A few weeks ago, a couple of fellow bloggers were both talking about how due to proper planning, they were able to take advantage of an opportunity to buy a lot of beef at a good price.
I found myself on the opposite side of that situation yesterday.
Back in March, shortly after moving into this rental house, my wife and I talked about picking up a freezer for the garage, and buying a quarter/half a cow to fill it with. Asking around at work, I found a guy who handled such things, and found out I was about two weeks too late to grab the last half a cow. Not having the beef to fill it with, buying a freezer for the garage has kept sliding down the list of priorities. I keep looking in craigslist periodically, but just haven't found one I'm willing to drive to Walla Walla or Yakima for.
I've known the clock is ticking. If I am successful in the upcoming hunting season, we will NEED to get a freezer.
Well, yesterday, the alarm on the clock went off. I got a phone call and an e-mail from the guy I had talked to back in March, and he told me that one of his buyers had backed out, and he had a half a cow available if I was interested in it. $2.00 a pound, plus .49 cents a pound to cut and wrap plus a kill fee...and it's mine, available next Friday for pickup.
A quick check through craigslist didn't reveal any available freezer. New stand-up ones that we want are around $800ish, which is also roughly what the cow would cost. Since the house sold, the cash isn't so much the problem as finding space in the garage for a freezer...since we cleaned out our storage unit a month ago, the garage is kind of a scary place.
Plus, if I was to anchor an elk in two weeks, then we are talking third freezer instead of 2nd freezer. Plus, we are hoping to be moving out of this place after the new years, so a half cow would be another several hundred pounds of meat and freezer to move.
Plus...oh, there was all kinds of rationalization, with the end result being, I looked the opportunity in the eye, and I blinked. The gentleman had a wait list, and so I told him I was going to have to pass on the chance this time around.
Man, am I lame.
The end result is I was just not able to pull the trigger...
If I were to do it again, I'd get a chest freezer rather than an upright. When you open the door on an upright all the cold air cascades out of it, whereas with an upright the cold air just sits there in the freezer. Presumably, this means less duty-cycles for the compressor and whatnot. Only drawback is that a chest freezer is a nice clean flat surface which, naturaly, will become a crap-magnet for every knickknack you have laying around the room. But...if I were you, Id go with the chest freezer.
ReplyDelete"Man, am I lame."
ReplyDeleteI don't agree, at least on this particular point, even you might be ultimately incorrect in your assessment. But are you lame for other reasons? If you weren't, you wouldn't just become the next president, you'd somehow become the "president for life" and maybe of the world, then we'd (the oppressed and nearly broken remnants of real free men) would have to gather up and very probably die trying to win our freedom in a war against you and your minions. Makes for epic thought, but... stay with the rest of us lame. Not that you just have to accept being lame, just don't worry about it too much.
Besides, a cow, an elk, two freezers, a garage that would have to be possibly completely reordered? I am forced to blink just about getting a freezer, for now, as is. You'll get what you can, when you need, as you are able... or you won't. That stuff fixes itself, even if nothing is done (trust me).
Oh, 'plus one' on the drop in freezer. That is what I am intending, when I can... stop blinking. (bah!) If you are insistent on a standing freezer, I am curious as to why?
I'll admit I hadn't thought of the cold air 'spilling' out of a un upright. We have had a chest freezer before, and I was thinking upright this time because my chest freezer was very tough to keep organized inside.
ReplyDeleteBut, another plus on chest freezers is price...they are 2-300 less for the same cubic footage as an upright.