Here, my freezer failed, and set off the very quite alarm, and I discovered the problem when the vegetables were loose and wet inside the gallon bags. The top most items in the freezer were nearly completely thawed, and the items at the bottom to about the middle were stil quite firm, but showed signs of thawing as well. Because of this, my whole freezer had to be replaced. It was 6 am when I found the problem. Rushed out to Home Depot, who was about the only store open that early. Had them hold the last freezer (display model) in another store, rushed to that store, rented a truck, brought the freezer home, finally got it out of the truck by myself and moved it into my basement. It was set up, and I waited about 6 hours before putting stuff in it. I also moved as much thawed stuff to my upstairs freezer. I am not sure what will be the outcome, but do hope that the ten gallon sized bags of garden veggies will survive. The only way of knowing is to open one, and cook up some of the stuff. If it has a bad taste, it all gets tossed. For me, that also means five 2 pound bags of shrimp, about 50 pounds of meats for making sausages, many home made chicken and turkey pies, and about 30 pounds of filled pasta, and more. About the only items that can freeze, thaw, and refreeze are bird food suet cakes, and some pork fat As you can see, the loss of the freezer does have its issues. Because of the low volume freezer alarm, I bought a newer one with a louder alarm sound. I believe if I had heard the alarm the night before, the whole issue would never have gone as far as it did. When putting an alarm senser into the freezer, locate the sensor near the top shelf, so it will pick up the loss of cold faster than if its located at the bottom. Good luck with your stuff. I figure I could have lost over $600 worth of food.

Wow! Has the hummer been there for a long time? Is it a ruby red? I have read on the internet that some acutally freeze their sugar water to increase its shelf life. The ice crystals are coming from the water in the solution, so defrosting it will only return it to the original state, that is as long as you don't boil it to defrost it. Google the words: hummingbird, feeder and freez for ideas to keep the sugar water from freezing. Some use lights mounted close to the feeder, saw one article where someone wrapped the feeder with a heating blanket. What every you do make sure it is safe as water and electricity don't mix well. I am amazed that the hummer is still alive. With the reading I have done it states that even cool nights in the summer can strain a hummer. good luck!

If you have a big chain grocery store in your area, check with them. Publix is one here that has dry ice. In San Diego, I found it at Baskin Robins too. I have found those dry ice directories to be worthless to me in this area. (I routinely have had to buy dry ice for my business). The most I've ever paid for it in the past 10 years is $2.00 lb. Dry ice at Publix is like maybe $1.25 to 1.50 a pound. If you put the ice inside a styrofoam container or box lined with newspaper without breaking it up a bunch you can put a square of it on the bottom of your container and then put in your fruit etc. then put a piece on top of it (the container is something to keep the gases sealed in to make it last longer) a few pounds would work I would think to freeze smaller stuff. Because you could do the quick freeze, then take it out and put in your freezer, then add more stuff to the dry ice. If you break it up into smaller pieces, you will have a harder time fishing the produce out of it when it's done freezing. Plus it's easier for it to burn your hands if you have to handle smaller pieces vs a larger one that you can wrap in newspaper, grab it up, set it down, fish out your produce, etc. When I've shipped lab samples on dry ice, 5 lbs will last up to 2 days during transit as long as it's sealed tight.

Selling meat that has been frozen as fresh is illegal, at least where I live. In fact, the definition of "fresh" in food commerce is "never frozen". If your butcher uses the word fresh on his signage and ads, call him on it. The big difference here is that the meat the butcher gets frozen is probably cryovacked, which means it's flash frozen pretty instantly and doesn't have the cell degradation that freezing in a normal home fridge causes from freezing more slowly. (There is a home blast chiller called "Freddy" by Irinox, but it's mighty expensive.) OTOH, refrozen will probably reduce the quality more than freezing from fresh. The way you package it makes a big difference, as well. Re the freezer going out, I agree with Linda. Even if it wasn't at a perfect temperature when you found it, if it wasn't above 40° F for more than a few hours, you could have cooked the meat, rather than tossing it. I do understand the desire to be careful, however, especially if small children, very elderly or sickly are going to be eating it. You're right, however, that refreezing it raw was not an option once it had thawed. As to your nice steak, get a different butcher.