Thanksgiving Turkey
When the paraffin hardens, you simply peel it off, taking the unwanted feathers with it. This is one of those chores, like setting the timer on the VCR, that sounds simple but ends up taking the entire afternoon.
As I said, the gun is the easy part.
I decide not to focus on what I will have to do once I shoot the turkey, where my hands will have to go, how it will feel to tug at intestines or sever blood vessels. I figure that if I manage to shoot the bird, I will be left with no choice but to, as they say in the land of commercial poultry, “process” it. And so, reminding myself that I am in fact a meat eater and that I have this bright idea about practicing the basic survival skills my frontier foremothers took for granted, I call GI Joe’s to see about purchasing my fall season turkey tag, my license to kill.
Oregon will issue only 3000 tags this season, each of which entitles the bearer to bag only one wild turkey, of either sex, between October 15 and November 30. The tags ($11.50 for state residents, $41.50 for outsiders) are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The only way to be sure of securing one is to get to GI Joe’s before the store opens on the first day the tags are offered.