We host Thanksgiving for my extended family every year. It’s always a joy to see them come through our front door. If they live close, each female family member with a house of their own brings a dish to pass. This year one brought dressing and a salad, a couple supplied the hot vegetables and my artistic niece brought an edible fruit creation. Turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, rolls and coleslaw were my contributions as well as pumpkin and pecan pie.
Easter is always held at another sister’s house and Christmas at another’s. It works!
Because Thanksgiving falls right during the gun deer season, activity abounds. Two of our three kids come home for opening weekend and again for the last part of the season, which includes Thanksgiving Day. When three out of five family members hunt, there is a blaze orange apparel overflow. It overflows onto the washer and dryer and extends to the dining room table.
After opening weekend I haul the two large boxes of orange outerwear to the back room, storing it under the pingpong table for the following weekend’s use. It’s out of the way yet not too far out of the way.
My husband considers the gun deer season to be his vacation of sorts. (If you call getting up at 2:30 a.m. to get chores and milking done before trudging out to the woods a vacation.) It’s left to me to handle the majority of the midmorning chores when he’s out in the woods.
I usually go back out to the barn around 9:30 a.m. to let cows out. Shoving their feed in on both sides, I then scrape the aisle, clean up behind each cow’s stall and, hauling the bedding cart under the hole, throw fresh straw down from the straw mow and begin bedding everyone’s stall. After that I throw hay down for the calves and stack them away from the cow’s reach. Lastly I feed calves hay and then wait for husband to return to run the barn cleaner and let cows back in. (You all probably could come out and help me, you’re so familiar with my routine!)
One of the days I was out there by myself I had an issue with a cow. She would not let me untie her. She thrashed her head around and backed herself out with half of her body in the stall next to her. She strained against the chain so tight there was no way I could pull her in to create a little slack to open the hook and release her. When I tried she’d thrash her head around. Finally, I stepped back and told her, “Alright. You’re staying in. No recess for you today!” The entire time I was scraping up she was watching me and every now and again, would moo in a low, get-me-out-of-here-right-now-I-wanna-go-play moo.
When I’m rushed I get antsy. I know I’m on for extra chores during the gun hunt season, and my family is coming for Thanksgiving, and I just may get called in to work at the post office unexpectedly. Because of all of that, I bake my turkey a week ahead of time. Sticking it in the oven as soon as I get up in the morning and before I head out to the barn, by just after noon it is done to perfection. Hauling it out of the oven I let it cool a bit before carving. Separating the white meat from the dark, I refreeze it in separate gallon freezer bags and store it back in the freezer. Thanksgiving morning I take it out and heat in crock pots. I do that for the smoked ham as well.
I find preparing the meat ahead cuts the preparation time on Thanksgiving morning considerably, as I can then concentrate on the potatoes, stirring up the gravy and making the coleslaw. I try to make pies the night before. As well, usually I set the entire table the night before, with everyone’s name on a napkin so each one knows where they should sit.
For years I hauled out all of my mother’s china and washed everything before I’d set the table with it. My sisters scolded me not to go through the hassle of all of that, just use paper plates. I resisted for a couple of years but since have agreed with them. It is simply easier! It was a heart issue. By using Mom’s china I felt like she and Dad were there, too! Lately, I’ve compromised, using a couple of her bowls and platters.
During gun hunt season and Thanksgiving, with extra chores added in and the kids home on the weekends to hunt, activity abounds at the farm. I really wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, I could do without those chores …
(“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1Thessalonians 5:18)
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