There’s a lot of things I like about being a survivalist…the clothing is usually quite durable, the sense of security is quite nice, and there’s a satisfaction from being somewhat resourceful and prepared. But, on the other hand…the hours are horrible and there is often a lot of heavy lifting. Case in point…..
Because it was solidly below freezing today, today became Organize The Freezer Day. It could also be called Arctic Archaeology Day.
Let’s be reasonable, if you’re going to ‘clean out’ and organize your freezer you need to temporarily remove the frozen contents. The key challenge in this is, naturally, keeping stuff frozen. There are two ways to do this: have an empty extra freezer or wait until it’s 5-degrees outside and stage your freezer contents outside. I went with option #2.
First off, I discovered that I have a lot more butter than I thought I did. A lot. Same for ground beef. And at least a half dozen half-turkeys that were bought at post-Thanksgiving sales five years ago. but, since they were vacuum sealed and in the freezer all this time, they’ll cook up just fine. They are, however, bulky. Stuff I did not know I have? Well, there was a brisket the size of a folded beach towel. And a buncha short ribs. I had no idea they were there but they’ve been there for at least the last six years so it’s time to crack them open and do something with them. It was also interesting to note the prices over the years as well. It made the coming year look even more dismal.
But…it needed to be done. I was literally out of room in my deep freeze and in the kitchen freezer. On the good side, having no room means I am at full capacity on food. The bad news is that I have no capacity to increase the supply unless I wanna buy another freezer…which I do not.
But, my advice to you is this: if it’s close to 0-degrees where you are, one of these weekend you might wanna block out a few hours and go through your freezer(s) and get a feel for what you have and make some more space for more food.
Our ground beef in Maine has been running ~$7.00/lb(!) for the last 4 months. Today it’s magically back down to $2.99/lb. Loaded up, obviously – strange times, though.
I’ve always done the defrost project in mid summer when the hot weather can do the job in a day. All the stored contents go into large styro boxes, of which I have a rather large supply stashed in the attic.
Your approach has merit, and as I need to do that inventory and rotation of stock thing too, I may try it. We hit minus 17f last week, and I’ve been snarking about needing a new snow storm to warm things up a bit. As for melting out the built up frost, I have a propane torpedo heater nearby that will do it in short order.
A full freezer is most efficient, so I fill up any spare space with ice blocks, pulling them as new stock needs the space. As you point out, it’s a nice problem to have finding room for new stock as I spot a good sale.
We also like to store things like flours, nuts, grains; anything with oils that can go rancid at room temp will last much longer frozen. We seal them up in jars or ziplocs to keep them dry. Even the stocked ahead bag of dog food goes in the bottom shelf if there’s room–that one was displaced by sale turkeys a month ago.
Fill spare space with water bottles. Gives you ice to keep things cool and gives you a place to store spare water.
CZ, you have no idea how reassuring it is to know someone else eats meat that’s been frozen 5-6 years. I do my own venison butchering and wrapping, so it’s up to me to get a good tight fold on that freezer paper. I won’t say I’ve never had any freezer burn, but very, very little. Good reminder that rotating the meat and uncovering surprises is a wintertime chore.
Yep, I do that every winter though I wish I could do it close to zero not the -30 or so it tends to be here. On the plus side this time of year I can really take advantage of good deals as I have all the freezer space I could use, right up until spring. One of our local grocers had somehow gotten way too much pork shoulder and loin and ended up selling it for 49 and 69 cents/lb. Got about all I need for next years sausage making.
Cpt Zero do you have a freezer alarm, or an uninterruptable power supply hooked up to your Meaty Assets?
Like Car insurance you never want to use it but beats losing all that meat (OR Worse a trip to the Hospital for a hidden power Opps, FAR pricier than a freezer full of meat) I like knowing with the uninterruptable I have an alarm and a bit over an hour to do something about it. If I was more techie, I’d go with the smart phone app thing as an alert.
Poor man version is the container full of frozen water with a coin set on the top. If it’s NOT still on the top, you have a problem and an educated guess just how much damage has occurred.
Food poisoning, it’s a nasty thing.
When did I get demoted?
CDR to CAPT is a promotion!
Fair winds, and following seas….
well played.
Field Marshall Zero has a nice ring to it. As long as the comrade flavor hasn’t crept in.
My (admittedly temporary) solution was to buy another freezer… Happened that there was a smallish one on sale in a local auction. So I have two chests, one medium, one smaller, a big upright, and a freezer that looks like a typical garage fridge/freezer, but the small top part it the fridge, and the bigger bottom part is the freezer. I put thermometers on all of them, and put the “outdoor” sensor inside the freezer. Works great to see what the internal temp is without opening the door. On two others I have wireless thermometers with alarms.
Short term power outages they just coast thru, medium or more than several hours I run the gennie. Long term or grid down, I ‘d set up the solar panels and inverters. Modern freezers don’t draw much power.
n
The captain rank is superior to commander.
I rotate a number of 2-liter soda bottles filled with water and kept frozen and cycle them in the fridge. This time of year is great because I keep a second set outside and swap them when those in the fridge melt. If we lose power, those bottles keep the fridge temp cold a LOT longer than without.
I was curious as to the difference between a Survivalist and Prepper. This site gave their opinion as to the differences:
https://survivallife.com/survivalist-vs-prepper-key-differences/
Me? Both
My definition. A prepper wants to live a middle class existence, so can only prepare for the short term. A survivalist is getting ready for a die-off, a civilization collapse, and quantity is far better than quality. The linked article I believe was too focused on To Stockpile or to Not Stockpile. Unless you are going to live a Stone Age life, everyone needs to stockpile. PS: you preppers suck. Go, Malthus!
A prepper is a non-gun-heavy survivalist.
Ya, I always figured it depended on your bullet to bean ratio.
Option C: Get a freeze dryer.
Like you needed another thing.
But I’ve got one on the list.
Let you know how it works out if I drop the hammer.
See: Failed Circuit Alarm at Amazon. Screeches like a smoke detector when power to whatever outlet it’s plugged into fails. Not much help if you’re not home to hear it so I’m looking at automatic dialers. And, depending on your house alarm system, there are solutions – mine texts me if house power is lost and I can add temp sensors which I can set the reporting point to whatever temp I want, same texting deal.
RE: UPS for freezers/fridges – be aware of locked rotor current demand – that’s the high current draw required when a motor starts, and unless it’s a VERY big UPS (larger than even the 1500VAC units that are excellent for computers, TVs, etc. and FYI, do not plug your laser printer into a UPS, the fuser draws too much current) it probably won’t be able to supply the necessary amperage for the first couple seconds of motor startup. Which will kill a motor fairly quickly, sometimes in months.
After reading this blog for years, I am AMAZED that there is not an inventory spreadsheet that covers the contents of the freezer(s).
Of course there is.
He just hasn’t published it.
I am almost afraid to get to the bottom of a few of my freezers 😉
The new freezer is filling nicely, $75 of spareribs(cryopacked) the other day,may loose space for water bottles soon. Vacuum packer has been busy lately on this. Cmdr.Z have you tried canning clarified butter(ghee)? In India that is how it is sold/stored,may last years at almost any temp.