wind chill when temps are above zero...figures), hanging cold wet clothes till my fingers hurt almost as bad as the headache part of a migraine, with a chest cold to boot...and all for nothing.
Well, at least the hydro company will be happy a little longer now that I have to continue to use my dryer.