Thank you Monkey

 

My garage freezer is plugged into a GFCI outlet. That's not recommended but It's the only outlet available so it's the one being used. After two years of thinking "we really need to have another outlet put in that wall" whenever the situation comes to mind, the inevitable happened and it tripped.
That Monday I went out to the freezer and thought "How annoying, the light's burned out".
Then on Thursday I was in the garage and noticed suspicious fluid oozing from beneath the freezer. I opened the door, poked a piece of chicken, and found it squishy with thaw.
Back in the house, I carried on getting lunch ready and packing Baby Girl off to Joy School, wondering the whole time what to do with the dripping mass in the garage.
I decided I'd just have to give all the meat away. I started calling people "Hi, do you want a roast for dinner tonight? How 'bout some steaks? Chicken anyone?"
Lucky for me, the third or fourth number I landed on was my friend Jodi who has a pressure canner. She brought that bad boy over and while I prepped my kitchen casualties, she took on the bloody job of cleaning out the freezer and it's torrents of flowing meat juice.
Aren't friends great?
To all the friends who came to help, to console and to eat my melting steaks that day: Thank you. I appreciated it all so much.
I spent the following day and a half up to my elbows in meat, stuffing it into bottles and moving it through the canner. When that was all done, I made up that little monkey for Jodi.
Honestly, how do you thank a person who upon finding you, staring forlornly at a mess of that magnitude, steps in and bathes in meat juice on your behalf?
I didn't know, so I made the monkey.