[3K9Mom]

Three words that strike fear into all our hearts:

My refrigerator died.

I have two whole turkeys in the freezer. About 10 pounds of beef kidney. 20 pounds of beef ribs. Pounds and pounds and pounds of chicken drumsticks, turkey necks, some duck. A bit of chicken liver. Did I mention salmon? Four months of veggie stew. All melted and soggy.

Oh yeah, a tiny bit of human food.

We have a home warranty, so for a $50 deductible, all repairs and replacement even will be covered, but the soonest the repair person can be out will be Tuesday most likely.

I'll boil up what I can and feed to my non-raw eating dogs. But that still leaves A LOT of food for Camper to eat in the next couple days. I let a raw-feeding friend know she can have whatever she wants too, but she has only one GSD who eats only 2 lbs per day.

Oh dear.

Food is SO expensive right now too.

 

[elsie]

oh man, what a shame.
feel really bad for you.

 

[Brightelf]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Do you know anybody at a raw feeding co-op? Can anybody-- anywhere-- lend you freezer space? Can you rent a stand-alone freezer? Raw food CAN be okay for a week in the fridge. I know, I know-- I wouldn't want to risk it either, but many have done this. You can't re-freeze people-intended food once thawed, but dogs really couldn't care less if the 2nd-time-thawed meat is a lil gloppier and less firm in texture-- and is safe if served immediately upon thawing. I wouldn't take any risks with SIBO-prone Camper either.. just giving some ideas and info that I have heard from others.

Do you know anyone that works at a college, school, learning institution where you could "rent space" in their freezer for 5 days? Sorry if these ideas sound desperate and ditzy... I just want you to keep and use all the good stuff!

If anything must be discareded, let it be the cheaper stuff.. maybe let Camper's diet this week be the costlier stuff.

Anybody out in WA who has freezer space to lend for a bit??

 

[Liljah]

When my fridge died I went to into "save food" mode as well...food is very expensive and I refuse to bust my budget because of a technological defect..... so what I did is...

1. Coolers...find them and use them. Dry ice or lots and lots of ice and keep what you can on ice.

2. Call friends, family, anyone and everyone, ask if they can spare some room. Apologize for the inconvenience, and you make it up to them some how but right now you got meat to save.

3. Cook what you can and store it.

Good luck! I know it sucks!

 

[kallie]

I would just have a FIT if my freezer went out..LOL I would be on the phone with my good friend and say I need your freezer..

Do you have any igloos?? You could probably save some of the food at least...

 

[mspiker03]

BBQ Bash at Lori's!!!!

We will need drinks, side dishes and dessert (NO nuts, please!)

 

[Barb E]

Oh that stinks majorly!!

ETA: How do Dante and I get to your house?

 

[DHau]

How old is the appliance? Considering the situation you are in, I would go ahead and just purchase a new appliance and bring it home same day so you don't have to give up on the food. I'm sure the insurance company would understand.

 

[tracyc]

When it thaws, cut it up and put it in coolers on ice. It will easily keep for two or three days if you change the ice as it melts.

Then when the freezer gets fixed, put it back in and re-freeze it.

I buy lots of food frozen meat--I bring them home, and some are half thawed or more before they get home--they go in the freezer, then at some point I will thaw them again, bag them in to meal size portions, and refreeze them. Then they get thawed again on feeding day. I haven't killed a dog yet.

The freeze-thaw-refreeze idea might not be the best in terms of meat color and quality for people to eat. But dogs won't care.

I wouldn't let meat sit around at room temperature for days, but kept cold, it will not become rancid between now and Tuesday.

 

[Maedchen]

Outch! That is a nightmare!

If you don't have any friends/neighbors with freezing space, you could always digg a very deep hole and bury it. Seriously.

 

[3K9Mom]

Ok! So....

That RV that we can't afford to drive is coming in handy after all.

I took a bunch of deeply frozen meat out of the chest freezer and put it in the RV freezer (it's too much of a weenie freezer to actually freeze food. It just keeps frozen food frozen.)

Based on all your assurances that I won't kill my dog with refrozen food, I picked out the freshest, best sealed meat, marked it, dug to the middle of my chest freezer, where it's coldest, and buried into the depths of cold where it should freeze fast.

The turkeys are in my 7-day coolers with block ice and the two racks of Fred Flintstone beef ribs that ARE nearly big enough to tip over a car. Camper will forage from these the next few days.

The veggie burgers are mush. Turkey burgers too. Chicken breast and ground turkey are boiling. The Beagle Brigade will eat like royalty for a couple days. I triaged the expensive food and put that in the RV refrigerator as well.

Tater tots didn't survive. Tell Luca I'm sorry.

The bottom of the freezer is a bloody pool. A bag of beef liver leaked everywhere. Figures, eh?

Digging a hole. Cool idea. I have three dogs. All love to dig. Hmmm. Wonder if they'd dig it all back up when I wasn't looking though? Beagles are like that! (Or worse, other critters!)

This would be a great time for a friend like the Snow Miser!

 

[DancingCavy]

Wow. That sucks but it seems like you have a good plan for in the interim.

Ris would like to know if you'd be willing to send her about 1 lb of beef kidney. She's almost out and I don't want to buy a new package since it contains 3 kidneys and we're probably moving soon and I don't want to waste it.

 

[3K9Mom]

Sure. I'll call Fed Ex right now.

Would Ris like 28 lb turkey too? I mean, since I'm paying the base shipping rate (and the fuel surcharge) already.

 

[DancingCavy]

28 lbs! That's a big bird!!!

 

[Lauri & The Gang]

Check out your local Freecycle to see if anyone is getting rid of a freezer (I got one that way). Use it until your freezer is fixed and then either re-Freecycle it or unplug it and keep it as a backup.

 

[The Stig]

Originally Posted By: mspiker03BBQ Bash at Lori's!!!!

We will need drinks, side dishes and dessert (NO nuts, please!)

Dogs! Don't forget the dogs! I can see Levi running to grab his bib, fork and knife, and waiting SO politely at the table for his share.