Hog Slaughtering

 I've wanted to raise hogs for years. Ok, I haven't just wanted to raise hogs for years, I'd love to have a regular ole Old MacDonald Had A Farm kinda farm.  But that's another story and that may never happen.  So, anyhow, last fall, an acquaintance, Tommy, offered to raise a hog for us.  He raises several hogs every year for himself and others, and we decided to take him up on it.   Fast forward about 5 months, Tommy was ready to slaughter 2 of the hogs, and he invited us over to help with the slaughter.  We all drove over to his place one Friday morning, skid-steer in tow to help with maneuvering and and hanging the hogs. (Pictured above from left: Tommy, Alan, Aaron, Katie Mae, Tommy's two girls, and another assistant, Robbie.)

 The kids helped by fetching some things, and Savannah helped a good bit with Elizabeth, but mainly they just watched a little and were excited to be at a new place to play for a while, especially since there was a creek next to us!

 I have to say, I have never skinned anything before, so this skinning a hog was a first for me.  I was so excited, I was giddy.  Who knew I missed my calling to be a butcher. :)  It was actually quite fun.  I'd be very interested to learn more about the process and do it again.  

 I felt so old timey.  What?  (You can stop rolling your eyes now.)

 Our hog weighed out at 122 lb hanging weight (that's the weight of the hog after it's been skinned, gutted, and other parts removed like feet and head.).  The hogs were a little smaller than the ideal slaughter weight, but it became cost prohibitive to continue feeding them since they were being raised in the winter time.  It took more feed to get them to slaughter weight than it would have in the summer and fall.

 Tommy's hog weighed out at 155.

 ACK!!!!  They're headless!! AND NAKED!!!!!!

 The kids were so good.  And so was Aaron. :) :) (He didn't want to get his hands dirty.)  I'm more of a mountain man than he'll ever be.  He was really helpful with the skid-steer and helping with Elizabeth.  He has, by the way, skinned and butchered several deer before, so he's not all city boy on me.

The process from putting the hogs down to having them loaded in the truck took us less than 2 hours.  After the hogs were loaded on the truck, Tommy took the hogs to a nearby meat processor.  I picked up our meat  after it was ready and brought it home.  The meat processor doesn't smoke or cure meat, and I'm certainly not equipped nor knowledgeable enough to do that, so we don't have any bacon or ham like you would get at the store.  All the cuts of meat are fresh cuts.  There was just less than 80 lbs of meat total including, pork tenderloin, sliced and whole, ham steaks, a whole 16 lb fresh ham, ribs, sausage, ground pork, fresh bacon, fat back, and shoulder roasts.  I baked them ham the day after I picked up the order because the processor didn't freeze it; I wasn't sure long a fresh ham with no preservatives would keep and I didn't want to lose a 16 lb ham!  It has been so good and has provided us with multiple meals including the first meal of ham roast slices, sweet and sour pork, several meals of barbecue pork sandwiches, lima beans w/ pork, and 2 lbs in the freezer for later.

Thanks, Tommy, for being willing to raise a hog for us!  Our family will really enjoy all the locally grown, farm fresh meat for months to come!