A Rat ate my Refrigerator……

When we moved here we brought our old refrigerator with us to use as an extra in the garage, it comes in handy especially during canning season. It was an 18 or 19 cubic foot side by side model so it had plenty of space and the extra freezer space was nice, real nice during deer season. Obviously the fridge we have in the cabin is more efficient but it is much smaller also, so we will need to get another one as the Commonwealth of Kentucky has strict rules about how foods are processed that will be for sale. Anyway, I was working away from home in Maine and I got a call from my wife, something had gotten into the garage and gotten into some of my deer corn, they made a big mess. So Colleen put out a live trap with some tuna fish in it to catch the culprit. Had no such luck with the trap. But what did happen the rat got into the back of the fridge and chewed on the wires, not a smart rat but a rate just the same. The fridge took a crap the meat we had in the freezer was bad, (compost material),  luckily we had nonperishable stuff in the fridge (our home made hard cider!). We boiled up the meat that had started to thaw, and packaged it in small bags for chicken feed. Before I took the fridge for recycling I pulled the guts out of it, the rails, drawers, and shelves for future use. In our cabin we have a very small pantry that also doubles as a laundry room so needless to say there is no room in there! Colleen had a great idea, reassemble the fridge innards on the one small space or wall left in the room, turns out it was a great idea, she has lots of those!  

So  I took the measurements I needed to make sure the shelving unit would  fit and off to the shop I went to get started.  I attached the metal  rails that hold up the shelves to some 2” X 4” stock I had left over  from another project.  Started the screws that will hold the stock to  the wall.  Then back to the pantry. I then set the first rail and  then measured again just make sure it would fit in the tight space, it  was like it was meant to be, a perfect fit.  Just need to add the  shelves and drawer.  It always feels good when you can re-purpose  something, we are learning to use what we have, make it work with a  little ingenuity and creativity, this costs a few screws and some time,  not to mention a new garage fridge…..