Better Homes and Gardens

This week we took our redneck living a step further. We now have a stove in our truck in the garage and two in the basement – none of them are hooked up.

The two stoves in the basement originated in the main and upper levels of the house. The one in the main level kitchen is in such bad shape – there is only one burner that works (we think) and the oven is non-operational. The other stove came from the upstairs kitchenette – it is so old that it still has the really wide heating coils and we don’t know if that one works either.

The stove in our truck was an impulse purchase on Tuesday. We went into Lowe’s to get a couple plumbing fittings for the kitchen sink and we ended up walking away with a brand new stove. We have been looking at the “scratch and dent” appliances every time we’re in the store in case there is a good deal that has a scratch in a hidden location. On this trip, the stove we found only had one flaw – it was missing a box. The model was already reduced $100 and because of the missing box, they took off another $100. It’s still sitting in the truck because we have a couple more cabinets to install and it will be easier to complete the work without the stove in the way.


The rest of the week was dedicated to preparing our garden plot and starting the planting. We started all of our plants from seeds this year and they are getting to the point that if they aren’t planted soon then they will not survive. Because of the amount of plants we are going to grow and the very sunny locations in the yard, we are planting two plots – one is 30’ x 25’ and the other is 20’ x 20’.

The location for the larger plot was where the previous owner had made a huge pile of branches and vines. The grass and weeds in this area were well over a foot tall and it was very challenging to remove the debris before we could start tilling. The first pass with the tiller only removed the grass and weeds. In order to get deep into the soil, we have been hand turning the soil before tilling a second time. It is a very labor intensive endeavor and we only have about three-quarters of the big plot complete. Friday night we did some planting – peas (they were already a foot tall), lettuce (3 types), spinach, beets, eggplant, artichokes, Brussels sprouts, and carrots.

This weekend we traveled up to PA to go to the wedding of a family friend. It was actually very nice to have a whole weekend off! This coming week we hope to finish installing the kitchen cabinets so that we can order our countertops (and have a working kitchen before the end of May!).