The memories of the chest freezer in my mother’s house are limited to visions of ice encrusted loaves of white bread, which my mother bought 12 for 1.49 at Woodwards, and would then leave forgotten in the freezer for years.

Her freezer was the size of a small car. I suggested something a great deal smaller for us when I broached the subject to E. Living off the grid as we do, the power requirements were, of course, a concern. I have been watching the sales and, this month, found what we were looking for.

We had considered freezers which were propane fuelled and also solar powered options but both were discounted. The last thing we want is a need to haul more propane over here and a solar powered freezer is about $1000.00. So … nope.

With the addition of eight solar panels to our power system last summer we usually have more power than we can use. The large Unique solar fridge we have has a 4.8 cubic foot freezer, so don’t need a lot more space but little bit more room would come in very handy. Someone who has the best of intentions keeps buying sale items like a 20 pound leg of pork.

Power consumption advertised for the Arctic 3.5, which we bought, is 174 kwh per year. When we first plugged it in, the draw on our inverter was 2 amps.

We had ordered our groceries on line and they were delivered to our car this morning. The freezer was ordered on line and also delivered to our car. We were able to zip over to town, and be home with food for the next month, and a freezer to hold it in, before noon. If it hadn’t started to hail on us when we unloaded the boat, the trip would have been perfect.

So for 150.00 we got a 3.5 cubic foot freezer, or, as I like to call it, a new black end table in the guest bedroom. That room, however, gets insanely hot during the summer, so we might have to move the freezer to our bedroom in June. The added bonus of moving the freezer beside our bedroom would be the efficiency it would add to midnight ice cream raids. I have never been a fan of breakfast in bed but ice cream snacks in bed? I

could be convinced