I can walk up to the 2nd floor of the house and see all the raccoon poop that has baked for multiple summers. That is gross! But, of course, we managed to find something that is so much worse. In the quonset sits three chest freezers and an old refrigerator.  Like the rest of the house, the previous owners left us the remnants of their future dinner entrees’.  Fortunately, two of the freezers were still plugged in.  Those two were filled with a variety of delicious game.  Steaks, beef roasts, and fish with “Best Use” dates of 2010 were easily disposed of into a well planned garbage dump.  Also among the packaged meat and food were unmarked freezer bags of chicken, fish and maybe deer.  It is amazing how heavy garbage sacks full of food get!  The frozen meat made for fairly easy disposal.

Next, we tackled the refrigerator.  Plenty of condiments and a few mystery left overs.  Most of the food was still in their containers, but as with any old fridge, the aroma still made you hold your nose.

Finally, we made our way to the chest freezer that was not plugged.  We had saved the best for last.  Our worst fears were realized when we briefly lifted the lid.  A blast of rotten meat aroma hit us in the face.  Our masks do a great job of filtering dust, but decomposing mystery meat is no match.  Think of it as a chest freezer full of road kill that has been sitting in the sun for a week. Oh, if only I could add smell-o-vision to this post..

The problem was disposal.  If we could just lift the whole freezer, meat and all, into the dump trailer, it would have spared us the agony of cleaning it out. But that wasn’t going to happen because (1) the dump probably wouldn’t take the freezer and (2) we don’t have a tractor…yet.  It was decided to plug in the freezer to see if it would work in order to re-freeze the meat.  Hallelujah!!! The freezer kicked to life.

A few weeks later, Chris and his Dad cleaned out the freezer.  Yes, it still smelled like a zombie apocalypse, but it proved to be easier to handle.  The only issue they ran into was that a rotten soup of oozy blood and chunks had frozen solid at the bottom of the freezer.  Anyone have a craving for a Popsicle?

So…back to the thaw.  They pulled the freezer out of the shed and into the sun.  Then, armed with a spade and a bucket of water, pulled the remaining pieces out.

Even though the job was finished, the stench still lingered and seemed permanently attached to Chris.  His gloves and mask went into the trash.  Needless to say, we kept our distance from him and were lucky that we’d driven two cars to the house. 😉

Till next time…