Kalkgrube - Geschichten_en_v3

The Lime Pit

Every spring, lime was taken from the lime pit to make white-wash for the walls. A bag of slaked lime was bought at the warehouse on Sixthaselbach, which was then put into the pit (about 2.5 m x 2.5 m), doused with water, and stirred. We say the mixture is ''extinguished'', because there is a chemical reaction in which the water becomes steaming hot and looks like it is smoking. You have to stir it diligently so that everything dissolves and doesn't form any lumps.

Our stirrer was a long pipe with a triangular blade at the front. After a little while, the process is finished and the lime is ''extinguished''. The lime is diluted with water and painted onto all of the brick walls, from the kitchen to the barn.

In addition to its white color, the lime had the benefit of disinfecting the walls. Thus, ever since the Middle Ages, all premises or stables were disinfected and treated with slaked lime after serious illness or death.
It is easy to transport and available regionally as slaked lime and can be applied virtually anywhere.

After our lime pit was filled in, due to the creation of the new vegetable garden in 1975, the white-wash was made, only as much as was needed, in an old trough.


Written down on October 12, 2012 by Johann Wiesheu (*1965), Munich
Translation by Maximilian Grötsch and Peggy Chong

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