Ant annihilation has begun. This afternoon I mixed equal parts of 20 Mule Team Borax with an equal part of sugar and poured it onto an ant mound. Borax can be an effective pesticide alternative that kills insects by targeting their stomachs and nervous systems. We’ll see.

I don’t even know how a box of Borax came to have a place in my utility room. I may have bought it because I liked the box. It’s very old-fashioned looking, with a team of mules on the front above the word Borax. The box isn’t as engaging as Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, but it’s close.

I have a box of Frosted Flakes in my pantry simply because I’m crazy about Tony the Tiger. But this Borax box is pretty intriguing.

Borax is a powdery white substance also known as sodium tetraborate. It can be used as a household cleaner and laundry detergent and is also an effective herbicide when sprinkled on weeds that grow in between your flagstones.

Years ago during a hellish crossing of Death Valley in a vehicle without air conditioning, I saw a sign for the Harmony Borax Works just after heading north from Furnace Creek. Never been to Furnace Creek? Consider yourself blessed.

On the other hand, pulling into the large Harmony Borax Works parking lot to wander around a borax mine of the past was interesting. Borax was gathered from the desert floor of Death Valley, purified and then shipped via mule team wagons to the railhead at Mohave.

With the financial success of Twenty Mule Team Borax advertised with images of the (wait for it) 20-mule team, people from around the world became fascinated with the mining of borax. Tourist cabins were built near the site and in 1927 the luxurious Furnace Inn was built to accommodate visitors.

I wasn’t the only one wandering around Harmony. I ran into a few other borax explorers, one of whom informed me that two tablespoons of borax mixed with one tablespoon of lemon juice will remove rust from problem areas. At that point, with temperatures over 100 degrees, and I couldn’t care less.

Now, however, after getting covered with ants while picking rhubarb, Borax is the No. 1 most important thing on my mind. I used it on the ant mound and now I’ll use some as a laundry booster in my washing machine. Summer goes by so fast and there is so much to do, including laundry, which can be rather loathsome.

The other day a friendly reader left me a wooden washboard with a glass-scrubbing surface beside my front door. On it was a note that read, “Thought you would like this!”

“A scrubbing board!” I said when I called her. “ I love it,” I lied.

“I knew you would,” she said. “It always reminded me of my great great grandmother who was a laundress for the Wyoming army troops around the late 1870s. I’m glad you like it because I really need to get rid of all the junk I have around here.”

After I hung up the phone I placed the scrub board next to my box of Borax above my washing machine and dryer. I imagined what it must have been like for a United States Army laundress washing clothes in every kind of weather in wall tents or under a tree. The ladies, most of whom were immigrants, made their own soap, hauled 50 to 100 gallons of water from creeks for washing clothes, chopped wood for fires and used a wooden washboard for scrubbing the clothes. They earned $13 a month and received a pension.

Should you find yourself in Powell, Wyoming, you can visit the Homestead Museum just off highway 14A. Inside there is a large supply of household appliances and vintage washing machines.

I know several men who have old wringer washing machines in hidden corners of their yards and workshops that they covet because it reminds them of their mothers.

Just for the record, I don’t want to be remembered for my Maytag vintage ’90s top-loading washer and dryer. They still work great but I’d rather be remembered for, oh, I don’t know, my posture and jaunty scarves?

Not that I’m complaining. I appreciate my washing machine and dryer and oddly enough have always been intrigued by laundromats.

After camping in Dubois, I carried my basket of laundry through the nasal passages of a 15-foot tall fiberglass buffalo skull. I love that darn buffalo skull. Vic Lemmon made the skull in 1982 to add architectural flair to his Grub and Tub restaurant and laundromat. When he moved to a more suitable location across the street he took the skull with him. It’s a Borax kind of place that captures your imagination.

Doreen Tome has been to washaterias, launderettes and the worst laundromat ever in the middle- of-nowhere Arizona on a rare muddy day in April.

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