I know, your blog reading faces are turning blue from holding your breath for this one. While my hubby is off having some male bonding time with his brothers and nephews (I am so NOT even jealous of the copious amounts of practical joking that goes on at this annual aromatic fart-fest. I'd rather wrangle 4 kids by myself any day.) I decided to tackle one of the psychologically damaging experiences of the summer. It was the defrosted freezer incident alluded to here.
In July, we traveled to Colter Bay for a wonderful family reunion and took time to drive up through Yellowstone. It was great except for the last 12 hours or so and then the week following, but that is another story for another day. Today's story took place the day after we returned to find the circuit that was connected to our large freezer that my parents have generously consented to have in their garage, had been tripped while we were gone! Now, to fully appreciate this catastrophe I must tell you that we bought a ¼ beef last November and still had about 30 lbs. left.
Well, at least 90% of that cow had completely defrosted and was dripping meat juice everywhere! Paul was working, not to mention sick, and so it fell to me to clean it up! Most of the meat was still cold and didn't smell spoiled so we decided to refreeze it rather than just throw it out! That cow was a pricey one! Well, I tried to take all of the meat out, clean the freezer and put it back in, but as I am sure you guessed, it just made new puddles of that glorious meat juice. I thought about just turning the freezer on, refreezing the meat and then trying to clean it up but realized the packages would just freeze to each other and the shelf. So, I had Paul buy gallon freezer bags and repackaged all of it! It took me hours in the mid afternoon July heat! I was so relieved to finally finish and take a shower!
Now, you may think this is the end of the story, but oh how wrong you would be! The sheer grossness, grossosity, (I know it's not a word, but real words are failing to express the level of ultragrossness) has just begun! The next day the garage started to stink but it was a really busy day (too much vomit clean up to do) and I just couldn't get up there. The next day it was worse! By the third day Mom was practically gagging as she mentioned that it seemed to be getting worse and I practically passed out upon entering the garage. So I ventured back to the freezer to try to discover the problem. I thought maybe some of that lovely juice/water had spilled out of my bucket under the freezer as I was cleaning. No such luck! Unbeknownst to me, there was a drip pan!!! Our freezer is equipped with a handy-dandy drainage hole in the bottom that drains into a drip pan hidden cleverly behind a plastic grill. It was brimming full of an indescribably disgusting sludge that had been brewing for many days in the July heat! Imagine your worst and then take it down a couple of notches. I am cringing as I type this 2 months later!
What to do? What to do with it! I couldn't just dump it somewhere so I opted for the toilet but that meant bringing it into the house! Oh the horror!! As I tromped through the house with my bucket of sludge from Hades, Jordan had the gall to say, "Mom you REALLY stink!"
After scouring the bucket and drip pan, putting baking soda all over the garage, and taking one of the longest, hottest showers of my life. The ordeal was finally over.
Now that it is finally recorded for posterity and my therapy, I can move on! :)
In July, we traveled to Colter Bay for a wonderful family reunion and took time to drive up through Yellowstone. It was great except for the last 12 hours or so and then the week following, but that is another story for another day. Today's story took place the day after we returned to find the circuit that was connected to our large freezer that my parents have generously consented to have in their garage, had been tripped while we were gone! Now, to fully appreciate this catastrophe I must tell you that we bought a ¼ beef last November and still had about 30 lbs. left.
Well, at least 90% of that cow had completely defrosted and was dripping meat juice everywhere! Paul was working, not to mention sick, and so it fell to me to clean it up! Most of the meat was still cold and didn't smell spoiled so we decided to refreeze it rather than just throw it out! That cow was a pricey one! Well, I tried to take all of the meat out, clean the freezer and put it back in, but as I am sure you guessed, it just made new puddles of that glorious meat juice. I thought about just turning the freezer on, refreezing the meat and then trying to clean it up but realized the packages would just freeze to each other and the shelf. So, I had Paul buy gallon freezer bags and repackaged all of it! It took me hours in the mid afternoon July heat! I was so relieved to finally finish and take a shower!
Now, you may think this is the end of the story, but oh how wrong you would be! The sheer grossness, grossosity, (I know it's not a word, but real words are failing to express the level of ultragrossness) has just begun! The next day the garage started to stink but it was a really busy day (too much vomit clean up to do) and I just couldn't get up there. The next day it was worse! By the third day Mom was practically gagging as she mentioned that it seemed to be getting worse and I practically passed out upon entering the garage. So I ventured back to the freezer to try to discover the problem. I thought maybe some of that lovely juice/water had spilled out of my bucket under the freezer as I was cleaning. No such luck! Unbeknownst to me, there was a drip pan!!! Our freezer is equipped with a handy-dandy drainage hole in the bottom that drains into a drip pan hidden cleverly behind a plastic grill. It was brimming full of an indescribably disgusting sludge that had been brewing for many days in the July heat! Imagine your worst and then take it down a couple of notches. I am cringing as I type this 2 months later!
What to do? What to do with it! I couldn't just dump it somewhere so I opted for the toilet but that meant bringing it into the house! Oh the horror!! As I tromped through the house with my bucket of sludge from Hades, Jordan had the gall to say, "Mom you REALLY stink!"
After scouring the bucket and drip pan, putting baking soda all over the garage, and taking one of the longest, hottest showers of my life. The ordeal was finally over.
Now that it is finally recorded for posterity and my therapy, I can move on! :)
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