Wednesday 6 January 2016

Use Winter To Your Advantage

One of the challenges that I have when the real cold weather hits is that the effectiveness of my fridge drops off significantly. Usually this is not a problem, but when I am trying to get stuff frozen, it is.

While out in Banff I cooked up two large batches of food, one for my work lunches and one for my meals at home. I have food for two to three months . . . seriously they were big batches. 

The trouble is that I have to have this stuff frozen in order for it to keep, and with my freezer not working properly, this is an issue. My best guess as to why my freezer is not working lies in how it works and the environment in which it was intended to work. 

My fridge/freezer works by heating up (with electricity or propane) the coolant so that coolant can circulate around the fridge/freezer. As the coolant circulates, it moves the heat from the fridge part to the outside where it is warmer. This works well when the temperature outside is warmer, but when the outside is colder than the inside of this freezer, this cycle doesn’t work. 

My answer hit me when I was grumbling while shaking my five gallon water container. I need to shake that thing up like a martini in order to break up the ice that forms within it (something I need to do at least twice a day). I realized that the answer lay in doing what nobody would think of doing . . . leave the freezer door open.

Since the outside world and the inside of Wanda (when the furnace is not on) is definitely below zero, all I need to do is to let that cold get at my “soon to be frozen” food. So for the next few days I am experimenting with leaving that freezer door open when I am either sleeping or out. 

The other thing I did was to use the snow to cool down my too hot water. In the mornings I boil water to make my morning bowl of porridge and for my morning Bachelor’s Bath (I reeeeally miss my shower).

The water was too hot to pour over my head to wash my hair, so I put it in the snow for a few minutes . . . thank you -15C. 

These are but a few examples to get the point across that to use whatever situation and environmental conditions to your advantage, whenever possible. 

Sometimes it is best not to fight Mother Nature but to work with her and let her help you do what you need to get done.  I will keep you posted on how my “Natural Deep Freeze” experiment goes.

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