Storm/Root Cellar and More

Storm/Root Cellar and More

     We have been talking about building a storm cellar here in the hill for a while now. We have always used our neighbors when we had bad weather, but now he has moved and we just haven’t talked to the new neighbors about using it if the weather takes a turn for the worse.

     The last time we really used his storm cellar was when my daughter was pregnant with our granddaughter and that has been 11 years ago. (Now that was a scary day too we thought she was going into labor.) We never even ventured out the day the end of our house got taken out by the hurricane a few years back. I will tell you first hand, I am deathly afraid of storms and there have been times when I have been by myself and wished I had a place to take the cats and dogs to protect myself and them.  We really don’t have a good place to get away too here. We are on the very top of the hill too. We have had several trees come down on the house and barns and  in the yard in general since we moved here 16 years ago this month. We have rebuilt and fixed here and there too, but it is a money pit.

     I have made plans for this project since we have the ravine and seems to be the best place to start. No digging or not much will be needed, and we have so many tires from when we were going to build an earthship house, that we pretty much have all we need to build one. The tires will make a great wall system and to back hoe the dirt to it will make it that much safer. I want to make it big enough to have room for a living room area and a small kitchen area for a summer kitchen where we can use it in the heat of the summer and stay cool. It can also have storage for the vegetables and plant that need to be stored in over the winter months. I want to have my office space down there too and maybe even a bedroom or two if things get bad weather wise for the g kids and my daughter and her family will be safe also or where the g kids can hang if they choose. They live just down the hill from us and we always called them to come up when we went to the neighbors when bad weather came.

     That is only half of the plan. I would like to build an upper level for the house, but it will be conventionally built. I would like to have a 1 bedroom and 1 ½ baths house built over the top. Since we have collected windows and doors to repair this house and have not used them yet, and a lot of the materials bought for fixing it up, we just felt it better to use it for new instead of just patching a place that is still coming down around us. 

     So weather permitting this week I am going to start moving the downed trees and such out of the ravine to get started. Make some measurements to see where this cellar will go exactly. That will be a start and that is my plan for this month.

     I think storm cellars are far more important when you live on a hill!  What do you thing?

Quote of the day:

“Don’t Panic and don’t forget your towel” Douglas Adams

Scripture of the day:

Matt. 6 :19 “Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Rather, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal."