Huge declutter this morning as I emptied the contents of the 50-year-old upright freezer. There is a contractor bag in the trash can outside and I've tossed some stuff that I won't use or is very old (but was buried in there and would have been discarded anyway at the next normal defrost). Two coolers are stuffed as is the side-by-side freezer on the fridge. I'm not going to defrost this thing, it's going out the door full of ice.

It's freezing again now, but that period of defrost was so big it wasn't just the door left open, the big cold box is failing. So it's time. The delivery of the new one should be anytime in the next couple of hours. I don't think it will be as large as the old one, but I will be able to make due. A lot that came out was just stuff parked in there, flour, rice, baking mixes, that always go in for a while to kill any eggs in the mix. You have to do that down here or have weevils. They can all come out now and go into the pantry shelves.

Dogs will be put into the yard, I think it's warming up enough (though last night we had a hard freeze that knocked out part of the garden - the plants not in pots I could carry into the garage.)

I had a bag of ice cubes of chicken stock in there; they softened enough to kind of melt together, but most are still in cube shapes, so I think most of the stuff will be okay to continue in the freezer.

The house is a shambles, due partly to this, and partly because I have to take apart my vacuum and clean filters and such, or take it to the local repair guy (that I have probably already mused about here.)