Gone
There's one less turkey in the pen this morning. Started with twelve puffballs. Two just died. Natural causes. They were kind of runty. Then there were ten, which is still plenty. Then, chasing one around the yard when it was too dark to get them all into the pen easily, I got distracted. Not sure if I missed one, or if the one that the raccoons got was already dead. It doesn't really matter. Guilt shouldn't come into the equation when you're raising things expressly for the purpose of killing them. It's more the annoyance factor. The raccoons got another one last night, though, so I'm down to eight.
But it's still ok because I didn't really know what to do with all of them anyway. The guy who gave me the chicks in the first place -- a weird guy who raises fowl in his garage and then practically just gives them away -- he gets one. Mike wants one. Siobahn wants one. I want one. Some other people are interested, but not sure. And I don't even know how much any of them weigh. I mean, they look big, but that's with their feathers on. They go limp if you hold them upside-down by their feet, but turkeys hiss when you get too close to them. Of course they don't have teeth, but if you sort of forget when they're puffed up and hissing at you like something you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
But even so, I don't want to lose any more, especially this close to Thanksgiving. I want to slaughter them soon, but I realized I don't have anywhere to put even eight dressed turkeys. I guess I'll let them live a bit longer. And plan a bit better next year.
[note: thanks to Leah]
But it's still ok because I didn't really know what to do with all of them anyway. The guy who gave me the chicks in the first place -- a weird guy who raises fowl in his garage and then practically just gives them away -- he gets one. Mike wants one. Siobahn wants one. I want one. Some other people are interested, but not sure. And I don't even know how much any of them weigh. I mean, they look big, but that's with their feathers on. They go limp if you hold them upside-down by their feet, but turkeys hiss when you get too close to them. Of course they don't have teeth, but if you sort of forget when they're puffed up and hissing at you like something you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
But even so, I don't want to lose any more, especially this close to Thanksgiving. I want to slaughter them soon, but I realized I don't have anywhere to put even eight dressed turkeys. I guess I'll let them live a bit longer. And plan a bit better next year.
[note: thanks to Leah]