Dry Clothes and No Worms

Some shirts and such enjoying the new clothesline.
August 28, 2010 text and photos by Chad Lebo

Untreated wood in Malagasy soil holds up about as well as a sugar donut in hot coffee. Not well in other words. Baby insects and bacteria looking for tasty bites love to munch the defenseless wood. That means when wood meets the ground the wood soon meets its maker. Even the larger timbers on the playground equipment can only hold out 5 years or so. The smaller wooden poles that used to make up the critical and numerous clotheslines at Akany could only hold on for 2 years if they were lucky.

The simple solution to the wood vs. soil problem.
That is until Ken the Builder and some volunteers from World Challenge and Outlook Expeditions came up with plan B. Now all the clothesline poles on the hill behind the dormitory are soil-free. They hover a few inches above the soil (laughing at it if one listens closely) thanks to some steel brackets and trusty cement. The new system will be flying the flags of drying clothes for years to come.

This fence picket that is barely touching the ground is only one year old.

1 comment:

LS said...

Great blog and a great solution!!!!!

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