The farmhouse has a dirt floor in the basement. It is an ideal place for a root cellar, cold, but not freezing and dark with limited light. One corner against the north side would be perfect for a root cellar, but on occasion, a mouse tunnels its way under the concrete walls and into the basement. That is a 7 foot dig for the little varmint! So, the root cellar has to be a place where the mice do not have access to the food stored within. Mice can squeeze through or chew through almost anything though, so a wooden box, although ideal for storing root crops if it is filled with sand, is also accessible to the mice. Today, I was pondering the problem and came up with a perfect solution - hardware cloth. It is not really cloth, but wire that has a small spacing, from a half inch to quarter inch or so, depending on which is purchased. The quarter inch would be perfect!
So, I plan to make a few very large boxes with hinged tops out of hardware cloth and therein store the pumpkins, turnips, potatoes, etc. from the garden and next year, when the garden produce is ready to be taken inside, it will have a safe haven. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. The only thing is, food touching the sides of the hardware cloth could be chewed, so perhaps the wire should still be lined with wood. I will think about this just a little more before constructing something for next year. The root cellar can house glass jars and stainless canisters, plus the hardware cloth enclosed boxes full of produce. Yay! I cannot wait.
So, I plan to make a few very large boxes with hinged tops out of hardware cloth and therein store the pumpkins, turnips, potatoes, etc. from the garden and next year, when the garden produce is ready to be taken inside, it will have a safe haven. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. The only thing is, food touching the sides of the hardware cloth could be chewed, so perhaps the wire should still be lined with wood. I will think about this just a little more before constructing something for next year. The root cellar can house glass jars and stainless canisters, plus the hardware cloth enclosed boxes full of produce. Yay! I cannot wait.
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