A couple of weeks ago I went to get something out of the almost 20 year old chest freezer for dinner. As soon as I opened the lid it collapsed and a bunch of water poured out. What I had not realized was that the small cracks that had developed on the underside of the lid (in the plastic) had allowed condensation to gather in the insulation of the lid. Over time the water gathered and the weight proved too much. Oddly enough I had been recently thinking that the old freezer probably should be replaced before too long. That is what I get for thinking I suppose. Being a little nervous about the mixture of water, electricity and the outer metal casing I started looking for a replacement freezer. This time, I wanted an upright. I’m not getting any younger and I am tired of losing items in the bottom of the chest freezer only to be found on the next defrosting. A frost free was desired but wasn’t a deal breaker. I did however, have to have a hight temp alarm and wanted a door alarm too. I had heard way too many stories about upright doors left open.
In a couple of days I had located the unit I wanted, a 14 cf Frigidaire online. I started making phone calls only to discover that apparently these freezers only exist in theory because they were nowhere to be found locally. Gardening season is my guess. T and I discussed it and we decided to go ahead and get a size larger for a little more. It had the alarms I wanted, was frost free, was a little shallower ( a good thing where it has to sit) and had an extra shelf that the 14cf didn’t. Only problem was it wasn’t at the Lowes nearby. They checked and a store about 15 miles away had one. We were off.
Once I decide I want something I have already had to wait too long. Also, I am too cheap to pay someone else for something I can do myself so we picked it up at the store. It took two of us and a dolly to get it up the 4 steps and into the house which went off without a hitch. Thank God we don’t live on the second floor though. When I started removing the box I realized that the freezer we had looked like it had fallen off a truck somewhere or that something reeeeallly heavy had sat on it as the sides and handle were buckled. So… the next morning it went back on the truck and back to the store. They had one more unit so I requested, (insisted) they remove the box for inspection before we left the store. Everything looked good and the swap only took a few minutes.
Back home, back up the four steps and into the house. At this point there was no more freezer moving in me. I decided that if we plugged this one in and it didn’t work they would have to come and get it. Fortunately it works great and I am loving it. I cleaned out the old freezer and found stuff in there I had long forgotten even existed. Needless to say I am trying to be a bit more organized in the new one. I repurposed the baskets from the old freezer and as soon as I get a cabinet to go in its place it will either go to the trash or to freecycle. I suppose if someone was creative they could replace the inner lid with a piece of plexiglass and some new insulation. It does still freeze.
The rest of the week I spent cooking and canning. I made 6 lasagnas and froze 5. Made some meatloaf, canned 7 qts and 30 pints of tomatoes, made 10 pints of mixed berry pancake syrup and harvested the dill seed. I left a lot of seed on the plants to fall and reseed the spot so I would have dill next year. All in all a very productive week.