This winter is horrible. Dark, rainy, windy. Almost no snow. Today it was at least around zero, so I decided to defrost the freezer. Putting out the frozen food on the balcony. For once, I was glad there was no sun.

I defrosted it for the first time in over a year, since they put it in. I live in a rental apartment, so the model is rather simple. It is half fridge, half freezer. Today I discovered that if I turn off the freezer, the whole machine is turned off. The fridge, too. I am surprised it has to be like that. I haven't had a half-half machine like that in decades. In the house I owned, we had full height freezer and fridge. The last freezer was self-defrosting. Had it for a few years and never had to defrost it. Not sure if the freezing is a bit less efficient in those machines, but we had a icebox in the basement, too, for long term use.

The defrosting went moderately well. I put some frozen blocks into the fridge to keep it cool for the hours defrosting took. It still went up a few degrees, without opening the door to it for the whole time. Also, the re-cooling goes slow. Budget stuff.

This winter seen almost more snow in my freezer than outside. So far. Strange weather ho ho ho.