The turkey has arrived!

good luck gattina! looks like he is flying!!

bet it will taste good.

happy christmas

Thank you, Sticki, I think he may well keep flying 'til New Year! The cellar is now full of feathers! At least he had a very happy, free range life.

do you have turkey feather duvets?

It's HUGE! I should have got OH to stand next to it before I got my camera out to give you some idea of the scale!

Years ago my wife was the accountant for a 'free-range' turkey farm (the turkeys were 'free-range' not the farmer).

Every Christmas he'd employ gypsies as pluckers; my goodness, they were good at the job.

Perhaps, if one comes selling clothes pegs, you could offer them the task; although I'd keep my eye on the family silver when the feathers fly.

Merry Christmas.

OH has finished plucking - MY turn now, (Gulp!)! Oh, and by the way, it has just started snowing! House smells lovely with woodsmoke, mince pies cooking, and beeswax polish. Here comes Christmas!

This brings back bittersweet memories we used to rear and sell turkeys and large chickens. about 1,000 at Christmas time, OH did the killing (usually started 14 days before, praying for cold weather, so they could hangup in the sheds outside) then we had a team of helpers....to feather ( a machine took the worst of the feathers off.... then we drew them( me included) could hardly move my hands by the evening, the worst year was when we had geese, had to be done completely by hand..........Oh what memories, it has taken us years to eat turkey again, but the flavour of those turkeys and chickens!!
Enjoy your lovely turkey, I will think of you.

Eeek! I couldn't do it!
Anyway enjoy it all and very Merry Christmas to you! :)

ooh I couldn't do the preparing - can't even take the bag og giblet things out yuck - have a nice Dinner though and Christmas :))))))))))))))

you could take a photo of the ceremonial carving!! would love to see that!!

have a wonderful, turkeyfull time!!

Cor! Memory lane or what? if there were a brace of Pheasant a Rabbit and a couple of Pigeons thrown in. Every time you opened either the pantry or shed (built on, and now a shower room) door this type of vision would greet you.

My niece asked my mother for butchery lessons last year..Charming girl she is. Rabbits were obtained...dead ones.

Mission accomplished! Had to send OH up the snowy garden with a bucketful of nasty bits to bury, and he had an escort of cats the whole way! That was one job I'm not in a hurry to repeat, but the kitchen smells a whole lot nicer now. There was a whole lot of guesswork involved, and the poor thing was a bit of an untidy mess by the time I'd finished, but we've cleared out a whole section of the freezer and got the turkey in. We decided that such a big bird, however gorgeous, would be wasted on just four people. We'll probably cook him on New Year's eve instead and invite a load of friends.
It's just turned midnight here, and looking out of the window, the whole world looks so beautiful under it's new blanket of snow. What else can I say but
"HAPPY, HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!"

happy christmas gattina, if you have time tomorrow it would be lovely to see a picture of your winter wonderland!!

Happy Christmas.. XXX

Best of luck with the chopping it head of, mmmm i dont think i could do it hehe have a happy christmas and new year :))

OH chopped the feet and head off using the trusty axe!
We had the most wonderful Christmas lunch, and I cooked the little supermarket turkey I had bought as an emergency standby.