FAIL

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

FREAKIN’ FRACKIN’ FRIKKLE FRAT…………

I knew I jinxed myself.  I looked out the window the other day and saw that water was collecting on top of my temporary roof.  I thought to myself, “Oh, my roof really held up well!  Water collected on top, but didn’t cave in!”  But upon further inspection after the rains on Wednesday, I realized that it wasn’t keeping on the roof….It was overflowing ON to the temporary roof.

Someone please, virtually slap me.  If you break your computer in doing so, don’t blame me though.

I’ve decided to have you visualize the depth of the hole dug by the number of dead bodies that would fit in there.  Charming, I know.  This here, is about 5 well-placed dead bodies worth.  😛

So I feel pretty dumb, but hey it’s a learning experience.  I believe the roof actually kept the water out some from above.  But I hadn’t re-directed the water coming from uphill, and seeping in from around as well.  So I have to make some adjustments to the plan.

The original plan was to dig when I had the opportunities, and just use the temporary roof, maybe get new tarps for that.  I would use the poly liners to keep the water out from the sides when I was done, not while I’m digging.

Now, I realize what I would have to do to keep the run off out, is build the ground around the hole higher while digging the hole deeper.  This is obviously counter-productive considering I’m starting from the stairs, and digging in towards the root cellar.  I can’t build the ground around the hole higher, then move the dirt again.  Not one man by shovel over many weekends.  That would take far too much time.

So…my plan now is to worry about drainage first.  First,(1) the roof will be built, (2)then I will get a backhoe, rented, or pay someone, which will not only dig the hole, but shape the earth around it so water is guided around it, (3)have several people ready with the roof to move over into it’s temporary spot over the hole, (4)line the hole with poly sheeting, then building will commence.  (5) I will screw something else up along the way.  😀 When it is all said and done, I will use concrete plaster for the top bags, as well as create a concrete gutter driving water away.

The roof is a bit tricky.  Since the roof is meant to be put onto the bags, strapped, and bonded, this means that when the bags have not been put up yet, it must stand on it’s own temporarily until the bags are up.  This means either putting 4+ 4×4 posts on the outside of where the bags will be while being built, or on the inside.  The outside is fine, the inside could get in the way, or act as another space to anchor shelving.

See, I have to learn the hard way often.  I think it’s because I like to just jump into things too fast.  If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try sky diving.  Generally, once I learn, I don’t make the same mistake again though.

I hope all this stuff I’m saying makes sense to you.  I also hope if you plan on building a root cellar, you don’t learn this the hard way.

If you look into my earlier posts of this summer, you’ll see I helped some good friends build a sun-room near Asheville.  My wife (Nicole), and I went up to hang out with them this weekend, to see the progress, and for Nicole to see their home for the first time.  She loved it.  It was very impressive to see lots of lights clicking on for her with what it means to live sustainably, as our friends, Morgan and Mary Jane are doing so well.  I should’ve taken pictures of their sun-room…dang it.  But they’re working on the flooring in there, but a lot has been done and it looks really great.

She said that she really liked their home, while it’s right for them, it wouldn’t exactly work well with having a toddler, however she took lots of great ideas home in her head. She’s actually thinking about replacing one of our toilets with a composting toilet to save water, and use as compost for our non-edibles.  I was most surprised by the idea that she wanted to do that more so than any other thing she said.  She’s also interested now in rain-water catchment, solar water heating, solar heating, and solar power.

Anyway, no work will be done on the root cellar today, as most of it is going to readjusting the foiled plan.  Blast!  I’m worried about building this roof.  I have to draw up an entire plan on how to build it, when I’ve never done anything like it before.  Wish me luck!

Later dirterators.