Freezer Failure and Decomp Cocktail?

Shortly after we got married in 1996, my wife and I bought a freezer from one of her parent's neighbors.  As I loaded this monstrosity into my truck, I remember thinking that this old freezer is going to go out next week and I'm going to have to move it again. We all speculated at the time, that it had to be 30 years old.  But, it was $100 and I needed a place to put meat.  Being newlyweds, it was all we could afford, so we did the deal with a smile on our faces and a pain in my lower lumbar region.

The old freezer lasted as we move from place to place throughout the years.  It's had just about anything you can imagine in it. It needed to be defrosted from time to time, but that was simple enough and quite honestly for the first few years, we moved enough that just emptying and defrosting for the move was sufficient.

In late January of 2015, I went into the garage and found that one of the kids left the door slightly open. This presented a problem as the garage was a mess and needed to be cleaned up before I could do it or it would get everything around it soaked.  I managed to get the door shut and resolved to clean up the garage so that I could defrost it and reclaim my deer, hog, fish, dove, quail, and a bobcat that I needed to take to the taxidermist.

Of course baseball season was around the corner and it would be months before I had time to deal with the mess.  Once that was over, it was time for fishing and vacations.  Late in the summer, we began to smell a foul stench... I thought there was a dead cat or opossum or some other creature in the garage, but after a couple days of the stink, I saw the tell tale signs of blood under the freezer.  I tried to open the door, but couldn't.  I felt the side, and it was warm and I could feel the vibration of the motor running.  I figured it was frozen shut, but not sure how that could be since there was blood leaking from the drain tube.  I saw a slight gap in the seal toward the bottom of the door.

I did finally get my garage cleaned up and fairly organized before hunting season.  I came to the conclusion that I needed some help getting this freezer out to the driveway to thaw.  The freezer sat on a portion of my foundation that was 7 1/2" above my garage floor. Easy enough when it's empty, but when loaded with meat and iced over coils, it's a little different beast.  I used some tie down ratchet straps to close it and make sure it stayed closed until I could get some help moving it off it's perch.

Well, as usual other priorities came along, like hunting season and spring baseball shortly thereafter.  I quickly forgot about it... AGAIN (I have another deep freeze), until just a few weeks ago when I smelled that stench AGAIN!  This time, I felt no motor running, no extra heat from the motor, no indication at all that it was working. I unplugged it and plugged it in again, reset the breaker, and beat on it a little hoping for the best, but no luck.  We left the garage door open for a few days while I found some help to get it done.

I loaded it up with the plan of taking it to the dump.  I headed to the dump to do so, and the guy there told me they don't take that stuff.  A freezer is apparently considered a hazardous material.    I asked him if I could open it up and dump it there and they could use their machinery to load it back up... The answer was "no".  So, Plan A was a "no go".  Since I had no help to get it on and off the truck myself, I left to re-think my plans.

Plan B was to take it out to the lease, open it up and let the coyotes and buzzards have a buffet, then come back a few weeks later to clean it up. Upon further consideration, I figured that would be a mess with all the freezer paper and plastic to pick up and it would get shredded.  I didn't think that the land owner would appreciate that. So, Plan B was moved down the list to last resort and only with land owner's permission.

I called the City of San Antonio's 311 Call Center to find out how to dispose of a freezer and what to do with the contents.  The verdict came back, that I could take it to the Hazardous Waste Collection Site, but I was on my own with the contents.  My trash day being the following day, I figured I had to seize the moment and get this done.  I went home and figured out a way to unload the freezer and got it upright.  I suited up in a field dressing kit that has gloves that go all the way up to the shoulders and have the surgical type latex gloves that go over the shoulder length gloves.  If I had a Tyvek suit, I would have worn that too.

I unstrapped the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.  This was somewhat worrisome.  I was afraid that somehow the "decomp cocktail" in my freezer would explode all over me in some sort of backdraft type of situation.  I tried again, this time with a bit more muscle.  Nothing.  I decided to go for broke.  I yanked and put all 254 lbs into it, and it cracked open.  I peered around the side to see nothing but pink insulation and a little light blue.

I pulled harder and harder keeping the steel door between me and whatever was in there until I just basically ripped the door from the blue shelf insert that makes up the inside of the door.  It was stuck to ice... The door shelf insert had been engulfed in ice.  There was a slight smell.  It really wasn't bad at all.  Sitting in the bottom was a bobcat that had decomposed in a plastic bag, but everything else was still frozen solid. There were a few dead blow flies around it, but beyond that, no big deal! I was so relieved.

I spent about 30 minutes hosing it down to get enough ice out to begin removing meat.  I was appalled at how much sausage and ground venison I was throwing away.  I thought it was all bad and had been for over a year, but the sausage I pulled out didn't even look freezer burned. I wasn't going to take a chance on that at this point though... Lesson learned!  Fortunately my other freezer is frost free.  You can bet my replacement freezer will be as well.  Now it's time to go shopping for that freezer.  Somewhere out there is a freezer that's about to get filled with fish!

My First Baitcaster

Many years ago, for my birthday I got a Daiwa Procaster PL-1500.  It is a low profile reel, from the early 80's.  There is no gear ratio listed, but it is marked "High Speed".  I suspect by today's standards it pales in comparison.

It was my very first baitcaster. My brother and sister pooled their money to purchase this gift when I was about 11 years old and I still have it today.  It is my "go to" reel.  The one I use when times get tough.  When I need that little confidence boost I pull it out and go to work.  I usually keep it spooled up with 14 lb. Stren Clear/Blu Monofilament (also a back to the basics "confidence booster") on a medium action rod.  

This reel has been with me through thick and thin.  I learned to cast this reel in the front yard casting across the street.  I remember my brother giving me instructions on "pin point" casting.

There are many, many memories with this reel and I would never give it up.  This reel went on Family vacations and weekend outings in our family motor home.  From Sunday afternoons at Guadalupe River State Park to Beaver Lake in Arkansas. My senior year in high school, I skipped out and went fishing for something like 23 days. This reel was there for all of them.  I caught a 4 lb bass on Canyon Lake and a 5 lber on Sommerville.  In January of 1990, I loaded up to cast across a cove on a 40 degree morning while the pistol grip rod I was using broke and the reel along with the rest of the rod took about a 40 yard flight and landed in about 8 feet of water, leaving nothing but the grip in my hand. I went for a very cold swim that morning.

A couple years later, I went to visit a friend in Dallas.  We went to Lake Ray Roberts, where I caught a 4+ lb Smallmouth.  Years later, I found out that the fish I caught would have been close to if not the lake record back then. On that same trip, I again, lost that reel on a cast where the rod just slipped out of my hand.  I went in after it in a heartbeat.  

I caught my personal best bass in a stock tank near Bandera, TX with that reel.  In about 1992, I decided that it was time to take this baby apart and give it a good cleaning.  To my dismay, I couldn't figure out how to put it back together.  I took it (in a box of parts) to Bill's Tackle in Leon Valley, TX to get it fixed.  They ordered some new parts and got her all fixed up.  

Some years later during 2001, I headed to Port Mansfield to fish with my brother.  During this trip, I had some problems with it, so I took it off the rod and put it in my bag.  My intention was to take it back to Bill's to get it all fixed up again, but instead, I think it was Devine intervention. When I rolled back into town, I went by a friends house.  While there, all of my fishing stuff was stolen out of the back of my truck. Every rod, every reel, and a Plano Guide Series tackle box with every lure, weight, worm, lizard, spinnerbait, buzz bait, frog, hook, scale, and anything else you could possibly think of was stolen... except the old Daiwa Procaster.  If it wouldn't have broken, I wouldn't have put it away and it surely would have been stolen too.

I took it to Bill's a week or so later only to find out they were closed... Out of business.  After several years of searching for a place I could trust with it, I finally decided to give it a try once more.  Success!!! Now I take it and the rest of my arsenal apart every year and give them a good cleaning and replace worn parts.  Amazingly (and thankfully), I can still find parts for this 35 year old reel.  If you need service to your reels, bring them by Twisted Oak and we'll get you fixed up!

This old reel and I have shared some adventures over the years.  Much like the bonding experienced with friends on these trips, this reel brings back a flood of memories when I hold it, cast it, and catch fish.  Now, my 10 year old son is using it to learn to cast a baitcaster.  I need to buy him one of his own.  I wish I could find one I know would last as long as this one has.

Do you have a lucky reel, or rod or lure, or any other fishing equipment you would hate to lose? Hand me down? Inherited?  What's your story?  Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook Page.