It's a good thing I woke up at 5:30 this morning as I have been flat out all day.

Taking the dogs for a walk I noticed it was a clear blue sky, despite the fact it had clearly rained overnight. So I headed up to the house and put on a couple of loads of washing before starting to take advantage of the newly made bed to dump the contents of the kitchen table, preparatory to clearing out the freezer.

You know that sinking sensation when you think the freezer is half empty but you open it up and find it filled to the brim? Well I had that in spades this morning. Fortunately most of this was down to it being chaotic and disorganised. While I was still unloading the contents the front door knocked and there was him next door wanting to know how I wanted my pork cut up (bit of a surprise since they were only slaughtered yesterday....), so off the top of my head I asked for the shoulder to be boned out, the belly, chops and the rump to be cut in two, then went back to unpacking the freezer.

Part of the contents was a large quantity of nettle soup that, once tasted, was a never-to-be repeated experience. So that lot went to the worms, and I put aside some chops for dinner tonight. By the time I had rationalised the contents and defrosted the freezer it all fitted back in with room to spare. Just got that done when another knock on the door announced the arrival of the meat (at 11:30 in the morning for goodness sake!).

While all this was going on I was being interrupted at regular intervals as Judy was apparently having a clearout at hers. First a barrow load of manure which was gratefully received and distributed around the fruit trees, then two big bales of bird netting and polytunnel plastic, which went into the ute, then another barrow load of manure at which point i suggested leaving the barrow and taking mine back - aaaargh!

The meat when it arrived was sort of 'as specified'. A large bag of chops (that I have yet to parcel up and label), a shoulder that had been cut in two as apparently boning it out was beyond the resources of the butcher (ie he couldn't be bothered), the rump was in two pieces .... the hock and the rest of it. Too big for a roast, impossible to convert into ham or bacon due to the lack of a handy hock to hang it by, and a bit overwhelming really.

I set to and stripped the fat out of the belly, rolled that up to consider how to deal with it (I am thinking bacon but need to find a suitable container of the right size), the forequarter was boned out and cut into four roasts, the rump was reduced to two roasts (big ones, company roasts) and the bones set aside as they are going to be made into stock when they finally come to the boil, and the meat scraps removed from said bones set in a dish in the fridge with a view to making some cumberland sausages (since I have plenty of sage) without the skin (since i don't have any skins).

I had that all sorted when the phone rang and it was the plumber letting me know he was ready for me to call into Oatlands to collect the bit I needed for the hot water, so I shoved everything in the fridge (which also got a clean out today) and headed into town. Back again to fit that together (had to borrow a suitably small screw driver from Judy as I can't find my set of jewellers tools), and take a photo to send to the plumber to make sure I had all the wires in the right places before I plugged it in.

That being all OK I was surprised to discover the temperature for the tank was registering as 15 degrees (but I had hot water). Finally worked out that the sensor lead had fallen out of its hole as I moved the controller. Once that was plugged in it was all working beautifully. I do need to work out how to hold the sensor in position though as it just sits loosely in the hole and gravity seems to pull it back from the surface it is measuring (perhaps this is why my last plumber left the cable on top of the hot water cylinder, to reduce the drag?).

Anyway, apart from removing the contents of the kitchen table from the bed before bedtime, I have had enough for today, and so the chops will wait till tomorrow to be bagged and labelled, following which I will once again remove the entire contents of the deep freeze so the new meat can go at the bottom (for speedy freezing) and the rest of the contents can be stacked rather more rationally than the chaos that had evolved over time.

I did discover a stock pile of sausages which was fascinating as I had thought i had eaten them all - not to mention quantities of mince of various types, so I guess I will be eating a lot of sausage and mince-based recipes for a while, along with chicken thighs and legs. Good thing it is coming on winter as the beef cheeks will make great casseroles and so too will some of the other treats I found in there!