THE PARTHENON OF ROOT CELLARS

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Along about early July, Joanie consulted her planting charts and announced, "I have to have a root cellar by September 1." (The garden was, by then, doing its thing all by itself with a little help from Joanie . . . like beetle picking, earwig smashing and applying three tons of hay mulch.)

"OK, big mouth. You'll have a root cellar." Back to the pick and shovel. At a depth of four feet a ledge of basalt intruded, and half the last three feet of "the hole" came out in small pieces with the judicious application of sledge and wedge.

Sometime around mid-August we had a hole hacked into the hill, 8' X 12' horizontally X 7' deep. The original plan had been to do the cellar in concrete and rock, using the Nearings' built-up form method. However, the prospect of hauling all that sand and gravel from the riverbed 12 miles away—plus cement from our 60-mile-distant supply source—made the alternative of railroad ties attractive indeed . . . especially when we found a bunch advertised at $1.25 each. (Around here, these days, they bring $2.00-$3.00 apiece . . . if you can find them. And a few years ago they were free for the hauling!) The supply was only 80 miles away and we could haul 25 per load in the pickup.

Three trips later a pile of 70 ties reposed grandly on the hill beside "the hole".

"OK, Joanie. September 1: root cellar, Right?"

We moved our goodies in on October 10, only six weeks behind schedule. Not bad by country standards.

Here are some details of our cellar's construction: The contour of the grade dictated that the storage room's outer door be slanted at 45 degrees, with steps leading down into the vestibule and the inner door. Had the grade been steeper a straight walk-in would have been less trouble but not quite so traditional . . . you can't slide down a vertical cellar door.

Since the bottom of "the hole" was either basalt or hardpan 'dobe, we needed only a minimal foundation. The forms were constructed of salvaged 2 X 4's and were left in place after the concrete set to provide nailers for the later trim.

While we waited for the concrete to cure, we thought it prudent to build a model of the cellar to 1"=1' scale so that foul-ups could be made on a tabletop with square homemade Lincoln Logs rather than at the jobsite. This proved to be one of the wisest moves in the whole project. Several modifications to my plans resulted, and when the ties went in they all fit nicely.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print