Turkeys

There must be a spring hunting season for turkeys because I've noticed pick-up trucks at all the pull-off places in the forest. I often hear them going to roost in the evening. They piss me off, eating my mushrooms, but I love watching them; large serious birds scratching through the mast. Just at dark the three crows are back, and I take them their slops: table scraps and a couple of mice. I have an on-again, off-again, relationship with a fox, and once a week or so I fix dinner for three crows, otherwise I'm almost normal. I was watching eight turkeys today, six hens and two drakes, or six hens and two toms, why are male turkeys toms? And they were tearing up the leaf-litter where I'd spread a few cups of dried corn. Turkeys don't fly very well, they're almost flightless, they'd rather run off into the bushes. They'll fly if they have to, but only a hundred yards or so, and you can track a covey of them all day. I'd vow it's a good way to spend your time, tracking birds. A young turkey, head-shot and plucked while still warm, makes a fine meal, crisp skin and gristle sucked off the bone. Only, of course, if I had accidentally killed a young turkey. Or as Ms. Rawlins might have cooked a pea-hen that might have tried to cross the road. Birds are really dumb. Jeep killed grouse are a staple of my diet. Pluck them while they're still warm, grill them on a rack or over an open fire, and suck the bones. Bird marrow could make you light enough to fly. Marjorie was pre-feminist and on point. She, and MFK Fisher laid the ground-work. A patchy day, then all gray. I went for a walk of long duration and short distance, looking for morels, finding a few; then the afternoon and evening reading a pretty good novel, Too Cool, Duff Brenna: then making rice and having the chorizo mix on top of that and eating a lot of it. I wished I'd had a big old-vines zin but I made do with whiskey, tempered with a maple-sap icicle. Nothing if not resourceful. I have to say, a bowl of this Pecan Rice, with the chorizo and caramelized vegetables, is very good. I vow to eat a salad tomorrow, or at least an avocado. Or maybe an artichoke. At least a pickle.