Thanksgiving Weekend in July

This weekend was filled with fun, family, fire, and a feast! How much more like Thanksgiving can you get?

While, in the end, we had a great weekend, it didn't start quite as well. The sun was shining and beautiful so I started working outside. I decided to try to mow in the garden area. The weeds were so thick and the ground so uneven that the mower kept bogging down and dying. After about 3 minutes, and starting it at least as many times, I pulled the cord to start it back up and the cord broke in half. UGH! That little push mower doesn't look like much, but we do an extraordinary amount of work with it. That little thing has cleared a lot of land and I am lost without it. Or course, I flipped out. It seems silly now, because a pull string isn't exactly difficult to fix. While looking for a model number I realized that it is actually a much nicer model than I ever realized. It even has a bag fitting so I can bag grass clippings to use as mulch! I have been wanting a mower like that for a while now and I had one the whole time! This mower is second (actually I think 4th) hand so I never saw it in new condition. It is amazing though, and always starts on the first pull. I will stand by Yard Man mowers forever if all of their products are as good as this one. She will be fixed soon and will hopefully soon have a new bag to attach.

The inability to mow put a kink in my plans. I wasn't without anything to do though. One of my tom turkeys that has been slated for freezer camp hurt his foot somehow. I noticed him limping Thursday evening. I tried to look at it, but of course he wasn't having it and turkeys are strong enough that there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it without hurting him further. After a little struggle, I gave up and nursed a sore jaw for the rest of the day. Did I mention that turkeys are strong birds? Watch out for those wings! We moved his date with the freezer up a bit. I thought that maybe we would go ahead and put the other tom that is slated for freezer camp up as well. Plucking took much longer than I had planned, though. Even with Brad and Keegan working on it with me. I usually do all of the processing on my own. Keegan catches and brings us the chickens and digs a hole for the remains, Brad mans the chopping block while I hold the bird (I have terrible aim), I do all of the processing and quarter the final product, and then hand it to brad to wash and bag in the kitchen. We all plucked... and plucked... and plucked some more. Several times along the way I may have mentioned that this is why I usually skin all of the chickens, and that an automatic plucker would be amazing! They never had to do the agonizingly slow icky work before, and I think Brad realizes now why I have been asking for one for so long. I think that maybe a homemade plucker may be in our future! We finally got the turkey plucked, I cleaned it, and we got is put in the fridge.

On Saturday, my brother, his other half, and their kids came over to spend the weekend. They have a camper which, conveniently, is temporarily parked in my driveway, so they just came over and stayed for a couple days. I got some more brush cleared before they got here, and Dan (brother) helped me clear some more yesterday. I can only do a little at a time because the battery on my chainsaw doesn't last very long. I love my chainsaw. It is light, easy to handle, and cuts through trees that are way bigger than seems possible with such a small saw. The battery life is the only draw-back. I really need to invest in another battery so I can just keep trading them out. On the plus side, it gives me an excuse to take a break. I tend to keep working way past the point of exhaustion once I get started, and I feel terrible, sometimes for days, afterward. I have been cutting the bigger stuff with the saw and then I can take the bush-hog through there, then I can get to the bigger stuff farther back, and so on. It is a cycle and eventually I will get enough cleared to get the fence up. Hopefully it will happen soon.

Saturday evening, after Dan got the camper set up and my battery died, I started a bonfire. I love bonfires and always keep at least 1 pile ready for gatherings. This one was probably going to be right in the path of my future fence, and was getting huge, so it had to go. I also had another pile that was getting really big (10ft high by at least 12 feet wide) so I am going to have to start another one and I really don't want giant mounds of brush all over the property. Not with rattlesnakes being so prevalent here. I have been wanting to burn that eyesore for a while but I didn't want to chance my mom and grandparents making a spur of the moment visit and be stuck without a bonfire waiting for them. Maybe its a family tradition, but all of the best gatherings include a bonfire. I'd rather sit by a fire with people I love, listen to good music, and have good conversation (and perhaps a few drinks), than do pretty much anything else. I don't understand why more people don't enjoy it.

Since I already had a turkey in the fridge and a house full of people, I decided that I should go ahead and cook it. And how can an amazing turkey be made without all of the great sides to go with it?! So yesteday (Sunday) I baked the turkey, made a beautiful loaf of Challah bread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and baked corn. Not nearly as much as I usually do for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but quite a bit nonetheless. In between cooking and checking things I cut brush. I felt like I accomplished quite a bit. Keegan played with his little cousins. He kept them occupied inside while it was raining, and kept an eye on them and showed them things around the property while the sun was shining. He has always been great with kids and they really love him. He showed them the garden and let them sample all of the things growing there, showed them the animals, told them all about each one, and helped them collect eggs. They did some general exploring, which the little ones really seemed to enjoy since they live in the city and can't do things like that much. We had a great family dinner, followed by fireworks that my brother had stored away for a special occasion. The kids loved it... the animals not so much.

Our visitors left late this morning, right as the rain started to come in. We had a great, although exhausting, weekend. Fun was had by all and even a little bit of productivity occurred here and there. Even the problems that arose turned into blessings. I am thankful for the happy times like this that I get to spend with family. Even though my brother only lives about 40 minutes away, we don't see each other nearly as often as I would like. Life gets in the way and days turn into weeks. I'll be saving a bonfire pile and looking forward to the next time that we get to enjoy it with family and friends.

This bonfire looks tiny because of the angle of the camera, but it was actually over 5 feet tall and at least 10 feet wide. It was bigger but it collapsed after a while. We do things big around here :)