Letters To The Editor

Dear Editor,

One of my biggest concerns about losing power is pump failure in our basement. We do not plan on having a generator. What can we do to keep our basement from having standing water if we were to lose electricity?

Thanks for any help and information you may have.

Sincerely,

Dee

Dear Dee,

I know that you’ve said you don’t plan on having a generator, but you really don’t need to discount a solar generator (it makes no noise and requires no fuel to run – it’s solar powered) for just the scenario you’re talking about. On September 2, 2011, we had a podcast with our very own Eileen Coale, part of our Solutions From Science family and an East Coast resident, who was greatly affected by Hurricane Irene. You can listen to the show or download a copy of the transcript at //www.offthegridnews.com/2011/09/02/the-high-cost-of-ignoring-disaster-preparation-episode-064/.

There is a lot of good information in that show, and Eileen shares how her PowerSource 1800 saved their basement. However, if you still don’t want a backup system at all, there are several ways to manually pump out your basement. Here is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle that gives details on several options and at least gives you some ideas — https://homeguides.sfgate.com/drain-water-sump-pump-breaks-40608.html

Thanks for writing!

The Editor

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Dear Editor,

I am interested in building a root cellar for vegetable storage. Can you give me any ideas to get me started? What vegetables do well in a root cellar? Which ones don’t? Are there any vegetables that I shouldn’t store together? And what kind of a structure should I build?

Thanks for your help!

John

Dear John,

Like you, I’m very interested in learning how to build a root cellar for vegetable storage. In fact, my husband has begun laying out the area where the root cellar will go. One of the best books that I’ve found on root cellaring (building one and vegetable storage) is this book in the Solutions From Science store, Root Cellaring. You can go to this link to order it: https://www.solutionsfromscience.com/?p=4233

It has all the information you need to learn successful root cellaring methods, as well as sound construction methods for building your own root cellar. As an editor, I can be quite critical of “how-to” books, especially those that promise a lot but deliver nothing but fluff. This book is NOT one of those. It’s full of great, practical information and I’ve learned a lot from it. It needs to be in any prepper or homesteading library.

Happy root cellaring!

The Editor

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