Catastrophic Freezer Events!

So I walked into the garage yesterday evening around 5PM and saw this:

Whaaaaa?  Yes, the freezer with its door WIDE open.  I frantically close the door only to discover the ice build up keeps the top of the door from sealing.  In fact it's stuck open over an inch and the bottom of the door barely seals. Bah!  I quickly figure out that DH, in fact, was the one who left it open The Night Before when he got a big ham out to defrost.  Then I get down to business.

Everything in the door is defrosted (mostly beans and bread) and most of the stuff on the exposed edge has a defrosted edge.  The first thing I do is put an 8 pound pork roast in the crockpot.  It's mostly frozen, but I just want to be safe.  Another huge roast goes into the fridge.  A third roast stays put because it's literally frozen in place with a clear ice covering on that outside edge.  I start pulling out everything I can reach when I finally pause in my panic to think about the practicalities of my situation.

First, there's no way this will all fit in the inside freezer.  I am not willing to throw food out so today will not be the day to permanently defrost.  I will have to partially defrost today, however, because otherwise the door will not seal.  But I will not be unplugging for the summer for another few weeks.

Second, the fruit has to be my first priority.  Most of it was frozen carefully on trays to retain shape and then, once frozen, put into Ziploc Bags.  The bananas are already goo.  Two bags of blackberries near the door are also mush and juice.  I don't want the peaches to melt or my last remaining, precious raspberries to get gross.

OK, I have a plan.  Make room in the inside freezer for fruit.  It can't sit out and defrost at all.  Here's the freezer in process.  I moved 8 ziploc bags of peaches only to discover there was another 10 bags beind.  *Note to self:  Can more peaches next year even though freezing is easier.

I continued moving things from outside to inside, choosing fruit first and prioritizing others on their space efficiency.  I also leave out many things I intend for meals this week.  I am SO thankful the menu plan is so heavy on freezer stuff so I don't have to replan.

Here's how the freezer inside ended up:

Here's how the fridge looks with all of this week's stuff defrosting:

And the outside freezer is mostly empty.  I packed ice packs around the remaining peaches hoping to keep them frozen while the top shelves defrost enough to allow the door to close completely!  Those containers in the door are just defrosted water bottles.  When frozen they help the freezer run more efficiently.

There's also this ridiculous amount of zucchini sauce. I'm planning to keep much of it since it really works beautifully as a substitute for vegetable oil but it might not make the final cut come the end of the month.

Phew!  That's not how I intended to spend the dinner hour, but thankfully it wasn't raining so the girls happily played outside while I dashed between the garage and kitchen.

Katie