Only after the straight-talking repairman handed me the bill and waved goodbye did I finally acknowledge the painful truth: Our 20-year-old clothes dryer was not going to last. I turned to my husband. "He says we're throwing good money after bad," I sighed. "I think he's right." "When do you want to go shopping for a new one?" my husband asked. I glanced out the window, admiring the sunlight dancing on the big-leaf maples  in our backyard. Perfect drying weather. Suddenly, I recalled my mother hanging laundry on a clothesline during my childhood. My sister and I had played hide-and-seek among the sweet-smelling sheets waving in the wind. I suddenly had a plan. After the wash cycle, we covered the maples with damp blue jeans, shirts, socks and towels. The only things that didn't go outside were my underpants. And I persuaded my shameless husband to let his big boxer shorts  stay indoors, too. There is a secret pleasure to hanging laundry outdoors. It is the perfect excuse to get up from the computer. While checking on the laundry in the backyard, I could commune  not only with cotton T-shirts, but also my cats. I could watch cautious deer run through the yard with their young, listen to nervous squirrels in trees and observe a family of wild turkeys by the road. I returned to my desk refreshed. And, except for the sandpaper feel of sun-dried bath towels, the drying method was a complete success. When autumn came, I'd scan the horizon each day to evaluate the chances of sun-drying. One morning I saw rain clouds. I had a load of wet clothes in my arms and no place to put them. I found my husband. Together we hung laundry throughout the house. Then my husband gave me a hug and a smile. "I think it's time to buy a dryer..." he said, "... like, today." "Good idea," I said, just as the infamous Oregon rain started. Our sun-dried laundry habit was finished for the season. What was the biggest benefit that sun-drying brought to the author besides dry clothes?
She loves sun-dried bath towels. She felt healthier and closer to nature. She could bathe in the sunshine, too. It gave her a break from her housework.