Back to Butchering

I am going to be a bit sad when our pigs Ham and Bacon are butchered, because they seem more like pets. I forgot to mention in my last blog entry about our friend Lori Kenney's encounter with our pigs.
Jim took Lori and I back from where the Kenneys were staying so we could make supper. Jim parked the station wagon right by the door to the basement, and as we got out, we were greeted by our pigs, Ham and Bacon! They were so happy to see us, and one of them promptly ran up to Lori and planted her very muddy snout on the front of Lori's denim skirt. Lori didn't even flinch, but starting patting the pig on the head! The pigs love our dog, and it looked so funny to see the three of them running to greet us. Jim used a bucket of food to entice them back to their pen, and they happily followed him down the hill.I thought we would have a nice quiet afternoon, but Jonathan decided it would be a good day to butcher our 4 remaining Bourbon Red turkeys. They were a year old last May, and we didn't think we could keep them over another winter since they didn't have the greatest pen for our cold conditions. The first fall they were around I thought they were pretty neat, since they would come up to me while I was hanging clothes outside and watched everything I did. Well, last winter they were a lot of trouble, since the males liked to show me who was boss and bullied me every time I wore my purple winter jacket. I guess they must not be color blind, but hated the color purple! They even followed me down the quarter mile to the mailbox, trying to dominate me. I finally had enough and chased them away. This spring one of the females had 17 babies (as you can tell, I can't remember the proper names for the turkeys), and it was fun to watch them follow their mama. Unfortunately, the next day they had all disappeared. So much for trying to raise more turkeys!
The guys set up shop between the house and the hoop house, and got to work.
Peter did a good job of gutting the turkeys! I was amazed at how much bigger the 2 males were compared to the 2 females.
Jim did a good job of keeping the fire burning under the garbage can that was used to scald the turkeys.
And here is the finished product! I have one turkey roasting in my big roaster, and another cooking on the stove. We are running short of freezer space, so the less bones to store the better.

We used the workbenches that Jim built for the basement and garage of our house in the city to create counter tops in our temporary living quarters in our basement. I used sticky Contact Paper to cover the chipboard surfaces. We have had to change it once so far in the 3 years we have lived this way. The shelf below the counter contains Rubbermaid containers to store my kitchen equipment.