Anybody old enough here that grew up with a spring house?

[someguyintraffic]

Saw a show and have been reading on pioneer methods of preservation and keeping pershiables cooled. Milk, etc.

The spring house was erected over a cool spring and shaded to keep a cold storage of sorts. Way before the refrigeration age.

I sometimes think weve advanced too fast and basic simple know how has been lost.

Working on building an offset cold smoker curing house and try to smoke some venison and sausage.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

my dad still has a spring house. It is about 6ft square and about 4ft deep. above that is about 7ft tall where you could store stuff. Now it houses a pump and Dad pumps water several hundred yards up to his house.

Best water you eva drank

 

[someguyintraffic]

my dad still has a spring house. It is about 6ft square and about 4ft deep. above that is about 7ft tall where you could store stuff. Now it houses a pump and Dad pumps water several hundred yards up to his house.

Best water you eva drank

Cold n clean

 

[sinclair1]

We had a spring pool at the cabin growing up. The spring came to the surface about 10 ft from the cabin, my dad dug a pool and kept his beers in there. It was shaded and had moss and frogs galore. It smelled like sulfur at times.
Somewhere I have a picture of it from the 60's

 

[someguyintraffic]

We had a spring pool at the cabin growing up. The spring came to the surface about 10 ft from the cabin, my dad dug a pool and kept his beers in there. It was shaded and had moss and frogs galore. It smelled like sulfur at times.
Somewhere I have a picture of it from the 60's

Stayed cool and got your mineral bath

 

[JackSprat]

Lived on a farm in Ky. with a spring house, limestone country, had an underground stream in a channel.

You couldn't keep your arm in the water more than about 30 seconds. Was used as a root cellar and to hang salt meat in the winter. If you cured it in the winter, and left it hanging it would go through the summer in fine shape.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Most of the older members of my family had springhouses when I was growing up. My uncle Willy's springhouse that my grandpa built is still standing a couple hundred yards up the road from my house.

 

[KyDawg]

Lived on a farm in Ky. with a spring house, limestone country, had an underground stream in a channel.

You couldn't keep your arm in the water more than about 30 seconds. Was used as a root cellar and to hang salt meat in the winter. If you cured it in the winter, and left it hanging it would go through the summer in fine shape.

There used to be a lot of them here, when I first came here. Slowly disappearing now. Seem like most people hat a root cellar near their house. I think those were mostly used for potatoes and Onions.

 

[35 Whelen]

Grandparents had one on their farm in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Also a root cellar in the basement for storing potatoes, it was cool down there even in the summertime I remember.

 

[someguyintraffic]

What's the rule of thumb, 6ft down 15 degrees cooler?

 

[hunter rich]

Grew up on a farm in Upstate NY, everyone had spring houses until the mid 70s, then a few folks moved in from the cities and drilled wells. Our water was gravity fed with a small pump for the bathroom so we could take showers.

 

[blood on the ground]

I missed out on the good old days.. Life was hard but most everyone was self sufficient.

 

[donblfihu]

Lived above the springhouse 30' by 40'when I was born for the first few years. The bottom was 2'thick stonewalls 10'tall with a concrete trough on the floor that the spring water flowed through. The trough held the milk cans until the milk could be delivered. We'd go in there after working in the heat to cool down, that was our ac. Best tasting water ever!!

 

[Jeepnfish]

My granny didn't have a spring house, but a pipe several 100 feet long coming from a spring on the ridge above her house. It came right out of the ground and was COLD. She would send me up there to collect watercress.
It wasn't a chore, its usually where I was at anyways. Collecting perrywinkles and looking for arrowheads.
I miss those days so bad, especially today on my 54th orbit around the sun.
Kids today Don't know what they're missing.

 

[Mexican Squealer]

Pretty cool...I have close to 100 cold springs on one of my GA places. Spring house would be neat.

 

[jigman29]

When I was a kid we camped in an old cabin hat used to belong to my great grandfather. It had an old springhouse out back and dad kept our milk and his beer in it while camping.

 

[specialk]

we had a house over our spring but it was to keep debris out of our drinking water....my cousin still uses it as his main water source for his house. we had a pack house that was used to get tobacco in order to send to market, it had a pit dug down in it that we stored potatoes in during the fall and winter.....