Line Dried

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Hello! Welcome to Line Dried, where I’ll be documenting our life line by line.

Apparently I’ve had a Substack for a while. I don’t remember getting one, but when I thought to start one a few months ago it turns out I already had one, so here we go.

The name Line Dried came to me while, you guessed it, I was hanging laundry on the line to dry last summer. I find clothes lines to be such a statement. They’re an intimate part of people’s lives, and when they are out hanging on display it’s like a stage of costumes that describe you and your people lined up to be seen. Why not use a drier you ask? I do, sometimes. In the rain, or in the cold of winter we use our drier. But theres something about rejecting modern conveniences from time to time to intentionally slow down. If my life is too busy to gently string up my family’s favorite clothes, grounding my feet to the earth below and stopping to pet a cat, then I’m doing something wrong.

Clotheslines display our (sometimes very) personal items and favorite garments, sheets and linens. There they are, just soaking up the sun and scent of fresh cut grass and hot breezes. It’s such a simple daily task, hanging clothes. But it makes quite a beautiful addition to any grassy lawn, particularly with chickens pecking about below, and I could watch my sheets flowing in the breeze over a cup of coffee for hours. I especially like a view of the clothesline from an open kitchen window. This way, I can see when things are ready to bring in before a summer storm rolls in, and just feel really old fashioned while baking bread in my apron and pretending I’m some mother in the old days.

In all my travels I’ve seen many clotheslines, something about them connects us all to each other in a grand display of humanity. From dusty side yards in African villages to mothers hanging towels from their windows in India, sheets drying from the windows of soviet era block housing in Eastern Europe, to almost ornamentally organized sneakers airing out in the winding side streets of Portugal, everyone wears clothes and everyone washes them. So notice next time, when you see a clothesline. Let it be a moment to pause and take in the beauty of these most often used items, and maybe construct one in your own yard.

So in closing, this Substack will focus on the simple parts of life. The daily, tedious things that make up the bulk of our days. Kind of the opposite of instagram, where highlights are often shown. This space will document the things we do here on our farm in South Carolina, from running a small farm school to starting a local grocery store, from our ever expanding garden and orchard to my sewing projects and thrifting finds. And maybe some lines of poetry here and there.

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you stick around ;)