What a Week

What a week. I suppose that would be obvious from the lack of posting. It started with the pig killing, which then involves several days of processing (and weeks of salting every so often). Then I sold my mower, looked at a cow (and made an offer), husband had some off-farm paid work, I had some work in the neighborhood, and it got exceedingly cold. Plus the regular stuff.

Since I blogged extensively about the last pig killing, I was wondering why I felt compelled to blog about it again. Because it is important, that's why. And unusual enough these days. I am often appalled at how rare real skills are and these guys that helped us, one and all, all ages, all sorts of conditions and choices made, but one and all skilled.


Testing the Temperature
Originally uploaded by Contrary Goddess.

This is testing the temperature of the scald water. You should be able to run your fingers through it three times and it burn on the third pass to where you do not want to make a fourth. That translates to 145 degrees, about, and depends on how hot the fire under the tank is, how big and cold the pit is, etc.


Unloading
Originally uploaded by Contrary Goddess.

We brought our pig to the scald in the pick-up. We liked to have never got him in the pick-up. 350 pounds is a bit much for two people to lift. Ain't he purty though. That black hair was just glistening. Folks have commented all summer about our black pig, and at the scald we found out why. Although one kind person said he was hard to scrape because it had been so cold and he'd grown a winter coat. Which was true enough. But I don't think it is an old wives tale that dark pigs are harder to scrape. Although I don't see what the big deal about that is. Although I might in the future.


Gutting
Originally uploaded by Contrary Goddess.

This man nearly always does the gutting. He's good at it. But it threw him when I told him it was an intact (not castrated) pig. It is supposed to make the pig grow a bit better and be a bit leaner. The tale is that it makes the meat strong. Our meat was fine although this pig was under a year old.


Mirrormirror
Originally uploaded by Contrary Goddess.

This is carcass laid out for blocking. Our patriarch who always does this was not feeling well enough this year. While that was sad, I was so heartened at how his grandson, who was a rather bratty 5 year old when we moved out here, stepped up and did a fantastic job. As he enters his adult years, he is not doing something useless but is going to butcher school. How cool. A daughter remarked how it looked like they were cutting butter as they cut up the carcass. That is a function of sharp knives and skill.

There are a few more photos in my photostream on flickr if you are interested. The other pig killed this day we named Pigzilla as it was probably better than 650 pounds, which is pretty incredible. We got the leaf lard and the jowls from it as well as from our pig so I've been able to put up a good bit of lard. And let me just say, lard does make superior biscuits. I'm sure it will pie crusts too.

On the other fronts, I'd bought the mower hoping it would help around the farm and with a plan to pay for it by mowing for neighbors. I did pay for it that way (and more) but it proved less than helpful on the farm. Most of our land is just too steep to be mowed that way, and in the orchard, it was impossible to maneuver around the trees. So it was good to sell it and move on. As to the cow, so far I still only have the one. As to the cold, gosh, I'm glad this will be a warm week.