A Turkey story

Ok here’s the story. These turkeys were shot on one of our hunting trips to Tennessee. This year we took Alma and Angie and the kids. The night before we (I say we because it was a team effort) shot these two fine birds, Alma made some carne guisada and some Spanish rice. Malissa and the kids and Joan and John and our families ate until we just about passed out. The next morning the girls and the kids (except Marcus) went sight seeing. Mark and I and Marcus decided since we had 4 deer hanging already it would be a rest day, so we got out the carne guisada and tortillas and nuked them and it was great.

We finished the first tacos and Mark was in the kitchen nuking another taco when he ran into the living room saying there were turkeys in the back yard. Marcus was still in his pj’s and none of us had shoes on and Mark and I had tacos in our mouth. I went into the kitchen and thru the window could see about 15 turkeys in the back yard on and around the cellar. What a sight, they were everywhere. These were real turkeys with feathers, not the ones with plastic wrapped round them. These were turkeys that ate whatever wild turkeys eat to make them that big, not turkeys raised on some farm. These were turkey that were getting ready to be shot thru the kitchen window.

At this point we were in our tactical mode. The tacos were placed in a safe place so as not to drop them. I had low crawled to the kitchen window and was already unlocking it. Mark had the weapon of choice and was low crawling to the window, trying to position himself in a manner as not to surprise the turkeys. The element of surprise was surely going to be on our side. My fear was that opening the window would spook the turkeys and they would run off, but that wasn’t the case.

As I lifted the window (this is the team effort part) Mark had one in his sights. As soon as the window cleared the barrel, Mark fired and one went down. I was startled by the shot but held onto the window. Mark was reloading and we could see turkeys flying and running everywhere. They looked like cockroaches when you turn on the lights. They were scattering everywhere. Except the one that started to run up the hill. Kind of reminded me of a story in the bible. The one where Lot and his family were told to leave the city and not turn back. His wife turned back to look and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Well one turkey started to run up the hill and then stopped and looked back. Things happen fast, and Mark is saying there’s one more, and at the same time I see the bird and am yelling shoot the bird, shoot the bird. That’s when Mark shoots again and gets the second bird. My mouth just about hits the floor as I say “you got both birds”. So we get our shoes on and go outside and get the two birds before marine (the dog) gets them.

That’s when I noticed something different about these turkeys. They don’t have butterball stamped on them, and the neck and giblets are in the wrong place!! They’re usually in the chest cavity of all the turkeys I’ve ever seen. Then we plucked the turkeys and notice they don’t have that plastic popup thingy that tells you they are done.
So Joan made one turkey and put it in the dressing, and Malissa smoked the other turkey. One weighed 18 lbs and the other 18.5 lbs. Alma and I had never eaten wild turkey but after eating these birds we love it even if the parts were in the wrong place.

I'll try to get pictures from Mark of the ninja squirrel we came across that afternoon. I'm lucky I didn't break anything. There was some fast and furious hand to hand or should I say foot to tail combat. It was close but I was the winning warrior. After the battle Angie noticed his eyes were blue. One blue left and one blue right.