Having been somewhat successful during Monday’s opening day of shotgun deer season (no, I didn’t get a buck but I did fill two tags of my doe permit by harvesting two 2 1/2 year-old does), I decided to take the day off from hunting, get some sleep, and defrost my stand up freezer so there will be room for the venison I will get back from the butcher in a week or so.
The freezer is a stand-up model and requires defrosting about twice a year. I didn’t do it last spring so the ice was quite thick when I got around to doing it today. Chipping away the thick hoarfrost is a combination of archeological dig and decent into a glacial cave. I never know exactly what I will find or when it was placed there. I know, however, that my fingers are going to get very, very cold and the floor will get wet. Today I unearthed packages of frozen pumpkin from Halloween—of 2004, some ribs from a deer I killed in 2003, a pork roast from February, a container of split-pea soup from last March, and several items of questionable food value. After getting all the ice out, I took everything that I had removed and put it back—neatly and compactly—so as to leave room for about 100 pounds or more (hopefully) of venison roasts, steaks, filets and chop meat.
There is a definite feeling of satisfaction when you can see a full freezer and know it has gotten that way because of your personal actions. We used to can fruits, vegetables, jams and jellies and that same comfort of a well-stocked larder would surround us when we were finished and listening to the “pop” of jars sealing on the countertop. We haven’t done much canning in the last 10 years but will definitely begin doing so once we have gotten into our new home.
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