While we were traveling we kept reading the news about the monsoon storms in Arizona and how the ground was totally saturated and not absorbing much rainwater. What we also didn't realize until we crossed over into AZ from CA was that all of that rain made the plant life explode !
There was so much green happening everywhere and it was an awesome thing to see. Until we got home and saw that our front yard was suddenly entirely engulfed in two foot high weeds and grass, the backyard was even worse even though I had mowed the back just before we departed for Washington.
The house still looked intact and everything was exactly as we left it .... until ... we opened the front door and walked inside. The smell, that I personally describe as "warm death", hit us like a brick wall.
It seems that shortly after we left on vacation, one of the storms popped a fuse in the main breaker cabinet which took out power to the main refrigerator, lights, dishwasher, oven, and microwave. The smell was coming from the fridge ... and it was absolutely disgusting !! Everything in the freezer was melted, warm, and bloated. Some things in both the freezer and fridge had exploded and congealed for days. It took us almost an hour to empty everything out and toss 8 bags into the trash bin without hurling during the process.
Another hour + was spent cleaning out the fridge with disinfectant and Lysol wipes, drying the floor underneath, and just being grossed out. No matter what we did, the smell was everywhere. We ended up using several boxes of baking soda, a three pound can of coffee grounds, and multiple bags of activated charcoal inside of the fridge across three days until we were able to buy food and safely store it in the fridge.
After the episode with the kitchen, we still had to go pick up the puppies from the groomer and get them home. and then take the bird cages outside so I could pressure wash them and get them cleaned up for the return of the flock on Sunday. I'm pretty sure we worked more from the minute we got back through the weekend than at any time while we were gone.
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