What’s new around the Home of Tomorrow you ask? Not much, just livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.
We had beautiful weather over the weekend so I did have time to do a few little things in addition to my standard yard maintenance.
A friends neighbor cut down a tree and had free fire wood. I nabbed a truck load for myself and artfully used the stack of mysterious center blocs that came with my house as a wood rack. Not the most beautiful thing but the overall price of FREE fits my current budget nicely.
Also, I finally had the time to use the little power washer I received from my mom as a gift. Let me tell you, its a little odd when your mom drops by randomly holding a power washer and saying “this seemed like something you could use.” Heart of gold that lady.
The washer is nothing fancy, she picked it up at a JC Penny’s outlet of all places. Sure as heck fire gets the job done though. It took what I can only assume is 50 years of grim off my stairs and walk ways like it was nothing. Super easy to use and in a weird way, I even had fun doing it.
It may come as a surprise but our modern day internet doesn't have much information about how to defrost a 70-some-odd-year old fridge. There are no webpages, blogs, or DIY YouTube videos dedicated to the subject. Apparently that’s not something people have to deal with much these days.
Damn kids and their fancy self-defrosting refrigerators!! They don't know how good they've got it.
While most wouldn't consider this too life-threatening, I have to dissagr... Actually I have to agree. On a list of full blow home emergencies I don't think frosty freezer is even on said list.
It was a tad daunting considering it’s probably months past whatever the manufacturer suggests, and you might even say, I had never defrosted it. Because I hadn’t...ever...defrosted it. The time had come. Not for any of these reasons, though; for something far more important: it was getting difficult to fit in my ice cube trays. I need ice.
With a lack of instructional videos to stream at a whim from my smartphone, I turned to the next best thing: my mother. A woman of many talents, who just so happens to be a top notch research librarian. If she couldn't help, I was doomed. When I called her in a panic, she just chuckled and said, “ I wondered when you would ask about that. Just do what Grandma always did. Boil some water in a pot and stick it in the freezer. The heat and steam will melt it in a jiffy.”
Could it really be that simple? Was steam all I needed to defeat the icy arctic sarcophagus entombing my pizza rolls? There was really only one way to find out. I thanked my mom for her advice, told her I loved her (like a good son should) and hung up the phone with as much dramatic force as one can hangup a touch screen phone; for this was not a time for dilly dallying: this was a time for ACTION.
After chiseling out any still edible food items from the freezer cube, I boiled the water as instructed and placed the dangerously hot pot into the icy tundra. Immediately the temperature difference caused a reaction and steam began to rise. I threw my hands up into the air like a mad genius and screamed, “IT’S ALIVE!!” (Okay, I have a weird mad scientist appreciation but that’s another story.)
To my surprise, it did work. The steam and heat loosened up the bricks of ice clinging to the freezer panels. It didn't come off as easy as I hoped but with a little extra love they broke free. The process took roughly 20 minutes. I did, however, have to reheat the water pot 3 times to keep it nice and toasty. If I’m a bit more vigilant about how long I go between defrosting this will be, as they say, “easy as a cake walk.”
