What the house needs in July, south of the equator
12 jobs, in five groups.
July is the coldest month and the one where the house is under the most strain. Everything indoors is about heat and damp working against each other, so the list is short and it is the same list every week: air the rooms for a few minutes, watch the cold corners, keep the dryer vent clear. Outside, this is the month to push on the fence posts before the winter winds and to finish cutting the dry growth back from the walls. Keep an eye on the drains after any hard rain. Check the extinguisher gauge and find the fire blanket, and walk the escape route with whoever lives with you so that everyone knows where the window keys are kept. Clean and sharpen the tools while the garden asks nothing. July is the coldest month across most of South Africa and south eastern Australia, and one of the wettest in the Western Cape, where the damp jobs indoors matter more than the frost ones. On the Highveld it is the middle of the dry season, and cleared ground round the house counts for more than any other job outside.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Every month. See January for how.
- Check the extinguisher gauge and the fire blanket
- Twice a year. See January for how.
- Clear the lint from the dryer and its vent
- Still due this month. See May for how.
- Cut dry growth back from the walls
- In the summer rainfall regions the veld dries out and the fire season runs through the winter, so June to August is when to clear dry grass and brush back from the walls; two metres of clear ground is the usual advice. The Western Cape is the other way round, with its fire season in the dry summer, so clear the growth there again in November.
Water and heating
- Descale the kettle and the shower head
- Four times a year. See January for how.
Inside
- Watch the cold corners for condensation
- Still due this month. See May for how.
- Air the house for a few minutes a day
- Still due this month. See May for how.
- Clean the oven properly
- In June or July, when the winter roasts and stews mean the oven is working hardest. Clean it cold, with a proper oven cleaner, and give the cleaner time to work.
Outside
- Push on the fence posts
- Push each post in March and again in July. A post that rocks now will be down after the next big wind, and it is a far easier job while it is still standing.
The garden edge
- Clean, sharpen and oil the garden tools
- In the quiet winter months: knock the mud off, sharpen the spade and the shears, and wipe the metal with oil. Rust starts on tools that are put away dirty.
- Clean the feeders and keep them filled
- Through the lean winter months from May to July, when natural food is scarce. Scrub them properly every time you refill them, because a dirty feeder spreads disease among the birds that use it.
- Keep a hole open in the pond ice
- Only where the pond freezes, which means the Highveld and the cold interior in June and July; a coastal pond rarely does. Melt a hole with a pan of hot water rather than breaking the ice, because the shock of breaking it travels through the water to the fish.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for July. The same list is tickable on the house through the year, where the ticks are kept on your own device and cleared at the start of each year. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The garden half of the month is on the almanac page for July, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.