Christmas Day @Home

All day today at home with my family including Mom & Dad, sis & husband & their kids & grandkids. Took one break to take my son to sight in his new rifle and back here to relax and watch Terminator 3 on PPV with them tonite. Oh is this good work when you can get it... wish I could make a living doing this M-F and work Sat.

Wish ya'll a happy and safe Christmas Season!!!

 

Pretty much same at my house. Visited family and played with the kids.

Sunday though I took my son to the Turkey shoot. He's 10 and has never shot a shotgun. I let him use a 20G that was handed down from my uncle when he passed away. I used the trusty 12G.

He did real good shooting it and was very proud even though he didn't win anything. I walked off with a 5lb pork loin. After the shoot I gave him the gun and his face reminded me of that kid on the commercial where Mean Joe Green tossed him the jersey .

Those guys that go to them shoots on a regular have some pretty wild setups. The barrels are machined just for turkey shoots.

 

I went to a turkey shoot many, many years ago. All the stories I'd heard were about the winners getting a frozen turkey or a canned ham or some such. I paid my dollar, put an "x" on the back of my sheet, and won by 1/16th of an inch. They walked me over to a pen full of live turkeys, and asked which one I wanted. Wasn't ready for that. I pointed to one (how could they tell?) and this guy reached in, grabbed it by the neck, and handed it to me.

Up to this point, the only live turkeys I had ever seen were in the back of a truck on the way to market. I had certainly never come close to actually touching one. What was I going to do?

Behind the truck seat was an old shirt, so I pulled his head and neck up into the sleeve and buttened up the shirt around his body. Then I took a hunk of rope and wrapped him thoroughly, tying off on one of his legs. Still had about 6 ft of rope left, so - on a hunch - tied it to the side of the bed. Flopped the turkey down, stored the shotgun, and headed home along an old gravel road. As I approached a stop sign at the highway, I checked my mirror and saw nothing but turkey. Six or seven foot wingspan, flapping for all he was worth, with one leg tied to the side of my truck. He was almost lifting the rearend off the ground!

I locked up all the gears and brakes that I had and jumped out and ran to the back of the truck. That bird was still flappin and wavin his claws at me, and trying his best to give me the "evil eye." I didn't know a thing about turkey-wrestling, and didn't have time to figure out a plan, so I climbed over the tailgate and jumped on him like a linebacker. I felt like I was fighting an alligator (but I'm sure it looked more like a monkey and a football). He finally surrendered and I gave that bird a lesson in square knots, bowlines, sheep shanks, and clove line hitches. Had him so covered up, we almost had to eat the rope too.

Haven't been back, so far.

 

Now THAT is a great story...but i have to ask, why didnt ya just lop his head off for the drive home?

 

That for sure needed a hidden camera somewhere. I'm still laughing picturing a turkey fight in the back of a pickup. Our turkey shoots should be called pork shoots. You shoot for..

1.Bacon
2.Sausage
3.Pork Loin
4.Ham
5.Money

 

That would have been foresight, and, in hindsight, the next time I'm presented with such an opportunity, I'll do just that.

If you would ever follow me around for awhile, you would soon see that experience is one of my most frequent teachers. If I could get someone to follow me with a video camera, I'd split the money with them from America's Funniest Home Videos.