Any "No Fridge!" Folks Near New York?

My old, old post here, on "No Refrigerator- for 30 Years" - (38, now...) continues to be one that gets very high attention, every day.

Today it's the BBC that's interested; and looking for a little help from you:

Chloe Hadjimatheou has left a new comment on your post "No Refrigerator- for 30 years...":

Hi there,
I am a BBC journalist working on a radio documentary about how fridges change people's lives around the world. We are in New York this week and looking to meet someone who has chosen to live without a fridge. Can you help? Please contact me either via FB (chloehadj@hotmail.com) or else via email chloe.hadjimatheou@bbc.co.uk or phone +447974105829.
Many thanks!!
Chloe

It would be a good thing for the BBC to get a little of the other side of the story!  If you are, or know someone who might be- able to meet up with Chloe and team- please do.

And share this on your other communications outlets; we should be able to find someone somewhere.

Chloe- 2 things to keep in mind on this subject; which the refrigerator manufacturers won't point out:

100 years ago- no one had one.  If it weren't possible to do without- your grandparents wouldn't have had any children, and no one alive today would - be alive today.  Sure, there may have been a few more cases of food poisoning- but those cases were mostly due to poverty and ignorance; just as they are still.  And;

100 years ago- the global obesity epidemic was not yet happening.  If you check - you will find that obesity tends to follow the advent of refrigerators...

Seriously.  You could do hard statistics on that point, with info on the internet.  I don't think it's been done.  Yet.

And, Chloe- if you don't wind up with anyone in the New York area who works out; you're more than welcome to just pop over to Minnesota.  :-)

Maybe, for you - it's time to unplug.

Unplug what? Unplug - everything.

Yes, that's a drastic suggestion; but if you aren't feeling drastic today, you never will.

Nuclear power - is a thing of the past. But it's not going to die an easy death; the nuke profiteers will fight for their profits; which come, please note, never from actual profits made selling energy; but from subsidies paid by taxpayers. They fight to the death. Literally. So long as the deaths are not their own, they are already writing about how happy they are to see a few people die for their nukes. "Everything is dangerous!" they now cry; after paying expert pontificators for decades to pound home the idea that nukes are "totally safe!"

They're not; they never were, and those who said so (me, quietly, Nicole Foss with vast expertise) have been ignored (at best).

And let me say this, too - I'm of the opinion that safe nuclear power might have been a possibility, at one time. But at the outset, engineers who pushed for greater intrinsic safety were ignored because safer designs were also more expensive, up front. As recently as last week- while pushing "third generation" nuclear reactors, the industry once again chose to ignore- and ridicule- engineers pointing out safety flaws.

What's going on in Japan right now is much, much worse than the mainstream media is saying it is. That's partly because the news coming out of Japan is being specifically toned down to slow panic, and because the media feels compelled to repeat bs like "The outer building was destroyed in the explosion, and the inner concrete secondary containment vessel has collapsed - but the primary steel reactor vessel inside was not damaged, and there is no serious danger to the public at this time."

What leaks out, in dribs and drabs, are little bits of information like "we've found cesium outside"... and "US helicopter pilots flying 60 miles away were contaminated with radioactive particulate matter"...

The only way to get cesium outside is if the core of the reactor has melted, and the core is leaking incredibly hot vaporized metal into the outside world. No, it's not Chernobyl- but that really shouldn't comfort anyone. It's not Three Mile Island, either, it's vastly worse. (By far the best whole-problem analysis I've seen is from Nicole Foss, here.)

Public reaction against nuclear power is going to be huge. The push to develop nuclear anyway, will also be huge- and very powerful. In case you haven't noticed- powerful people are currently increasingly convinced they can and should ignore public wishes, "for our own good".

So. You feel you don't want any new nuclear power plants built around you? What can you do about it?

Yeah, sure; write to your Congress people. Call them. Go to the demonstrations; carry a sign. As all the public employees in Wisconsin will tell you - they're not listening much.

Something you could do- that would actually force them to pay at least a tiny bit of attention to you- is unplug. Quit using their electricity. Stop.

Yes; you could. I can tell you that with a little credibility; because I did; more than 30 years ago- and actually; for exactly this reason; nuclear power (as it exists) is an incredibly bad idea. It was the 3rd post I made on this blog. And I'm not dead, I've raised 2 children entirely this way, one of whom has moved back with his PhD in engineering to work with me, one of whom lights his house with LEDs; and am raising another.

Now; before you quit listening altogether, because 99% of you are thinking "sure, he could, but I really can't... just physically cannot." - you could actually make a difference if you just unplugged some of your "stuff".

Long ago, a very nice lady was writing on Dot Earth, Andy Revkin's blog on the NYT, and made the very common statement that "she'd really like to 'go solar', but she just couldn't afford it." Most people believe that, and repeat it so often it becomes "common knowledge", aka; "reality".

So I commented there that actually she could; anyone can; at any time. Here's how you go solar, on any budget. You go out and buy the solar system you can afford, no matter how small. Then- you only plug in the appliances that you have power for. If you don't have the power- then you can't use it. (A big part of why I have no refrigerator.) When you can afford more solar- you add it on. Then you can run more stuff. Not before. (And sure, solar is not the only game in town; just pay attention to the principle here.)

She did not, alas, go out and do as I suggested.

But just maybe- it's time for people to take that a bit more seriously.

So- if you find yourself concerned, and wanting to do something; think about actually, seriously and permanently, reducing your electricity consumption. That way; when the nuke pushers start saying "we must have them, or we will have no civilization"; they will have a little more trouble making that argument stick.

Over all electric consumption is down, in the "developed world". Most of the world has excess generating capacity, right now. But; the pushers are already pushing; claiming it's desperately essential to have more. If, however, civilized people are simply doing with less; one way or another; and general consumption fails to rise- it will be hard to make that stick.

How many electric clocks do you have in your house? How many do you actually need?

Do clocks use a lot of power? Hell, no; but they are the perfect example of our habits, which have resulted in the endless growth in demand. No, the clock uses "almost nothing"- but how many clocks that no one ever looks at do you suppose are running right now in New York City? I'd have to guess hundreds of thousands, since nice clocks, and clock radios, and an extra clock radio for the den, and the one your uncle gave you for college that is running in the baby's room- are a favorite gift, which we cheerfully give and receive and - plug in, somewhere. And never look at.

Ok; only an example of consumption that happens below our radar- and which adds up, over our 100's of millions of people; so that we probably need one whole power plant in the USA - just to run clocks no one looks at. Another example - just the "standby" features of all our gizmos are estimated to add up to 108 Billion Kilowatt-hours per year, just in the USA. If my math is right, that's more than ten 1,000 Megawatt power plants.

And how about the kids' Wii, that's never unplugged. The extra old fridge still running in the garage, that keeps fish bait and beer cool in the summer; but runs all year?

Truthfully; the easiest way to tackle the problem, if you are one who wants to, is to just unplug everything. Then plug things back in- only when you find you need them.

There's a million ways to cut your use. Put motion detectors in each room that control room lights. Etc.

And for a few. Go ahead. Unplug permanently. Go off-grid.

There are millions in Japan who just went off grid; the hard way. And millions more are cutting back; the hard way. It could go better for your household if you were making your own choices; not having them imposed by forces beyond all control.

Refrigerators Hit The Big Time!

If you're an expert at something, you're familiar with the "tuned eye" phenomenon; i.e., if you're an expert on raising chinchillas, the word, "chinchilla" will jump out at you from where ever it is hiding on a page full of print.

I've gotten that way about the word "fridge" nowadays; so when I was taking my morning stroll through the internet news, the word leaped out at me, from the New York Times.

Hey, guess what!  It's about us!  (That would be all of us here.)  (And, if you're here via that article, welcome!)

It's a pretty good article- but... there are several places where radical anti-anti-fridge statements are allowed to just stand, unrebutted; never mind that they are flat dumb.

Like: “It’s silly not to have one,” she said, “considering what the alternative is: drinking up a gallon of milk in one day so it doesn’t spoil.”

Those of us who are living without fridges know how astonishingly uniformed stuff like that is.  No; we don't let milk spoil.  AND, no, we don't drink gallons of milk to prevent it.  Duh.

This is not the first big time coverage we've had, though- ever hear of The Economist?  Well.  They have an online magazine, More Intelligent Life, that picked up on all this in 2007 - and very nicely, too.

After Cranky Chicken's ambush a bit ago, I did say I was going to write a new fridge post, re-addressing some of her misconceptions.  :-p.  I haven't managed to get to it, of course, what with 35 below Zero, and broken arms, and whatnot.  But I will.

Meanwhile; do read Deanna's stuff; and PARTICULARLY - read the comments.   They are enlightening.  In particular- most of those rabid anti-antis have done no homework- or thinking; while the fridge-less among the commenters are without exception highly intelligent, and exquisitely well informed.  :-) (I am, of course, pure and unbiased.)

And; here is my original post, which most (if not all)  of this fridge kerfuffle can be tracked back to: 

No refrigerator- for 30 years

You'll notice, if you read it, that OF COURSE you are going to change how you eat, in order to do this.  The point being- the changes are very easy; and generally also more healthy, and less expensive.

This may also be the place to mention that many of us fridgeless folk own freezers.  Like me.  We're not wacky luddites.  We're not even anti-cold storage.  My usual metaphor is, it's like a bandsaw, and a chainsaw.  The fact that I own one, but not the other means I need one- but not the other.  They're very different tools.

There are more than a couple posts on this blog on this topic; if you use the search function, and look for "fridge", you'll find most of them; and or, "refrigerator".

Here, in any case, are several: Back, sort of;  Happiness is a warm house (this one has a long bunch of responses to comments and questions); Consequences (more answers, mostly for Deanna); Snownapped/Kippers; Urban Foxfire/Unplugging the Fridge (which links to Vanessa's blog- a doubter who became a convert!); and Deep Summer (a specific no-fridge meat-keeping process).

That will keep you busy for a while.  Right now- I gotta go feed and water the guineas...

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Oh, and- for the oldtimers here, you might be interested to see that I've finally joined the modern blogging world; and added stuff on the sidebar so you can subscribe to the Little Blog, and or share via all the myriad ways- take a look!  (And thanks to Beelar, for getting that done!)  There's also a "share" button after each post now.  Neatest thing since sliced bread!

A photon saved is a photon earned.

We're in the segment of the year when our house energy balance is always very, very tight.

I was just getting ready to do an "energy/building/planning" post when I got ambushed by Crunchy, who wants to claim that unplugging your fridge will cost more energy than it saves...

Such a silly head.  :-)

The discussions there are well worth reading- and actually, I don't think La Crunch and I disagree, in the end- it's more a matter of I was talking generalities, as in "for most families in the First World..." and she was talking "in MY household..."  Yes, by golly, if your Kitchen Boss is also Obsessive/Compulsive, you can use a refrigerator in a useful, non-wasteful fashion.  Many homes are not so lucky, however, and quite few refrigerators have operators on the other end of the "careful" scale.

Sure, Crunch, you do very well with your fridge- though I still want to see your ACTUAL energy consumption numbers- measured by a Kill-a-Watt or something, like Sharon uses.  I can just SEE you, standing in front of the open door of your EnergyStar fridge- and planning stuff- 8 times a day, for minutes at a time...   :-p   And how many times a day do the kids and hubby open the door?  Hm?  What the maker promises, and what you actually use, are not the same thing atall atall.

And, incidentally, the Inspector General of the EPA has just (Dec. 17) issued a report: industry scam on the Energy Star program.  Guess what?  It ain't all they say it is.  One clue- it's a program run by- the appliance industry (largely started so they could avoid real government regulation by showing "voluntary industry compliance" - but don't say that out loud).

In any case, fridges are not the only piece of the energy equation, by a long shot.  While I hope to do a "fridgeless" update in the near future, at the moment I want to concentrate on some aspects of being off the grid.

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Winter changes what is going on with your solar panels- unless you live on the equator.

The usual situation at higher latitudes is; you get weaker sunlight, because it has to filter through more atmosphere at lower angles; you get fewer hours per day; many winter months tend to be more cloudy (though not all locations are the same).  At the same time, however, the panels themselves put out 1% more power for ever 3°C colder- which can mean a LOT on a -20° sunny day, like 20% more current than rated for (boiled my batteries, first year).

Over all; you have less power available in the winter; though it's not as bad as most expect.  

And you have to include the effect on your system batteries; we've got only 4 lead-acid golf cart batteries, quite a small bank.  One of the management requirements for lead-acid batteries is they need to be "topped up" regularly; once a week at least, you need to push them to full charge.  It's really hard to do that using panels alone in the winter.  So- if you're like most off-gridders, you do have a backup generator.  We have TWO!  Just so you know.  Ok, 5; but 3 of them are broken.  The broken ones are older, the working ones are state-of-the-art, and carefully maintained.

Your goal, as an obsessive/compulsive home electric system manager, is to have to buy as little gasoline (house) or diesel (greenhouse) as possible.  So you really do want to get every last photon captured that you possibly can.  Every photon makes a difference.

At this point, in the Little House, we're missing a lot of winter photons; partly due to design compromises discussed previously here,  and partly due to the passage of time, with some unanticipated consequences.

If you'll look closely at the photo above (and I hope to heck that you can click on it and get a bigger view- sometimes Blogger does that, and sometimes not, and I haven't figured out why, and they're not telling) you'll see that the panels are shaded by tree branches (the trees are 200' away, but the sun is low) and, the panels are covered with frost, greatly reducing the input.

The frost comes from- the chimney.  The "smoke" you see there isn't smoke at all; it's steam.  When we have temperatures below 0°F day after day, the woodstove is actually burning very hot and clean most of the time.  But water is the other product of combustion, along with CO2; and under the right conditions, it will form frost on anything in what is normally the smoke path.  This was one of those days; and it was so cold the frost didn't melt off until almost noon, costing us a big chunk of the daily photon budget.

Frost on the panels from the chimney is a compromise I knew about at the start- the position of the panels on the roof was determined by many things, including access for maintenance.  It ain't perfect.  I was also worried we might get smoke deposits on the glass panels; but in reality it's never been a problem; a good rainstorm every once in a while works fine.  I actually went up there and cleaned the panels with Windex every month for the first year- at which point I decided it wasn't worth while.  Biggest bang I got was in the spring, during oak pollination.  Some days, the oak pollen blocks more sun than the frost ever does.

Frost like this is a minor problem; usually happens only 6-10 days a year; and most times melts off quickly.  The reason I was tracking things so closely was: 

An unexpected, and unbudgeted electric load for the system to carry.  This is a "nebulizer", which the doctor prescribed for Smidgen in the middle of our fight with upper respiratory bugaboos.  Doc examined her and said she was on the edge of bronchitis and or pneumonia; the medication inhaled from this thingy opens up the air passages, and helps stave all that off.  It seems to be working.

It has a powerful little air compressor that drives the mist-making device; Smidgen has to sit in this delight for a half hour, four times a day.  And it's noisy.  You can't eat, drink, draw, read, or play with it on; so we've bent one of our rules and allow her to watch DVD's on one of the computers while she sits (that's her "mesmerized by Disney" look).  More energy consumption not in the budget.

Of course (BIG MAJOR ADVICE ALERT!!!)  when you were doing your original budget for the power out/power in/power storage calculations- you DID include a substantial chunk of the budget for "unanticipated needs" - didn't you?  :-)  Of course you did.  Good for you.

I did, in fact.  But that was 25 years ago, and the world has changed; that margin has long been used up; so the extra load now has pushed us over our normal winter brink.  Instead of running the backup generator once a week in winter, we're now having to run it about every other day.  If we don't- the first thing that happens is the DSL modem drops out.  Horrors!

The other loss of power, stemming from the shadows of tree branches; is fairly new.  Those trees only grew that tall in the last 3 years, and I hadn't really expected them to, ever.  Silly me.

I was basing my tree height expectations on what my farmer neighbors told me, and the observable heights of trees in farm-forests around here.  Surprise- if you manage the forest for the trees- not the cows- the trees get quite a lot taller, in 30 years.

Now, in December/January, because of tree growth, the solar array is actually charging the batteries for only about 3 hours a day; drastically less than the usual 5-6 hours.  Thankfully, it will only be a few more weeks before the sun rises high enough in the sky so it is above the trees much earlier.  Meanwhile; more gasoline.  We're sighing in relief over the current drop in gas prices; but for the future, this is all a problem; the basic equations for electricity for this house are now out of balance; and unbalanceable without some serious changes in the array.  No easy answers in sight.

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On a different but highly related note; the Little House has been approached by Nick Rosen; author of  How to Live Off-Grid , for us to be one of the families he'll cover in his new book on going off-grid in the USA (first book is UK).  You can find out more about him, and find lots of off-grid discussion at his website: off-grid.net.  

Part of his new book, though, is that he's trying to pair up the families he covers; he wants one "old-timer", and one "newbie" for each region; so he can match up expectations and realities.  Sounds good to me.

The upshot being; we're looking for newby not too far away from The Little House; someone who has just recently gone off-grid.  Is it you?  :-)

For those who don't know; The Little House is in SE Minnesota; if you're within 100 miles or so, I think that's likely close enough for a match; certainly our insolation and climates will be pretty similar.

If you're interested - email Nick at news@off-grid.net; or you can send me a note here by making a comment.  

And hurry up about it- he's about to arrive in Florida and start driving; or may have started already.

Deep Summer

Strange to use the phrase here in Minnesota, but Deep Summer is what I've got.

It's mostly a phrase from the US South- and it means the heart of summer- and the heat.

My current experience is mild, really; maximum daytime temperature is barely hitting 90°F (32°C); but there's a gaggle of accompanying factors that require a human to adapt, somehow, or collapse.  Here is the day-

The morning is still.  No wind.  No wind for almost 2 weeks now, we're having to haul house water from the solar-pumped greenhouse well, since our windmill isn't moving.  No wind coming in the next week, either.

Soaking dew; until noon, moving anywhere on the farm without tall rubber boots means soaking shoes and socks.  Barefoot?  Not if you're working.  Thistles, hammers...  The rubber boots are hot, and heavy.

Hazy sun; all day.  The humidity stays at "120%" - not actually possible, but that's a reasonable estimate of how it feels.  The 85° air is comfortable; until you move; just walk and you will sweat.  Work will have your clothing soaked through, literally to dripping, within just a few minutes.

You have to be very careful in this weather- it's so damp, wet, drippy you can easily forget you're losing water, dehydrating - and losing salt.  When your skin is covered with salt, sweat evaporates more slowly- cools less well.  When you look up from hoeing the beans, and world fades to white- you're on the edge of "heat exhaustion" - otherwise known as a critical shortage of water and salts; you need more than sodium; you're probably running short on potassium and calcium too.  One thing we do is add some salt, and "salt substitute" (KCl) to our lemonade; do-it-yourself "sports" drink.  Plain water is not enough, if your vision is fading.

People have coped with summer forever, of course.  Two major paths- let your body get used to it, adapt; and/or avoid it.

Your body will adapt, if you ask it to.  Work in the heat an hour today; and aim for two hours tomorrow.  Full adaptation can take weeks.  Be careful.

Or- change your hours.  Become crepuscular.  Wake before sunrise; work in what cool there is, before the sun hits; then move inside for other chores, or a nap- with a little fan, perhaps.  (I have one one me now- 12VDC, running directly from the hot sun on my solar panels; designed as a fan for a boat, 20 years old, I think.)  Evening presents more opportunities for outside work, without the sun.  The mosquitoes, alas, tend to be crepuscular, too.  The evening tends to be warmer; but dry- no rubber boots.  Until the dew starts to form.  Our solar heated shower is dangerous right now- it may be way too hot; shower carefully.

Here we tend to have little wind from mid July through late August.  Fact of life.  Cuss and bear it, mostly.  And drip.

And what are we doing about refrigeration?  Not a thing.  Water out of the well is very cool; water stored a day is still cooler than the hot outdoors.  It's cool enough.

At the moment, I've got gourmet meat for 3 days, ready any time.  No fridge.  

This is where I keep it- inside the charcoal grill, where it was slow-cooked.  

It's a boneless chuck roast; on sale when I was in town.  Tasty- but tough, usually.  I set it to cook slowly, inside the charcoal grill, after using the hotter fire to do a little chicken.  The very slow cooking, not over the coals, but beside them, with a little hickory added to the other side of the fire, actually does a little tenderizing, and does wonders for the flavor.

And, incidentally, sterilizes the roast- and the grill.  Once it was mostly cooked- I closed the grill's vents, thus asphyxiating the fire, and any microbes.  The meat is partly smoked, slightly dried, and quite safe right were it is, inside the closed sterile grill, 90° days, or not.

I've eaten some for dinner yesterday, and lunch today; and have 3 more meals there, I think.  Open the lid; cut off a chunk quickly right on the grill with a sharp knife; close the grill.  Yes, one, or two, bacteria got in when I did that.  They landed on dry, smoked, charred meat surface- not a friendly place to them.

The cooled, slightly dried chuck is pretty firm; easily sliced very thin, which solves most of the remaining toughness problems, and makes it perfect for adding just a little flavor, just a little protein, to whatever else I'm having.  Delightful.  It does require chewing.  Consider it exercise.

Any meat will keep after smoke cooking in a closed grill; at least a day, probably 2.  3 starts getting a bit iffy, particularly if you're dealing with chicken or have kids in the house.  You need to make sure the meat was cooked - hot right through- in the first place, though.  Sometimes a cooling fire may leave your meat cool, and not really kill all the bugs; this is something you need to watch meticulously.  The other hazard with this method is closing the grill and leaving it with the fire still too hot- and finding nice chunks of charcoal instead of chicken, when you open it up tomorrow.

This kind of smoke-heat preservation is really pretty safe for large cuts of meat; but don't try this for sausage or burgers- too much chance for bacteria to be incorporated in the grinding.

Now, I don't have to cook tonight, nor did I last night.  No extra heat required.

I'm gaining on the work adaptation, too.  Or, of course, you could always just move somewhere for sissies!

The Power of Limits

This post came to mind because a commenter over on Crhuncky Chincken was asking "how much water use is 'normal' ? Where should my target be?" - and my own answer was far far from the answers they were finding.

Humans have spent the last couple centuries striving to make life easier and easier. It's been a major goal of the species; the reduction of "drudgery", also called "soul killing drudgery". Lots of philosophical discussion about it; art works, poetry, and everything.
Millet's "Man with a hoe." Soul killing was generally agreed to be bad.

Why chop wood, and carry it inside every hour to keep your children from freezing? Ben Franklin came up with a stove that cut down on the volume- then there was coal- then oil furnaces that didn't have to be stoked- etc. All most 1st worlders ever do now for heat is check the thermostat, and pay a bill. Back when somebody had to GATHER and CARRY the firewood; they were probably a lot more careful about waste.

Same is true with water. In the Little House, we have to CARRY it. So - do the teenagers just let the faucet run while they brush their teeth? Not on your tintype; they scream bloody murder if somebody is wasting water- and they have to carry extra. So- instead of the "normal" 60 gallons a day for 2 people- we use about 15 gallons a day in the summer, for 3. Showers and all. Actually, it just becomes second nature for everyone in the house to not waste water. No arguments. Why would you do that??

Electricity? Plug the new whatever into the wall; pay the bill; it's infinite, right?

If you take a look at my "green principle #2" - it's "Limited power- house electricity has 4 golf cart batteries."

It's NOT AN ACCIDENT that the power system is so limited. We use electricity for :#1 Light; #2 Computers (work) #3 Entertainment (radio; DVDs- sanity maintenance). Those are the priorities; pretty obviously sensible to anyone. There's just not enough power to run a fridge, or a dishwasher, or a washing machine. Acquiring enough solar panels or other sensible generation capacity; and the STORAGE for that energy; would be many thousands of dollars. So; I've got $4K here- what shall we do with it? There's always something more urgent; or more desirable.

My first crop of kids remember kerosene lights; and candles made from deer tallow (yuck! stinky!) When we got solar panels, and A battery, and A fluorescent light bulb for the kitchen/dining room/living room - it was a BIG BIG deal. Wow. No stinky kerosene in the house; no fire hazard; VASTLY more, and better light. What a wonderful thing!

Which of course everyone takes totally for granted these days. You have to LIVE without it to appreciate it (rustic vacations don't really count).

A couple years later- we really needed to have a computer in the house, for my work. So. Money for a) computer, b) more solar panels, c) more batteries. Took a while to get there.

Zowie! Computer. Besides my work, there was sometimes enough power for computer GAMES- a little bit. They were slightly beyond "Pong" at this point; 1984; not much addiction potential.

The reality of solar power; and wind; is that the availability is VARIABLE. It's the nature of nature. 8 sunny days in a row? The batteries are FULL - actually you may be in danger of damaging them unless you use some of it up, or cut the input- you have to DO something. Boiling batteries are not funny - I've done it, and I don't do it any more.

So; we added a TV. Part of that was a conscious parenting decision NOT to keep our kids isolated from the rest of the world. Look, they're already weird enough to their peers- living like this; why should they also be missing all the normal cultural references? Big Bird? What's that? So we plugged them in to Sesame Street. And a few other things.

Inevitably, they discovered - SATURDAY MORNING - CARTOONS. Now there IS addiction potential; those programs are designed to grab and hold kids, from the bottom up. Not healthy. We DID allow a little - Bugs Bunny, for example. But then, when the next show came up; Asinine Mutant Vegetables On Crack At War, or its twin-

The REALITY was there. And easy to present. "You guys NEED to watch AMVOCAW? All your friends do? I understand. Go ahead." "what, really??" "Sure. You just have to remember- if you watch that now- it's using up electricity, right? From the batteries. There won't be enough energy tonight for the lights. Your choice."

It worked. There was nothing distant or incomprehensible about it. The electricity comes from the sunlight. It's stored in the batteries. There are only 4 batteries. That's all there is. They KNEW it. Has it been cloudy for a week? The batteries are low. No TV at all today; we'll read instead. (No problem there.)

You can extrapolate this experience to your own house- and also to the world. The vast majority of 1st worlders have been raised to KNOW that "leisure" and comfort are their absolute right; as it is their right to go out and buy the biggest outboard motor they can, for fun on weekends.

There are no limits in sight. The supply is endless- and the system has been set up to encourage that belief. At the moment, China and India, and everyone else in the developing world is busy buying into this same illusion.

You and I and Al Gore KNOW it's an illusion- but the huge majority of humans DO NOT; and they cannot SEE - the limits. All they can see is that YOU have two SUVs, and they want theirs.

We have to find ways to make the limits tangible; and ways to encourage people to see them; live with them. I think my proposal on energy pricing; where The more you use, the more you pay is a step in that direction. The reason for moving to that kind of pricing is comprehensible; the visible "limit" would be the "annual allowance" of very inexpensive energy. Beyond that; society says you must pay steeper and steeper prices- because- it's a limited resource, and we all know it. It's visible; palpable- accepted.

The problem we must tackle: All our supply systems are designed to work "on demand". Turn it on- the whole world supply of elecricity/water/gas/waste handling/whatever is plugged in and at your command, your majesty.

It's a design guaranteed to CAUSE waste. It cannot fail.

We need to fix this in our own homes, first of all. I've found ways- mostly by just being unplugged from the big delivery systems. There have to be more ways- easier to put in place, more adaptable to cities- etc. We- you and I- need to find them. Put your thinking caps on.

Part of what generated this entry today is my... fan. It's 94°F outside right now; or "10 degrees above suffocation" as we say. There's no breeze today in the Big Woods. It's stifling here. But- the sun is shining brightly; the batteries are nearly full; I've got a little 12VDC fan designed for a boat- and the decision is quick and easy. I need it today; and I can afford it. So the fan is on. (There's even a little added joy from the fact that under these circumstances, the electrons moving the fan blades will be coming directly from the solar panels; no detour through the batteries, and no 10% storage loss- I'm getting discounted wind! Ahh.)

You can bet your little booties I'll turn it off as soon as I get this posted and leave the desk, though.

I'm wondering if ColinAKANIM has a little fan; or is going to get one soon? It's going to be stifling hot in that NY city apartment, if it isn't already. And a little fan can make a huge difference in livability. I bet that solar panel, and battery, he's got - would support SOME fan use.

How do you teach your kids to SEE and honor the limits? How do we get the rest of the world to see?

I think this is all a pretty big deal.

Urban Foxfire/Unplugging the Fridge

Had a new comment come in on one of the "unplugging your fridge" threads, so I'm going to take this opportunity to answer a number of questions on that topic.

First of all; let me point out that Vanessa, of Green As A Thistle ACTUALLY -oh-my-gosh- UNPLUGGED; on May 17.

That's 20 days ago- and not only is she apparently NOT dead, from starvation or food poisoning; but she's actually- um, feeling pretty frisky.

And, her blog post there about unplugging got 30 comments; a lot for this blog.

For those of you new to this thread, it started here.

Before I get to the questions, I want to plug an idea that came to me a while back-when trying to answer a question on Colin aka NIM's blog.

I live in the woods. When I moved here 30ish years ago, one of the best sources of information was the Foxfire Books . By far. Multiple stories from old-timers who'd DONE what they were talking about, for years. Much of the construction of the Little House came right out of Foxfire One. It was enormously more useful than sources like the Mother Earth News - which alas tended to be full of tremendously enthusiastic "success" stories; from people who'd done what they were writing about - once; probably last month.

Most folks live in cities. That's not going to change, maybe ever.

Where are the Foxfire Books about life in the city?

Very seriously; there are lots of older folks who lived without refrigerators- or water, or heat, or airconditioning - in the cities. But we are losing them. And their knowledge and experience is priceless.

SOMEBODY reading this- needs to launch an Urban Foxfire project. REALLY. I'm talking to YOU. :-) More than one; really; living in Boston is not the same as living in San Diego.

You could get funding! And Save Lives, in the years ahead.

Ok, questions. I'll start with the newest first, since Isle Dance posted just a day or so ago, and is possibly still hoping for an answer sometime soon. Here we go.

May 21, 2007 3:05 PM  Isle Dance said...

"Could I really get away with keeping a bulk jar of Mayo out of refrigeration? Do I want to risk testing this out? Of course, in the future, I'll ideally make a fresh batch as needed, so that would solve the whole dilemma."

Eee. Mayo scares the heck out of me, since many times it contains egg; which spoils very quickly. One of the tactics that works very well when fridgeless is to change spoilage-prone foods from "daily staples" to "occasional luxuries". Just buy a small jar of mayo that you can use up before it spoils. I guarantee you'll appreciate it as much as if you'd had the BIG jar. Being less common makes you notice it far more. Cheaper, too.


"Once a week I buy a bulk order of cooked poultry (a temporary thing) but see myself keeping some free range in the freezer in the future. So, I'm guessing I really do need a small freezer drawer, at least. Or?"

If you're really going to stash meat, you've GOT to either freeze it- OR CAN it, or DRY it. It'll depend on your preferences. Taking chances with unrefrigerated meat is very likely to get you into the hospital sooner or later. I've canned chicken- it works pretty well, taste wise. It takes quite a bit of energy to can, of course; but once canned it can sit on your shelf for a year, with no problems; likely longer. Drying chicken?? hm. Not so sure. Lots of folks dry beef; I've jerked beef and venison; no problems there. I HAVE had a "freezer locker" in town sometimes; used to be that every small town had a "locker plant"; much less common now, but still out there. That can be a good solution too. And/Or - eat less meat in warm weather. We do- and in fact, it's AMAZING how much more interesting a hamburger is when you've been living on new potatoes and peas and applesauce and peanutbutter and radishes for 4 days. :-)


"Do you recommend a particular cooking pot brand that seems to work best for unrefrigerated meat cooking/storage?"

Not really- what you want is stainless steel, or cast iron for stews; always with a lid that fits VERY well. Leaky lids will let that random bacterium in, and start things spoiling. Good old cooking pots are awfully easy to find in garage sales/auctions. I don't use teflon anymore.


"I keep a week's worth of fresh organic fruits and veggies in a low, cool cabinet. However, fruit flies can be an issue (even if stored in sealable containers). Maybe I've just not found the ideal container? I've assumed this means I should really be refrigerating these things to avoid the hassle."

Yep, fruit flies are a pain. For me, the best tactic has been to totally clear out the population of flies, by not having ANYTHING available for them to live on for a week- then start over. If you are careful not to let any fruit/potatoes start spoiling, you can go a long time before the flies get back in. Putting fruit into sealed containers is perhaps a way to make it spoil faster- some will ripen much quicker if their own "exhalations" build up around them; ethylene being a major one. There's an art to it, and vigilance is more than half the battle.


"One of my favorite Mother Earth News articles (about fifteen years ago) displayed instructions on how to build an outdoor underground/stream fridge. I've always wanted one...but there are lots of rats on islands...ew...I might be too girly to deal with them near my food!"

I don't have rats- I've got raccoons, which are kind of like rats on megasteroids. The trick is to make your storage TRULY SECURE. If they are NEVER able to GET food there; they will not hang around. If your storage is - ALMOST good enough- what you have is an animal feeding station. If they CAN get in; they'll hang around constantly until they do. If a coon finds out that one time in 10 there is catfood left on the porch- he'll visit the porch EVERY night, and poke into everything, looking for that catfood. You can have NEVER; or FOREVER with the critters.

I have a good rule there, related to my Aggressive Passive Design Principle- if you're building something like your stream cooler, and you find yourself saying "hm.. MAYBE this will be strong/good enough..." - - - IT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH. Build it so there's just no question.

May 21, 2007 11:00 AM  tansy said...

"i've been playing around with this myself. if it were just me and my kids i could do it but the other adult would not be receptive to the idea."

You could sneak up on 'em- "just for this week, dear..." :-)


"question on the eggs, how do you know when they've gone bad, the smell? do they instantly stink?"

Not necessarily. If you use your eggs within one week, there's RARELY any problem. When you're dealing with 2 week old eggs, what you do is crack them into a separate bowl- one at a time, before you add them to whatever you're cooking. Once cracked, a spoiled egg is very obvious!

April 5, 2007 5:30 PM  Robbyn said...

"Do you use fermented foods often, and if so, do you have a good resource so that a person like myself can know if how to keep foods safe? Seems we've lost a lot of collective traditional knowledge in our age of "progress".

Hey, exactly! Urban Foxfire time! I'm a cheese fan; Spice is a yoghurt fan. I've made pickles and sauerkraut at various times. All those are pretty safe; if your cheese has gone bad, it's usually obvious; and cheese in fact keeps beautifully with no refrigeration- as long as you're fairly constantly USING it up. Any good cheese store will sell "cheese-keepers" that are designed to keep it from drying out as it sits on your kitchen counter.

The whole point to fermented foods is that we intentionally get a "friendly" microorganism started in it- and then that bug keeps other bugs out. Mostly works. But there's tons of "art" to all fermenting- ask any winemaker... or cheesemaker. Fun, too, though.

April 11, 2007 11:04 AM  Robbyn said...

"Do you have any suggestions for my climate? I'm in Florida, and needing ideas. "

Ah. Yep, different climates have different problems and solutions. I lived in the tropics a couple times as a kid, so I am familiar.

"Unfortunately, we have acclimated to AC to the point where it will take our eventual move to acreage OUT of the city (where we can safely keep windows raised for ventilation) and a period of time to get used to the "untempered" hot temps. Any suggestions?"

Boy oh boy. Needs a book. Hm. "Miami Urban Foxfire Book..." :-) The tropics I lived in were pretty wet/humid, so not so far from Florida. A big part of the problem these days is that architects have totally embraced airconditioning/massive power use. Buildings are constructed with NO thought to anything else, which makes it very very difficult. Most native architecture in such regions is "open" - often just a roof, with mat walls for storms, but otherwise open on all 4 sides for the breeze to blow through. And the mosquitoes, if you built too near a swamp. Not to gloss over the problems.

I DO know from multiple times visiting home during college that your body DOES adapt to non-airconditioned um, conditions. And it takes several DAYS. When you're used to leaving the airconditioned house for the air-conditioned car to go to the airconditioned mall or store- it's a shock to live in the real world at first. Bloody hot! But in 4 or 5 days suddenly it will feel mostly comfortable. It will NOT happen in one or two days.


"Also, do you preserve your food for the times it's not so readily available? We don't live in a forageable area, for the most part, but I'm trying to gather ideas of how we can shrug off our dependency on modern "musts." To us, this spells freedom, whatever OUR choices will be throughout the process."

We DO can vegetables, and have salted meat in the past, as well as having a freezer-locker. Drying stuff is good when it works; we eat a lot of dried apples!

I recently learned something interesting; and perhaps useful- a major reason breadfruit was such an important foodstuff in Polynesia was that it could be fermented. Buried. Taro, also- good Hawaiian poi can be pretty tangy. So those folks certainly ate stuff fresh- but also stored things up for the thinner times.

Ok- getting long- nuff for now.

Home again

People have no idea what I sacrifice for the work I do. Grump grump grump. This time- it was apple blossom time. I was gone for a week. The apple orchard I planted and grafted decades ago was just bursting into full flower as I drove out. Coming back- the blossoms are all, all gone. Sigh.

Partly the weird weather- 3 days ago we had high winds and 95°F. Really. Took the flowers fast, I'm sure, though I wasn't here. Now- last night- we had frost. Gosh, I wonder what's going on?

Vanessa - I'm delighted!! You've made up for the missed apple blossoms.

Hopefully Fridgeless

For those of you who missed the original conversation on unplugging your refrigerator (which we haven't actually finished) it basically started here, and went on for a couple posts: Unplugging. I do think you'll find it easier than everyone expects- particularly once you're a bit used to it.

One more quick bit, then I gotta go do chores. The NYT has a business section story today- basically an INSTITUTE has announced that "energy standards" for, well, everything, are inadequate, and need to be fixed. Golly, must be serious. Then they go on to say how taxing this, and that, could help- but gosh, it's a big mess. Energy Standards

Very seriously - this is a perfect example of the quagmire we always tend to descend into when something is "out of whack", and we try to fix it with governmental tweaks. The tweaks always cause new problems- so the tweaks get tweaked..

Very, very seriously - HERE IS A BETTER ANSWER: A Possibility. If energy cost more- the MORE you used- for everyone- then EVERYONE would find ways to use less. Universal motivation. Vastly easier, faster, cheaper, permanent, and more effective than taxing.

Pass it on- there ARE folks already trying to get movement in this direction into legislation; but it'll take a lot of people doing a lot of talking, and pushing, to get there.

Tomorrow- last post for a while on the Planet Picnic - and other options. Next post- summary on the Potty House. Then- on to a new topic. Whew.

Bloggling

Yesterday saw a pile of current conversations that wound up freezing me in their headlines. Too many things to comment on!

No Impact Man was focusing on "work", or perhaps "chores"; and simultaneously this article on sun-dried laundry appeared in the NYT.

Hanging Out


Lots of overlap in the two, if you read carefully. I made a comment on NIM, so you can take a look there if you want. The NYT article really set me off; every other paragraph stimulating book-chapter long "amen, and furthermore" responses, in my head. I'll restrain myself, a little anyway.

Ms. Hughes launches her article with "AS a child, I helped my mother hang laundry in our backyard..."

Stopped me right there.

It makes a HUGE difference how you experience the world as a child. Truly vast. I really don't want to be a constant sourpuss - the Governator's "temperance preacher at a fraternity party" - but making the changes in lifestyle that the planet clearly needs may be next to impossible for many of today's children.

Raised in a world where they not only don't have to lift a finger, but where the whole world seems (to them) to be desperately concerned that they should be "getting" everything they "need"- it may be literally inconceivable to them that they should, must, change their self-absorbed lives. It's a great deal like asking someone raised as a good southern Baptist to suddenly convert to Hinduism. You're going to have trouble there.

The advantages of being raised in a sustainably oriented household are many; and not least of them is that true "need" is much easier to see, and understand. SOMEBODY does have to "take the compost out" - or it will stink, and breed flies, and everyone's life will be miserable. Somebody has to go get firewood from the pile, or the house will get cold. In a very short time, the child can see much further- if someone doesn't MAKE a firewood pile, the family will freeze- and die. Really.

There are two advantages to this. The child understands real need. Necessity - REAL necessity - is a concept most children from the 1st world have no real grasp of. We are now facing a world where necessity must be attended to, by all.

AND- the child learns, immediately, that he/she can HELP the family. They learn that what they do matters, and that they are truly a help, to their parents, and the family.

Feeling useful is unbelievably important. Personally, I'm convinced that its opposite; knowing you are useless, is the chief cause of alcoholism, drug addiction, crime, and suicide.

I'll state this here, for what may be the first time anywhere; as a behavioral scientist, I think it's possible the human primate has a "self destruct" function hardwired in. If you are truly useless to the tribe- then you are a threat to the survival of your relatives; and the best thing you can do for them might be - to self destruct. One way or another.

Ok, see what I mean about boggling? This is what the first line triggered. Dismal thoughts!

The upside is: living sustainably does provide multiple antidotes. This is not just my opinion; you can read about it in "Time, Soil, and Children—Conversations with the Second Generation of Sustainable Farm Families in Minnesota", a beautifully hopeful book by Beth Waterhouse.

Children raised with their eyes open - see. Hang on to that.

Chapter 2 came here; "That simple decision to hang a clothesline, however, catapults me into the laundry underground. Clotheslines are banned or restricted by many of the roughly 300,000 homeowners’ associations..."

Sigh. There are legal barriers to a lot of sustainable stuff- some of them based on health concerns, some of them based on nothing at all but a warped sense of propriety. Like green mowed lawns. Ok, maybe a couple chapters... I won't go there right now.

Chapter 3 - "Not only that. Heading outside to the clothesline and hanging each load takes about 7 minutes — 6 minutes and 30 seconds longer than it takes to stuff everything into the dryer."

Oh, no!! Not 6 minutes and 30 seconds!!! I've talked several times about "saving" time- and wasting it; sure I'll talk a lot more eventually.

Chapter 4 - "But the rope lines started to sag, allowing the sheets and heavy wet towels to drag in the dirt. The wooden clothespins soon became weathered and fell apart."

There's the other one I want to get into today. We've FORGOTTEN the technology and skills we need for many sustainable activities - like living without a household refrigerator, like using the sun to dry laundry, like living without endless just-turn-the-tap hot water.

If the writer had had her mother available- or the universally longed for Grandma - those mistakes would not have been made in the first place. The fact that the "store" labels this rope as "clothesline" means nothing at all. Several different kinds of rope will work, depending on different situations- but it's not a trivial choice. The job the rope has to do is quite a demanding one, and success requires considerable knowledge about the behaviors of different kinds of rope. (I'll toss out three factoids here; never try to use nylon; it stretches; polypropylene, it develops slivers; and, what I prefer for clothesline is plastic covered steel wire.)

Likewise with the clothespins. Some on the market are junk; but all of them should come in out of the rain when not in use. The sun eats everything. Grandma had a pin bag, that traveled along the line; pins went in, and out, at need, and the bag sheltered them from the weather when they weren't in use. My Grandma took the pin bag inside, between wash days.

This kind of lost information is extremely common; and it's going to be a problem as people try to recover what they see as "simple" practices from the past. They remember Grandma and Grandpa doing these things, and with the simpler eyes and expectations of childhood, they think all those chores were SIMPLE - because Gram and Gramps did them so easily.

They WEREN'T simple. They required quite a lot of training, knowledge, and learned skills. But getting folks to understand that can be quite difficult. And it's very discouraging for many people to attempt what Grandpa did so easily- and fail completely.

As we get further into the sustainable green world we must have, we need to regenerate also our genuine respect for the "elders" - and the priceless knowledge they have.

We need them. And we need to relearn what they know, before we lose them. SOMEBODY (not me!) needs to launch an "Urban Foxfire Book". Seriously. There are still Grams and Gramps about who remember living in an apartment with no refrigerator; even with an outhouse. No airconditioner. Limited electricity. No hot water. Etc. This would be an absolutely fabulous project for kids to undertake; just as the original Foxfire books were.

So? I'm looking at YOU.

:-)

There were more "chapters" this article kicked off for me, but I think we're approaching overload here, so we'll leave them for now.

Snownapped/Kippers

A bit of a shorty here, partly by way of explanation. I've missed a couple days, and in general I don't intend to. When I first got a computer in the house (1984, Macintosh 128K, powered by solar panels) - I kept a Pepys style daily journal- for 7 years, I think. Maybe 8. So I can. Health, of various kinds, was the reason I stopped.

Health was half the reason I missed a couple days here, not me, but... my Spice. I asked her if that was ok, she kinda looked at me sideways and said "well, it's better than Number Two." The plural of spouse ought to be spice, don't you think?

Spice has been suffering from some kind of weird and intractable ear pain, for over a month. Yesterday we took the whole day to go get a serious diagnosis. Not, as it turns out, the ear; but the jaw. sigh. Maybe looking at surgery if things don't improve soon.

Reason #2 has to do with sustainable living- and the weather. If you're actually living green, it does indeed make more of a difference what the weather is doing- you have to deal with it more inimately than if you're totally insulated by expensive technology. So- we got winter, and lots of messy snow, right now, and it kind of slows things down.

It IS, I assure you, a warm cozy feeling to be inside a house you built yourself- with your family- and the wind roaring- and the fire, from your own wood, keeping all warm. Lovely.

So. True confessions time- man, does it ever make you want to take a nice comfy nap.....

Heck we all deserve one, right? And the snow makes it nearly impossible to actually be out and about- gosh, I'm stuck here...

Ok, on to the kippers. The BBC has a fun study posted today on why men don't leave home so much these days.

Kippers

Paragraph two: "and a fully-stocked fridge."

Kipper is a nifty new acronym; probably British in origin but I think destined for wide adaptation; "Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings."

Nice play on "nipper", and "kip"- and tasty but definitely smelly fish.

Once again, the refrigerator surfaces as very near the heart of a problematic development. And still, the most common response to my blindingly brilliant suggestion is some version of "I couldn't possibly", "unrealistic!", "my family would never let me!"

C'mon, guys. Think a little harder.

A) 100 years ago, they didn't exist. Pretty obviously, your ancestors did manage to reproduce without one.
2) Right now today- most of the people on the planet STILL do not have one, in 2007. Are they reproducing?
iii) I live in the USA - and I've done it for 30 years; so again, it can be done. And I just reproduced recently.

Please don't make me write the book! And now you have additional incentive, if you've got a little kipper hanging about - unplug that fully stocked fridge, and see if it makes a difference. :-)

Ok, nap time. Dinner- will involve meat- refrigerated quite nicely and with zero environmental cost, on the porch.

Consequences

Answers for Deanna, whose whole post is here: comment

I'd love to do my quotations here with margin insets; but I'm too lazy to figure out how; I'm on a Mac, and this setup is a little cranky about it.


>>So, it seems you really would like people to give up their refrigerators.

Well. I would really like people to think about it seriously. No pressure. The planet is running on "broil", but what the hay, no pressure. :-)

I would like to emphasize, or re-emphasize that I'm highly in favor of individual choice- and in favor of folks not being obnoxious about other people's choices. It's definitely not that I think all paths are equally good- but persecution is pretty well demonstrated to be a way to shut down conversation- as well as civilization.


>>I wanted to get your thoughts of the impact of that many thousands of refrigerators going into the waste stream?

I can't tell you how delighted I am to have thoughtful people reading here. You're quite right- somebody needs to think about the consequences.


>> if everyone is to give theirs up (let's say a government imposed requirement unless for medical necessity, etc.) there's no market for used fridges.


I can weasel out of this one; and don't really think it's weasely- certainly in the early days of any movement away from universal personal refrigerators, there will be TONS of folks who are not on the bandwagon- the market for used fridges should initially be quite good.


If the day should ever arrive where a government imposed rules- it should not be terribly difficult to "phase-out" the whole phenomenon. We should be able to see it coming. First thing would be to require inefficient fridges to go to the recycler immediately- which would mean there would be a considerable initial market for good used ones again. It would even make excellent environmental sense to ship them to country B, which is NOT partaking of this imagined government ban- then they won't have to build new ones; a gain in itself as you see below here-


>>So what happens to all those old and lightly used fridges? Well, the epa site claims that the following (more or less) happens to your old fridge:


Lots of recycling details there- good stuff. Yeah, it's a mess. Partly what seems to have made Deanna's ears perk up was the mention of the several Ozone Depleting materials that come out of fridges when they're trashed. Sure, that's not good.


>>Anyway, if that much ozone is getting blown into the atmosphere, is that good too?


I'm sure that's just a typo- you meant freon, or the equivalent. Here's the thing- all the fridges currently in existence WILL go through this trashing process eventually. So those consequences are already in the pipeline- there's really nothing we can do to stop them. In terms of the planet's time frame- fridges are short lived; the trash is their immediate future.

What we CAN do is prevent NEW fridges from being made- by decreasing the demand, now, quick, with a personal choice type movement. In case you haven't noticed, waiting for the Gummint to save our behinds is a losing proposition. The government follows US, in fact.

Every person who stops using a home refrigerator means one that will NOT be built, just down the road. And selling your good used one now means the demand for new will decrease- by TWO- now.

I'll toss out two other consequences I've considered; one good, one bad. There are more, to be sure, but these are substantial.

Good Consequence: The makers of refrigerators will be appalled and terrified if people start unplugging and selling their fridges. Really. I'll guarantee you, one of their first reactions will be to increase the efficiency, durability, and greenness of the machines they make. In fact they'll compete over it. Home fridges could be HUGELY more efficient. Lots of ways- like using vacuum for the insulation, instead of foam. Yup, vacuum is a bit more expensive. So is the more efficient motor. So? We're all of us going to have to get used to the idea that "clean" is not cheap.

What's killing us fast is the fact that CHEAP is FILTHY. We bloody can't AFFORD cheap, anymore. We need the best, most efficient- most durable goods we can imagine.

A real movement to unplug will put a LOT of pressure on; very fast. So- a bunch of people will quit using home fridges altogether- and the remainder will slowly shift to machines that are much greener. And lots of folks WILL find a place in-between; shifting from a huge fridge to a small one; or using one only 3 months of the year- there are lots of ways.

Horrible Consequence: somewhere, sometime, a small child will once again crawl into a turned-off fridge, become locked in, and suffocate. This already happens, every year. But if there are a lot more turned-off machines, the chances go up. And it will make a bunch of people very unhappy. Including me.


But it's not a reason not to unplug. It's a reason to THINK about what you're doing, and make sure the fridge is deactivated safely (take the door off, for crying out loud.)

Happiness is a warm house..

Unless it's August.

Almost wrote "a warm chain saw" - but that would probably be just a bit much for some of us.

Chain saw is fixed, bless the fixit guy. He had help from my 2 year old, who walked in with mama, looked the fixit guy dead in the eye and said "man fix chain chain please." The consequence of which is, a warm house, in a very cold windy woods. Which is a good thing.

Back to the refrigeration discussion; there have been several very good question/comments, all of which point in the right direction, so I'll cover them here. Full comments can be seen in the comments, oddly enough.

crunchy chicken said... 
>>I suppose we all rely on it merely for the convenience. <<

Mostly, anyway. There's no question some uses are entirely legitimate; especially medication. Diabetics must refrigerate their insulin, for example.

>>We don't eat much meat, if at all, so I suppose we could do without. But did I mention how convenient it was?<<

by golly, I think you did mention the convenience. :-)

But; is the convenience REAL, or just habitual? Remember that this was one of the selling points drummed into us to get us to buy fridges.

And- is convenient good for us? Mostly it means- hey, you don't have to think, and you don't have to walk.

This is a significant point here; doing without refrigeration is likely not a good idea for those unable to get out of the house on a daily basis; nor for those with memory problems. If you're going to unplug, it means you HAVE to think about what you're eating, today and tomorrow; and you have to be able to go get what you need without serious dislocations.

I have several friends who are authentically affected by Attention Deficit Disorder. It's no joke for them. Whether they could make do sensibly without a fridge would be a matter of their specific adaptations to the disease, and their personal preferences.

One thing I'd be unhappy to see would be a gestapo-style movement to pressure everyone in the 1st world to get rid of their fridges. Counterproductive, I think.

claudia said...
>>I lived in Latvia in 1993-94 (a few years after liberation from the USSR), staying with a family there who were managing more or less the way all Europeans had done 50 years before, during the post-WWII years. I was surprised by how little food they refrigerated and, at first, was sure I would come down with food poisoning...I never did get sick.<<

Here, again- doing without a fridge requires a little education, and a LOT of vigilance. You can't forget to simmer the soup; and if you do, you'd better be prepared to throw it out, without tasting.

There are multiple kinds of food poisoning; everyone's favorite that gives you 24 hours of constant up-chucking, and the kind that leaves you kind of dead.

The thing is, the deadly kind is really very uncommon. If you just follow normal hygiene practices, you will probably have less chance of deadly food poisoning in an unrefrigerated home than you have of getting- oh- salmonella poisoning from ConAgra peanutbutter. Or E. coli from spinach.

The folks pushing refrigeration of course make a big deal out of the "increased safety" associated with a good fridge. But they DON'T print a lot of headlines about the food poisoning that results from a good fridge - slowly going bad. So that, unnoticed by any, until the doctor asks how you got so sick, the average temperature inside the fridge slowly edges up, as it ages in various ways, until it's not really effectively slowing bacterial growth any more. That happens. And particularly when you are blindly relying on technology to solve your problems and do your thinking- you are unlikely to notice.

teri said...
>>I don't think it's wise to encourage folks to get rid of the fridge without encouraging food storage. Life without a fridge is simple when you have a pantry full of grains, legumes, dried and canned fruits and vegetables, even smoked and canned meats. I'd hate for anyone to depend on supermarkets always being stocked.<<

I understand what you're saying; but-

I'm mostly encouraging city dwellers to think hard about this. No question, out in the country, options are fewer, and driving in to town is a larger and more expensive chore.

But. In the city - in most cases, if supermarket A is not functional, then supermarket B, or C, will be. And - if a great many people were relying on them daily- I'll bet my shirt the number of small mom and pop supermarkets, more conveniently located, would increase.

And. Anyone living in the city is already betting the "city" will continue to "work". If the city STOPS working- fresh food may be the least of their problems, and you can live off the canned soup and pasta until the riots are over. Not a cheerful scenario, but worth thinking about seriously. And. If the city has stopped working- is your fridge going to be working, anyway? I doubt it. They're going to cut the electricity on day one.

And, yes- I WOULD encourage anyone doing without a fridge to keep non-perishables stocked, a little. Not to the "survivalist" point, but it's just kind of common sense- something we're trying to encourage here- when your favorite soup is on sale, buy 4 cans, instead of 2, and stash some. Etc. This should come kind of naturally with thinking about what you're eating on a daily basis.

vanessa said...
>>This is a very tempting idea, especially considering I don't have that much in my fridge, and even less in my freezer. But what about my soy milk? <<

Well, check the label- I'll bet a pint will keep nicely for 24 hours without the fridge. If you're stopping off at the store on the way home every day- it should be fairly easy to match your purchase to your consumption. Do they make powdered soy milk yet? :-)

>>And all my condiments? <<

In fact the great majority of them will keep weeks without trouble- I NEVER refrigerate mustard or ketchup- and I don't think I've ever had them spoil. Pickles- were INVENTED to survive non-refrigerated conditions. Anything with vinegar in it spoils very slowly, if at all- which is most condiments.

One thing that will NOT keep unrefrigerated, of course, is mayonnaise, which has egg in it. Of course, you could just make your own, when you really want it... oil and vinegar salad dressing is immune to spoilage, pretty much; but milk based dressings might be a problem.

>>And my margarine? <<

No worries! Real butter keeps unrefrigerated for weeks- and so will margarine. Sure, the label says "refrigerate" - but it's not so much because they're afraid it will go rancid- it's because if it gets just a little too warm, it'll liquify, and make a yucky mess, and make you mad at them.

>>And man, there's nothing like a cold beer in the middle of summer... <<

Aha! Thank you Vanessa! This brings up another pretty good argument for NOT having a fridge.

You're right- a cold beer (or whatever) in summer is lovely. But you know what? When it's RIGHT THERE, all the time- we really don't appreciate it all that much. In fact, I know a bunch of people who basically don't even NOTICE the cold beer they just automatically grab out of the fridge. Sure, they make all the appropriate noises "wow, this sure is great on a hot day" - but 2 seconds later- they've forgotten the whole thing. It's just too easy.

Granted I'm a cross-grained type of guy, but it really seems to me that the major benefit to having the cold beer right there in the fridge is... - you can easily drink 3 or 4 of them; since they're so handy; meaning you get fat, and spend money you really didn't intend to.

Now- I'm entirely in favor of a cold beer in summer. But let me give you a couple of alternative ways to enjoy one.

A) you buy ONE, already cold, at the market, using it to help keep the meat/butter cool on the trip home.

B) you sometimes buy some kind of frozen meat at the market- say a turkey breast or sausage, just for example; and when you get it home, you put a warm beer in the little cooler alongside it- the beer gets cold, the meat gets thawed so you can make dinner.

C) somewhere in your world, there's a naturally chilly place. Not necessarily 34°F - but say a creek or a pond, with a cool bottom; or a cellar. Take a walk- and retrieve a beer you put there yesterday. You get a little walk, and a cool beer. I guarantee you, a beer at 50°F on a 90°F day, is plenty cool enough. (no, you can't hide a six-pack - somebody will swipe it.)

D) There are also all the evaporative cooling processes, used in the warm places of the world for millenia. Hang a beer in the shade in a wet canvas bag for a couple hours- it'll get cool as the water evaporates.

All that sounds like it's mostly philosophy, not practical "energy saving" - but it's all connected.

>>I think I could maybe try this for spring and fall at least, when Canadian weather is cool, and stick some stuff out on my balcony.<<

You bet. That's exactly what we do. We actually have great refrigeration all winter- it's called "the porch". Total cost- a little attention, so the raccoons don't turn things inside out. When our fridge quits working- every year- we shift gears a little. Helps you notice the years, in fact.

Part of the lesson from all these comments/questions- doing without a fridge DOES mean you have to think. All the time. I have to admit I think that's a good idea. But it also means- I can see a couple of books worth of advice being printed, lots of it conflicting, for different circumstances. It should be fun to watch them develop.