Here in Tuftonboro where we live, my daughter snapped a couple of pictures of wild turkeys running across the road.

The Week Before Thanksgiving These Turkeys are on the Run!

It made me think of when I was younger, growing up in New Hampshire, I never saw turkeys unless they were in the grocer’s case. So when and where were they introduced back into our state?

New Hampshire Fish and Game has an excellent site detailing the facts on the Eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wildlife/Wildlife_profiles/profile_wild_turkey.htm

I’ll share with you a few facts from their site:

1. Wild turkeys disappeared from New Hampshire approximately 150 years ago due to hunting and habitat destruction.
2. They were successfully reintroduced in 1975 and today the population is around 25,000 birds.
3. The males are called toms and the females are hens.
4. They are extremely social and tend to live in flocks.
5. They aren’t territorial birds and often travel within a 4-5 mile radius during the year.
6. The major predators are fox, coyote and fisher cats.

Tough Wild Turkey or Easy to Catch Moist Turkey? To Me it's a No Brainer!

It is not unusual to see these large birds along the side of Lakes Region roads picking up pieces of grit to use in the process of digesting seeds and berries in their gullet. There have been more than a few times that I have had to wait while these unusual looking birds take their time crossing a major road. I have never eaten a wild turkey, but I have heard that the meat is tougher than a domestically raised turkey. I guess I’ll stick with a Butterball on Thanksgiving Day.

I have witnessed wild turkeys roosting in my pine trees, and when spooked they make a racket taking flight, with twigs breaking and the beating of wings – it is truly an amazing sound and sight.

If you would like to learn more about the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, contact Steve and Carol Bush, Realtors, and let them share their love for this beautiful area of the world.

Thanksgiving in the New Hampshire Lakes Region: There’s no place like home for the holidays. CNN tells us that 36 million of us will travel 50 or more miles from home during next week’s Thanksgiving holiday. Family members drive from all over the country to return home to the Lakes Region. If you lived here, you’d be here by now…

Of course the center piece of the holiday is dinner (and football, for some). From baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows to organic free-range turkeys, from parades to wish-bone wishes, traditions and tastes run the gamut. But the gathering place remains pretty consistent in the Lakes Region: the dining room is where the main event is staged. Here are two of my favorite dining rooms among my property listings:

This Moultonborough dining room is the most heavily trafficked room in the quintessential lake house…the ideal location for Thanksgiving dinner. The house has westerly views which include the Loon Sanctuary.

This Wolfeboro dining room is lovely, and a bit more formal than  the Moultonborough dining room. The home is another terrific lake house. This time on South Wolfeboro Bay, with excellent southern exposure and gorgeous views.

For those of us who love to cook, the fun is preparing the Thanksgiving meal and the worry of hosting friends and family starts after dinner: what to do with a house full of guests in potentially inclement weather. This is where billiards comes into play.

Billiards finds its origins in croquet; croquet finds its origins in the games Attila the Hun played with the severed heads of his conquered enemies. In light of the family-oriented character of Thanksgiving and the sometimes delicate nature of family reunions, let’s stick with billiards.

The dining rooms listed above come with wonderful billiard rooms, hence their presence in this post. Here are the billiard rooms:

This billiard room is part of the Moutonbourough lake house listed above.

This is the billiard room in the Wolfeboro lake house pictured above.

After billiards, you might consider the following Lakes Region Thanksgiving events:

Lake Sunapee 5K Turkey Trot – 11/25, Lake Sunapee Harbor
Lakes Region Holiday Craft Fair - 11/26-27, Opechee Conference Center, 62 Doris Ray Court, Laconia
Fiddlehead Farms Wine Tasting – every Friday evening 4:00-6:00 in Alton
18th Annual Loon Center Holiday Open House – 11/27 – Moultonborough NH

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many reasons why living in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire is inimitable when compared to many other areas of the country, and why visiting or if so fortunate living here will bring you memories to cherish for a lifetime. An example of one such experience is the recent lecture, lunch, and tour of Moultonborough Neck and Long Island historic inns and estates in Moultonborough, New Hampshire.

Image from Calvert's Map of the Lakes Region, 1893 (adapted by Eliza Tappe)

Carol and I were proud to be co-sponsors of the Moultonborough Heritage Commission Community Landmarks Tour on Saturday, August 8^th, 2010. The Moultonborough Heritage Commission collaborated with the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance and setup a 5 property tour on what turned out to be a spectacularly beautiful Lakes Region summer day. More than 275 people participated in the tour and heard a lecture by noted Moultonborough historian, Cristina Ashjian. Ms. Ashjan’s eloquent speaking style and her deep understanding of the history of this area was appreciated by all that morning.

The inns and estates that we toured were the 1874 Long Island Inn, the 1891 Windermere (Lands End) Estate, the 1907 Winnipesaukee Inn (formerly the Roxmont Poultry Farm) on the grounds of Geneva Point Center, the 1900 Kona Farm (Kona Mansion Inn) and the Swallow Boathouse which served the Kona Farm. During the later part of the 19^th century and into the early 20^th century all these inns and estates were accessed by steamers that traveled Lake Winnipesaukee delivering not only people but cargo, livestock, and the mail. (more…)