Root Cellar Procrastination

I have needed to get our root cellar painted for a long time.  Something in me says that it needs to have a nice white fresh coat of paint before I store food down there.  I just want it to look clean.  We want to paint it before we put the wood floor in it and Scott want to get the decking out of the barn so he has more room.  I have been procrastinating this painting project because when I have the time it has been so nice out that I didn't want to spend that time down in the root cellar below our basement, I wanted to be outside in the garden.  Can you blame me?  Well, today is a wet, rainy and dreary day, perfect to head down to the root cellar and paint.  Now I just have to get my kids moving so we can head to town and pick up some groceries first then down to the cellar I go.  Before we know it, we'll be needing it.  Here are some before pictures.

This is looking into the root cellar from the laundry room.

Inside looking out.

The shotty origional paint job, sand floor,  etc.

The escape tunnel.

First Setback

After further inspection of our "Out Building," it is out! The building is structurally unsound according to Scott and I can see where he is coming from. Walls, floor and roof all have places that are rotted out and it would be more of a pain to fix than to start over. However... money the way it is, the chicken coop and outdoor wood furnace will now be a 2011 project. Bummer on our first setback to the project. The garden is going to happen this summer along with the landscaping prep for the wood stove shed/chicken coop/greenhouse. All of which are super exciting. I do think that tackling our garden this year will be all we can handle with the kids being 4 and under and Scott and I both working a lot.

I have been trying to figure out what to plant, how to lay things out and how big the garden should be. Right now we are down to 2 options: 30' x 30' or 40' x 20'. Both of which I have been told are too big for a first garden and realistically it depends on what will happen when we get into the tree cutting to provide more sun and the landscaping to provide a flat spot of land. Our property is rolling hills and our house sits on top of one of those small hills.

This is also deer country, so protecting our garden from those deer will be very important. When we bought the house, part of the back yard was fenced in for the previous owner's dogs. This winter it has been nice letting Maya, our elderly Chessy, out into a back yard where she can't catch a sent and track after what ever it was all over the yard, but we will be moving that fence to protect the garden (Maya will be fine without it.) That will be one expense that we won't have. :)

It has been fun asking the kids what they want to plant in the garden. Adin has insisted on sunflowers for the birds as well as tomatoes. (Which is funny, because he doesn't like fresh tomatoes, but he does love spaghetti and I plan on canning a lot of it this year.) The Girls really didn't have much to add at this point just as long as they get to "help!" Could be an interesting summer with 2 two year olds and a 4 year old "helping", than again they really could be a lot of help. I'll guess we'll find out.