Live Free or Thaw

Defrosting the Granite State since 2026

A grassroots campaign for a warmer tomorrow
A junked New Hampshire backyard filled with discarded refrigerators.
A typical New Hampshire backyard, post-refrigeration.

A Bill of Grievances Against the Ice Box

  1. The Ratepayer Burden

    Every humming compressor is a second Eversource meter you did not ask for. While the rest of us shiver for free, ratepayers are financing cubic feet of artificially chilled air in March.

  2. The Sound of Silence, Ruined

    The low-frequency hum of modern life drowns out the sound of town-meeting consensus. A compressor cycling at 2 a.m. is not neighborliness; it is acoustic litter.

  3. Freon and the Fading Ozone

    Refrigerants are not a granite virtue. They waft into the atmosphere like an apology nobody asked for, carrying the faint smell of guilt and the 1980s.

  4. Food That Lasts Too Long

    Leftovers should not outlast the legislature. When a casserole can survive three town meetings, the potluck loses its urgency, and the community loses its soul.

  5. The Death of the Root Cellar

    Refrigeration has all but destroyed the noble art of the root cellar, the spring house, and the porch pie in January. Local knowledge is being replaced by a white box on casters.

  6. Year-Round Ice Cream Dependency

    A treat once reserved for July is now a January birthright. Birch Bark brittle is becoming a lifestyle, not a season. The dairy aisle has become a year-round siren song.

  7. The Magnetic Poetry Industrial Complex

    For too long, the front of the refrigerator has been commandeered by word magnets and grocery lists. It is time to return the written word to the town hall, the barn door, and the back of a napkin.

  8. Warm Milk, Forgotten

    Children no longer know the joy of a warm glass of milk at eleven in the morning. They reach, reflexively, for something that came from a vent, not a cow or a covered porch.

  9. Backyard Fridge Graveyards

    White boxes now mar our ridges and valleys. The backyard refrigerator graveyard is the new rust belt, and it is not charming. It is a monument to planned obsolescence and poor drainage.

  10. Grid Dependence vs. Yankee Self-Reliance

    Refrigeration teaches dependence on the grid when a true Yankee trusts the root cellar, the north-facing shed, and the judgment of a February thermometer.

  11. Cold Chain Tyranny

    The so-called “cold chain” is supply-chain tyranny dressed as convenience. It demands constant electricity from Berlin to Bethlehem, and it asks nothing of our character.

Our Mission

New Hampshire Citizens Against Refrigeration is a coalition of neighbors, selectboard observers, and root-cellar preservationists who believe the Granite State can do better than a humming box in every kitchen. We are not against cold weather; we are against paying to make it indoors. Our work is deadpan, civic, and entirely earnest about a ridiculous cause.

What We Demand

  • An immediate moratorium on the sale of new full-size refrigerators in New Hampshire.
  • A voluntary fridge buyback and backyard amnesty program, with free pickup from hard-to-reach dirt roads.
  • Restoration of the root-cellar tax credit and a new grant program for spring-house restoration.
  • A statewide strategic reserve of non-electric butter churns, cider jugs, and covered crocks.
  • Mandatory “thaw drills” in every school, teaching the next generation to trust a cold porch and a watchful eye.

Take the Pledge