I spent a little time in the last entry talking about the seasoned technology that is the clothesline. In part, this was inspired by necessity in the form of a dead electric dryer.

And here's the thing - it wasn't alone in its ailments. Over the past couple of months we've experienced the dysfunction and then death of the dryer, an air conditioning system failure, and have needed the repair guy to come out to look at our washing machine. Add in the imminent demise of one of our floor fans ("I'm running, I'm oscillating, and... I'm not running, not running... oh yes! Running again!"), a furnace repair in late winter, and a dripping kitchen faucet and it can feel like the very universe is crumbling around us.

We've been out here at the Homestead for a little over eight years and, I suppose, some of these items are reaching the stage of their planned obsolescence... err - normal lifespan. Still, it would work a lot better for us if, perhaps, the universe could stagger these things out a bit.

Universe... hello?

In the longer term part of our idealized goal for the Homestead is to restore and move it towards more sustainable technology, preferably in a fashion that does not make that sustainability readily apparent from the outside (and altering the vintage appearance of the home). In some ways this echoes the events of our ancestors, one of whom, I understand, installed a wind generator and battery for electricity and because he did not trust rural electrification (gotta love that paranoia... err - independence).

These types of shift take time, however - time and, perhaps more importantly, resources. When everyday things break and/or die it slows the pace towards those goals.

Ugh.