Tom the Turkey Stole the Show This Year! - Pit Roasting a 36 Pound Turkey!

I have mentioned in previous posts that we raised a turkey especially for Thanksgiving this year. Well, he grew up and we prepped him for our Thanksgiving feast. WOW! Was he Big!!

He wouldn't fit in our oven. So we dug a deep pit outside and lined it with bricks. In the meantime, I pulled the turkey out of the fridge (it took up a full shelf) and I put him in my MIL's bathtub, filled it with water, and poured in about 12+ cups of salt. There was actually the top inch of the turkey that didn't get covered in water. So I poured a bag of ice over it to keep it cold. After a few hours in the tub I seasoned and stuffed the turkey with spices, fruits, veggies, chicken broth and ginger ale. Then we wrapped the turkey in about four layers of tin foil. We then wrapped it in chicken wire.

Going back to the pit: In order to heat the bricks up we started a fire the night before Thanksgiving and kept it burning through the night. Leif and his mom took shifts to keep the wood on the fire. At around 7:00A Leif and I went down to put the turkey in the pit. We moved the coals to the side, lowered the turkey into the pit breast down, threw a wet sheet over it, covered that with coals (next time I would use burlap because the sheet held a lot of water and put some of the coals out that could have been useful for the top of the turkey), and then we buried the turkey with the dirt that we had dug out to make the pit. He cooked in there for 6 hours.

While he was cooking we cooked and baked all of the other yummy fixins' for the dinner. I ended up making three really yummy pies. I made a German chocolate, a pumpkin, and a pumpkin cream cheese. I used one of the pumpkins we grew in our garden for the pies. They go a long way. And, MMM! Yummy! I made an amazing sweet potato casserole thanks to a recipe my sister sent me. There was so much good food. More food then we could fit on our plates. We've eaten leftovers for lunch and dinner the whole weekend. It's been Awesome!

So going back to the turkey. We pulled him out of the ground an hour before dinner was scheduled. We put in the thermometer on the back (top) and it wasn't cooked all the way (Bummer!) However, we turned him over and the breast that had been directly on the bricks was finished. So we cut that off and served it for dinner and then put the rest in the oven to finish cooking. It turned out great and we have enough meat to feed us through the winter (for real!)

We had a really nice time visiting with family throughout the afternoon and evening. We've enjoyed sharing meals and adventures together throughout the weekend as well. We went Christmas tree hunting. But that's a story for a different post.

We experienced a fun homestead style Thanksgiving this year and it was a lot of fun! The best part was sharing the fun with the family for sure!

Traditions! Traditions! Traditions!

It's been a little while since I caught you all up on life.  My sweet little JJ is walking around the house calling for his brothers. He's the only one home this morning and I think he's a little lonely. Personally, I'm loving the moment with just him and me. We just finished playing chase and going through his books. Now I need to try to wrap my head around the upcoming weeks and the traditions that will be followed.

I'm completely finished with school except for one last exam on December 3rd. Ahhh, that will be nice to get out of the way and off of my to do list! I love taking classes. But not when I'm as busy as I am with my little family. Anyway...

We have Thanksgiving in a couple of days. We are in the process of digging the pit to roast him in. A 36-37 pound turkey does NOT fit in an oven. Wish us luck on this adventure. I also need to get to the grocery store during this time with one child.

We have a Christmas Tree hunt just after Thanksgiving to look forward to.

We have a table to decorate for the annual orchestra festival dinner. Still thinking about this one...

We have dear friend who will be delivering a baby soon and we get to watch their kids. This will be a fun couple of days for the kids.

We have my annual Country Women's Christmas Candy Making Party just around the corner. I always look forward to this.

And then there's the gifts to give, the scriptures to read by candle light, and the carols to sing. Yes, this is a busy and precious time of year.

Let the journey begin!

While the Cold Winds Blow

Kind of a fun title...;) I thought of it because the cold winds outside are whistling through the cracks in our window air conditioner that needs to be covered. I don't block the cracks because I like the sounds. Ahhh, well it's quiet at the moment. Always a time to be valued. I;m tired at the moment. I thought about taking a nap. But my bed is covered in laundry to fold. Don't want to fold it. So here I am.

We did some home improvements again. Suuprise, Suuuprise, Suuprise! We're always working on one thing or another. Poor Leif, he said last night that he felt like he had been running an obstacle course all day long. He had been and I was the mean bossy instigator. I woke up and decided that I was sick and tired of walking into our house and being able to see the whole house from one end to the other. Especially since the back half always looks chaotic and cluttered (office, TV, and Home school area.) So we reorganized JJ's room, shifted furniture around the whole house, hung a curtain, had to put all the pulled out clutter away, and viola! A new look. Always a fun thing.

In the middle of all of that Leif took Turkey and butchered him for Thanksgiving. Can we say 37 pounds of Thanksgiving Turkey! WOWSWERS! It was something I have never seen before. HUGE!!

While Leif was away taking care of Turkey, I managed to flood the bathroom again with the washing machine water (the hose fell out of the sink.) I was also able to get the dishes done, and sew a hole up in a pair of Jakob's pants. Not bad for one day.

Today I'm hoping to get the laundry finished, some studying in, photo's uploaded and blogged. Wish me luck! So far I've fed, clothed, and diapered a couple of times.  We had devotional, art project, set up the November calendar and art display board, and made cookies to count by twos.

Jakob just came in and asked me where the leaf rake was so he could do a service project for grandma. Score! The Service Unit hit its mark! Praise Be!