Many years ago, in the middle of the night, I was driving from San Antonio back home to Albuquerque to see my family during a break from my college courses. I was pretty tired and probably should have already pulled over for a nap when I saw something flash low in front of my itty-bitty, beat-up Toyota Tercel with a million miles on it. Whatever it was, I hit it pretty hard, but it didn’t seem to affect my car much and I was too tired to get out and check as I was pretty sure I had killed it. A short time later, I stopped for gas in Ozona, which is one of the few-and-far-between towns you’ll encounter on I-10 traveling through West Texas. I took a look at my front bumper, and much to my surprise, I found several flat-ended feathers stuck in my grill. Early on that Thanksgiving morning, I had hit (and almost surely killed) a wild turkey that had picked a bad time to cross the road!

    Well, that’s my turkey story and that’s the only wild turkey that I’ve every seen alive, if only for a moment. I forgot to include the story in either of the last two entries, so I figured I’d better cram it into this, my last turkey-related chance before Thanksgiving. But I swear it’s true, even if it’s a bit unlikely.

    I’ve never carved my last turkey design, but as you’ll see, it’s a pretty logical conclusion based on the previous two designs. For both of the previous designs you need more than one block of ice while this version requires only a single block. The basic procedure involves cutting a standard (40”x20”x10”) block in half, resulting in two 20”x20”x10” pieces. One of these pieces is split, yielding the tail and base components, while the other piece is used for the turkey’s body, wings, and head. The included graphics below illustrate the process. Familiarity with the aluminum welding technique is important in completing this sculpture.

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