Turkey tip: keeping a thawed turkey in the fridge -- how long?

The key to a uniformly cooked turkey is beginning the roasting with a perfectly thawed turkey. Thawing a frozen turkey in the fridge is difficult to time right. I may think I've allowed the proper amount of time, only to have parts of the bird still icy on roasting day.

The way around that is to begin thawing it in the fridge, a day or two before you might usually begin. A thawed turkey can remain in the fridge, up to 4 days, according to Butterball. Personally, I prefer to roast it within 2 days, as I think the flavor is better, roasted sooner rather than later.

BTW, the recommended time for thawing is 1 day for every 4 pounds of turkey (according to butterball.com).  Better get Tom or Thelma into the fridge and start thawing!

The squirrels got a good deal on 120 tiny little snacks this fall!

Squirrels -- cute, right? I used to think so, too!

So, my 175 bulbs that I planted -- the squirrels didn't touch the daffodils, but it looks like they dug up a fair amount of the crocus bulbs. "Nice little snacks, and how nice of that lady to bury them just where we could find them!" Arghh!

On Veteran's Day, one of my daughters and I went out and replanted another 60 bulbs. Then we covered the whole shebang with landscape fabric and weighed it down with stones. At least if the squirrels do find the bulbs, they'll have to work a lot harder this time, if they want to eat any. And so far, the fabric has not been disturbed. I'll pull it back up in February, and sprinkle with whatever I can come up with (cayenne pepper is supposed to deter squirrels), until the bulbs develop roots.

The crocus in our front yard are never bothered much by the squirrels. That may be because the rooted plants make it just difficult enough to not be worth the effort (especially when the nice lady's neighbors so kindly toss out peanuts for the squirrels).

Finally, a use for the landscape fabric that the previous owners left in the garage, 18 years ago!