|
Outdoor Tips
Tip #38 EXTENDING THE ICE
AGE!
  While
camping out at a remote work
location I was forced to use a
traditional ice chest/cooler for
keeping my perishables from
going bad in-between my visits
to town for more ice and
supplies. But after the first
full week I realized there was
an important Ice Volume vs. Ice
Life factor that coincidentally
was part of the "how much food
can you pack in the ice chest"
equation.
If I used enough ice to last a
full week I found out I had
insufficient space available for
all the food I needed to store.
The challenge was to reduce the
amount of ice to provide more
room for food and still make it
a week without the ice
completely melting.
OK I know, you are thinking
"Here we go with another boring
outdoor tip." But stay tuned,
you just might find these
practices very rewarding on your
next outing into the bush with
limited supplies for keeping
your perishables from perishing
long before the trip ends.
The solution required that I
practice a bit of discipline in
my method of accessing the
cooler contents as well as apply
a couple other "tricks" which
would help achieve my goal.
 My
first action was to freeze those
items which could be frozen and
used later in the week as they
thawed. I froze my pound of
butter and instead of going with
a half gallon of milk I bought
two quarts and froze one solid
and chilled the other to just a
bit slushy. A container of
orange juice also froze well and
provided juice as it thawed.
Sure, these were small
contributions but none-the-less
added critical cooling to the
interior.
The next thing was to organize
the groceries in a logical
layout after the ice blocks were
in place. Those items I would
not need until later in the week
were placed in the bottom of the
cooler. Also any frozen meat
packages were placed next to the
ice. Food was stacked more or
less in the order I would use
it. This minimized excessive
time the lid was open and
reduced warm/cool air exchange.
One thing I noticed with the
tight fitting lid was whenever I
opened it, there was a
significant "vacuum" present as
the lid was raised and that in
turn caused a substantial rush
of warm air into the cooler.
This in itself contributes to
much of the loss of ice in a
short amount of time as it needs
to re-cool the interior air
after an entry.
 My
solution was to fold a
heavy-duty trash compactor
plastic bag to the dimension of
the cooler and place it on top
of all the food. Opening the
cooler lid slowly reduced
the rush of warm air and the
plastic bag "seal" prevented the
cold heavy air in the cooler
from being disturbed. Carefully
folding back the section of bag
in the area I wanted to access
reduced the need for the ice to
re-cool a lot of the air.
One should always use block ice
rather than cubed or chipped as
it lasts much longer. And a
final thing I practiced was to
leave the drain plug closed
except to periodically drain
accumulating water from melted
ice. Leaving the drain open
allows cool air to "flow" out
the vent which is replaced with
warmer air. As long as the water
in the cooler bottom does not
get too deep it helps maintain
the temperature.
All this may seem a bit
eccentric but for anyone who has
flown in for a 7-10 day bush
trip to fish or hunt, running
out of ice before the end of the
trip nearly always results in an
immediate need to "gorge"
yourself with all the remaining
perishables before they go bad.
If you will have several people
in your group using/accessing
the cooler contents, educating
all the people as to the proper
"Cool Etiquette" routine could
add a few extra days to your ice
life.
|
