D-Day for Turkey

I took all these great pictures of Turk and wouldntyaknowit, they magically disappeared in my camera. So here is the account. Turk was fetched from his pen and waddled over to said butcher block. We waited for the small crowd of onlookers to arrive, stuffed Turk in a burlap sack, duct taped him well to prevent his wings from breaking, hung him up and Paul did his dirty work. It is always a great family time butchering the turkey, Danny did a marvelous job of raising the creature and it brought much entertainment to the farm. I even had a picture of me kissing his globby fluorescent blue head, complete with snood draped down in front of him.


Turkeys are interesting critters, not the smartest and yes, we will attest to the rumor that turkeys are SO dumb they WILL die in a rainstorm. Turkeys become curious at the raindrops from above and will look up at the rain eventually drowning themselves. This happened to us one year, with a 20 lb turkey. I was livid with the dumb beast, but alas, he was gone and as much as my Dutch side wanted to scoop up the well dead $40 carcass and butcher him up, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

It was a four person job to pluck. Emily and I plucked him whilst Mr. Williams held the bird steady and Paul poured boiling water over the stinky, sticky feathers. My niece(Emily) may be a city slicker, but she knows how to pluck a turkey! Jess rode horse, Jacob hosed down, Daniel skinned the gizzard, Emma ran around to and fro, Micah roller bladed on the gravel driveway, Gracie watched from a distance and Elijah napped most of the time. After everyone left I was commiserating on how small he looked. He just didn't look as robust as we like and Mr. Williams and I guessed him to be 16 lbs at best.

After getting the dressed turk in the kitchen sink, I plucked the pin feathers with a pliers and singed his hairs, made him all pertty-like. I got the scale out and Paul weighed him...28lbs?! Really? Yes, he was a whopping 28lbs and I even had trouble stuffing him in the freezer. We are anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving Day! Bring on the turkey!