Selfsufficientish.com

Yes, even in the heat of summer the temperature under-ground is quite a bit lower than that on the surface . . . And, strangely, in the winter it seems to be slightly less cold than the surface - meaning that my milk doesn't tend to freeze when we get frosts. The ground is very rocky where we are, so i've only gone down bout a foot an a half . . . It works ok without the cool box, actually, but it does help to retain the cool on a hot day. I've put a stainless steel door from an old fridge over the top but i've seen people use wood instead.
I'd take a photo but my camera's on the blink . . . Trust me, tho - when you've seen one hole, you've seen em all!
I do actually have a real, live fridge, but it runs on bottled gas and i'm quite conscious of it being a bit of a waste - the hole&box is just as good. Try it - just be sure you've got a slug-proof box - it's not nice finding a slug-party in yer butter at breakfast time . . .

thank you! :-)

Picture: http://oi39.tinypic.com/zoangi.jpg

Video: http://youtu.be/vcuSlaecvIw

In my cellar/cave which is rock on 3 sides and 2ft stone wall on the other and Northwest facing, it maintains a constant 14 degrees and we fluctuate from 40c to minus 12c.

"An inscription from 1700 BC in northwest Iran records the construction of an icehouse, "which never before had any king built." In China, archaeologists have found remains of ice pits from the seventh century BC, and references suggest they were in use before 1100 BC. Alexander the Great around 300 BC stored snow in pits dug for that purpose. In Rome in the third century AD, snow was imported from the mountains, stored in straw-covered pits, and sold from snow shops. The ice formed in the bottom of the pits sold at a higher price than the snow on top.

From Wikipedia
Eddy