Our old(ish) upright fridge freezer, dowager with a leaky midriff and an over frozen bottom, is now officially decommissioned.
Sleep tight old girl.
Although it isn't, not really.
We have cunning plans and clever tricks for this now defunct white good, and electricity will play no part in it.
A more reliable and permanent solution will need to present its self in the next few weeks, if the front door is left open and the sun is shining our "cool" spot becomes decidedly warm!
In an ideal world I have the perfect room for a traditional cold pantry. Thick stone walls, north facing, potential to stone clad the floor for maximum humidity.
Only trouble is, its in the kids bedroom *sigh*.
We have wracked our brains for ages trying to work a way around this.
There MAY be the possibility of buying a really nice insulated mobile home that we could have in the garden and convert into outside bedrooms. We COULD try to work out a way to build something ourselves.
We''ll see.There are plenty of options available if the money is there but..well..insert slightly hysterical laughter HERE :P
So, failing turfing the kids out of their beds and making them sleep with the dogs there are other options, but sadly none so perfect.
But hey life is all compromise right!!?
For example, no more eating half a tin/jar of something then putting it in the fridge for a week, or worse still, forgetting about the left half and throwing it away.
Tonight I made stir fry with half a jar of Tempah. Usually I would put the rest in the fridge and wait for another stir fry night, but instead I am going to make a casserole for dinner tomorrow and put the remaining Tempah in it.
For years I have brought the egg free mayonnaise in squeezy plastic bottles (because even before we gave up commercial eggs altogether I could never find a free range mayonnaise that didn't taste nasty!). I am truly awful at making mayonnaise but DAMN IT!! I have eggs coming out of my ears some days I should bloody well LEARN to make mayonnaise! That way I can make only what I need and have no extra to store AND no plastic to recycle!On Saturday I made tomato soup and for lunch the next day I turned the left over into pasta sauce.
Using snow to cool cider and fruit juice!
Everything like this is used within 24hrs.
I'm also experimenting with replacing margarine (spread) with vegetable oil in baking. So far its working really well, with some interesting muffin textured cakes. Margarine tubs are one of those things we can't recycle so it will be great to cut those down anyway.
Its been insightful anyway and will probably be even more so over the next few weeks.
I really admire how you and your family consider the environmental footprint you are leaving.
ReplyDeleteI love that you are resourceful and work together to find solutions that might not be easier, but are much more worth doing.
You are better people then me and mine in that regard! lol. We like it easy, and in fact most of us make money off consumers who are....... the opposite of you.
:)
So don`t tell anyone I said this...but keep it UP!!!!
Shhh..Krista your secret is safe with me ;)
ReplyDeleteWe are NOT better than you and yours, after all you keep sneaking in here to see what we do don't you?? And you grace the world simply by being in it xx
We're not at the point of being a moneyless family so we ALL make money off consumers. Kim is working with horses again, but the guy who owns said horses works in OIL so really should Kim be working for him?? But if you wanna take it THAT far!....... LIfe can get very complicated when you go down that road.
Even if Me and Kim decided to create things, wooden statues, drawings, stories...people would come and buy them..and use their consumerism to do so.
I'll take my baby steps first ;)
xx
Oh stop it. You know you all rock, you can only ignore the truth for so long sweetie. ;)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I admire most that you guys are actually taking responsibility for your existence instead of just nodding along to the evening sitcoms with your Stouffers (or another brand name version of frozen dinner). You guys are having experiences and learning and best of all, cooperating with Mother Nature! I love Mother Nature *siiigh*
And, trading is becoming quite a popular form of meeting needs nowadays here. We might see a bigger barter economy grow from the recession :)
That is exciting news!
On a side note: I think I am going to get Kyle into Horse Riding/tending lessons this fall. I think for all his difficulties, it will be the perfect thing for him. I almost can't wait lol.
You might find some useful info on the following web site: www.selfsufficientish.com;
ReplyDeletesomewhere on there I once read a brilliant idea about making a natural cool container with two terracotta pots(one slightly smaller than the first) and some sand inbetween them, then some water added to the sand. I think, the capillary action/reaction of the sand and water was making the inner pot into a cool chamber you could store some perishables in. Might be worth considering.
Thanks Sarina and welcome !!
ReplyDeleteWe looked into the terrecotta pot idea but I'm not convinced it would work for us. It seems to work best in hot and dry climates for maximum evaporation. We are a bit muggy here in Scotland in the Summer!
Never say never though, we alread have plans for a winter fridge and a summer fridge and the pot idea is certainly cheap enough to invest in as well, you never know when we might bet a heat wave XD
Years ago I used to live very similar to you. My fridge had broken and I was doing without for a long while. My kitchen is north facing, therefore was always cool enough for most things. I also have a north facing bathroom. The floor was always cold enough to store some items in the corners under the sink. Mind you, in those days I had no central heating either, and the floors were freezing cold in the winter, and just cool enough throughout the summer. I wish you luck in finding a workable solution for yourselves.
ReplyDelete