[Stonewall Jackson]

It's been almost four years since the 2009 Ice Storm, which is what really convinced my family that I wasn't quite as crazy as they thought. I ended up with fourteen family members staying with me for times ranging from two to twelve days. My wood stove kept the house nice and warm, the generator powered a number of floor lamps and kept the fridge and freezers from thawing out, and my larder made sure that there was plenty of food on the table.

Sadly, the compressor on one of my chest freezers died last week and I didn't realize it until all of the food had already thawed and had begun spoiling. Fortunately I have another chest freezer and an upright that I have my frozen food divided up in, so it's more of an expensive inconvenience than a disaster. I'm just glad it didn't wait until next week to conk out, as I'm picking up twenty-four chickens and six turkey from an Amish farmer on Thursday and a side of beef from the slaughterhouse on Friday.

[JRandomFreeper]

Freezer alarms are cheap, much cheaper than losing meat right now.

Sorry for the financial hit.

Good to hear that you were able to care for your family. We are commanded to do that.

Logistics part of my brain says 2 days x 14 people x 3 meals is 84 meals of some kind. 12 days x 14 people x 3 meals is 500 meals.

I'm assuming you did somewhere in between. Always an eye opener to feed large groups of people over time. ;)

/johnny