Inside shots of the cellar

The dirt is up level with the outer door. I don't have any recent pictures of the cellar, all finished and covered with wildflowers and herbs. It will be on my list of pictures to get once we get a new digital camera. I sure miss not having one handy.

We had a very wet Fall that yr. and it hampered Dad and Mike getting the cellar ready. The potatoes were muddy and wet, so we placed them on paper lined shelves to dry before placing in the tater bin. Our first winter they didn't have all the dirt on top and it got cold inside, so we had to run a heat lamp to keep stuff from freezing. The floor also was very wet, so humidity was high and the squash, pumpkins and onions didn't keep well, in fact they began to mold very quickly. The following summer we opened the inner door, the outer door and ran a squirrel cage fan( see it in the picture above) to dry out the floor. Mike and Dad then added a vapor barrier and gravel on top of that. The humidity is just right, as squash and onions keep from Oct to April and the potatoes, carrots, beets and cabbage keep from Oct well into May.

Dad and Mike also added two more center supports, just because dirt is heavy and it would be awful to have it collapse. Dirt weighs lots and wet dirt weighs even more.

Tater bin awaiting filling. The potatoes took several weeks to dry and the skins to harden before adding to the bin. You can see the dirt floor was too wet.

I simply couldn't live without our cellar, it's a must have tool on any homestead, especially if your desire is to be sufficient.