The refrigerator at the cabin on our island has been there as long as any of us can remember. I was still a kid when my dad built the place and the fridge was probably installed in the late 50s. And if you knew my dad, you would be just as certain as I am that it was not new when it got there. It's the ugliest teal blue imaginable and some years ago, my sister and I tried to dress it up with some contact paper with a forest pattern on it. Anyway, the thing still runs -- after a fashion. It wheezes and rattles, and occasionally clunks alarmingly. We knew that sooner or later it would die. Probably sooner and with Murphy being a member of the family, it would do so on our family week when there were more than twenty people on the island and the thing would be stuffed with food. Being on an island has it's advantages, but getting a repairman out there to look at a geriatric refrigerator is not among them. And that's even assuming he would have parts for a model that ancient. But then my sister's company consolidated offices and raffled off the things that would not be moving to the new location, the refrigerator being one. My sister put her name in the hat and to our astonishment, she won it. Now we just had to get it out there.
My stepson has a nice big power boat and my son has a buddy he could borrow a pick up truck from. The problem turned out to be that both men have, kids, jobs and busy lives and they kept thinking they had plenty of time to get their time coordinated. But with our family due to arrive en mass in just a couple weeks and with my stepson on vacation we had to fall back on Plan B. Which was disassembling the thing and figuring out how to move it to the island in one of the rowboats. We row to and from the island and have four different boats to choose from. We ended up with the pram, and towed it with another row boat. Where there is a will, there is a way. Getting it OUT of the boat once on the island was another chore, followed by getting the hand truck over roots and pine needles. It's now grandly installed in our humble kitchen, looking quite proud of itself and dominating the place. Thank God! Now we won't have to wonder where to keep the cold beer this year! Oh! And the rest of the food, too, of course!