By Christy Rasmussen-Ford

I live in a very old house on a very old ranch.

When I tell people where I live, the first question that comes out is, “Do you have power?”

Look, I’m no survivalist. I can handle approximately one hour of no power and then I get real cranky and helpless.

I have no intention of ever trying to live like the pioneers.

We have power….and water…and a refrigerator….and a microwave…and cell-service (barely)…and cable…and Wi-Fi.

Other than that, we live pretty similar to the people who settled the land.

Okay, we don’t live anything like them.

Which is perfectly fine with me. I like current technology a lot.

The old house? It’s really old.

After a few months of living here, I noticed there are no closets besides a tiny closet-ish area that could hold four pairs of pants…maybe.

I sent my landlord a text message (just like the pioneers would) mentioning the lack of closets: “I have come to the conclusion that when this house was built, no one hung clothes on hangers.”

She agreed.

Then I sent another text that said, “So hanging clothes is a relatively new concept or were they just farm folk who didn’t care?”

When you work on the farm all day, who cares if you go out in wrinkled clothes right? Heck, I go out in wrinkled clothes all the time and I’m not even a farm folk.

She sent me another text back: “No, they hung them outside.”

I scratched my head: “Well I’m sure that worked out well here.”

The pioneers were amazing people both here and throughout the country.

I don’t know how they survived.

I would have starved to death with dirty clothes and a messy house because even oak trees have more domestic skills than me. It’s true.

Giving myself a little credit, I think even I would have known better than to hang clothes outside in this area.

Let’s be honest here: The pioneers MAYBE got four days of good clothes-hanging weather — and not all day, either.

There were probably multiple times that Patty Pioneer hung her clothes, went inside to check on the baby and came back out to find a storm had blown in during the two minutes that she was inside.

I’m still lost about the closets.

Surely they couldn’t have been foolish enough to hang their clothes outside more than once or twice a year.

I could see if they were washing their clothes outside…. Patty Pioneer probably saved a fortune on her water bill doing that.

But Patty’s plan of drying/ironing by hanging her clothes outside may have had a few holes.

She should have just talked her husband, Paul Pioneer, into building closets in each room.

If he really loved her, he would have just bought her a clothes dryer.

I’m just saying…