Back on the farm – Day 2! We got down pretty early with the idea to beat the heat. We unloaded the last set of black walnut tree branches we cut yesterday and then picked up all of the black walnut logs and put them in the corn crib to dry.
Our main task today was cleaning out the cave. The cave is where my grandmother stored all of her canned goods and meat before they had a refrigerator. When I was growing up in the 70’s, we would go to the cave when there was a storm moving through. After all us kids left the farm, the cave became a place where Dad would store his “stuff” or just throw things he didn’t want to have to deal with. We have a sump pump in the basement and Dad had hoses over the years that would come up the stairs and then out into the yard for the water to drain. I lost count, but I think we through away at least 10 hoses today.
My grandfather hired a guy in the 1940’s to put plaster on the walls of the cave. He did a really nice job and the white plaster really made it feel a lot brighter down there. Over the past 30 years, the plaster has started to fall off the walls because of moisture getting in and that contributed to a lot of the junk on the floor. We spent the morning with two five gallon buckets hauling plaster and dirt off the floor of the cave. We took the load to the landfill and ended up with over 1100 pounds!
There were a ton of jars that my Grandma Dop used over the years that were laying on the floor. We set up as many as we could on the shelf and then more on the floor. Becky found a quart Ball jar with the contents still in it. The cap is rusty, but after cleaning off the jar, discovered it was about half full with beets! This jar has to be over 60 years old because my grandparents moved from the farm into town in 1963. We’ll be showing off the jar this Saturday at our family reunion.
