For anyone who has ever lived in the country, you know what an old storm cellar looks like and may have spent an hour or two huddled in one, waiting out a tornado. The house we lived in when I was born, and the house my brother lived in when he first got married, both had storm cellars. As kids, we’d grab a stick to clear away the cobwebs, find a flashlight and head on in to see what kind of rodents were hiding out in the cool, damp spaces.

For the life of me, I don’t understand why that was fun.

Now, we live up by the lake where a lot of folks have summer cabins. As I turn up the road headed toward the lodge on my (sometimes) daily jog, I go past this old counter-weight that is used to help open the cellar door.

When I asked my father-in-law about it, he said it used to be used primarily as a root cellar to store potatoes, vegetables and canned food, but also as a storm cellar. He laughed and said many campers have waited out storms in there!

I’m sure it’s not a pleasant place to be, but when faced with a potential tornado, a spider or snake doesn’t seem all that bad.

Until we walk again …