On 12/24/2014 8:28 AM, MaryL wrote:
>My grandfather was a farmer in the early-to-mid part of the last
>century. He had a large ice house, and people would drive by (first in
>horse and buggy, later in automobile) to buy ice for their ice boxes.
>My grandparents, land went to the edge of a large lake, and my
>grandfather would cut large squares of ice from the lake in the >winter.

I've seen things on tv about that, so interesting. Ice
businesses wound up having to move further and further north
as their lakes wouldn't freeze like they used to.

Global warming, nothing new.

> These would be stored in the ice house. That was before my time, but
>I think extra insulation was provided by covering the ice with sawdust
>in the ice house. They also had an underground root cellar, and that
>was cool enough to store many varieties of food for extended periods
>of time. They had an electric refrigerator by the time I was born,
>but they still used the root cellar for many items. They lived in
>northeast Ohio.

I have seen farmhouses that sill have their root cellar, and that's
where they keep the canned stuff they put up, aside from whatever
else. Maybe even root vegetables. Seems weird to me with the dirt
floor but I guess they don't get too many bugs or whatnot.

nancy