We Bought a House

By Christopher Miller

The warmest weather is upon us! If this was a taste of summer, then I don’t think we will last long without buying a window air conditioner! I don’t know about you, but the heat of the past week was such a nuisance. The colder weather of Monday was very well welcomed.

For the most part the house stayed relatively cool with the windows closed and covered. When it was 90* outside, the inside temperature hovered around 78*. We were pleased that we could stay somewhat cool.

The weekend started on Friday afternoon with a trip down to Home Depot to use some gift cards that were burning a hole in our pockets for so long. We also had to pick up our lock and key set that had been re-keyed for all of our exterior doors.

Did you know that on the bottom of each lock and key set is a 5 digit number? As long as you buy the locks in that series of numbers (all matching numbers, such as 12345) that the keys will all match? Also did you know that places like Lowe’s and Home Depot can re-key almost any locks to match almost any key? As long as the manufacturer name matches, it’s a win-win! The locks were a very easy installation since the doors had already been pre-drilled.

While at Home Depot we stocked up on the necessary supplies to finish a bulk of our planned summer projects. A few bags of concrete to pour new basement steps that had since deteriorated, garden stakes and fencing, a new table saw, a push mower…you know, the essentials.

Speaking of garden stakes…the house we bought is very well-known in the Dunnstown and Swissdale areas for its magnificent gardens. I have been wanting to dabble in the home garden hobby since before the pandemic.
This year has made it much easier to begin the garden project especially since our garden will be taking the footprint of the old one. On a whim I started to pull up the old garden paper and learned that it was easier to pull up than I thought!

I then measured the perimeter of the garden. I purchased 50’ of 6’ tall garden wire in an attempt to keep the deer out of the vegetables. It was pretty easy to mark off the dimensions of the garden, a bit under a 10’ x 15’ space an

I pounded 6’ stakes into the ground every 5’. That was the hardest part due to the geology of Pennsylvania and our well-known rock soil.

To keep the smaller animals out of the garden, I placed zip ties around the bottom of the stakes and around the wires. I will then be burying the bottom of the wire, which I bent outwards and stomped flat on the ground. The thickness of the wire added good weight for animals to struggle to dig under or lift up to squeeze under.

In all, the garden project has been very rewarding and quite the workout! Stay tuned for more information on what will be planted and the general upkeep of the garden-yet-to-come!