Amanda, Jim and the girls came on down this morning and we butchered my pig. She was smaller than Amanda's barrow - taping out at around 190 to 200 pounds. That's OK. There is only Ken and I here now, and we don't need huge amounts of meat. I was happy to butcher her a bit smaller rather than feed her out any longer. She is nicely covered in fat, neither overly obese nor too lean. I think she will make really good eating. She is cut into primal cuts, and resting comfortably in my refrigerator. I will turn the cuts over daily and then cut into the roasts, chops, steaks, etc., probably Friday or Saturday. I will render the fat into lard for cooking and cure and smoke the bacon with a couple of different recipes. I will probably also hot smoke one of the legs.
I never imagined that I would enjoy raising pigs so much. They are really quite charming and friendly. I will miss them till I get their replacements sometime next spring. Then the cycle will begin again.
My 5 round bales of hay arrived this morning bright and early. It looks and smells wonderful. The goats lost no time investigating it, and have already pulled some out of the first bale. I will spend some of tomorrow unrolling one bale and getting it stored under cover.
Another thing I will need to do tomorrow is go find some nuts and bolts so we can finish off putting the meat bandsaw together. I will need that on Thursday when Amanda brings her pig back to be cut into the "retail cuts". That will be another first for us. We have watched it done, and we have a pretty good video showing how to get the pretty butcher cuts, now to see how close we can come!
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