Musings, reflections and life altering decisions.

Power Off Weekend mark II over.

Diary written, photos posted, backs slapped all round.

These weekends to me seem to be the perfect chance to reflect on things.
Not just the family stuff. Spending distraction free time with your family and loved ones is always a fantastic thing to do, but on some more practical elements to our lifestyle.

Malcolm Handoll has already suggested having four POW's a year, at each solstice and equinox and the suggestion set my mind racing as to how I can make my home, my life, even more electric free friendly.

As though the gods of coincidence were listening (and laughing no doubt) my fridge freezer went on the blink.

Well in all fairness its been a bit dodgy for a while.
There is a permanent puddle in the bottom of the fridge, even though the drain bit is clear, the freezer used to over freeze at the best of time but now the seal is broken.

What to do then?

Well, a quick look inside the beast told me all I needed to know.
The fridge contained......

1 UHT carton of rice milk
1 UHT carton of orange juice

1/2 cucumber

1 carrot
4 tubs of vitalite
1/2 can of chick peas
small ball of left over pastry.

....and all spread over 4 shelves...bit echo-ie in there..

Best of all was the contents of the freezer....I kid you not...

2 ice cube trays
4 peas.

Hmmm...and I'm running this 24 hrs a day why?

Anyone ever see fight club?? Edward Norton's lament about the contents of his blown up fridge "A fridge full of condiments and no food. How embarrassing."

You said it buddy.

A quick look online threw up a lot of people asking the same question. Some had ditched the fridge and never looked back, some were dithering and others where plain aghast at the idea.

Funny to think that a white appliance that really only became common place in the 70's has become the ONE thing people can't imagine living without.

Seriously, you find blogs about people who compost their poo and weave their own clothes out of dandelions but ask whether they would give up their fridge and they shrink away in horror!!

Understandably, modern homes (post 1960's) are not designed for the fridge-less. 

Up till then, all houses possessed a pantry/larder/cupboard in a cool part of the house and that's where "fridge" food went.

An argument against going fridge-less is that our grandmothers would shop almost daily for fresh food so little would need to be kept.
This is true, and its also very true that many families are too busy to shop like that now BUT it has to be said that back then you didn't have the wealth of preserved food that you have now.

For example our soya/rice/oat milks are all UHT and do not need refrigeration before opening and only need to be kept moderately cool after.
Eggs and cheese do better at a slightly higher temperature than a fridge will provide.
Many MANY items found in a fridge now don't even need to be in there.
Condiments, pickles, jams, peanut butter (yeah!! People do that!!) fruit, most vegetables.... none of these need to be kept at 5oC and yet we stuff our fridges with them!

So once we take all that stuff out what are we left with??
Spreads? Yogurt? Leftovers?
Not really enough to run a wardrobe sized appliance for is it?

So we run an appliance that we stuff full of things we don't really need in there. We go nuts buying 2 for 1 deals to shove in the freezer and always ALWAYS its half crammed full of things like soup (from 3 years ago), some frozen veg you brought but didn't like (WHY havent you thrown it out??) the 2nd packet of the 2 for 1 deal (it was 2 for 1 because it taste like cack) and, of course, a couple of mystery meal tubs of leftovers stuffed in the back, covered with permafrost.

Anyway. After chatting to Kim about it we've decided to give it a go.
No pressure.
The plan is to wind down the VAST contents of our fridge freezer and then decommission it (I have plans for it though, don't worry!) and then see how it goes.

If it all goes horribly wrong we can still buy a fridge, although a much smaller one without a freezer, maybe just a small ice box.
If the summer is stupid hot we might buy one of those little mini fridges you can get 6 cans in so things like the spread will be ok.

There are a lot of if's.

Some of it depends on how other things to do with the house pan out.
Some of it doesnt matter.

Do I sound cryptic??
Sorry, nothing sinister meant by it, just too much STUFF to explain here!

So there you have it.
I'm open to any suggestions re: keeping food good and hopefully I can let you all know how it goes!

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