Cooking Turkeys in the Ground...

Way back in November, while the turkeys sadly looked on, the boys started digging the hole for Battle Rock's Thanksgiving Feast...

Thursday morning,before Thanksgiving, with much coffee in hand and good eats in the teacheridge, all of the teachers showed up at the school @ 4 o'clock in the morning, with some brave parents and started the fire in the pit...

and when the fire had burned down to coals, the turkeys went in, marinating in roasting bags and wrapped in heavy duty foil...

Next the turkeys were covered with metal sheets, to protect them from the dirt and fire that would be placed on top...

We all  watched to make sure no smoke was escaping...

And then came another fire on top...

All sealed up, the turkeys cooked all day....

and we made lumanarias to light the way....

About dusk, and with upwards of a hundred people arriving soon, it was time to dig them out...

The metal sheets were carefully removed...

the turkeys were lifted out....

and inspected by the cook, Ms. Moqui....

Soon the teacheridge was lined with a pre-Thanksgiving feast...

And the outside illuminated....

At dark, rivilers came...

and all feasted....

Getting Ready for our Big Art Show...

Spring is in the air, but will it stay!

Snow is still on the Ute, but the sun was shining and there was a cool breeze at lunch time, so eating outside was a real treat! 

A Real Thanksgiving: Butchering Day

Tuesday was a hard day down here at Battle Rock. It was time to butcher one of our Heritage Turkeys for our Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday. The kids had been raising some of Miss Moqui's ( Head Teacher) birds from the beginning of the school year, watering them and giving them scrapes

from lunch.

Since a wild animal had already killed some of the turkeys and they are such a rare breed, click above, Miss Moqui decided to only butcher one Tom this year. The children who decided to watch, walked with Miss Moqui from the turkey pen, like all poultry, once the turkey was hanging upside down, he became very docile. Everyone made sure to be very quiet so we did not scare him.

The children who decided not to watch, stayed in the teacheridge, where the Battle Rock teacher lived many years ago when it was too far to go back to town everyday. Now it is our cafeteria and my Art and Music classroom.

I love the Indian corn wreath the 1st and 2nd graders made for the door!

Miss Moqui took a moment and let the children say "thank you" to the turkey. All agreed he was a nice turkey and hoped he was going somewhere nice and that they were sorry we were going to eat him.

Big Alex swiftly slit the turkey's throat and held his head down while he bled out. the most hard part for me, hearing his wings flapping hard against the chain link fence.

Disturbing to listen to, but I think Tom Turkey had a pretty good life and death down here at Battle Rock. You could tell this was not Miss Moqui's first turkey butchering. She actually was a student down at Battle Rock before she was a teacher here!

See how his head is all white now, the blood underneath was what made it look red...

Big Alex first cut off his feet...

and then his wings.......

and then skinned him. We did not pluck him because it is a messy job, takes hours and it is hard to pull out all the feathers, besides turkeys are so fat, we were sure he would be nice and moist roasted with out the skin....

We were very careful not to touch the tail feathers...

because we were going to give them to a medicine man to use in ceremonies.

Of course there was an impromptu science lesson on the internal organs, including what he had recently eaten, still left in his gizzard.

Lastly we rinsed the turkey well and all the surfaces and cleaned knifes and children's hands. Pretty busy day, but the next would be even busier!