They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

This evening I went to retrieve the milk cows as they were eating grass way out in the pasture and ignored our calls to come to the barn to get milked.  Tricia was gathering together the bucket of fermented rice from the feed room in the barn to feed the chickens and they waited right outside the barn gate for supper.

That white behemoth by the barn door catches your eye, doesn't it?

That is our old deep freeze.  Although I shouldn't really use the word old.  The thing was only six years old when it bit the dust.  We were going to haul it off to the landfill, but I don't like hauling things to the dump.  Not when they have another use.

I remember when I was in junior high school, I showed sheep.  We had a red barn out behind the house and right outside the door, my dad had placed an old chest-type deep freezer that no longer worked and we used it to store sweet feed and Calf manna in.  The rats couldn't get to the feed in the deep freeze and it was sealed tightly and kept out moisture.  When you opened the door, the great smell of the sweet feed and calf manna hit your nostrils.  Sweet feed still brings back good memories of childhood.

So back to that white "eyesore" by the side of the barn.  I remarked to the salesperson at the store that we bought it from that it didn't last but six years. Surprisingly, I was told that is really all you can expect out of them these days. They aren't built to last. They also aren't built to be kept outdoors in the garage.  They don't have the insulation in them that they had back then.

My brother still has an old chest-type deep freeze that he inherited from my grandmother that we called Bumby.  It was and International Harvester brand and had a big 'hood ornament' right above the handle.  It kept the ice cream and other stuff frozen solid.  Well, forty-something years later and that thing is still running! Amazing.  Things used to be built to last - with pride.

I guess I have to look on the bright side.  It gave me six good years as a freezer and now it will give me many more good years as a storage receptacle for chicken feed.