Banking Our House For Winter

Years ago when I was young and living in Cape Breton a yearly ritual was banking the house for winter. Our houses did not have basements as we have today but were built on heavy sills made of wood. There were often openings to the outside world under some houses which did not have a cellar. A cellar consisted of a dug out area under the house used for storing winter potatoes and other vegetables.

Our house was built by my Dad and friends and was a project in the making. My father never stopped improving our house and digging the basement after the house was built was back breaking work. The earth had to be carted out with a wheel barrow or shovelled out through an opening.

Dad wanted a proper basement so every year he would build a permanent wall out of bricks or concrete blocks. The work seemed to take forever but he per served and finally we had a basement with a coal furnace and storage bins for our garden produce . Dad even had some tools there and would do some wood work and repairs for the house.

Until this was done every year we would put up a board wall about a foot high all around the house and fill the space between the wall and the house with sawdust or shavings from the mill.This protected the house from the north-west winds which swept our town during the winter months. It seemed like someone sounded the signal an everyone was busy doing the same thing. Neighbours helped each other and horse drawn loads of saw dust made the task easier. Some people still used earth to bank their house but this rotted the bottom cedar shakes and caused future damage.

I never thought this task as work as it was a necessary ritual and I am glad it is a memory rather than a task to be completed this week.