I awoke to the sound of Mrs. Curmudgeon swearing. This isn’t unusual, she’s more of a morning person than me but that’s like saying an untamed lioness is cuddlier than a nuclear bomb. Basically, our house isn’t safe for anyone until the coffee is done.
This morning’s swearing was a different tone. Slightly more urgent; a bit of an edge. I listened but decided to stay put. I didn’t hear gunfire and I didn’t smell coffee so maybe bed was a good place to stay? Caution was in order. Never get in a land war in Asia…
Then I heard it. “Goddamn it! The bacon too?!?”
RED ALERT!
I hauled ass to the scene of the disaster. Dead freezer. NOOOOOOO!
A rough way to start the day. Nobody should be knee deep in slimy bad meat before they’ve had their morning coffee. Alas, these things happen.
It was a large upright freezer that had died from top toward bottom. Some stuff was still frozen at the bottom and some was way gone at the top. In between, ya place your bets and you take your chances. I’m not into food poisoning so we were cautious.
We picked through the wreckage and luckily most of the bacon and venison steak was good. As was a lot of the fish I’ve caught. Some was coffee so that was definitely safe. (We keep whole beans frozen to maintain freshness but it’s not like beans go bad like meat.) A little more was safe to go straight into the oven for a huge lunch. The rest? Gone…
The good news is that I’d hedged my bets. Ever paranoid and a touch of a survivalist, we have two freezers. One is none and two is one. We now have one. Honestly, I’d fretted more over power than the freezer itself. My “use this generator to keep food cold in case of power outages” plan wasn’t going to save the day. It may save some other day.
I didn’t plan it that way but since the newer freezer is still ice cold clean up and triage went much faster. Without it we’d have lost much more and spent all day screwing around with ice and coolers. And likely buying first freezer I could find.
As it was we lost lot a lot of ham and chicken. It was a sad drive to the dump. I have no idea what the financial loss would be, it was mostly things I’d raised or hunted. It’s a moot point anyway.
I reminded myself that the best of all possible “first world problems” to have is “one of my two freezers failed and it was a partial loss of the huge supply of food I keep on hand“. When you think of it that way, it’s a good time to be alive.
It’s been a rough winter financially. There’s been a dead washing machine, a currently defunct dryer, and now a dead freezer. (Surprisingly, I had backups for two of three. I had an old “spare” dryer already semi-installed with a duplicate redundant vent. I had it up and running in half an hour. Know anyone with two dryers? We also lost one of two freezers which still puts us many hundreds of pounds of food ahead of none.) They say these things come in threes. Lets hope so ’cause I’m punch drunk.
It could have been worse. Much worse! Ask anyone in Venezuela if my sob story seems pretty much better than the best day of their year. That said, bad luck still sucks and some years are more expensive than others.
The malfunctioning freezer can be repurposed to a storage facility for ….
guns.
Powder + primers, if you reload
A semi-warm storage place if you add a light with an incandescent bulb…
And it looks just like… a freezer.
Good point but I have the storage situation in hand. However I’m already getting antsy having only one freezer. Two is one and one is none and I’m not going to calm down until the freezer situation is redundant again.
Just going to leave this here for you
Digital Refrigerator Thermometer – NeKan Freezer Thermometer with Min/Max Display Wireless Indoor/Outdoor with Audible Alarm (Battery not Included) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GQ2SL7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_F4JUAbM24NTSF
I think I’m going to buy one of those. I’m a bit confused though, why does one photo have a lemon tree lurking in the refrigerator? Why does another photo show “arthritis”? Mystifying. But yeah, I prepped for power outage but not freezer failure.
Second not. In the process of moving the family into a new (to us) home.
I’ve achieved a level up goal I set after the birth of the fourth kid. I have a house with rion for, and have secured, a fully functional second dryer!
6 people average 6-7 loads of laundry per week. Two dryers makes that less than a 4 hour job!
Extra fishing time!
I installed the dryers side by side but only have one 220V outlet. When one “broke” it was simple to swap the plug. But I can’t run ’em both. That would be much better.
I love it when a plan comes together.
That said; while redundant systems are good; redundant systems plus early detection of failure are better:
https://www.diycontrols.com/t-freeze-alarms-comparison-chart.aspx
Yep. A sensor is now on my “to do” list.
Also, now I’ve got an image of your household appliances turning on their redundant counterparts and going full “There Can Be Only One” on them…
Freezer going out is a problem. Happened to my brother 5 years ago. I remember because I was in the way to Korea and he had just lost a job. So we gave him our chest freezer and upgraded the wiring circuit that powered it. The smell of losing most of a hog in mid summer isn’t easily forgotten.
We lost our upright freezer in Korea. With 4 kids you need a freezer or two. Damn thing Just quit out of spite I think. So I bought the ONLY 60Hz 120 Volt freezer I could find. 60 cycle power and appliances aren’t common in Asia. Got it home only to find out the darned thing has an auto defrost feature, which I despise because it desiccates food. It will probably last forever because I don’t like it. Appliances can and do understand spitefulness. Is spitefulness a word? If not, it still conveys the idea.
I hope things ease up for you and the Mrs. A family can only take so much in one winter.
Lost my freezer last year, so I know how that is. I feel for you, AC.
This year it was one of the (2) central units. I’ve never before written a $5700 check, as best I remember. That hurt!
American Pressure Canner is the Cadillac of canners.
Walmart has the cheapest price on Mason jars. (You need to order and entire pallet to beat their prices.
All American will can meat in broth – better than stews etc. Though it will can stew. Bacon. Venison. whatever. Shelf-life of several years with no worries about the power grid.
And while I haven’t done it, I’m told you can sometimes buy in bulk from your local supermarket if you talk to the produce manager. (A friend puts green beans when they are in season.)
OH – that would be a nightmare. I’ve canning jars galore if an errant ice storm comes through (we did 3 weeks once – they came in handy).
Turns out my dorm-sized fridge/freezer quits working when the ambient temp gets down to 50 or so- above that, it runs. Lost some recently-bought meat and swore a lot when last winter was approaching. New plan: do without a freezer. I tell myself I’m practicing for a long-term grid down but the truth is I’m too cheap to buy a good fridge.
When I lived in Europe I had a fridge like that. It was brand new too. I helped my landlord move it in and I thought “holy shit this thing is light, what miracles have they wrought with this device?” Later I learned it didn’t keep things cold so much as pleasantly cooler than ambient temperature but nowhere near frosty.
Euro style beer cooler, then…