Chapter 4: Construction Season Starts: Welcome to Early Spring
Chapter 4: Construction Season Starts: Welcome to Early Spring
Spring is finally here, and that means it is time to turn all that planning into a working root cellar. Your individual construction plan will vary according to the design and materials you have decided to use. To direct you through the process and provide a general work plan, Chapters 4, 5, and 6 will cover the basics of each construction phase. As you have seen, the plans in Appendix B include a wide variety of cellaring design plans and instructions with a broad range of materials choices. However, if this is your first construction project, please research further the intricacies of the more specialized areas such as cement work, framing, and finish work.
Let the Digging Begin
This is the time of year when it seems all the hours in the day are not enough to accomplish everything on your to-do list. Spread out the heavy-duty construction phases over early and late spring. This chapter will cover the digging and foundation phases. If you have the time, you can tackle now additional structural components, such as walls. Details on constructing walls and roofs, backfilling, and finish work will be covered in the next chapter. Be sure once you start building walls you are able to dedicate good chunks of time to enclosing your cellar. Spring is also the time of year for heavy downpours, and you do not want an open hole on your property when the rain starts.
TIP! The mostly likely source of tetanus is through contact with soil, so make sure your tetanus shot is up-to-date and always wear heavy gloves when working.
Before you get too far into the digging phase of this project, make sure your permit is approved. Your permit will list which stages of construction need to be inspected. Requirements vary by region, but most projects require inspections of the more technical or safety-related construction aspects, such as footings or electrical work. These inspections are needed whether you are doing the work yourself or have hired a contractor. Ask at your permitting office if you are not sure when to call for inspections because the inspector will need to sign off on each phase before you can proceed to the next step. Do not go past these inspection milestones without approval. Inspectors can make you remove finished work if it obstructs the things they need to inspect. It might take two or three days from the time of your phone call to the inspection, so plan accordingly as you map out the construction schedule. If you are on good terms with the inspector, it might take only a couple of hours, so be pleasant and stay on his or her good side.
When to dig
If the ground freezes in your area, you will have to wait until the spring thaw. The best time to dig is right after the ground thaws but before it gets soggy from melting snow and heavy rain. Wet soil can be harder to dig through and might cause your excavation equipment to get bogged down in muck. If you are unsure of when the ground thaws, ask local farmers or the neighbors or call your weather station for a general date. Another important time factor is your upcoming weather. If rain were in the forecast, this would not be a good time to dig. Expect to have at least three days with an open, muddy hole; rain would cause you problems.
X marks the spot
Before you get the shovel out, you must first designate the area in which you want to dig. This will be the size of the actual building, including the height and thickness of the walls, drainage perimeter, backfill, and space for pouring footings. For now, you are not looking for perfectly square corners, just an edge to dig to. Use stakes to mark the locations of the outside corners of your root cellar, stretch a string between these stakes, and spray paint a line three feet out from that. This entire area will be dug out to equal the height of your structure plus 1 foot for the footings. It is beneficial, but not necessary, to position your structure so the roof is below ground level. Once it is finished, you can mound soil over the flat roof. To gain the most benefit from the earth’s cooling power, the walls should be below ground level. The most important factor is to place your footings so the bottom of the footings will be below the frost-line, a minimum of 4 feet below ground.
Are you using one of the culvert designs shown in Appendix B? These designs do not need footings because the culvert is one solid piece instead of walls attached to footings. It will move as a whole, and shifting ground will not affect it. You also only need to excavate a hole big enough to comfortably place the culvert on level ground.
Now is a good time to look over your potential dig site to consider what to do with all the excess soil and rock from the hole. Is there sufficient space near your construction site to pile the soil? Is there enough room to get equipment in and out without damaging your home, outbuildings, lawn, or landscaping? At this point, you can still relocate your root cellar or downsize it to fit the space.
After you outline your digging area, call the utility companies to come to your property and find lines that might lie in the area you want to dig. Some communities offer a hotline. If not, be sure to call each company: phone, sewer and water, gas, electric, and cable. These companies might come out for free within 48 hours of your call. If you choose not to call and hit a utility line while digging, you might incur large fines or repair costs and create a potentially dangerous or even explosive situation.
Excavation equipment
For ambitious folks with the time, this entire project can be completed with a shovel and a pickax. But those who just want to finish quickly will need a power excavator of some kind. This can range from a skid steer bucket loader to a baby backhoe to a heavy-duty backhoe. The one you use depends on your budget and skill level. The type of soil you have to dig through also somewhat determines the type of equipment you need. If you have mostly sandy soil, digging will be fast and easy, and just about any sized excavator will work. If you are facing clay or bedrock, opting for the larger, more powerful excavator will save you significant time and labor.
You can rent smaller equipment by the hour or by the day through local sources, such as hardware stores and implement dealers. These stores will also offer training if you do not know how to use the equipment. These are powerful and potentially dangerous machines, so do not leave the store without knowing exactly how your equipment works. Most rental places get busy this time of year, so call early to ask if you need to reserve the equipment. You will need the excavator for at least half of a day. If you are digging through rock or clay, you will need it longer. Some places offer discounts for weekday rental, so look into that if you are planning on taking a day or two off to work on your project.
How to dig a hole
This sounds simple, but digging a hole this large is more complicated than just scooping out a shovelful at a time. Excavation is considered to be one of the most dangerous construction activities. The biggest hazards are cave-ins, equipment mishaps, and poor safety procedures, and they can be life threatening. Here are a few considerations that will keep you and your crew safe:
Once you have lined up your equipment and have all your safety needs handled, your next big issue is where to put all the excess soil. Some of the soil you remove will be used as backfill after you have built the structure. As you dig, make a separate pile for the soil you will use later. Choose the best quality soil, which is light and slightly coarse with no large rocks or heavy clay. The rejected soil will have to be hauled away or used somewhere else on your property. A professional excavator will include the price of hauling away soil in their bid, but make sure you supervise the soil they save and use for backfill. Homeowners are more picky than construction workers who want to get the job done fast.
The way you dig depends on your site, your equipment, and your assistants. Follow the spray-painted outline you made and try to dig from one edge across the expanse of the root cellar to the other edge. This will preserve your perimeter lines and make the work site safer. If you were tackling this job by hand, you would need a temporary ramp to wheelbarrow the soil out. Sturdy boards or an earthen ramp would work well for this task. If you have a lot of helpers, you could also rig a pulley system with 5-gallon buckets. Once you get the hole completely excavated, you will need to go in with a hand shovel to even the floor. Keep the floor flush with where the door frame will be, and remove any large rocks or chunks of dirt.
Before leaving your work site each day, be sure your newly dug hole is covered to protect against rain and roped off to keep someone from accidentally falling in. If you live in a neighborhood with curious children or animals, put up a sturdy temporary fence and remove the ladder at the end of each day. Keep an eye on the construction site as much as possible to avoid problems with children playing in or around the work area. The same goes for any heavy equipment or power tools left sitting around the work site. Unplug the machine or remove the keys at the end of the day, and place blocks in front of and behind all tires to prevent accidental rolling.
Case Study: Large Cellar Holds 200,000 Pounds
Tim and Lisa Meyers
Meyers Farm
P.O. Box 30
Bethel AK 99559
907-543-1270
Tim, Lisa, and family run the Meyers Farm in Bethel, Alaska. From their commercial root cellar, they provide the local community with affordable, year-round access to produce grown without chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides. They also strive to educate fellow growers on practicing sustainable farming. And on that rare 80-degree day in Alaska, they can be found in their nice cool root cellar enjoying a cold beverage.
Our children are the reason we started gardening and built a root cellar. We began looking for a way to feed our kids healthy food without MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, food coloring, or the other chemical additives put in food to preserve it. So we grew a large garden and found we needed a place to store our harvest through the winter. We fell in love with our root cellar from the beginning. We could not function without it. Using a root cellar is a more economical and nutritious way to feed a family than buying produce from the store. Storing our own produce also gives us food security. We know the produce is organic, and we have it stockpiled in case of emergency.
We also live just south of the Arctic Circle, so we cannot run out to the grocery store for whatever we need. All our food has to be flown into the community, which doubles the cost of everything. Even if we had access to store-bought produce, it would be expensive. We do order a few grocery staples through mail and supplement our diet with eggs, meat, and fish we raise on our farm or harvest from the wild. We preserve most of this, including some of the pickier produce that does not take well to root cellaring, through freezing, pickling, or canning.
I would estimate that having a root cellar saves our family about $8,000 per year.
After about 10 years, we decided to make the leap and expand our gardening and root cellaring to a commercial operation large enough to feed our family and the larger community. In 2010, we built a 1,600-square foot root cellar with 12-foot high ceilings. Our root cellar can house 200,000 pounds of food. In our first year we stored: 8,000 pounds of potatoes, 7,000 pounds of cabbage, 800 pounds of rutabagas, 800 pounds of turnips, 400 pounds of beets, 400 pounds of onions, 500 pounds of carrots, and 150 pounds of celeriac.
Maintenance for an Alaskan root cellar does have a few challenges. Our ground temperature stays at about 31 degrees, so we are able to easily keep the indoor temperatures at about 32 degrees with 97 percent humidity. When the air gets dry, we dump snow on the floor to raise the humidity. This is easy to do because we have to keep the entrance shoveled out anyway. When our outdoor temperatures drop to 25 degrees below zero or lower, we burn restaurant waste oil in a barrel stove for about a half-hour per day. We also keep a 24-inch box fan running all day to keep the air moving. The fan and lights are our only maintenance costs, which are low.
Take-Away Tip from Tim and Lisa:
Having a root cellar is like having money in the bank — except money in the bank cannot buy the quality of food we have in our root cellar. We would highly recommend anyone who is interested in gardening or farming to first build a root cellar. It will improve your farming experience and your diet.
Footings and Foundation
A large underground root cellar will require footings and a foundation. Footings are built from cement and are underneath the foundation of the building. They help distribute the weight of the walls and roof over a larger area of soil. This weight distribution will ensure your root cellar does not sink into the ground over time. Sinking will cause the structure to bow, crack, or even fail. The type and dimensions of footings you need vary widely based on your soil type, region, and the size of the building you are constructing. Building the footing forms and pouring concrete are a science by themselves, and entire books have been written covering this field. Laying a good foundation does require some skill in cement work but can be accomplished by most do-it-yourselfers. The plans included in Appendix B will walk you through the basics. If this is your first concrete or footings project, consult with an experienced friend or check out one of these complete masonry books before starting:
After excavating the hole to the proper depth, the first step in putting in the footings is to mark off the exact interior dimensions of your root cellar. Using your plan and starting at the entrance, measure the area. Place a stake at each corner of the main room and entrance and specifically mark the door frame. Mark the stakes with dimensions; position notations, such as "SE inside corner;" and other information to make later adjustments much easier. Once you have placed the stakes, check to make sure the walls line up at 90-degree angles or are square. To check for square dimensions, measure diagonally from each stake — the distance should be exactly the same from corner to corner. If it is not equal, adjust the stakes and measure again. Once you have the stakes properly placed, carefully run a cord around the outside of these stakes. This will mark the inside of your walls.
TIP! Use your GPS to mark the dimensions of your root cellar before you backfill. Some day down the road, you might want to dig for tile repairs or additions, and an accurate, satellite-confirmed marking will make that job easier.
From this line, you will be able to determine where your footing trench will be. The walls and door frame of your root cellar will be built in the center of these footings, so the footing trench must extend around the entire perimeter of the structure. The trench will be 16 inches wide and at least 9 inches deep. Local code will help determine the dimensions of your footings, so now is the time to double-check with your inspector and make sure you are pouring the correct footings for your type of project.
Throughout the process of marking and digging the trench, be sure to keep checking for square using the diagonal measuring technique. Also, as you dig the footing trench, keep the bottom of the trench level but leave the soil as untouched as possible. Only dig where needed so the remaining soil stays intact. Undisturbed soil will be more compacted and stable than soil that has already been dug up. Build the cement forms according to your local code and by standard construction practices. As you build your forms, check to make sure they are level, and adjust as necessary.
TIP! Are you planning on installing a floor drain or water supply? You must install floor pipes before pouring the footings, or you will not be able to access this area.
Once you have dug the footings trench and placed the concrete forms, you are ready to pour the cement. For larger projects, consider having premixed concrete delivered to your site. This is more expensive and time sensitive, and it requires more helpers during the pouring process. Mixing your own concrete is perfectly suitable for this stage but will take more time to finish as you mix each bag of concrete.
Whichever type of concrete you choose, be sure to give it the full curing period or hardening time the manufacturer recommends. Curing refers to the time immediately after the concrete is poured and finished; during this time, the concrete must be kept slightly moist and protected from sunlight and top pressure, such as foot traffic. It can take up to 14 days depending on the temperatures and rainfall. It is best to refer to the specific instructions included with your brand of concrete. Do not rush the curing process; this is an important step and will create concrete with maximum strength and durability Also, if heavy rain or unusually high temperatures occur during the curing period, keep the concrete covered with a lightly colored tarp.
Drainage Tiles
It is impossible to choose a site with perfect drainage, and once you have introduced a new hole to your topography, it will attract flowing water. You might encounter unexpected drainage problems. Water draining in or near the root cellar is a problem because water might seep into the structure. Water pooling, freezing, and exerting pressure against your walls can cause the walls to fail and collapse. The only way to avoid this possibility is to install drainage tile around the footings and halfway up the wall if you have extra drainage concerns. This is a simple and inexpensive step that will give you added insurance, and putting drainage tiles in at the beginning is easier than trying to retrofit your cellar when you find drainage issues.
TIP! Drainage tiles are a bit of a misnomer because they are not tiles. They are continuous, flexible plastic pipes used to channel unwanted water in a certain direction, such as away from structures or growing areas.
Lower drainage tiles are best placed after the footings are cured but before the walls are built. The best system is to use 4-inch diameter perforated plastic drainage tiles wrapped with a sock to prevent soil from infiltrating the tile line. You can find prewrapped drainage tiles at farm supply stores, landscaping shops, or home improvement centers. Before placing the tile, pour a 2-inch layer of gravel around the perimeter of your footings. Slope the gravel slightly toward the front of your structure. Lay the tile on the gravel so the top of the drainage tile is just below the top of the footing. If you use more than one piece of drainage tile, connect and seal each section according to the manufacturer’s instructions and finish with the open ends about 1 foot past the front corners of your cellar. If you are creating a separate entrance, make sure the tile ends past this point. As you place the drainage tiles, make sure no dirt gets inside the line, or it will become clogged and no longer work.
At the end of the tiles, dig a hole about 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep and fill it with gravel. Place the open end of the line in the center of each filled hole. Some people additionally run a nonperforated pipe such as PVC out of this small pit so the water is carried even farther away from the structure. Often referred to as a “French drain,” this extra step is not required but is effective for areas with poor drainage. After installing the line, cover it completely with about 12 inches of crushed stone or gravel to help the water seep through to the drainage line and help support the weight of the backfill. While working with the drainage tile, be careful not to step on it or crush the line.
Installing a second drainage line
In areas with particularly poor drainage or heavy clay soil, consider installing a second drainage tile midway up the outside walls. This line’s purpose would be to direct additional water away from the structure and keep the soil from becoming saturated. This protects your walls from from water seeping in. Draining the water away during the fall will also lessen the pressure on the walls when waterlogged soil freezes and expands in the winter. Use the same materials and same placement methods discussed previously, and install this line 2 or 3 feet below the expected soil surface height. Be sure the lines drain out and away from the structure.
Chapter 5 will discuss how to complete your cellar’s floor, build the walls, and start some of the finishing work. For now, it is time to turn your attention to the work needed in the garden.
What’s Going On in the Garden?
This is the season all gardeners wait for. Finally, it is time to get outside and get some dirt under their fingernails. By now, your seedlings should be thriving under the grow lights, and most will be ready to be placed in the garden. However, before you put your first round of plants in the ground, your garden needs a couple more things to be ready to nurture the plants and support a healthy and bountiful harvest.
Preparing the soil
Your garden soil is the food for everything you grow, and getting this soil in tiptop shape before you plant is essential. If you are planting a new garden in high-quality soil, you do not have to worry about testing soil acidity or adding amendments. But if you have a well-established garden, especially in raised beds, the soil can become depleted of the nutrients needed to grow healthy plants and produce big harvests. If you have noticed yellowed bottom leaves on your plants or reduced harvest levels, your garden could probably use nutrients. Also, problems with pests or disease might indicate your soil is not at its best; hearty soils grow healthy plants that better resist disease. Any soil shortfalls in your garden are easily remedied with a helping of compost, manure, or quality fertilizer.
A more scientific, but fairly simple, approach is to measure the pH, or acidity or alkalinity, of your soil. This will help you determine if you need to raise or lower the pH, and then you can decide exactly which type of additive to use. Most local extension offices and garden centers offer inexpensive soil testing kits with everything you need to determine your pH and instructions on how to bring the pH to the right level. Most vegetable plants require a pH of 6 to 6.5. A good helping of compost or commercial fertilizer will return your soil to the proper level. In some cases, you might have to add lime to counteract acidity or organic matter to adjust alkalinity. Refer to the instructions included with your test kit, or ask for suggestions at your garden center.
TIP! Later sections will discuss using hydrated lime to adjust root cellar humidity levels. You can also use this lime in your garden. Once it becomes saturated from your cellar, sprinkle it on your garden to help with acidity and boost calcium.
Another spring job for the gardener is to turn the soil. This dirty job involves getting knee-deep in your garden and churning the compacted and clumpy soil from last year. People with large gardens use a rototiller for this job because it is fast, easy, and efficient at breaking up those big chunks. Tillers can be rented at any local hardware store, but this job can absolutely be tackled with only a potato fork, a shovel, and a strong back. Your ultimate goal is to get your garden soil to a loose consistency and free of any materials or debris that will impair the seeds’ growth. Try to avoid walking over the area you have tilled because this will compact the soil and make it hard for the seeds to take root. Tilling is also the perfect time to add compost, manure, or other amendments, such as lime. After your first tilling, add in the amendments and run the tiller through once more. Now, your garden is ready for planting.
Feed your garden some compost
Compost is basically decomposed plant material, such as spoiled produce or food scraps, yard debris, grass clippings, or even coffee grounds, and it makes a fantastic organic addition to your garden. Many home gardeners keep a compost heap as a way to recycle garden waste into soil for next year’s garden. Now is a good time to start your own compost pile. Composting is more complicated than just throwing your waste in a corner of the yard, but once you get it going, it will become second nature to your gardening. The most important aspects to learn about composting involve which types of waste to add, when to aerate it, and how to tell whether it is ready for use. These are all simple skills to learn and are covered in most gardening books. A website with thorough information and instructions for starting your own compost is the University of Minnesota’s Extension site at www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG3296.html.
If your community has a leaf and yard waste dump, they might also offer free compost to residents. Ask at your local government offices. Adding compost is as simple as spreading a thin layer over the top of your garden, or you could till it in when you turn the soil each spring. For deficient soils, spread about 1 inch of compost on top of your entire garden, and then add one-quarter to one-half inch every year.
The following is an easy formula for determining how much you will need to cover your garden:
Square feet of the garden surface area x 144 = your garden’s cubic inches. One 5-gallon pail contains about 1,150 cubic inches.
For example: a 100-square foot garden would need 14,400 cubic inches of compost. This is about 13 pails of compost for a 1-inch application, six pails for an application of one-half inch, and three pails for one-quarter inch.
Stopping weeds from the start
A well-turned and well-fed garden will nurture your plants to perfection but also attract weeds from all corners. An unavoidable partner in every garden, weeds are unattractive and will compete with your plants for water, sun, and nutrients. Weed seeds get into your garden from a variety of sources: bird droppings, barnyard manure, straw used for mulch, mature weeds that drop seed heads, and even the breeze. Most of these sources of seeds are out of your control, so you have to be particularly vigilant about removing weeds at the first sign of growth. Garden plants are most vulnerable in their beginning months, and weeds will quickly choke them or stifle their growth.
Some gardeners apply a treatment of herbicides as soon as they turn the soil, but this adds toxic chemicals to your soil and defeats any hopes of organic produce. Others lay a sheet of black plastic over the freshly turned soil as a way to heat and kill the weed seeds, but this only works for the short term, and the plastic can deprive your soil of water and oxygen.
The best type of weed barrier is a breathable, biodegradable covering that blocks weed growth but allows water to penetrate. If you browsed the aisles of your garden store, you would see numerous types of landscaping fabric or geotextiles. These are perfect for perennial beds you are not replanting every year or in areas in which you can cover the fabric with decorative mulch. In a veggie garden, though, you do not want to commit to certain plant placement year after year, and geotextile fabric is expensive when you have to buy enough for a large garden. One of the best weed barriers you can choose is probably right in your recycling bin: old newspaper.
Newspaper has many advantages as a weed barrier: It is inexpensive and readily available, it breaks down quickly, and it will help aerate your soil. Newspaper is also an effective groundcover to prevent water from splashing on the plants’ leaves, which can lead to disease. Here is how to create a newspaper weed barrier in your garden:
1. Take a typical section of newspaper of about five to six pages. Make sure to use the black and white sections, not those with colored ink.
2. Keep each section folded, and dip it in a bucket of water until it is saturated but not crumbling.
3. Carefully place the wet newspaper between the rows of newly planted seeds or seedlings. Be sure to overlap the edges as you put the sections down. For larger plants, you can also lay the wet paper down and poke holes through it for the plants.
4. Optionally mulch over the newspaper with a thin layer of soil or organic mulch, such as bark or grass clippings. Avoid using straw or hay because these often have weed seeds. This step is not needed, but it does cover the unattractive newspaper.
5. Leave in place all summer, and till in whatever remains after the fall harvest.
Caring for your indoor seedlings
The seeds you started a few weeks ago should be growing by now. Once you see one set of leaves, remove the plastic covering and raise the grow lights to 8 inches above the plants. You might also start lightly feeding the seedlings with a garden fertilizer mixed at one-fourth the strength listed on the package for regular fertilization. Keep your seedlings consistently watered; use the fine mister to keep the soil moist but not soggy. Your seedlings have delicate roots and will not survive overly wet or dry soil.
As the plants mature, watch for overcrowding, especially if you have planted seeds in a big container or noncompartmentalized flat. If seeds are sprouting too close together, carefully pull the seedlings out of the tray so you leave just one seedling per pot or one per inch. This will give the plants plenty of room to grow and develop healthy root systems. As the seedlings get bigger, continue to thin or transplant them as needed.
The time for placing these plants in the garden is approaching. Before they are planted permanently, you will need to harden them off, which takes one to two weeks before outdoor planting time. This is a simple process that will be explained in Chapter 5.
Protect your garden with everyday household items
Once you finally get your garden growing, you will undoubtedly have to battle bugs, critters, and diseases, all of which reduce your harvest and might even kill your plants. You never know when or where they will strike. Some tried-and-true folk remedies will protect your garden plants from damage. From planting your tomato plants in a coffee can to sprinkling baby powder around the perimeter of your garden, these methods prevent you from having to buy expensive netting or toxic chemicals to ensure the safety of your vegetables. Following chapters will offer tricks to using everyday household items in your garden. Start saving these items now to have on hand as the growing season progresses:
When to plant seeds directly into the garden
In most parts of the country, early spring is still too soon to plant seeds directly into the garden. The big concerns at this time of year are soil temperature and overnight air temperatures. If you are trying to plant early, right after the ground thaws, the soil temperature will affect your seeds or plants’ roots. If the soil is too cold, the plant could die or the seed could not germinate. It does not take fancy equipment to gauge your soil temperature. If the night temperatures are near freezing or is visible frost is on the ground, it is too cold. Even if your plants could germinate, they would struggle to grow. Be patient and let the ground thaw. Once it is workable with a hand shovel or tiller, you can start planting.
Another early spring danger is a surprise temperature dip at night. Just one night of frost or below-freezing temperatures, and your new seedlings will die. In most cases, the best bet is to wait until late spring to plant your seeds. Your harvest will be about the same in the fall, and you will not have to worry about losing your first crop.
With that in mind, you can plant early a few seeds: spinach, kale, radishes, kohlrabi, beets, and parsnips. These will tolerate cold ground and cool night temperatures. Refer to the packaging of these specific seeds for more information. Your goal is to harvest your produce as close as possible to storage time. Planting early will only give you extra produce to eat during the growing season because your root cellar will not be ready for storage when these early crops ripen.
Keeping a Record
During this busy time of year, putting off recording details in your journal is easy, especially when you are tired and dirty from digging all day. But in the coming months and years, the information you record now will be invaluable to keeping your root cellar well-stocked and maintained. After you have cleaned up from a hard day of work and poured yourself a cool drink, sit down with your journal and take notes of all you have done in construction and in your garden. No detail is too small. Next year, when you are planning your garden, you will want to know which varieties and planting dates worked best.
Your journal does not necessarily have to be a notebook with handwritten notes. Consider creating a digital journal or even a blog for others to follow. Also, now is the time to chronicle your root cellar’s progress with photos. When you are in the thick of it, you think you will never forget the process, but as time goes on, it will fade. Pictures will spur memories. This way, you can share this project with future generations.