Went down Friday set up some traps for the otters talked about in my other post.. Land owner picked me up and we drove to the property. Neat place he has for hunting, small log cabin back in end of valley 1/2 mile or so off town road. So there are 2 or 3 spring heads pretty close to the cabin. Being as far as he is from a main line he has no electricity at cabin. Has wood stove for heat and Lp cook stove and some gas lights. Just neat little place for family to go hide out.
While I was messing around in the creek setting traps I ask had he ever thought about a spring house. He said he had and was actually thinking about building one right by where I'd made one otter set. Said he had gotten plans from somewhere, where they use plastic pipe. Run it round coiled inside of insulated spring house. Then use like 12v bilge or live well pump to run the water from spring into the coil. Put a small solar charger on the roof spring house to charge the 12v deep cycle battery back.. Sound like could be a pretty good set up for a home built refrigerator right there by spring head.
Anyone here still have or use a spring house?? how do you have it set up.

On a side bar about cooling things, when we left to go home. Few mile down road from his place was a young Amish couple cutting ice on farm pond. Of course once again I didn't think to take a quick picture.. Not sure where their ice house was. But they had bunch blocks up on edge pond looked to be loading on a wagon with horse hooked to it. Talk about looking like a throw back photo if you made it black and white.
Think I'll take the big camera with me today when go check traps. But then being Sunday them Amish probably all be at the bar partying watching Super Bowl.

Mac

The camp next to ours in MI had a pipe going into a concrete box that kept things cool without electric or ice.

My great Aunt and Uncle had one when I was a kid down home. This was in the 70's and they didn't use it a lot then. It was really cool, it was made from rocks out of the crick nearby and had a wooden front with a door and a metal roof. I used to like to go in it and hang out, it had wee little weird looking frogs in it. My Auntie told me that back in the 30's thru the 50's it was all they had to keep things cold. They got electricity in the 60's and didn't need it for much but my Uncle kept moonshine and beer in there at times because he had to hide it, Auntie would not have a drinking man lol.

We have a spring house about twenty feet from the back wall of our house, It has a stone foundation and 12X14 or so shed built on top of it.
The water comes in through a small opening in the back wall, pools in a stone and concrete (about 2'x2'x2')reservoir, overflows from there through a trough that is about 6"deep, 24"wide, and runs the length of the side and exits through a pipe in the wall then into an underground pipe.

Our house was built about 1900-'10 and the spring house was used to keep the food cool. The woman we bought the place from said the food was kept in crocks in the trough so that the water flowed around it. We have a sump pump in the reservoir for watering the garden when we get a stretch without rain in the summer.

We get our water from a spring about 500yards up our hill behind the house but it comes through a pipe that is separate from the one that feeds the spring house.

A lot of spring houses had a ledge built along the side that you set your containers on.

There were shelves in ours that were used for storing things like apples, pumpkins and vegs. I was told that the shelves were covered with straw and then paper and the fruits,etc was put on top of that.

still have one and use it......showed pics in another post this last yr. It has concrete box also but we dont use it to cool much,just drink the water........use to have it run into a huge cattle trough to cool things but not for 25 yrs. Mine is only 50 ft from house. Had amish rebuild it 20 yrs ago....amish style,people think its a huge doghouse

I have a capped Spring about 40 feet from my house, but no spring house. The Spring runs about 10 months a year, usually drying up in late July through August. The water stays at 52F. Without the water flowing, does any cold air come out that would keep a spring house cool?

Keith

well just a little when flowing,thats why they use to use rock or block to build them...mine never runs dry...had it tested a few times.

I live off of a spring at the farm. Also in Argentina I've seen spring houses that store all the produce and fresh meat.

I don't need to do that but if I had to I could build it as the water from the spring is cold enough.

Where I live, if you don't have a spring you can't live there, and it has been that way for 5 or 6 centuries..

Pete

My grandparents had one before they ran an electric line out to their place. Spring was above the house. Provided running water as well as fed the spring house. It had copper lines coiled and straw between the walls for insulation. Knew a small time dairy man that used spring water to keep cans of milk cold. He sold it raw stead of to a truck. Made everybody say it wasnt for human consumption though so far as i know everybody that bought from him drank it. Had a concrete trough and was gravity fed. Water went in one end and the other end had an overflow tube a couple feet higher than the inlet.

Milk house in the old barn had a spring house to keep the cans cool.We had a spring house plus a windmill that pumped water to a cistern on top of the hill. The cistern fed the house and barn with water. We eventually drilled a well and disconnected the windmill pump.Our house had carbide lamps in the house before electricity came to the area.

I've got a good spring on my property. It keeps a small pond full and is very cold year round.

I hunt at a farm where the huge stone farmhouse it built right over a spring with very good volume. It exits below a basement wall and the spring creek flows through several pastures.

Years ago the farm wife threw a bunch of watercress seeds off the porch and there is a good patch of it growing in the creek to this day...at least that's how the story goes. I've seen the watercress, not sure if that's really how it got there.

A spring fed creek runs down my road and all the old farmhouses up and down the road have them, but unfortunately I do not. Most are not in very good condition and are not valued. I would love to have one as a back-up fridge.

Most of the old farms here ran water threw their Milk house. Was either spring fed or pumped by wind mill. I remember when I was little guy the milk cans stand in water in milk house on cousins farm..That ran in from wind mill pump then over flowed back out..

Mac

When we where on the farm we had what we called the summer house There was a large enclosed porch on the back of the house .Down a few steps across a cement slab was a two and a half story shop ,storage ,milk cooling water tank fireplace for butchering etc . The basement level was below ground level Behind the building was our spring . One pipe went to the house where we had a hand pump for the first floor Another pipe delivery water to the basement by gravity . In the summer hose a pipe carried water to a cement trough that was about 2 feet deep .That is where the milk cans where kept when full The water flowed out out of the cement holding tank through the wall to a large wooden trough that was about a foot deep was used to keep items cool though the year .From there the water went underground across the yard to a watering trough for the cattle . And then went into a small stream The main floor of the summer house was mostly open with a small separate room in the back .And up a set of steps was another place that we used as storage but could have been sleeping quarters at one time I do not know who built it but it was really neat the way the water flow from one area to another serving different purposes in different places

Check out Ram Pumps.

Our neighbors Spring house was like that!

We mostly used it for storage but it would have been a great little guest quarters with the additional of a bathroom . My parents had stopped milking cows about the time I was born so I do not remember the milk cans other than what I was told .But I liked catching creek chubs and putting them in the cement tub . The wooden trough was where we would keep our watermelons in the summer .They where our Sunday afternoon treat And they where just the right temp on a hot summer day .I guess other food items where also kept there to keep them at a cool temp .The fire place was used when the annual Thanksgiving butchering was happening It was a big space and we would hang the kettles full of scrap meat to cook for ponhaus .I was just a young kid that got in the way most of the time .But when the ponhaus was ready you can bet I was near the front wanting to get a taste of that years batch. The recipe was never more than a starting point It always seemed good right from the still very hot kettle .So now Lugnut should give his experience with making ponhaus . It always reminds me of when I was a very young kid And many have said that Lugnut's scrapple is the best

Thousands of older dairy farms scattered through WI had what I call artesian wells. Some farms were able to construct or modify them so they could cool the milk, water the herd and also bring water to the house with a small windmill and tank. The farm I worked and lived on in high school had one and the milk house for our can milk was built around the well. The rest of the farm at that time had a well so it was just for cooling the milk. When a bulk tank came on the farm we capped that well as we wanted to dry up the drain field that formed from the outflow. Many neighbors had similar situations. Most farms had summer kitchens but not many had spring houses.

Bryce