Slaughter Day.
Today was the day to take care of our sows.
It started with early morning chores with the piglets. They survived the first night and were excited about their new water trough and vegetable buffet. While carrots seem to be low on the list of edible foods, Italian squash is a must have.
Aaron, Kent's brother came out to get started with the days festivities and decided to hold Obama. You could hear the squealing all the way across the farmyard. Apparently he is not as of yet tame enough to be babied. Of course I had to go and make sure Aaron wasn't hurting my little ones.
Our friends Kristina and Sam came out to help from Bismarck, Skeet, Art, Dale, Aaron, Kent and I put down seven big sows in about 6 hours. Bertha topped the scales at roughly 800 pounds with the others coming in anywhere from 400 and up.
The process gives a new appreciation for our meat sources. I can honestly say I will enjoy every bite of that pork even more so knowing what work it involved.
Last night Kent and I watched several online videos on hog slaughtering. Some of them were very informational - butchering a pig in under 3 minutes, making a hog head roll - supposedly a tasty delicacy, and the proper way to slaughter a hog - Thanks meatman! While others were disturbing in that they tried to portray the process as so inhumane and ugly. I know there are those folks out there who don't eat meat and believe that animals should be treated "humanely," they will look at some of the pictures of what we did today with utter disgust. They should know that this is part of our way of life. The days work we put in and subsequent evenings of butchering will feed our families for months and months to come. We worked hard and put in an honest days work and will reap the benefits of our labors. This is life on the plains.
My first hog slaughter. My arms are sore, my body aches, I smell of pig, and I know I am alive! I'm grateful for today's accomplishments. I spent the day with loved ones and my work has value and purpose. In looking at them all hanging in the barn and thinking back to one week ago when the same barn held our two bucks I guess I could say I'm pretty rich. Not many people can say they had their hands on seven "$$$Sowsandbucks$$$$" all in one place in a weeks time! Okay that is a little nod to my mom....very funny stuff Della!
Hope you enjoy the pictures. That's me in the red hat.
Until next time...
It was around 33 degrees and overcast with a wind that kept our cheeks rosy and our breath in the air. Occasional flurries dropped picture perfect flakes. What a wonderful place!!!!
1 comment:
Which one of those lovely things is ours?
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