NH Homesteader's journal

[sumi]

My pig is still out there, working on upping the grain bill for me. My husband is awesome, but does not do things on a schedule. Tomorrow is a maybe, definitely won't be Sunday.

I have an unusual request… I want to ask if/when you guys get round to doing the deed, if you would mind taking some pics for us of the process? I know, gross, but I don't know if we have a butchering pictorial guide anywhere here on the forum.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Haha that's ok, you're not the first one to ask. Which maybe makes us all strange, lol!

I can do that, but we are mostly turning him into sausage with a few cuts because that's how we eat in the summer. When we butcher in the fall, we'll do a lot more cuts. I'll try to get pics and an explanation of as much as I can though!

Oh, and DH says today is the day!

 

[sumi]

Strange, yes! lol That'll be me… Thanks!

Pics of the sausage making process would be awesome too. That is something I'd love to try my hand at one day, when I process something again. Homemade and homegrown meat is sooooo good!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Well we've never done links before so it will be fun for us!

Yes, we are very nearly only eating meat we raise. We do buy beef on occasion, but there are several local grass fed beef operations to choose from! I am looking forward to trying goat. We love venison, and the health benefits of goat meat cannot be denied!

Seeds started! We have 6 kinds of tomatoes, peppers, watermelon and some flowers my daughter picked out. She's into flowers. It's good, it forces me to plant them and make my yard look a little prettier!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Pig's hanging, my daughter yells (we're inside the house), mummy!! The pig's getting out! I figured she was being weird... Looked outside, one of the other pigs got out of the fence and is running around the yard, and none of the guys outside know what's happening! Bahaha our luck... She's back in now. More later!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Woohoo! Your daughter cracks me up! That pig was probably thinking she needed to git while the gittin' was good!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yeah, right!? My husband had not done a good job with the fence, because he separated the girls from the one being butchered with a not well attached hog panel. So she meandered! Then apparently one of my goats got out, but I missed that part. DH said it was quite the fiasco!

Also planted spinach and peas when we finished starting our seeds. I'm tired! Going to be quite warm tomorrow, so I'm glad we got this all done today!

 

[NH Homesteader]

UGGHHHHHHH pig fridge failed! Had to go borrow a mini fridge from my parents to put our food in, and put a bunch of garbage bags in our house fridge and are getting ready to cut pig into smaller pieces and put in the house fridge. NOT what we wanted to do today! Supposed to be eating Easter dinner in 10 minutes. Not gonna happen!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh nooooooo! That stinks! (well, hopefully NOT)

Couldn't you just stick it in a couple ice chests and ice it down? The first pig we butchered with the neighbor was kept in an ice chest for a week - we refreshed the ice everyday and he was just fine.

Hope you get it all taken care of!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Phew only going to be a half hour late to dinner! We will probably be grinding and cutting all night though! Note to self- invest in a meat locker.

We don't have enough coolers, we really only have one kinda big one. The meat is fine, but wouldn't have been for much longer. It's hot out today, I'm wearing shorts! Not a good day for a fridge failure!